“Despite the fact that these children
live each day in a completely desperate situation, without an end to
this war in sight they somehow someway find hope. They choose joy
and that is what Africa is about. That is why I return and will
continue to as long as my life will allow. There is a mind numbing
hurt and fear in Africa, well at the same time an unexplainable
freedom and strength that shall forever inspire any who are chosen to
go there…” The Invisible Children Movie…
Today there was a rain shower. We had
just gotten back to the house and were resting and waiting until our
friend James arrived to lead us in choir practice (yes we are forming
a choir…) I was very content to be resting and it was pretty cool
to just listen to the rain on the tin roof. It was really loud so it
stole all of my attention. I could hear kids out side and saw a
couple of my friends at the door watching the kids playing outside
and hiding under the overhang (the orphans just stay under the
overhangs at the school while it rains because they don’t have
anywhere else to go…). Nadia invited me to go hang out with some
of them under the overhang and Brittany came and joined us too. I
had thought earlier about going out in the rain with them but decided
that it would just be a muddy mess… but while I was standing there
I couldn’t just stay where it was dry. I love moments like that…
where you have a choice to stay or to jump in with your whole heart.
I handed Nadia my jacket and just started running. I went and
started dancing with this one girl with the rain pouring down and
slowly more and more kids came. We danced and laughed and played.
We were soaking wet and muddy but I couldn’t have been happier than
I was with all those kids around me in the rain. Overwhelming Joy. I
looked out past the gate and saw some of the kids from the
neighborhood wearing absolutely nothing and just watching us dance.
When ever I would look over they would smile and dance around a bit…
so I waved them over and they came and danced with us too. To say
that these children have stolen my heart would be a drastic
understatement… and I was so blessed to share in the simplicity of
their joy of dancing in rain.
After we had come in and the kids were
supposed to be trying to stay dry I saw a couple of them outside of
our door. I was waving at them, just thinking that they were being
silly, and I was trying to suggest that they go back where it was
dry… but they kept pointing at this one girl. She walked in front
of the iron door and showed me this gash in her head. As quickly as
I could I got the door opened and her inside and shouted to Nadia.
We started looking for something to use to put pressure on her head
to keep it from bleeding… the only thing we could find was this
pile of shirts that had been donated by a construction company or
something. I went back to the girl and there was blood everywhere. I
covered the cut with the shirt and Nadia brought me a bag to keep the
blood from getting all over my hand. It was horrible. There was no
one around at all to help us and we had nothing but gauze to treat
this deep head wound. By this point some other people from
our team had come around and helped to make phone calls to Pastor
Moses and slowly made the necessary connections to get help on the
way. The whole time as we waited I sat with this girl in my arms
holding pressure on her head and just praying. It was scary because
there was nothing we could do. I didn’t have anyway to take her
anywhere and even if I did I wouldn’t even have the slightest idea
of where to go. I felt so very helpless as her head just kept
bleeding and her eyes started to glaze over, I was afraid she was
going to faint… we offered her juice and some bread and by Gods
grace she didn’t. Eventually a friend of Moses’ came and walked
her toward the clinic as sat on the back of his bike. She only had on
a wet tank top so a local woman who had walked up wrapped her up in a
piece of cloth. The whole time she never cried. I was pretty shaken
up over the whole thing for a number of reasons. The girl is one of
the orphans that attend the school here. It broke my heart that the
kids first of all have to stay here when it rains and then that they
have no one else to go to when hurt. Little girls are supposed to
have moms arms to run into when they have tears. They are suppose to
have dads to protect them. Where is she laying her hurt head down to
sleep tonight? Right now who is sitting with her? Is she warm
enough? Is someone there to comfort her? I hate this. I hate that
kids have to grow up this way. I hate that there wasn’t someone
worried about her and concerned about why she was running late as she
sat there bleeding on my lap. She is only ten years old.
