Tuesday as we were packing up to
leave the village, Kari saw a young girl kneeling in the dirt with her young
brother. She was trying to get jiggers
out of his feet because they were paining him so much he could not walk. She was so small herself and she was doing her
best to carry her little brother so his feet wouldn't
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hurt. As Kari approached she saw they were dirty
and in tattered clothing. Dirty and worn clothing is common in the village, but
these were different. As she talked with
them she noticed they were unusually dirt and had sores all over their little
bodies. The youngest had a sunken look
to his eyes and he did not look “well.”
As Kari talked to them she asked
if we could take them tp their home, she wanted to meet their mother. The children told her they live with their Jaja
(grandmother) We loaded them up in the
van and drove them down the dirt road to their home. When we arrived, there was no one there. Kari
began talking to neighbors and found out more to the story. The children in
fact lived with their Jaja, but she had gone to Kenya for a burial. She was not scheduled to return until the
next day. The kids had no food in the
house and no water. The oldest was 7 and the youngest was 2-3. They did have an older sibling that we could
not find, he was out gathering fire wood, but he too was just a child himself.
It broke our hearts. Here were these young kids left to fend for
themselves. This world is a tough place, especially village life. I can’t
imagine leaving for a few days and turning to Everett to say “take care of
Hadlee, Pierce and Joseph while I am gone.” Anyone that knows Everett knows
what a scary thought that would be!
Tressie, the 7 year old girl, was doing her very best to care for her
younger siblings, but she is a child. Unfortunately,
it is a harsh reality here in Uganda.
We were torn as to what to
do. The best thing we could think was to
take them down the road and get them something to eat. We wanted to get some protein in their little
bodies, but all we could find was bread and water. As I sat and watched them eating bread and drinking
water, my heart broke all over again.
Kari was able to get them enough bread for the evening as well, hardly a
meal for 3 hungry kids. When I skip a meal or have lunch late and my stomach is
growling, I think I am so hungry. I have
never known hunger like these kids before. It is hard for us to know true
hunger, we always know at some point our next meal is coming. It might not be exactly at the time we expect
or exactly what we want to eat, but we always know food is coming. I cannot imagine being 7 years old and
wondering when and if I am going to eat again.
Hunger and suffering is happening
each and every day here and all around the world. You don’t have to be in the
village or even in Uganda to see true hunger and suffering all around you. As
you are reading this the underlying thought is probably “How could you just
leave these kids there? Why didn’t you
take them into town to get a better meal?
Why didn’t you take these kids home until their Jaja returned?”
While all these thoughts came
into our minds and our hearts, they are not practical. We could easily be accused of stealing children.
There could also be 50 other kids in the same scenario within the village. That
is just life here. These are the harsh realities some kids face on a daily
basis.
“Break my heart for what breaks
Yours”
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