So right now, I’m sitting in the HIV/AIDS office. I usually don’t blog till I have internet access, but at the moment there’s only work here for one of us sooo… Ally’s doing it 😀 …I promise I offered to.
I know that people in America are aware of the problems with HIV and AIDS in Africa, but it’s definitely something that has been consistently reaffirmed while working in this office. Several times a week we just go through names and names and names of the people in various districts around here who are coming to Victory Outreach (our church) for treatment.
Next Saturday we’re helping with an HIV testing and counseling clinic. The Africans want us to be counselors to the affected families… so that will be interesting. Also, Mary and I plan on practicing our future nursing skills by helping with the testing -we’re pretty confident they’ll let us do it seeing as one med clinic here in Lira allowed us to test each other for Malaria by taking blood samples.
It’s a little shocking to see all of the things they seem to think we’re qualified to do simply because we’re from America and come with a Christian organization. For instance, asking one of us to preach at a prison or a church…or pretty much anywhere we go…or come up with a “plan” for how to improve and fund one of the primary schools here. A lot of the time I do really think they overestimate my abilities or insight or even just the influence behind what I have to say. And certain things…like my skills to treat people medically, I’m pretty positive I have legitimate grounds for thinking that, seeing as I haven’t actually gone to nursing school yet… but as far as what I have to say or how I can encourage people, I think it might actually be me underestimating myself. Because fact of the matter is… I am here …and I believe that that is because God wanted me to be. Because He provided for me fully in this trip. And the odds didn’t really seem to be in my favor either…seeing as I began fundraising for this trip 3 weeks before my initial deposit of $3900 was due. And in case I haven’t told everybody – I met that goal almost exactly by the day it was due. A lot of things like that have led me to this trip. Even just the fact that I have this semester off from school.
So here I am. In Africa. Expected by the people here to do things I would never be expected to do by the people in America. To encourage people who are quite literally dying in the hospitals. But I think what I see as others overestimating me might actually be me underestimating what I can do…because I’m qualified through Christ. Which I feel like…is kind of a really cliché Christian thing to say…but it’s true. Like…honestly, I don’t have anything awesome to offer… I’m a pretty standard human being …possibly substandard due to my really bad communication skills …but that’s okay because what these people need to hear aren’t human words or human encouragements. Like really, how far can that go? What I, by myself, have to offer is so temporary, not to mention absurd seeing as I’ve never been in nearly as desperate a situation as the people here. But I’m here and qualified and important to these people because God wanted me to be and because he IS qualified and he can qualify whoever he wants and he uses the weak to lead the strong and works the things that are not to nullify the things that are. “God doesn’t call the qualified but qualifies the called.” Yep.
And I almost apologized for going off on my little God tangent…but then I realized that’s not something I should apologize for. Because He’s awesome and good and so much more than words will ever say.
Anyways. I didn’t really plan on saying all that…I actually wanted to talk about the LRA. And child soldiers. And how awful the whole thing is. And how much we DON’T hear about it in America. And how friggin much it affects the people here. And how somehow, no one is actually doing anything about it, even though little kids are still being abducted and being forced to murder and rape and beat people. And people are being cut up into little pieces in their homes. And the list goes on and on.
SO. If you don’t know very much about the LRA…you should google it. And then find out how to make it stop. And maybe watch Blood Diamond with Leonardo DiCaprio because it’s a pretty good movie and gets you pretty fired up about how messed up all this is and has at least some truth as to what’s going on here. Unless you don’t think it’s a good movie or it’s inappropriate or something because I haven’t actually seen it in a really long time…in that case, pretend I didn’t recommend it. But yea, it’s something that is a really big part of this country’s history and is spreading into other countries and is…really, just terrible. I’m sure I’ll be blogging about the LRA more at some point.
Anyways …I’ve considered doing random shoutouts on this thing to people back home because I think that would be entertaining. But possibly immature. So I’ll wait a little bit…feel it out.
I did want to say however, that honestly I am so, so thankful to all of my friends and family that have supported me in this trip…financially and prayerfully. I literally would not be here without ya’ll and want all of you to know that I’m praying for you as well. Apoyo matek!!
Andddd this is us hard at work in the HIV office! Ya!
