A beautiful, thin, old Ugandan woman. She is well respected and highly esteemed in the Kyampisi community; and everyone, no matter of their race or age or home, is her grandchild: including us.
She has a weathered, wrinkled face, but her skin is still soft, retaining all the elasticity of her youth. When we first meet her, she drops to her knees in a prayer of thanks to God, saying, “Who am I that you should come meet and help me?”
When we praise the Lord at the end of the day, she brings herself to her feet, shaking her hips with as much ability as her elderly joints can muster. She smiles a nearly toothless grin, and everything about her shouts “wisdom,” “strength,” “honor,” and “respect."
She is beautiful, her worn body glistening in the hot African sun, revealing the stories of her life.
She is a teacher, giving life lessons in her speech, stride, and posture. She tells parables with ease, being sure to connect a lesson with every conversation.
We were given the honor and privilege of building a mud goat shed/kitchen for the Ja-Ja, as well as cleaning out her house. As we stepped into the house to empty it, my eyes rimmed with tears as I looked in the corner and saw three Samaritan’s purse shoeboxes piled neatly one on top of the other. Since I was young, my family has filled shoeboxes and then sent them with Samaritan’s purse to other countries, for children who have never received anything for Christmas. To suddenly be standing in a house looking at an old woman’s three grandchildren’s shoeboxes, was heart wrenchingly beautiful.
This woman holds the title of Ja-Ja for a reason. Not only is she the grandmother to the owners of the three shoeboxes, she is the grandmother to the entire Kyampisi community, and to everyone else she meets. She treats each person with nurturing, instructing, and life-giving love; motherhood to its most wonderful degree. She owns her title, and steps into it gloriously.
The lesson of womanhood, motherhood, wisdom, and beauty I learned from the Ja-Ja was astounding. The only thing that can come to mind for her is Proverbs 31:25-31:
“She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She
speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of
her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her
husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.’ Charm
is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. Honor
her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.”
