Blown away

So it has been an eventful few days here in Jinja. We have spent Tuesday in Walukuba, the village where many of the women of Suubi live. We arrived at 10 am for a meeting with their directing board. We wanted to find out how they felt Suubi was going, their concerns, and the needs that have currently. The meeting went very well, and the women expressed needs for school fees, clothing, food, and water for the children. All of these needs come down to the fact that they need to make more money. They have the ability to make many more necklaces than we can buy. To be able to buy more from them, we must sell more in America, which we will continue to work on. I started asking a few questions about their health to get a general perspective on what we may be able to help them with. One concern that I have is that they are not getting enough protein in their diet, so I asked the group how often they eat meat, and they all started laughing. I was confused, thinking I had said something inappropriate. Then they explained that they only eat meat once a year, for Easter or Independence Day. I was shocked. I am a little disappointed if I don't get meat in every meal that I eat. Our meeting turned into lunch (where they cooked us meat!), and then into a dance party. One of the volunteers here was heading back to America, so the women had organized a few dances for her. They were awesome, and lasted a couple of hours. They had made up a few songs for several individuals in our group. We finally left at around 4pm.
Wednesday morning we spent at an AIDS orphanage. A 24 year old American girl started it about 6 months ago, and it is now sheltering 37 children with HIV. I am blown away by the radical ways that it is possible to love people like that. We had the opportunity to play with the kids for several hours, and even though chicken pox had hit there recently, the kids were so happy, and loving, and full of life. That afternoon we taught the Suubi english class. It is amazing seeing grown women write words for the first time. Watching the Suubi women that are more experienced help those that are less skilled is heart warming. I have never been thanked more, or felt more sincere gratitude than I have during the last week, and I have done nothing compared to the volunteers that live here for months on end.
With all the problems here, and throughout Africa and the developing world, it is very easy to get disheartened, and feel like what we are trying to do doesn't matter because the problem is so much greater than anything than I can do. It is cliche, I know, but it is true that if God does something here through me, and it makes a difference in someone's life, then it makes a difference. Period.
On a lighter note, we went with all of the LGH volunteers to the Jinja Nile resort, and went swimming yesterday. It was a great time to relax, have some fun, and get a little perspective on what we are doing and where we are going.
Filming the documentary is going well, I am excited to see what Dave can do with what we will have on film. There are so many stories, and directions that we could go, we had no lack of material for sure. We just started reading a book together in the volunteer house called Irresistible Revolution, and we started discussing it. I think it will be very encouraging and challenging to all of us.
On a more personal note, Becca (my wife) had her first sonogram yesterday, and the baby (singular, thank the Lord) is doing well and moving a lot. It is our first. I am so excited to see pictures. I am pretty sad that I missed that, but I will be back fairly soon.
So I guess I can end this by saying I am blown away. By everything. By a world that I didn't really know existed. By people that I didn't know could love like this. By volunteers that I didn't know could give like this. It is fun to be blown away...you should try it