Uru

I haven’t written in awhile, so I decided to post the most important things. The first post I will write is about my visit to Uru. I went on Tuesday with Becca and Sibo to meet the family that Sibo works with in Uru. The family consists of a bibi and four children. One of the children, Bertha, is nine years old and is the size of a two-year-old. She is severely disabled and usually just lies in the bed all day. She was born a healthy baby, but was submerged in unclean water before her belly button had completely healed/closed. She then developed an infection in her abdominal area and so the doctors tried to remove it. They used a syringe and sucked it out of her back. Unfortunately, the also took out a lot of her cerebral spinal fluid as well which left her disabled. The other three children are 2, 6 and 10 years old and they were left with the bibi by their mother. She had arrived one night and told the bibi that she needed a place to stay because she had left her husband. Bibi agreed and in the morning the mother “went to go get breakfast” and she never returned. This family lived in a stick and mud room that they shared with a few cows. The room had no floor, they have no bathroom and it had fecal matter in it as well. Bertha was in the corner of the room where she laid on a plastic lid.

When I went on Tuesday, the mud was the most intense mud I have ever encountered. Sibo’s car could not drive up the hill into Uru because it was so muddy and steep. Uru is located quite a ways past Rau up the slope of Kilimanjaro. We trekked up the hill to bibi’s home behind a local man that was barefooted and carrying two heavy tubs in both hands. It was amazing- but then again, this is Africa. When we got there the kids were covered in mud and the house was messy with flies all around. Bertha was on the bed and we taught bibi how to put a diaper on her. Her legs were the size of a chair leg, and she didn’t have any muscles. It was really shocking to actually touch her little legs. She is very beautiful, but it is hard to be around her and see the reality of this family’s situation. We gave the kids pieces of chocolate and they sucked on them and didn’t chew them because they wanted to preserve them. They also ate them with their muddy fingers – thus getting both mud and chocolate in their mouths. They also were very quiet and spoke kidogo Kiswahili when we spoke to them.

After visiting them and spending time looking that the land and thinking of how to help them move forward we walked back down the mud-covered hill. The people from Uru were trekking back up the hill barefooted while Becca and I took somall and precarious steps. It was really incredible to see this family firsthand because it solidified my reasons for being here. It really changed my perspective and my life and it made me so passionate about coming back. It is amazing how sharing a moment in someone else’s life can drastically alter your own. I don’t know that they will ever know how profound my experience with them was, but I feel very blessed to have met them.

After we met them we went back to the Home Base and my head was full of ideas and things we can do to help that community. Luckily, Sibo was already on it. On Thursday after placement we brought two vans full of the other volunteers back up to bibi’s house and we got to work.  We dug the hole for the bathroom (it was 6 feet and needed to be 12), we tilled the soil so she could have a garden and we spent time with a lot of kids (the neighbor kids and the kids that live with bibi). I held the smallest boy for awhile and he fell asleep in my arms!! Sibo told me that it is sometimes believed that if a small child falls asleep in your arms or on your lap you would have good luck J. It was nice to hear that! It made me feel even closer to Africa. This day of work was really amazing because Sibo was so happy and Becca was really pleased too. After cleaning extensively, creating the garden space and digging the hole we all felt really pleased with our work. It was rewarding to do the work together and we took a picture with the family and some neighbors afterward. It is great to look at each of our faces and see the very pure joy on each of our faces.

I remember coming home and feeling so full of joy and so peaceful. It is so rewarding to know that what you are doing can really help someone and to know that together we were changing someone’s life. I know coming to Africa is about being here and doing what we can for these people. I can’t wait to come back and do more work in the rural communities. As always, I apologize for being late and I love Africa. Ninakupenda sana!