16 orphans and the Church in Wakiso

There are too many young children alone... why must AIDS exist... what can one person do?  These questions are running through my head tonight.  Earlier today I met 16 orphans being cared for by a small village church in Wakiso.  The church has few members and no church building but the community is sharing a small shelter with them so that the children are not homeless.  Someone even donated porridge for them to eat.  It is a bland concoction that is heavy and thick; meant to keep a child full even when there is little sustenance in it.

Melody Stirring Porridge

I am angry.  I am just furious that young children are forced to huddle together in such squalor.  I am sick to my stomach looking at the Coke bottle I just picked up to drink.  These orphans have no such privilege.  Nothing so sweet has passed their lips in months.  Instead there is only mushy cereal.  They sleep on mud floors or 3 to a twin-sized mattress with no mosquito nets to protect them.  The oldest of them is 15 and manages to cook, clean and dress even the youngest child in the only pair of clothes they own.  There is no opportunity for school.  They are a family in and of themselves with a young woman named Josephine to look in on them from time to time.

 The Orphans Room

I was hoping this blog would help me; maybe be cathartic even.  It is not helping at all.  The more I write the more angry I am becoming.  I am crying full out now as I know right now they are alone and huddled into a filthy and bug infested room and hungry.  By now the porridge has gone and they are left with nothing until morning.  Why God?  Why do you allow such suffering?  How can these children be so joyful even in the midst of sorrow?  How can I be sitting under a mosquito net blubbering when there is so much work to be done? Surely this is not the way things should be.  Please God help me help these children.

Today at church I also noticed a small girl on stage that appeared to be sick.  I made sure to find her after the service and bent over to touch her head.  She was definitely feverish.  I found out she had no father and lives with her mother. I asked several health questions to try to diagnose the problem.  She was lethargic, feverish, not eating well.  It is possible she has Malaria is under-nourished but also one can not rule out Yellow Fever.  I gave Josephine some small money for a clinic nearby the church.  We will find out the diagnosis and get treatment for her.  I don't even know her name but certainly God does because He brought me there to help her.

The Little Sick Girl

Besides all this, the lovely people in Wakiso gave us ripe avocados, mangoes and eggs.  It is more than they needed to feed all 16 orphans and yet they gave them to us. It would have insulted them to try and give them back so we received them with joy.  I just can't imagine how a community of believers could have so little and give everything. 

I have learned today to love in a large way and be generous with strangers.  I have learned to laugh in the face of death and poverty because I have family.  I have learned to trust God whole-heartedly even when everything seems dark.  I have learned this from 16 lonely children who live only 20 miles away from me now.