Not cut out for this...

well it has been a while since I blogged, and I have simply realized that I am just not cut out for this blogging thing. there is so much going on from day to day that when the night finally comes and I get a chance to write it out I just can't even think of where to start. Sorry that this is the case but today was no different, there is no way that I can accurately describe everything that I felt, or even did today, but I know there are people who care so let me once again attempt.

Sammy and I spent the day in a place called Endbese, which is around 15 KM outside of town. Last year Sammy, Torie, Delia, Matt and I went out to visit a mother of a student at Purpose Driven named Protenciana (spelling?).

Margaret, the principal at purpose driven academy and dear friend, had introduced us to protenciana and her family last year, and in fact Sammy and her family support three of her cousins through school. Today was the first time in a year that Protenciana had gone home from school to visit her mother, and that absolutely breaks my heart.

Protenciana's mother is HIV positive, and so when she comes down with malaria or typhoid things get very rough. Living in a one room mud house, Protenciana's mother and two sisters raise three children, not to mention the four others who had lived there before Sammy and Margaret took them to school. We had heard that Prote's (short for Protenciana) mother had been sick for some time and since we were in town we thought it would be good for us to go visit her. It never becomes easy to see the situation that many families must survive in, and the evils of poverty are mostly shocking.

The story of the day wasn't so much reuniting Prote and her mother, or even getting her to the nearby hospital, it turned out to be Prote's 2 year old cousin Marvelous. There is just something so terrible about the look of a child who hasn't eaten. It is more then the way they look physically, it is their entire being that is crying out. Marvelous could not smile, could barely walk and just didn't look like she had any drive to carry on. As we at lunch we ordered her a huge bowl of cooked bananas and beef stew. I have never seen a child eat so much, in fact I don't know if I have ever eaten so much. It was awesome to watch Sammy take so much joy in feeding this little girl, even if she knew that was all she could do for her. Margret said something that shocked us, "this little girl has no idea where her next meal is coming from, so her body has told her to not stop eating."

I have not once worried about food, and i can not even imagine being 2 years old and knowing that my next meal may not come. Some things never stop shocking you.

For me the best part here is watching Sammy love these people, and becoming a giant advocate for Protenciana and her family. Sammy, you rock.