Amazing Stories

I've been sitting here for a while now thinking about what I should write about...I could write about the food: Mostly rice and beans, just like the mission. I could write about all the other things I have eaten by accident like cow intestines. I don't recommend that. I could write about the cultural differences like how Ugandan time is about 50 times worse than Mormon standard time. If a partner tells you they are almost there or they will meet you in 15 minutes you better plan on waiting around for another hour and a half ATLEAST!! I could even tell you how a couple of the girls and I crashed a wedding at the Catholic church on Sunday with 19 couples getting married...

I could write about all those things and it would give you a pretty good idea about what it's like here. None of that compares to the stories of the people here though. Specifically the women since those are the ones I work with most.

Last Thursday I went around to the houses of some of the women I am going to be working with in a women's group here (the one I mentioned earlier that makes jewelry to sell in the states). Most of their houses were small one room apartments smaller than my bedroom at college. They would have their whole families crammed into these tiny little spaces. All of the women have been abandoned by their husbands or simply don't live with them because they are polygamists and these woman have been rejected by the other wives.

Take Florence for example. Florence gave birth a week ago to her fourth child. She didn't want anymore children but for men having lots of children is a status symbol in the community so her boyfriend insisted. Florence's mother left her family when she was young and her father quickly remarried. Her step mom didn't like her much so she sent her to the city to live with her brother and to go to school. When she arrived in the city her sister in law wouldn't allow her to go to school though, instead she made her take care of the house and her nieces and nephews.

When she was 17 her step mom forced her to marry a man twice her age who already had 5 other wives. The other wives were much older than her and really didn't like her so Florence was often persecuted and rejected. When Florence was pregnant with her first child she ran away to live with her mother but because she was pregnant her mother made her return to her husband. 5 months after her first child was born she finally left her husband for good.

Florence eventually remarried, this time to a man she truly loved. She had two more children with him before he was tragically killed in a car accident. She spent years trying to support herself and her children, barely scraping by day by day. Eventually she had to send her children to live with their uncle because she simply couldn't take care of them. Her current boyfriend refuses to help support children that are not his. He is abusive and beats her on a regular basis.

Then there is Harriett. She's the first person I have actually met with full blown AIDS even though you can see the effects of it everywhere here. The day she found out she had AIDS was the day her husband died. That's who she got it from even though she never even knew he had it. Unfortunately she also passed it on to her two children. She always knew they had it but she couldn't bring herself to tell them until her daughter started dating some guy seriously. He left her when they found out she had it for sure.

Harriett has been rejected by everyone. Even her husbands family treats her as an outcast even though it was him that gave it to her. Because she has AIDS she is not able to work, no one will hire her. Without work she has not been able to take of herself in the ways that she should, especially considering her condition. Her only friends are those whom she works with at Musana. It's her first job she's been able to have since she found out about the terrible disease. Because of Musana she is finally able to rent her own place small as it may be.

We run into stories like this every day here. It seems like everyone has a tragic past that has had a profound impact on their lives. It truly makes your heart go out to the people and wish there were more that you could do to help. That is one of the frustrating things about being here, there is so much need and so little we can do. We are working hard though and have done some great things so far!