Judie's Final Thought

Today I emailed Lynn and asked, "Did we really go to Africa and did we
really see what we saw?" We are now physically a world away from the
school, the children, the poverty-but all of it is still very, very close
as we bring forth the images, re-live the feelings and see the faces and
situations of the children in our mind's eye. I imagine all of us are
probably feeling about the same-trying to process what the experience has
meant to us personally. Most importantly, how do we use what we have seen,
learned, and experienced, to get help for this school and these precious
children? My prayer, which I am sure is the same as the others, is that
God guide me to use what abilities and resources I have to find a way. As
I see it, what we need more than anything is unencumbered funds for the
school and some type of regular financial commitments so that Patrick can
have a budget and know what he has to work with. We found that he
basically works from debt to debt. When he receives money from the MCC
foundation he pays off what he has borrowed to keep the school going then
borrows more to basically continue to operate. He truly has the world on
his shoulders-the Mathare world, the "forgotten valley." Dear Lord, do not
let me forget.... Patrick, along with the teachers and the school are the
only positive thing in the valley as I saw it. Everything else is poverty,
struggle, drudgery of only surviving and existing. But what a difference
the school makes in the children's lives! As with everything else you had
to see it to believe it. These children are beautifully educated! I took
a picture of a 4th grader's classwork and it is geometry! They also speak
beautiful English and are extremely well spoken. I had my tape recorder
and I asked two of the young girls who are in the choir if they would like
to say anything to the people who gave them the pink uniforms. Immediately
and without any preparation, they both gave a lovely speech , thanking them
and each telling how much the uniforms meant to them and what affect they
had on their confidence. On our last day, I watched the children on the
athletic field, marching, playing, enjoying themselves. These children
live in extreme poverty everyday and see death (illness and violence) on a
fairly regular basis but as I watched them, I thought they looked like all
other children and this amazed me after knowing a little of their lives and
seeing the extreme poverty that is their world. One song my group, the
Simba's sang to me was full of their animated expressions and I asked what
the words they kept repeating meant. They said, "the words mean, we are
happy, happy!" There are many thoughts and emotions associated with my
experiences and pictures in my mind of many beautiful, precious faces of
these children. It will take time for me to slowly assimilate all of this.
I thank all of the fantastic response from so many family, friends,
Campbell Co. Social Services staff, church members,my boss, Centra Health,
and the Virginia Baptist Hospital Auxiliary and Lynchburg General Auxiliary
to help me help the little ones. One adventure not part of the mission
that I loved was leaving the Tanzanian beach at 5:00 in the morning in the
homemade (dhow) boat to cross the Indian Ocean to Zanzibar. It was of
course still dark and the boat had no lights. In the quiet of the night
the only sound were the waves sloshing against the sides of the boat as we
sailed. It was a surreal moment and when I am traveling there is always a
moment when I think of my blessings and ask myself, "what is a gal from
Gladys doing in an exotic, fairly extreme, setting like this?" Looking at
the sky and the million stars in this solitude and at this once-in-
a-lifetime moment, I felt extreme peace... I thank Carroll and Wayne Brown
for this opportunity and their unwavering faithfulness to the children of
Mercy Care Centre and from the bottom of my heart I thank all of you who
helped me in so many ways. I thought of all of you who had been there with
me on this mission-in support, in prayer and in spirit. The peace I felt
was that "we" had accomplished the task "HE" sent us to do. Blessing to
each of you, Love, Judie