Sunday in Bugando

Sunday was our day to experience the Church in Africa!  I think they were very gracious to us in that the service really didn't last as long as I expected it too...mind you, Marilyn was preaching so she played a part in that (:  What an amazing experience though!  SO much music...(sigh)...it was amazing.  And dancing!!  I hope you can tell a bit from the photo above how they dance and celebrate.  Church is clearly a place to come to celebrate with people who share their faith and mourn their losses and be loved in the midst of pain and joy.  These people have so very little compared to you and I, yet their celebration is so much greater!  It is humbling in the deepest way.  They celebrate God in all that He is...not the material aspect of what they have earned or been given, but in the spiritual aspect of how rich they are because of their faith in a God who comforts and loves unconditionally.  They understand what true faith is.

Pastor James and his wife Eunice hosted us beautifully at their place of worship and as honoured guests we were placed on the stage...a great view!  There was the adult choir and the children's choir and the worship teams...all playing a part in the celebration and of course, all dancing as well.  As I witnessed the joy in these people I began to feel very emotional and this was the one time on the trip that I cried.  I began to think about the process of re-entry upon returning home and how rarely I had a moment to absorb what was happening around us because of the busyness of our clinic days.  This was a moment on this Sunday to truly realize the depth of need around us and the difference that we were able to make...even in what felt like a small way sometimes.  

Covered in Sheri's stickers!  The kids LOVE stickers!

After church we broke up into teams of 2 with an interpreter and distributed mosquito nets in the Bugando community.  Oh my gracious! we needed 100's and 100's more...1000's really.  I don't think I have ever been so face to face with extreme poverty as I was this day.  There is almost no way to describe it...just absolute poverty.  I felt like we had so little to offer in terms of the number of nets we had, but what we did offer will make a difference to combat malaria for these families.  From my journal: "It's hard to express the emotions from a day like today when I don't feel I've fully embraced them myself.  I know that it will be in the weeks following my return home that I will begin to process all that I have seen and been a part of".

Above is one family that we gave mosquito nets to.  This woman's husband is currently in jail and she has the three children that you see with her.  Her home is literally falling apart and there was a despair and heaviness in her eyes that just bore through me.  

This was again, a single mother, pictured with her own children and some curious neighbour children as well.  I had seen this Mom in our Clinic at Bugando and she carried a heavy burden health wise with her children.  Her youngest (the one I'm sitting next to) has had open heart surgery at the hospital in Bugando and she also has a VP (venticuloperitoneal) shunt for Hydrocephaly...a condition that involves fluid build up on the brain that needs to be drained and thus the shunt is placed to direct the fluid to the abdominal cavity.  Her elder daughter has a developmental challenge and in the clinic, the Mother talked about how they have to "tie her up" when they leave the house because if she is left alone she will wander off and get lost.  So sad...so, so sad.  This was a Muslim family and it was really something to see how they responded to my request to pray for them. I had no idea they were Muslim before I asked.  Pastor James told me afterwards and he said, "they will never turn down prayer".  That's powerful.

I think the whole team was quite overwhelmed by the end of our time distributing the nets in Bugando.  Our eyes were opened in ways they hadn't been previously and I am deeply grateful for that.

A few more photos from the day...

The road to Bugando Church.  There's no way to truly capture it, but this gives you a bit of an idea.  A bit rough (:

My teammate Lindsay and I with our interpreter from the Clinic Days, Marci.  Marci was an incredible help to us...we simply could not have done without her.  

Some shots from around the Bugando community...

A bathroom.

On the left: Matari and Edah, the couple that run the Urafiki Clinic and were our main caregivers while we were in Igoma.  On the right is Pastor James and Eunice and their youngest daughter.  This was a HOT day and we were grateful for a little shade under the bus stop.