One final thought for the night...

I was just about to climb into bed when I remembered one more thing that struck me today...

I find it somewhat disturbing how quickly I can become adjusted to the poverty around me.  It feels like this is just the way it is, and so it remains.  Yet, today, as I triaged all of these children, I really looked at them.  I had the chance to look at them and not just see them through a window, waiting for medications.  As I looked at them, I realized how very, very poor they truly are.  I saw the tattered clothing, the lack of shoes, the fungal rashes, the bloated tummies.  I saw the dirty bodies and the tired eyes - eyes that would light up once and a while, but somehow were just still so tired.  This is all they have ever known and so I wonder if they long for something more?  They must...they must have an idea of what other ways life could look like.  They must long to go to school - to have the opportunity to learn like some of their friends.  What does clean water mean to them?  Do they get their drinking water from a well, or do they gather it from the ditches like we have seen some do.  How far do they have to carry it?  Do their young have any idea what it is like to be free of reponsibility and to simply play?  As I watched 8 year old Mariam carry Agnes on her back today, I realized once again the reponsibility these young girls, in particular, have. 

I don't ever want to become used to this.  I don't ever want to become apathetic towards it.  I think of my sponsored children through Compassion, Helena and Morris, and I have seen first hand the difference that child sponsorship makes.  Even with sponsorship, these children are poor in our eyes, and yet they have opportunities that other children don't.  I encourage you...if you don't sponsor a child...do it!  You will never, ever regret it and you will make a profound difference in the life of a child.

So, as I go to bed tonight, I'll think of the little faces I have seen throughout the day.  I want those faces to remain real to me, because it is those faces...those images...that will keep me coming back to this land.