Thoughts....a lot of them.

Hey all.

This is going to be long. Bear with me.

So--I've been thinking. A lot. We all have. I feel like I've been a bit fluffy when I write sometimes and now I feel like being a little more real...so here goes....

There are some days that are better than others here....we go through so many emotions sometimes I feel like crawling in a hole because everywhere I look there is so much suffering.

But I think yesterday hit ALL of us hard.

I'll start with Namaishya. She is a little 6 yr old girl who was born HIV positive and has probably had full blown AIDS since she was about 4. All of her brothers and sisters cme to STAO and we know them, but N is too sick to come play or go to school so she mostly stays home. She had to be taken to the hospital on Saturday because of a high fever but when they got there they discovered what they think are multiple brain tumors....we got to meet her yesterday. She doesn't talk (its too painful) or even look up--ever. We're going to make sure she has surgery to remove the rumors, f ossible, and also get her started on ARV drugs. She's watched her parents and little brother die already, and in reality doesn't have long to live herself.

Around lunchtime after church we went down to the main part of Mafubira to get food--there, we saw a boy probably about 13 years old on the side of the road who kept collapsing and was too sick and in too much pain to even stand. He was on his way to the hospital, but obviously in a ton of pain. We're still not sure what he was sick with.

Yesterday evening we traveled to a village called Kamuli, about an hour (or 3, if you run out of gas on the way home....) from Mafubira. We were there to do AIDS sensitization for the community. There was a crowd of about 200 kids, widows, and men...the introduced us and then asked if the kids who've been orphaned by AIDS would stand. Every single kid stood up--about a hundred or so of them. EVERY ONE. There is no orphanage in this village and very little aid work being done. We were told that the kids often go without food and that there are as many as 18 kids living in a single foster home. I think that's when it really hit me---AIDS has completely ravished this country.

One of the orphans in Kamuli, a little girl about 8 years old, who had been badly burned, and has no use of her right arm as a result. The surgery to fix her arm is relatively simple, but they haven't had the money to pay for it. We are happy that we are able to help her.....75$ for the surgery. thats it.

Needless to say, I cried a lot yesterday.

I will try to get some pictures of the Kamuli kids up soon. We brought them pencils and crayons and stickers and it still amazes me that such simple things can break out big smiles and shrieks from the kids.

The other thing about the Kamuli kids is that, if STAO gets the 5,000$ to finish the orphanage, many kids will be able to be moved to Mafubira and live at STAO and get education, 3 meals a day, and a lot of love, because that's what STAO does.

I know Jenny already mentioned this previously, and hate is not strong enough a word for how I feel about asking for money(and because we know a lot of you have already helped fund this trip and we are really grateful).....but we are asking.

I know how hard it is to fund something halfway across the world that you can't see tangibly--and how easy it is to think that someone else will take care of it so that it doesn't really matter if you send 5 dollars or 100 dollars.

I am going to bluntly ask you to not pay attention to those thoughts and to trust us that the money will be used to help these kids more than you will know. This is an amazing opportunity to affect real change in this village.

Please consider this. The 3 of us have heavy burdens on our hearts to raise this money. As wonderful as STAO is, they are still a very small NGO and have very few donors.

Sending money--can be sent to Jenny's Mom, scroll down to Jenny's previous post for instructions on how. We are in the process of making STAO a registered non-profit in the US (it already is in Uganda and Norway) so that all donations will be tax-deductible.

A sidenote--STAO's main focus is sustainable development, one of the things we love and admire about them.

Please email me (kate87@u.washington.edu) or Jenny or Sarah with any questions or to tell us an amount you're donating so we can keep track.

Lastly--we need prayer. A lot of it.

Thank you so much. We are so grateful.

much love,
kate, jenny, and sarah.