Picture Story

They had traveled on foot for miles...a few on rudimentary bicycles...many from neighboring villages. They had heard that the white people were coming to host a medical clinic. This would be the first time that they had come to this village in Uganda. "Muzungus" the children yelled as our van approached the huts and erected tarps that were to house the medical clinic that day. The children had never been this close to a "Muzungu" before. Stories they heard about the Muzungus was that if you touch them, they'll bleed. Even with the ancestral folklore, the children pressed and crowded around us in awe, smiling big, sometimes laughing at something "funny" we would do. As they sun traveled higher in the sky, hundreds more gathered to have a chance to stand in line to see Rozena, the nurse hosting the clinic.

What can we do to help all these people? Will today make a difference in their life? Can the prescribed dosage of aspirin to ease their back pain from their long days in the field change their life? Will making balloon animals for the children to occupy them that day really matter?

I had gone to Uganda to make a difference, to offer something, to create change. In the end, it made a difference in my life. They offered me friendship, a look into a simpler way of life, a glimpse into what really mattered. In the end, I was the one who was changed.