Pure Joy

Today was, by far, my favorite day that I've had in Uganda so far. My friend Alexanderson took Desarae and I home to the village that he from, which is about 1 1/2 hours from Mbarara in the Isingiro district. It was an incredible day full of different adventures. I'm just going to write about a few on here (I know I tend to get long-winded so I'll try to avoid that), but be sure to check out the other pictures on my picasa site so that you can see all that I experienced today.

We started out from Mbarara at 9:30 this morning and finally arrived at his village, Kashojuoa, around 12:30. It was definitely a surreal experience to be driving through southern Uganda listening to Cyndi Lauper's "Time after Time," over and over again. Our hired driver had a few tapes of old 80's and 90's music and that just made the trip a little more humorous for D-rae and I. The trip was longer this morning because we made a few stops for food and for visiting some of Alex's friends. My favorite part of the day came when we stopped at the primary school that Alex went to. This is a school of over 2,300 children, many of whom are refugees from Rwanda and other neighboring countries. Some classes have 200 students in one class and because of a lack of classrooms, some classes meet outside everyday. When the headmaster found out we were school teachers, he got so excited and immediately granted my request of visiting some of the classrooms and seeing the children.

After today, I think I can truly say that I know what it feels like to be a Hollywood celebrity, because that is what we were treated like today. It was incredible the reaction that we got every time we stepped into a classroom. The kids would scream, shout, clap as loudly as possible, and try their best to get into every picture that I took. Kids from every class would follow us when we left their class, so the group of kids following us grew more with every class we visited. They would reach out to hold our hands, play with our arm fat (no seriously the back of the arm fat that everyone has....apparently it's really appealing to Ugandan children), and try their best to touch us or be near us in any way possible. We completely disrupted school for the half hour that were there, but it was great.

The kids couldn't get enough of us, but what they didn't know was that I could not get enough of them. I can't stop looking at the pictures that I took today. When I look at these kids, I see poverty at it's most extreme. They have no desks to sit in, no pencils to write with...only books to share with one another. They are crammed into rooms or made to sit under a tree all day because there is simply no space for them. They probably don't have much more than the clothes on their back and if they're lucky, the shoes on their feet. But when I look at these kids, I also see pure joy. Happiness doesn't describe what these kids have. To me, happiness is something that is based on the circumstances around us. By that definition, these kids have very little to be happy about. But if ever I have seen joy...I saw it today. I saw a joy that isn't based on earthly treasures. I saw a joy that comes simply from life, and nothing else.

Experiencing this today at the school really touched me. For thirty minutes today, Desarae and I were the center of attention at this school. We were celebrities and those kids would've done anything to be near us, or even better, touch us. It was overwhelming but also, extremely humbling. The whole time, I just kept thinking to myself, "Who am I that these kids would get this excited about me being here?" Those kids knew nothing more about me than the fact that I was white and to them that was enough. It's something that is really hard for me to wrap my American, judgmental mind around. I am no one special. I am not extraordinary. I am not a celebrity, but to those kids, I was all of those things. I don't think I've ever simply accepted anyone in the way that these kids accepted me today. They asked no questions and demanded no answers. They just loved me. If only we could look at people and see them as God's children, and that just be enough.

The whole time we were at the school I couldn't help but think of Matthew 18 and 19 when Jesus talks about little children. He calls them the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, and he welcomes them when no one else will. Jesus was constantly the center of attention. People were constantly pushing and pressing to touch him and feel just a fraction of his glory. They gave him no privacy to the point of his disciples trying to protect him by keeping the children away from him. Seeing these kids today painted a very clear picture of why Jesus welcomed the little children the way that he did. How can you not? In children, Jesus saw what life was about, and today I feel like I was given a glimpse of that same realization. These children have joy when the world tells them they have nothing to be joyful about. They welcome and accept those that they know nothing about, and the world tells us that is foolish. They were unashamed of their excitement and held back nothing. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to see the hearts of these children today. They taught me more in the thirty minutes I was there than I could have ever imagined. I saw Jesus so clearly in their small faces today. They truly are the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.