Found in Translation

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
Maya Angelou

I am a lover of words; they are the threads we weave our stories from. Is it any wonder we call a good tale a yarn? We each have a story that we live day by day, thread by thread. Yesterday, I spent the morning listening to the stories of two Ugandan women from the Northern Acholi tribe. They spoke of the horrors of Joseph Kony's long-running war and how they fled their villages to seek safety in the slums outside of Kampala. They spoke of things lost---neighbors, children, homes, hope. We sat in silence absorbing all the horror and heartbreak that these two women poured out drop by drop, word by word. It was painful to listen to their stories, but I cannot know how painful it has been to live them and bear them inside.
Afterwards, we visited their homes in the Acholi slums. We met more women, we held their children, we visited their homes, we witnessed their world. There were women who wanted to share their stories with me but could not speak English. I tried to let my heart translate what my head could not. I sat on the dirt floor of a 2 room shack where up to 9 people sleep, eat, and live out their stories day by day, frayed thread by frayed thread. I brought food, clothes, toys and medical supplies. It would never be enough. The tapestry of their lives is so torn and tattered, and all I could offer was a small safety pin.
One bright-eyed girl named Sara sat beside me on the floor and tried her best to serve as my translator. When I was about to leave, she got up and spoke quietly with her mother before asking if she could go home to America with me. I had given her a new book with counting games because she likes Math, but I could not give her a new story to live. She gave me some bracelets that her mother had made and one of those beautiful hugs that only a child can give. I received so much more than I gave.
I laid awake last night thinking of all the threads that had been woven into my heart that day. They are a part of my tapestry now too.