Speechless

The past three days are hard for me to describe. I am still trying to process all that I have seen, touched, and experienced. On Tuesday, we made the one hour trip from Kampala, a bustling city of 1.5 million people, to Kasana, a small village with spotty access to electricity and running water. Some of the funds we raised are going to an organization called Shanti Uganda. They are building a birthing center outside of Kasana, as well as training midwives and providing job skills training for a group of HIV positive women in the area who served as our welcoming committee. We climbed out of our bus and were greeted with dancing, singing, and many heartfelt displays of gratitude. The women taught us how to roll beads out of paper, their main source of income. Then we all practiced yoga and had lunch together. All of these women are HIV positive. Many are also widows or have been left by their husbands. They raise children and grandchildren in extreme poverty. Could I smile in the face of such odds? Could I rise to meet these challenges? I am in utter awe of these women. Truly, I am speechless. Obviously, this makes blogging difficult. I apologize.