My sister, Tess, is in Africa and has been sending emails about her experience. These are a few segments from her I wanted to share.
"Yesterday, we visited with Martha, an albino who fights for albino
rights in Tanzania. They are considered a curse here and witch doctors
target them. People hunt them down and chop off their limbs to grind up
in a stew. then kill them afterwards. They think it brings them wealth.
It's sickening. Kate and I met with Martha yesterday and she was telling
us how hard of a time she is having. She is going to lose her job for
being albino, which means she will have no money to help the other
albinos. This is a dang strong woman, but when I gave her a hug, she
started crying, which was too much for me. I didnt want to cry in front
of her, but the moment her taxi pulled away, I sat down and couldn't
help it. Here's the amazing thing: I'm sitting on the ground crying like
a baby, when a car pulls up and Martha gets out. She came
over just to comfort me, hugging me and saying, "I know. I know." That
is the woman she is. With so many problems, she still stopped her taxi
to make sure we were okay."
"The
people of Africa are so giving, cheerful, friendly, faithful and
gracious. They have such a different way of life. Sometimes I love it.
Sometimes I hate it, but in the end, I have found that we are all so
very human, regardless of where we are born. Our environment HUGELY
affects our outlook on social issues and the way
we live our everyday lives, but people are people. We all have our
secret struggles and insecurities. We are all just trying to do the best
we can with what we have. Coming here and really getting to know the
good and bad of people has made the world feel much much smaller. NOBODY
is perfect, but we ALL have good in us. That's such a gift from God.
Everyone has something good to offer. The children of Africa always blow
me away with their love and innocence. Anytime they receive a gift or
treat, they immediately return to the other children and share among
them."
And this one's funny:
"I'm sure I have mentioned before that Africans have less of a personal
bubble. That doesn't bother me, but the teacher at Your Sisters
orphanage just crosses the line. She will talk to me so close that her
lips are rubbing on my face and she strokes my leg and she kept
pretending to try to breast-feed me! Yeah, super awkward. I'm a little
scared of her, so now I kinda just avoid her."
What!? I'm baffled by that, how does one adult pretend to breastfeed another adult?
