The Reality of Ubuzima and HIV

Today was my first day of tutoring/homework club at Women in Action (otherwise known as Pastor Moureen’s) on my own. I have the equivalent of 3rd and 4th graders. It’s quite a challenge for me … so if you’re a praying person, please pray for that! I need to figure out how to teach English to kids who don’t speak English … really, to just teach them anything. This is not my gift, so I’ve been struggling quite a bit. Anyone have any thoughts or brilliant ideas?

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This afternoon was Ubuzima again. I think I’m starting to get the hang of the weaving. I have no idea what I’m making though. I just do what they show me until they take it away to fix it or show me something different. J I only wish I could talk to the women, to find out their stories or even just something as simple as how many children they have. But maybe that will come in time.

This was the last time the short-term team would see the ladies (& men) at Ubuzima so they went to the market in the morning and got everyone a bag of “goodies” – rice, beans, veggies & fruit. Mama Debra was there this time, too. She’s the leader of the ministry but has been gone the last couple times we’ve been there, I think because of the Pastors’ Training. At the end of the afternoon, she had some of the Ubuzima members come up and share testimonies. I think it might have been a special occasion because the short-term team was there.

A man came up first and was eager to share – he was a father with 6 kids, none of them with HIV, and was excited about how the Lord had blessed him. The next woman who shared is always so serious … but today as she told her story, the tears started flowing – but I think they were both sad and happy tears. She was a mother as well, and this time it was her husband that was HIV positive, not her. For 6 years. Praise the Lord! However, I wondered how many other mixed emotions might be going on. Praise that she was healthy, but turmoil because her husband was sick—and you could tell she loved him—and I wonder if there is hurt because her husband was potentially unfaithful … and then, has she been with her husband in all those years? What is that doing to her? Perhaps its not that he was unfaithful, but that’s usually how HIV is transmitted here. She was blessed as well to find Vivante Church, to find the community of support and love in her time of struggle and weakness. This was a common theme among everyone – the thankfulness for the support they had found in Vivante Church and in Ubuzima and how strong it was making them … helping them to persevere.

The next woman was one of the women who had come to help braid Natasha’s hair on Sunday. She was a single mother with 4 kids – she has HIV as well as all of her children. The other woman who braided Natasha’s hair, Alice, came late to the meeting – she had been at the doctor, was carrying what looked like x-rays, and looking very tired. Was a little harder to get her to smile today, it seemed.

The last person to share was a girl who was about 14 or 15. She has HIV. I think she said her father was still alive, but was sick with HIV. Her mother was gone. The tears started flowing with her as well. I could see the fear in her eyes. This timexI think the tears were more from the fear than from rejoicing, although she was rejoicing for how God had blessed her. It was comforting to think of this group being able to care for her and give her support and be mothers to her. Mama Debra stood beside her with her arms around her and told us how most of the women’s children in Ubuzima did have HIV. It was kinda numbing to think about the little ones we’ve seen every week being sick … especially this one with her “baby” on her back. This is the girl who came straight to me on our first day. I don’t know if she has HIV, but I’m thinking there’s a good chance after Mama Debra’s comments.