The documentary (50 min. in length) can be watched on google video or on the MWB website.

Jody and I watched it yesterday while working on quilt #25. It was awesome to see the kids (who looked a couple years younger!), the volunteers, and the beautiful sights of Africa. This is a must watch!

What would it be like to have never seen yourself? How would life be different without a reflection? Would we see ourselves differently? How would we dress? Would we spend our time and money on cosmetics and such superficiality?

It’s stunning to realize that some people have never seen themselves before. How would you, having lived in a remote African village without any mirror or shiny surface with which to see your own face?

A mirror changes things. Like the (anonymous) quote goes, “When man found the mirror, he began to lose his soul.”

Perhaps that’s why Africans have such valiant, vibrant souls.

AIDS is tearing apart families in sub-Saharan Africa. As AVERT reports:

An estimated 24.5 million adults and children were living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa at the end of 2005.

During that year, an estimated 2 million people died from AIDS. The epidemic has left behind some 12 million orphaned African children. (via)

The number of OVC (orphaned and vulnerable children) has only risen since then. Every 14 seconds, a new child is orphaned from AIDS.

Middle aged people are affected the most by AIDS, with adults (18-50 years of age) dying left and right, leaving their parents to watch over their children. Grandmothers have become the saviors of sub-Saharan Africa, often caring for multiple sets of children when their parents have died.

But when the grandparents have already passed on, the children are left to fend for themselves. This creates a living situation termed “child-headed households”, where the oldest child becomes the guardian of his/her younger siblings. Sometime the head of house is a teenager, or sometimes the child is no more than six or seven years of age.

Examples of these “families” can be seen here, here, here, here, and here.

The Family: A Proclamation to the World says:

Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity.

It is heartbreaking to witness the holocaust of our day and meet these children who are left to fend for themselves, without any parental support, love, or guidance.

In the time it took you to read this blog post, two to four more children were orphaned due to AIDS.

What do I even say to that?

I usually respond with a simple “great!”, allowing me to end the conversation there (unless they further inquire, desirous to know details).

Why? Well, how in the world do you sum up a life-changing, inspiring, emotionally trying, frustrating, exhausting experience in a few words? I imagine that only the people closest to me, having a sincere desire to learn what I’ve learned, will hear the more intimate thoughts and feelings I’ve experienced in the past few weeks.

Suffice it to say that this was an experience unlike any other, and one that I wish everybody could have.

Pondering where to start in my desire to blog about some of my experiences, I feel that I better understand Mormon when he repeatedly said that he could only write a fraction of what he had read and seen and experienced.

Anything more than that often becomes casting your pearls before swine. Not that I think any of you are swine…

So, I ask for your patience, sincerity, and open hearts as in future days and weeks I select certain stories from my trip to share with the world. I hope to convey just a few of the lessons I’ve learned and things I’ve seen.

I have no idea where to start…

The past few days have been bittersweet, as we’ve been enjoying our time here but dreading the day when we have to say goodbye and return home. Yet on the other hand, it’s time to come back and be with our families and friends.

Am I glad I came? Heavens yes! Will I ever return? You better believe it…

Today we went on an all-day safari (morning on boat, afternoon on land cruiser) in Botswana (yay for another passport stamp!) where we saw tons and tons of elephants, giraffes, buffalo, impala, and other animals. It was amazing. I’ve probably taken around 700 pictures in the past two days.

Tomorrow we’ll head back to Lusaka (seven hour drive, cramped on our mini bus). Hopefully we won’t get any more flat tires (we’ve had two already on this mini trip in Livingstone…)!

The world is beautiful.

We raised over $3,000, and put together 900 kits. Each kit had a hand towel, washrag, six toothbrushes, tube of toothpaste, and two bars of soap.

I delivered the kits to the MWB warehouse, and that was that.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I was sitting in a village called Julius here in Zambia, helping out in the medical screening room by cleaning and dressing the wound of a young child, and I looked up to see one of the local staff members handing out one of these hygiene kits.

Full circle. It was such an honor to be able to see these kits being given away to those I had intended them for. I look forward to posting pictures here for all to see, and taking them to my fellow ward members so they can see them being given away to those who needed them the most.

It was a great day…

As we left the first house, the man said to us “Don’t go away for good. Come back and see me!” and then later said “Remember me…” I hope I always do.

We then headed to “grandma’s” house, a 85ish year old woman that cares for a bunch of little children. We cleared her area for a garden and the installed some windows, a doorknob, and got her a bed. She was elated!

Okay, gotta run, I’ll post more later!

We split up the kids between a craft and some recreation activities, and then after a while, switched. The kids enjoyed it, and we all had a good time.

It was so interesting being around these children, many of them orphans. Most of them had dried snot running down their noses, had no shoes, one dingy set of clothing, nappy hair, and dirty everything else. But the eyes… oh man, the eyes. So much pain, so much emotion, so much heartache.. yet at the same time, so much friendship, so much yearning to be loved, so much affection and openness.

It was great. We had a lot of fun and made new friends. I got to put on some of their local getup and dance inside a circle w/ about 100 kids as we all sang and played on the drums. Good times that I’ll never forget.

We’ll do two or three more Super Kids Camps while we’re here. Today we worked on the new land all day long, moving dirt, hauling water, making bricks, and clearing land. The local men we work with are awesome. I’ve been nicknamed “Mavudu” by them (which apparently means “problem child”), and Brennan is “Mutale”, which I guess is just a common surname here in Zambia.

We have nightly team meetings after our long, emotional, trying days. The 28-30 of us each take a turn sharing our “one good thing” about the day, which often ends up being a quasi testimony meeting, as we each have often shared personal, intimate details about our lives and thoughts in an effort to explain what we are feeling and learning.

Zambia is amazing. The people are so loving and accepting. They have bigger smiles than anybody back home, hands down. I’ll definitely be making a future trip here to continue to help this work progress. As I talk to the orphans at the Resource Center and learn about their lives, I can’t help but wonder about the apparent disparity in life, and why they’ve had to struggle. And so often, all I can do to help is to smile, play with them, and give them some sense of what it’s like to just be a kid.

And yet it feels like it’s not enough.. that there’s so much more we can do. There IS so much more we can do, and we should do it. We shouldn’t waste time, money, or energy. We should concentrate on what is most important in life, and then act. My being here is only one of many acts that allow us the humbling opportunity to serve God’s children and spread peace. I encourage you to look for other ways you can be involved and help. Our brothers and sisters are counting on us….

Brief summary, since I am out of time:

Went to church yesterday, had a great time. Played with the kids all afternoon at the Resource Center. They did their program for us, and I’ve never been entertained so much in a long time. It was amazing I wish I had time to describe it better, but I don’t. Ask me in two weeks.

Today we worked on the new land - 80 acres - all day long. Dug a latrine, made bricks, hauled water from the well, etc. Hard labor, but we made good progress. Those Zambians sure know how to work!

Okay, time is low, so I’ve gotta jet. It’s dinner time. Peace!