So sorry to my few followers- this update is long overdue but to my defense- I've been busy and internet access is not always easy to come by.
Things have been great here in Lugazi (except for when I got sick last week but that's just how life goes here sometimes). I've been moving with my team to various schools with the Proud to Be a Girl Campaign and it ha been so great. I don't know if there is anything I love more than speaking to these amazing girls. Every time I speak at an assembly I come home feeling like all the work I'm doing here in Uganda is worth it. The counseling sessions after the assembly give us a chance to have one on one time with the girls and a chance to learn that many of them are very touched by what we had to say- and nothing is better than knowing that you had an actual impact for good on someone. We hear hard things but we also hear inspiring stories of girls already committed to doing amazing things with their life and wanting to build and help their community as much as they can.
I met a girl after an assembly, a couple of weeks ago, who told me she has many goals, one of which is to become a poet. When she asked me if what I was saying was really true, if I really believed she could do it if she worked hard and just kept going, and I said yes, she threw her arms around me and said that was all she needed. She just wanted someone to give her that little push, that little bit of encouragement to keep her going. That truly filled me with so much joy because the bottom line is that I can teach these girls all I want about health and HIV and all that other stuff but if they have confidence and self worth then they will go far, and that's exactly what I want them to know.
Since that day she has stopped by our house many times to talk with me about her plans to be an amazing mother and poet in the future and to just tell me thank you. She gave me a bracelet that she made that I will always keep. She is really amazing and my prayers will always be with her and all the other inspirational young women here in Uganda.They and all the good people here (male and female) are the ones who are really going to impact this country, not me, I'm just here to give that little push.
Things have been great here in Lugazi (except for when I got sick last week but that's just how life goes here sometimes). I've been moving with my team to various schools with the Proud to Be a Girl Campaign and it ha been so great. I don't know if there is anything I love more than speaking to these amazing girls. Every time I speak at an assembly I come home feeling like all the work I'm doing here in Uganda is worth it. The counseling sessions after the assembly give us a chance to have one on one time with the girls and a chance to learn that many of them are very touched by what we had to say- and nothing is better than knowing that you had an actual impact for good on someone. We hear hard things but we also hear inspiring stories of girls already committed to doing amazing things with their life and wanting to build and help their community as much as they can.
I met a girl after an assembly, a couple of weeks ago, who told me she has many goals, one of which is to become a poet. When she asked me if what I was saying was really true, if I really believed she could do it if she worked hard and just kept going, and I said yes, she threw her arms around me and said that was all she needed. She just wanted someone to give her that little push, that little bit of encouragement to keep her going. That truly filled me with so much joy because the bottom line is that I can teach these girls all I want about health and HIV and all that other stuff but if they have confidence and self worth then they will go far, and that's exactly what I want them to know.
Since that day she has stopped by our house many times to talk with me about her plans to be an amazing mother and poet in the future and to just tell me thank you. She gave me a bracelet that she made that I will always keep. She is really amazing and my prayers will always be with her and all the other inspirational young women here in Uganda.They and all the good people here (male and female) are the ones who are really going to impact this country, not me, I'm just here to give that little push.
