End of Tuesday

After we finished the camp at Sultan Hamud, everyone was exhausted. I still can't get over the difference between the two groups of kids, there vs. the first camp in Bissil. It's amazing how the environment a child grows up in almost forces them to have to act a certain way. When we were driving away from the church through the busy market roads, I heard the guys in the back of the van going "no no! No!!" And then a thud. A drunk man had stumbled straight in to the side of the via and no one knew whether to laugh or to feel bad because he got up and kept going.. The ride home was pretty long and I don't even remember what we had for dinner or when we got home.

I can't even explain how weird it was when we finished the second camp. It was crazy how the two camps we had been planning for for MONTHS, packing for, thinking about, counting down the days until, were over so fast. In the blink of an eye, over 1000 patients later, it was just over. I wanted to go back to Bissil and see if everyone was doing better, and to make sure the smiles and coloring pages I left the kids with had lasted. I wanted to build Stanley's family a bigger home so all 5 of them wouldn't have to share 1 bed. I wanted to make a place for all the street kids in Sultan Hamud to go, so they wouldn't feel the need to join gangs just for the simple fact that they can't afford their school fees. I wanted to stay.

The need was so great that I had to constantly remind myself that I really was doing something, we made a difference in people's lives just by being there and letting God's shine through us. I think its human nature to want to see results right away, we crave instant gratification, and if we don't get it, its easy to feel like there is no effect. But every smile we created, medicine we prescribed, wound we cleansed, vaccine we gave, all of it had an effect- and I was so blessed to be surrounded by an incredible team, where it was obvious that everyone genuinely WANTED to be there and believed in the work they were doing. We had a purpose and I'm thankful for the people who constantly reminded us of that.