Sarah

The very first time I took the short walk through the village to Lake Victoria, I was bombarded by little kids screaming "mzungu" (of course). There was one little girl, though, that stuck on my hip the whole way down to the lake. She held my hand firmly the whole time, although she never looked up at me or spoke a word. I noticed that she, like many of the other village kids, had a white fungus all over her head. I was so charmed by this little girl that I decided I would take her to get treatment for her fungus. (The fungus is caused by drinking unclean water, most likely from the lake). Little did I know, it would be the beginning of a great friendship. 

Sarah is a 4 year old beautiful little girl. She has the most radiant smile and contagious laugh I have ever heard. She is the second oldest of 4 sisters and her mom is 21, like me! She has scars all over her head and often has cuts on her face because her mom beats her and her sisters a lot. She lives in a one room dirt house with her mom, dad, 6 month old sister, Nulu (2 year old sister), and Kadijah (5 year old sister). 

Although Sarah only speaks about 5 words in English, and I the same in Luganda, we don't have any trouble communicating. I spend a few hours with Sarah everyday and give her a lot of attention that she doesn't receive from her parents. The first time I ever gave her a hug, she didn't even know how to react. Many people here consider children to be a burden and thus don't give them any affection. I find it ironic that most people don't like kids yet almost all of them have 5-10 children of their own. For example, when I got here 2 months ago, I noticed that Sarah's little sister Nulu had a terrible respiratory infection. I was waiting for it to either go away or for her parents to take her to the clinic, but neither happened. I finally brought her to the hospital this week and got her treatment, despite the fact that everyone told me that her parents would weather neglect to give her the medicine or sell it somewhere. I guess I'll have to see.