Changing Me

I left a family reunion early to go meet up with some friends yesterday. It was supposed to be a fun time but it didn't start out that way. I was developing a migraine on the way there , and it only seemed to become worse after I arrived. I was in so much pain, I actually felt nauseous. I took some medicine and sat down. It was about halfway through the meeting that I ended up beside a midwife whom I had never met. I struck up a conversation with her, and the things she began to tell me made all of my discomfort fade to the background.

She was working as a midwife in Uganda. She had returned to the US to receive more training, so she would be better equipped to serve these impoverished people. She told me stories of pregnant women who had low iron, but had no way of increasing the iron in their diet. Perhaps they could not afford the money to grow or buy beans. Or maybe they had a chicken to provide eggs, but the chicken had been stolen or sold by a husband to buy alcohol.

Malaria was a serious problem there as well. Mosquito nets were sometimes provided but these too could be sold for food or other items which the husband thought essential. If people ended up in the hospital, it was not always to their benefit. My friend said that in Uganda if someone was in the hospital they were required to have someone stay with them. The hospital was not required to provide food for the patients, or any type of basic nursing care. Oftentimes they would not even have basic medical supplies or medicine which they had prescribed. The doctors could tell you what needed done, but they often were not able to provide it for the patient. The burden then fell on the family members to provide the necessary items for their loved one. In one case a mother had received severe burns from cooking on an open fire; her caretaker? Her seven year old son.

One of the midwives last statements to me though was really profound. She said that if you can accept that in the midst of this abject poverty , there was not always a feasible , practical, solution to their problems. If you can accept that you might not change them, that it might be you who will be changed you could manage to live there.

How true . I think in our western culture we are so driven by measurable results. What is the bottom line, what can we earn, how can we make this company/ church/ club grow in numbers and dollars amount. What can we do to succeed, make this better, improve the lives or the profit of those around?

The reality is that in the midst of this poverty, true change could take decades if it comes at all. Maybe its okay to know that if I do the best I can, that is enough. Maybe it is acceptable to realize that simply talking with these ladies and teaching them what I know is all that could be expected. I cannot take full responsibility for everyone else, all I can take responsibility for is what God has taught me and is asking me to do.