The Amazing Flora!

again an amazing visit with Flora! i just love her so much!

it's been a week! but before i go into some long rant about the week, i want to tell you about my amazing day today: the picture tells the story! i had an opportunity to see Flora again. she's an cute as always! had some extra friends from my school traveling with me this visit: Maggie, Firimina, Japheth, Senye and his wife. i'm really grateful for their company. the drive into the bush wasn't quite as bad this time due to less water on the road. the road is still pretty serious, but no comparison to the last trip to mburiashi. (my fellow classmates burst into laughter when i attempt to say 'mburiashi'. - i'm so american in my accents!)

again flora came right up to me when i arrived. this time she definitely knew me. so i picked her up and carried her for a little bit. she and the other kids were so excited about that! it was too funny. her smile was from ear to ear - like she was a princess!

again we, visitors, were escorted to the office where we politely waited for something (not sure what that 'something' was, but we waited patiently for it.) eventually we were given some food - fried bananas and chai with milk. the food at this compassion center is top notch!

since the last time i saw flora i found out that her tribe still practices female circumcision, even though it's against the law. i know that culture runs deep, but i wanted to talk with her parents about this procedure to see if they were planning on performing it to Flora. so today's visit had that discussion on the agenda. the opportunity arose when we were in the house with Flora's mom and firimina who can translate. i simply asked Flora's mom if she believed in female circumsion. she mentioned that they believed in it last year, but this year they were not believing in it because of the law. not sure exactly why their thinking changed, but i'm trusting her when she mentioned that they weren't going to do it to flora. i pray that is true. but i'm grieved to know that they did it last year, which means that flora's older sister, mary, may have had the procedure completed on her. guess i'll never know, but i'm praying against it for flora.

flora's family gave us milk and hard boiled eggs. it seems so strange that we visit the bush which displays extreme poverty, and we are given better food than what we recieve at the base. again i'm amazed at the generosity of the people who have nothing. it's such an inspiration to me to give, then give some more.

after visiting with flora's family for quite some time, mary and flora walked with all of us to senye's house for a visit. the two girls sat on both sides of me. when asked if they wanted to leave, they both said 'no'. they mentioned that they wanted to go with me to america. my heart mostly broke in two right there. being 9 (flora) and 10 (mary) years old, and wanting to leave your family in order to go somewhere different seems so strange to me; a reminder that most people dream of visiting america.

before we left, japheth got a picture of us because my camera battery was dead (that happens when there's no power to charge it!). it was really hard to say good-bye, but the girls just turned and began walking to their home... where they belong. (but my heart wants them to belong with me!) i could see a chunk of my heart walking away when they traveled down the path into the bush. perhaps before i return to america, i'll be able to see them one more time.

i'll have to update about my weekend later because i really need to work on my journal. i've slacked too much this week, hanging out with english speakers from arusha!