Thursday, October 29th 2009

            What a special day!!!

            Shortly after I woke up my Mom sent me a text message “today is the day.”

            My sister was pregnant and was due to give birth on the 29^th.  Looks like the doctors were spot on.

            I called my Mom.

            “We’re on our way to the hospital.”  She said.  “I’ll let you know as soon as anything happens.”

            So yeah – that was the backdrop and something that was in my conscious thought throughout the day.

            Anyways, had a typical morning.  I ran, got yogurt from mercy (she also gave me a free pineapple – how kind!) and worked more on my partnership with FINCA (email below)

            Then Emily invited me to go with her to Aga Khan, one of our partner schools, where our Educate! scholars were presenting Moshin’s children (the Ggaba slum children) with money and goods they had collected during a charity drive.

            I thought it would be a small event.  I agreed to go.

            When we got there there was maybe 150 students in the courtyard of Aga Khan listening to a speech by the head of the SEC group.  It was a big event!

            The children were presenting Moshin’s kids with 700,000 USH ($350) and teddy bears, toys and a bag of maize.  It was really touching to see the kids we’ve mentored acting on their own accord to give to the needy.  Its one of the many example of exponential empowerment we are so big on at Educate!  We teach a few kids how to be socially responsible, and give back to the community and then those kids teach their friends and before you know it a lot of people are affected by this positive community mantra. 

            Afterwards Moshin’s kids did a dance routine as a token of appreciation.  It was adorable watching the kids from the Ggaba slums dancing around in their new (donated) uniforms which were all big and ill-fitting.

            Then Emily, Rachel, Angelica and I drove Angelica to “The Surgery” (the medical clinic we use here) because she hasn’t been feeling well lately.  Well we were waiting for Angelica to get the results of her tests  - the rest of us ate at Rocks & Roses where we ran into an old Italian friend of Emily’s, Mateo, who was in Uganda finishing up his PHD in economics (I think).  It was a good time and the food was incredible.

            Angelica came back

            “I’m anemic”  She said.  “I don’t have enough iron in my blood.”

            Hmm – it’s a constant struggle for all of us to have protein in our diets.  Meat is hard to come by and when we do get meat its usually difficult to stomach.  Diets here are pretty bad.

            One of the other girls told us how when she volunteered in Kenya she started waking up every morning and having trouble breathing.  After a little while she’d be able to breathe normally, but the difficulty happened every morning.  She also had trouble breathing after going for runs.

            One day she had such a difficult time breathing that she was scared she was going to pass out.  Finally she relented and went to see her doctor.’

            “They found out I had worms in my lungs.”  She said.

            Apparently when worms are in your body, they cycle throughout the different organs throughout the day (i.e. in the morning they might be in your lungs, in the afternoon in your liver (at least that’s how I understand it)).

            What?!

            They gave her a pill that apparently kills all worms in the body, and she’s okay, but the thought of worms in my lungs sends a shudder up my body.  There are SO many weird diseases and ailments you can get in Africa.

            After our lovely medical talk we went home.  I was waiting for a call from my cousin Dave Maestri.  We were supposed to meet up that night for dinner / drinks.  I finally got in touch with him but he told me he had to go to Amsterdam for a business dinner so we never got to meet up.  It was good to at least see him the night before in the Serena Hotel.           

            At night Baati, Maggie and I went to see Michael Jackson’s “This is it.”  The documentary was really incredible and a great insight into his character, but even better than the movie was the text I got in the middle.

            From my Mom:  “He is here.”

            My Godson was born!  Woo hoo!  Both Mom and child are happy and healthy.  The circle of life.  What a beautiful thing.  I can’t wait to see him when I come back to the US.