Dear Journal,
Today was good and kept me busy. I went to Kyambogo University today with Jenn, Anne, Brent, and Betty. We walked the whole way there. On the way I saw a bunch of mud huts in the middle of this banana tree area. These women were taking care of their household chores, mostly with fires that they had built out in front. It was the worst poverty that I'd seen so far. As we were walking by, little children ran towards us from the mud huts shouting "mzungu! mzungu!," which means "white person" in Luganda. They all wanted to touch our hands. One girl even shouted some word at us that meant princess or fairy. I thought it was cute and silly, and I moved along.
When Jenn and I reached the next set of mud huts, again it was, "mzungu! mzungu!," except for these children ran directly to our feet, and began to bow. How could I help them to understand that there was truly only one Deity that deserved all of the glory and worship? Their gestures were certainly not necessary or rightly placed. I felt awkward. In their moment of trying to honor me, I didn't know how to let them know that we were equals. The only thing that I knew to do to let them know (as there most likely was a language barrier too) was to apologetically look into their eyes and to make gestures saying, "No, no. This isn't necessary. Thank you, though."
But Jenn knew exactly how to handle it. As the three little children ran up to her, she stopped and crouched down to their level. One by one, she took each by both hands and gave them a personal compliment after asking their names.
"How are you? You have beautiful eyes."
"How are you? What a beautiful name."
"How are you? You have a beautiful smile."
None of their compliments alluded to their clothing, their worldly possessions, or anything that could be taken away. These compliments were individual, and related to their worth as souls. She told them thank you and we moved along.
I was so impressed. I knew that I was not the one who deserved that treatment, and in that moment all I wanted to do was to serve these children and make their lives better; but what Jenn understood about that humbling moment was that the best way to redirect the glory to God was to treat these sweet children the way Christ would have. I want to take away from that experience a recommitment to search for the one that is need of love and to treat them as the Savior would.
"...and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them."
-3 Nephi 17:21
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