Beads and Friendship

Today we ventured into Masai land to do home visits with HIV patients.  Health workers funded by Tree of Lives go to the homes of patients to ensure that they are taking their medications properly. HIV medications need to be taken on a very strict schedule which may be a difficult task for someone not used to thinking about the time of day on a regular basis. Since anti-retroviral drugs need to be present continuously in the patient’s system, the person must learn to adjust if they are to get better.  An entire day was spent by our new friend Eric and his driver to check up on two Masai patients.  There is no way to call the patients and let them know he is coming so just venturing out is an act of faith.  This health ministry to the Masai people is less than a year old and he is trying to establish good relations with the few patients they have in order to build a rapport and reach more patients.

We drove for several hours to reach the area where the Masai live.  It is a hardscrabble cattle country, sparsely populated where people make a hard living.  We ventured down narrow and occasionally paved roads to dirt roads; followed by washed out roads and ultimately to a narrow rocky track.  We arrived at the home of Josephine, a widow with children at home.  She greeted us enthusiastically and led us to seats in the yard.  Eric asked for her health card and pills so that he could count the pills to see how she was doing.  It was soon apparent that she had been missing doses of her medications and was doing all she could to distract him from the subject.  She ventured back and forth from house to yard, telling him jokes and claiming she could not find her health card so there was no date to start the count from.  She brought us all beaded bracelets to wear in lieu of offering us tea which she did not have since she didn’t know we were coming.  She put the bracelets, which were like hers, on us while chatting away.  Eric was not happy with her compliance with the drug protocol, but kept it light while cajoling her to do better.  By the time we left, we were all laughing together and had met her daughter, young son, and brother-in-law.  Come again they all said.

We headed down further torturous paths to Eric’s next stop; a large family with three wives and many children.  We soon discovered that the patient was not there as she had gone into town to visit the clinic!  Eric was undaunted and said he would return next week to check on her.  He never stopped smiling through what must have been a very frustrating day.  What faith he has in his call and the importance of his mission…….and how glad I am that Tree of Lives is there to support him!

New Friends

Eric asked if we could visit and we were soon meeting the large extended family and invited to tour their home.  We were swarmed by the little girls who lived there and were passing out little gifts, shaking everyone’s hands, taking pictures, and getting to know one another.  I remembered the bracelets just given to us by Josephine and some friendship bracelets in my pocket that had been made for me to bring by the children in my church at home.  I tied one on a little girl’s wrist and told her how a friendship bracelet is made for a friend and tied on their wrist as a symbol of that friendship.  Could we be friends?  Yes!  Soon all the little girls were sporting these bracelets and they made me tie each one on.  I marveled that our two very different cultures used a similar symbol to express affinity.

Up to this point on our journey I had been struggling, when meeting people in pain and need, not to keep seeing myself or my own children in their shoes.  While this is a sign of empathy which encourages a giving heart, it was preventing me from seeing the value of the people I was meeting and seeing them from their perspective.  How do you make friends and get to know someone you are feeling sorry for?  It makes it impossible to see the strengths and purpose that God has given their lives when you are all wrapped up in your own discomfort.  I know there is a hard life ahead for these girls and one look at the picture of the girls as they were getting their bracelets says so much about their poverty.  Yet, they were so pleased to see us and show us their home.  They asked about where we came from and the oldest girl we met expressed an interest in visiting.  They were bright and beautiful with hopes and dreams and for a while that is what I was seeing as I made friends in Masai land.