"Mommy! Mommy!"

I became a mom on Friday. I was not exactly planning it, but walked into the Welcome Home Orphanage for a malaria education session, and within seconds, I was swarmed by ten kids under the age of 4. I made friends instantly, and was quickly distracted from our education session. Luckily, we had plenty of Soft Power Health staff that day so I left the teaching to them and played with the kids instead. “Mommy! Mommy!” the kids would say to get my attention, followed by something in Lusoga or Luganda along the lines of: “I want to play on the swing set.” At first I thought my hearing had gone bad, but after hearing “Mommy” from most of the kids, I finally accepted it and realized I had become a mother overnight (at least, temporarily, which is way too familiar for all of these kids). It was overwhelming, not necessarily the energy spent playing with the kids, but more so from just wondering the reason why every child was there. I wondered how many of them were HIV positive, or at least how many once had parents who died of AIDS. Maybe the saddest part was seeing one of the kids wear a shirt that said, “my mommy loves me” right on the front. Wow. Maybe it is good that the kids do not understand everything in English.

February has always been a hard month; maybe it is the short, cold winter days among the other things that have piled together over the years. I look back on where I was some years ago and still find myself a bit stunned that I am here, alive and kicking it. Life is full of surprises, and I am sure there are more to come. The sun keeps on shining here in Uganda, no matter how many people are dying every day – AIDS, malaria, TB, malnutrition, war – but the living keep on living filled with smiles and high hopes, and that is what truly matters.