Define strength: Milly

A few days ago I had an interesting conversation with our fellow nurse, Nurse Milly. The two of us were walking together and she began to talk to me about her life in Sudan. We have a good relationship, but I can probably count on one hand how many times we've talked about non-medical things. Even now as I reflect, I cannot think why this conversation came up. But somehow it did.

Milly is Sudanese. She grew up there, but moved here to Uganda many years ago. She told me she doesn't keep up too much with the political things happening in her home country, because "it makes me so sad."

When she was in secondary school (equals high school in the States), rebels came to their school. She told me she jumped out of a window and ran, in the night, all the way home. She wasn't sure of the distance, but she ran for days. DAYS. She doesn't know what happened to any of her classmates, but "the wives of rebels don't usually live long." She doesn't know of any one else who survived.

Life here is humbling. I get upset because my lunch gets interrupted 20 times every day, or internet sucks here, or my camera has short battery life. But my co-worker lost every peer she knew when she was 13 years old. And then came to Uganda, worked her way through school and has become a nurse. She provides for herself and her daughter by working 5-7 days a week. And she lives without electricity. Or internet. Or a digital camera.

One of the biggest heartaches of mine is hearing that some people here believe that they are inferior to "mzungus," the whites. But more often than not, I feel like the inferior one. Standing beside Milly is a privilege. I have a lot to learn about living from the people around me.

"Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot days, 'I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,' that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, 'I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,' would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? ... ALL OF YOU TOGETHER ARE CHRIST'S BODY, AND EACH OF YOU IS A PART OF IT." -1 Corinthians 12:14-17, 27