There are those of us who have been blessed enough to experience a mother’s love. That feeling that there is always someone on your side, that no matter what you do wrong you’re still loved. Think about the times you have ran to your mother for comfort. Those moments when you were a child and you could fall asleep in your mother’s arms knowing you were safe and protected. I have been blessed to experience a mother’s love and to be taught how to provide this love to others (Thank you mom). There are children in this world who have not had this blessing; I am working with 62 of them here at Canaan Center. Today I got to share a mother’s love with one of them during church and the older girls later in the evening.
I thought I was going to write about how full of life church was today as I laid in bed being kept awake to the sounds of drums beating till 5am celebrating an engagement. Then at 5:30am the churches in the area began competing with who could pray loudest using their microphones, it was like dinner with an Italian family, everyone yelling over the others trying to be heard. I could only assume the children have had just as little sleep. Church lasted from 5:30-1:30, they claimed there were two services but it seemed it was just a never-ending worship of God session. I sat on a wooden bench under a tin roof supported by tree branches with two of our little girls, Ruth and Oliver on one side and Enoch on the other. Ruth was closet to me and after a time she laid her head in my lap, Oliver laid her head on Ruth’s hip and Enoch laid his head on my shoulder, each child grabbing my arms and trying to wrap them around themselves. Oliver and Enoch soon moved, too fidgety to sit still, when I looked down at Ruth I saw she was fast asleep. She slept like this for the next two hours, while my arse began to experience some serious pain that ultimately lead to it, and my legs falling asleep. I was so uncomfortable but I could not bear to move that little girl. Ruth, falling asleep in my lap told me she felt a mother’s love through me, that she felt safe and loved enough to take a nap on my lap. My heart was overflowing with joy and sadness from the knowledge that I was giving her the mother’s love she and all the other orphans crave.
Later in the evening I had to take on one of the biggest and most awkward moments of a mother’s life. As health care professionals the three of us went to the older girls who are ages 12-14 to give… dun dun dun “the talk”. These girls do not have mothers to tell them what to expect as they age and all that other uncomfortable jazz. All of us sat huddled together on the bare cement floor of their dorm; the girls placed towels down for the three of us to sit on. We made it through “the talk” and had some awesome feedback from the girls. It was clear they appreciated gaining the knowledge; Knowledge that is normally passed on because a mother loves her daughter. These girls have been robbed of that precious, awkward as hell talk with their mothers.
At night when I do my rounds saying goodnight in the dorms, the young girls and boys reach out from their bunks for hugs. When I enter the younger kids room they descend on me all fighting for my arms and goodnight kisses. They have begun lining up to receive a good night kiss from me, some even going back to the end of the line so they may get a second hug and kiss. We exchange the saying “I love you so much” in lunganda, which is “okwagala nnyo” to the children as often as possible, at night we make sure to say it to each individual as we hug them before they rest their heads.
The little bit these orphans know about a mother’s love is from the few aunties here who watch them and discipline them and now they are being showered in it from us muzingo’s.
A mother’s love is a blessing!
Gypsy RN
