(Here’s the five ladies strutting our stuff down the Jinja downtown catwalk. From Left to Right: Rachel (Called Zebe), Emily, Me, Betty, Rebecca)
(Photographer and Make-Up Artist Rachel Stroud making us look beautiful)
Rachel whipped out her MAC Make-up kit and dolled us all up. This was Betty’s first time ever wearing a stitch of make-up. You can see how her natural beauty was just enhanced all the more. We had so much fun playing make-believe, but I had a very hard time taking myself too seriously. It was good to get out of the house with all the ladies of “Magwa House,” especially being able to hit the town with Betty, our housekeeper.
(Beautiful Betty)
Betty is going to be one of the people I miss the most. She is such an amazingly cheerful, silly friend. She has such a faith that the Lord has pulled her from her lowest low. She was pregnant with a child she didn’t even want, wandering the streets in the rain knocking on strangers doors asking for help after her family and the father of her child abandoned her. Today Betty can’t sing the Lord’s praises any louder, any time she tells her story she ends up preaching a sermon on faith and how good the Lord has been to her.
Unfortunately this week Betty has been the victim to a lot of deception and greed. Her half-sister, Nancy had moved in to help watch Kymbi while Betty goes to school. On Monday we learned that Nancy ran away from home, stole a lot of money from Betty and from LGH. Betty tracked Nancy down on the bus heading back to her village, but by the time Nancy got back to Kitgum, Nancy’s family took all the money and won’t send her back to Jinja. Betty has nothing in her but goodness, kindness and honesty. Sometimes if I give her money to buy me a mango (at Ugandan price not Muzungu price….way cheaper) she’ll fret over whether or not she owes me 5 cents or 10 cents. But Nancy has chosen to slander Betty’s name to her whole village from the North. Betty is a strong woman and says she is asking the Lord for faith in how to handle this situation so she does not act out of vengeance or hate. But it is difficult to watch how easily people can be taken advantage of, especially trusting, good people.
In the end, vengeance is the Lords. But I can already tell that as Nancy grows up in the village she’ll realize that she is reaping what she sewed. Her future looks very grim even thought a promising future was just years away. Nancy will probably now be stuck in her village fetching water for her dying mother. She will now only know her tribal language whereas she could have learned English and probably have gotten her education sponsored by someone involved with LGH. And because she has no education, her only option will include a young marriage to the first man that asks.
It’s hard to have felt like you knew someone and loved them like we all did with Nancy. We let her into our lives, invited her to come to “girls night,” tried to teach her English, played soccer with her, danced with her. So it hurts to know that the whole time she was plotting to steal money and deceive Betty so.
Keep Betty in your prayers. That she can keep her forgiving and compassionate heart, and not be hardened by this betrayal.
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