This weekend, i went to the country side( i just love saying that) after a long while. I travelled with a few of my friends from the band in which i belong. Yes… i sing too. 🙂

It was one heck of an experience. We get to the bus park about 5pm and got on to a bus that was supposed to be leaving in an hour. We set off a little after 8pm. Three hours we waited!!!!! As we set off, it dawned on me that public transport can have a close relationship with hell. This dude comes and sits right in the middle of the passage way and removes his shirt … because he was hot and the rest of us were not. He sat right between me and my friend Abby(poor girl). He reeked of a God forsaken putrid stench and was sleepy. So all through the trip at least for the first three hours, he made subconscious passes at my friend by sleeping on her as many times as he could. We eventually found a way to stop it all.  we stopped worrying and waited for him to get out. In the mean time, Abby and i exchanged seats.

We got to Rukungiri about 3am and slept. We got up after three hours to a busy but beautiful saturday. You see, the purpose for this trip was to have a different kind of experience for me and the band. We wanted to meet some people whose lives we could impact with ours and bring some sort of hope. It would be worth all the hassle we experienced.

In the deep of the village in Kitimaba, we met a girl. Patience! She run up to us as we arrived into their little green compound and hugged each one of us and greeted in her language. She was full of energy and bright with a smile. Her torn up skin and dry mouth told a different story though. we were informed that their Parents abandoned them and left them with their grand parents. About two weeks before we had arrived, their grand mother passed away. killed by rabies from a cat. (yeah, apparently, they too have rabies). She died and left their unable grandfather to take care of them .

Though she (Patience) is brilliant and charismatic, there is a sense of loss… a deep, deep seated despair that she long learnt to conceal. As we got to know her and talk to her grandfather, it was revealed that she and her brother were born HIV positive. Their wretched father was all over town collecting it and later gave it to their mother who passed it on to them and then passed away after a while.

It’s a funny thing this life. How we on the other end of the rope, wake up everyday, take in all the air we could, take a hot bath, smell good, talk good and live the good life, while right where we were standing stared at us a vivid and malignant state of affairs. One that would change the very fabrics of our purpose, our hope,  our priorities and our aspirations. All these seemed benign in the midst of a conundrum of  such epic proportions.

My heart went out to these little ones who, in some ways, were born with less than “nothing”. Life dealt them a blow such as they couldn’t fathom. They were victims of a raw deal that screwed their lives over for what would seem forever. With no where to turn and no one to love them, what would become of them? where would they turn for hope?
Would patience find a man that would love her? All of her? Will she ever get out of the rat race of bear survival? Will her brother Amon ever find purpose in being a man? Would he ever know that its ok to live positive? Will they blame themselves for being born because everyone considers them outcasts? Would they find redemption in the midst of a war against their very existence?

It was these questions that sank my heart and filled it with rage. A rage i would forever share with the world. Whoever would listen. A rage that seeks Justice. A rage that searches the depths of the heart for compassion beyond pity. A rage against our puny little discomforts. A rage that propels us to do greater than our own imaginings. To change a life.

A rage that gives hope and purpose to a fallen spirit.

I will never forget the glow in their faces as they realized, there is life after all. There is someone that cares beyond words.
This will be my gospel to them. To all those for whom life was unjust… Love!. It was and has always been the ultimate and incomprehensible facet of mankind that reins it all in.
This is my gospel, my moto, my life line, my purpose.
LOVE.