Update from Crystal

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. Today Crystal visited Savannah-Hope's home village. Here are her thoughts on the visit:

I imagine that every American who would visit this village would walk away with some thoughts in common, such as extreme poverty. You can't miss that the children are barely dressed. The ones that have clothes, they are tattered and torn...barely hanging on their bodies. They have worms, both in their bellies making their stomachs bulge out, but also in their skin making little mountains all over their arms, legs, and head. There is dirt everywhere. The homes are one room mud huts with grass roofs and mud floors. There is no furniture, no electricity, no glass windows, and no water. The people are extremely filthy.

But then there are other thoughts that may be more individual. For me it was my kids. I couldn't help but think of Amelia, when I saw a 7 year old girl with a bucket of laundry on her head and a baby tied to her back. Or think of Izabella, when I saw a 4 year old girl selling tomatoes on the side of the road with a 2 year old the size of Maggie tied to her back. The roads are so dangerous, and she is working just to live. Only 4 years old and completely unsupervised. I thought of my boys, when I saw seven year old boys walking with machetes chopping down corn in the field. I think of my children and their decorated bedrooms, warm blankets, shoes, toys, hair bows, car seats, parents. My children have parents...two of them. They get to be educated, they don't have to work. They don't lay in bed at night shivering begging God that they may have a bite to eat tomorrow. They don't have to worry that a wild animal may get into their house, or their grass roof may cave in or catch on fire. My children have so much, but only because God has allowed us to provide that for them. This could have been us. I could have been born a Malawian woman and had to watch my children starve and beg for food. I could have been sick and sent my child with strangers to a far away land so she could live. This has been a completely life changing experience. I am not coming home the same person or the same mother. I wish that Shane and the kids could have made this trip with me. I just hope that I can find a way to portray what I have seen to my husband and children.