Make Someone's Day. I Dare You.

I don't know when it happened, but sometime, maybe in the past fifteen years or so, I have adopted this ethos that I try to live by.  I have a strong belief that when you love someone, admire someone, respect someone, appreciate someone...you should be real with them.  Tell them.  Tell them today.  And again tomorrow.  And as much as it takes until they GET IT.  Because on this amazing and beautiful adventure we call life, so much of the message we hear is NEGATIVE.  For some unknown reason, the negative are the words we speak, when the reality is that for most of us, the negative are the MINORITY.  We lose track of that.

I noticed in my life people would often say to me, about someone I knew or cared about, things like, "She is BRILLIANT."  "He is one of the kindest people I know."  "She is really an incredible lady."  "No one works harder than she does."  "He really went out of his way for me."  "I just admire him so much."  "I really couldn't have asked for anyone better."  This happened so many times, and I realized people were saying and thinking all these incredible things about each other, AND THEY NEVER EVEN KNEW IT.  And it broke my heart. Every. Single. Time.

I decided to do something about it.  I have an incredible memory.  When things make an impression on me, I will remember it.  Tomorrow, next week, probably twenty years from now.  I'm not talking about big things, I'm talking about little things.  Conversations.  Notes.  A kind word.  And the more I thought about it, the more I realized most of us have that same kind of memory about things that make a difference.  It's just that we don't get to hear those things very often.

So I promised myself anytime anyone told me something wonderful about someone I knew, I would share it with that person at the first opportunity.  I decided a long time ago when I hear something awesome about someone, they need to hear it, too.  It usually goes something like this, "Hey, I was talking to so-and-so the other day, and he had nothing but wonderful things to say about you.  I promised myself a long time ago that when someone tells me something great about someone else, I would share it with that person directly, so I just want you to know they said you......"  The result is always beautiful.

Will you do me a favor?  The next time someone tells you something wonderful about someone you know, will you tell them?

Every One of US

Every One of Us

Isn't it interesting
The way even the most put together of us
Doubt
Worry
Forget to trust?

Sometimes the ones who seem the brightest
Are just the best at hiding the darkness.

Have you ever thought
Someone who had it all figured out
Questioned
Wondered
Cried themselves to sleep at night?

Just because the outside looks polished
Doesn't mean they're not afraid.

What if we knew
The inner depth of a person
Their fear
Their heart
Their innermost longings?

They say don't judge a book by it's cover
But we are all so much more than books.

What if just for one moment
We shared ALLLLL the good things we see
Love
Admiration
Strength of Heart?

Maybe we could make a difference.
Maybe we could change a life.

It is time for us to open our eyes!
Every one of us is struggling
Hurting
Longing
Wishing to truly know we matter.

Every one of us can change the course
Maybe now's the time.

Asante sana, Afrika.

“Nime furahi kukutana nawe.”  I’m so happy to meet you. I said it quietly to child after child, waiting for the sparkle in their eyes as they looked up shyly, realizing I was trying my best to speak the broken Kiswahili I was quickly learning.  These are children who know pain.  They know suffering.  But they also know joy.  Their young lives have been permeated and punctuated with death and poverty, but at their core, they are just children, pleased that this mazungu—white person—was happy to meet them.

 

Many of these children have never seen a doctor.  They have no medical records.  For many of them, the opportunity to have eager nursing students from America call them over for their comprehensive health assessment was the first time they’d seen a health care professional.  As we navigated their varying levels of English proficiency, their unique health concerns, and did our best to use their native tongue, we learned more than we could have imagined.

“Unaumwa popote pengine?”  Does it hurt anywhere else?  As we completed our 227 assessments, we learned a great deal about the health of children in rural Tanzania.  These kids are lucky—they have been accepted at the City of Hope, as day scholars, boarding students, or residents—they are receiving a quality education and have caring adults who look after them and ensure their health and wellness.  They have resources available to them many of their neighbors and family members in nearby villages are not afforded.

 

At the local clinic, the staff delivers health care with what little they have, showing compassion and kindness to each patient who enters their door.  They have no electricity or running water.  Many basic supplies—things we throw away without a thought in US hospitals and clinics—are luxuries they use sparingly.  They never know who or what awaits them in the groups of people needing to be seen each day, and they welcomed us as members of their healthcare team without question.  It is comprehensive patient care in it’s simplest form—the patients are interviewed and tested, results analyzed in the makeshift laboratory under the light microscope in the next room, diagnoses are made, and treatment arranged or delivered while they wait.  Each day clinic staff navigates cultural situations we can hardly imagine, and they do it with dignity and respect for each and every patient.

“Hawa ni marafiki zangu!”  These are my friends.  Everywhere we went, from our daily walks through the village to the hospitals we visited, and everyone we met, from the sellers in the fabric markets, to our charismatic safari guides driving us through the magnificent Serengeti, to the villagers and children we saw every day, welcomed us with open arms.  Whether we were playing cards with the children, working in the fields, kicking the soccer ball, teaching health education classes, attending the children’s church on Sunday mornings, performing assessments, or joining in dance parties, we were a part of their community.  We arrived in Tanzania hoping to make a difference, but as the tears streaming down our faces as we said our goodbyes would attest, it was the Tanzanian people who truly made the difference; our lives will never be the same.  Asante sana, Afrika.  Thank you.