Missionaries of Charity

Something I love about working with Mercy Ships is that they have a program called Mercy Ministries. Throughout the week you can sign up for different opportunities to visit the community in different ways: orphanages, prisons, school of the deaf, clinics, whatever they can find in the countries they are in.

I signed up about a week ago to visit Missionaries of Charity. I remember seeing them also in Liberia. If you don't know much about Missionaries of Charity, you should look them up. These women are amazing. They follow firstly, the example of Jesus, but they are also under the same order of Mother Teresa. They reach out to "the poorest of the poor". Here in Togo they have their base in Kpalime, the place I had visited and hiked in a few weeks ago, about two and a half hours north of here.

This Missionaries of Charity is a HIV/AIDS home where people can come and live and find support. Driving into this base, it was beautiful. The grounds were mowed and flowers were blooming. You could just sense the peace in the place. When we got out of the land rover we were greeted by Mother Teresea. Not really, but it could have been. She was wearing the same sari and was the sweetest person. You could feel peace and hope radiating from her. She showed us around the community and we met Sister Risa who we spent most of the day with.

There were about 30 people living here. About five men, 5-8 children, three older women who were not HIV positive but they needed a place to live, and the rest were women. Something that blew me away was that they had no nurses. The ones living there that were well enough would be the nurses for those who were sick. They told us that this would teach them compassion knowing that at some point they too would be in that situation. The only person working there who was not HIV positive was the cook.

Once we had the tour we introduced ourselves and then gave everyone the opportunity to share with us if they wanted. People started opening up and sharing stories. Stories of how they became "sick". Stories of how their families reacted when they became "sick". There was more than one story that went something like this: "When my family found out I was 'sick', they went out and bought me a coffin. When I came here, they used it for firewood." HIV/AIDS in Africa is not accepted. Most people don't want to talk about it and if people know you are positive, you are no longer an accepted part of the community. These sisters bring them in and give them a place of rest and love and acceptance. As people were sharing their stories, a Sister walked by and handed me a two month old baby girl to hold. Quite a chubby little thing. I got to talking with Sister Risa about the baby and her mother. I asked if the baby was positive, and she is. They will test her again at 18 months old to see if she really is positive. I asked about the mother. She was with the same man for many years. He was not "sick". As she was traveling across the country one day, the car she was in was robbed. She gave them all she had then she was raped. From that, she came away with a beautiful baby girl and HIV. She is now living with the sisters at Missionaries of Charity. Doing the math in my head on the way home, that was less than a year ago. So many times when I hear these stories I think they must have happened in the far past, but this whole thing is new for her. What would she do, live, be, how would she survive without these sisters?

Before we left I spent some time with the three older women. I met Gurtrude, add a glottal sound in there. 91 years old. I don't know the life expectancy here, but it's not 91. This woman was hilarious. Totally with it. Couldn't see worth a darn so we talked to her about the possibility of her coming down to the ship for eye surgery. She was very adamant that this would never happen. She said she was old and that some day soon she was going to heaven and why go through all that. Oh, she made me laugh. I told her my name and she picked up her statue of Mary and started praying for me. For safety and safe travels... I am sure that when I go back to see her in a few weeks she will still remember my name.