"Oprah Light"

I went shopping today with Cissy and Stella, the 2 pre-teen girls I’m sponsoring this year as boarders at Mary Immaculate Primary School outside of Gulu. The headmaster, Sister Helen, had given me a list of items the girls would need when they report to Primary 6 on Monday.

As long as God lets me live, I will never forget the dazed gratitude on their thin little faces as Akiiki and I drove them from place to place shop for those things. First, the girls picked out two tin suitcases, with blue shapes stenciled atop the steel gray casing. Next, they got two twin foam mattresses and a set of sheets apiece…Cissy chose yellow, and Stella picked blue.

The girls would need 3 bars of bathing soap each, and 4 long, thin blue blocks of laundry soap. Cissy chose a 12-pack of pretty floral “knickers.” I keep forgetting about the colonial influence in Uganda, and I’m standing there scratching my head trying to figure out where the hell you’re supposed to buy knickers in the 21st century when Cissy handed me the package of panties. When I told Stella to pick out a pack, Cissy said, “Oh no, we will share these. Six for her, and six for me.”

I was floored. I mean, you just let some bleeding heart, deep-pocketed sponsor cart ME around Pentagon City Mall to buy whatever I want, and just SEE how many times I object to buying more than I actually need. Do NOT hold your breath, okay?? I’d be like, “Hell YEAH, let me get three of those bad boys.” But time after time, when I tried to suggest that maybe one set of pencils wasn’t enough, or that they might buy 3 fifty-cent towels instead of 2, the girls politely declined. “Two is enough,” they chirped.

For about 90 minutes, I was "Oprah Light." I will never feel as rich and powerful as I did this afternoon, watching those two excited girls pick out whatever they needed for school. Admittedly, the cynic in me expected them to spoil my charitable mood by asking for lipstick, or a purse, or maybe some glittery blouse that was totally inappropriate for a 12-year-old girl. I braced for the one request, the one furtive little glance or snicker behind my back that would unmask those girls as greedy little manipulators, and me as a hapless sucker with a target painted on her forehead. When, on WHEN am I gonna start closing my heart to sob stories and just let other people pull themselves up by their bootstraps like I did???

But then Cissy stopped in front of a stall that sold cheap polyester blankets with hideous designs on them. I’m talking one step beneath the “saucer-eyed dogs playing poker on velvet” scenario. The things made me itch just looking at them. I couldn’t help thinking those tacky little blankets would burst into flames if the sun shone directly on them; forget about a drop of candle wax or paraffin oil.

Watching Cissy and Stella oooh and ahhhh as they poked through the tacky textiles, I realized that we might as well have been standing in Neiman Marcus. It would take their families 7 days to earn the 7 dollars I would pay for each blanket. And for those girls, having something brand new, and just for them, was more than just a dream. Last year this time, as they prepared to return to school, they didn’t even have the 14 dollar fee to pay for both semesters. Now, they were on a shopping spree, buying new things they’d get to pack in their very own suitcases as they headed off to boarding school…..all expenses paid.

And oh, yeah, today’s shopping spree set me back a grand total of about $100.

I think I finally understand the real reason I'm sponsoring those girls. My mother’s mother’s name was Stella Jane. As I’ve already mentioned, Grandma Stella Jane crushed my mother Eloise’s dreams and ambitions for her future before they could even start to bud. My mother went straight from helping run a household with 8 younger siblings and two nutty parents in Philadelphia to Cairo, Illinois, where she would raise 10 more children and never, EVER get the chance to further her education, explore the world, define who she was and what she wanted from life.

So, dear Grandma Stella, with all due respect, IN YO’ FACE!!! Your granddaughter Rachel is making sure that one little girl who shares your name and lives in a mud hut with a thatched grass roof on the other side of the world gets to start the school year "living large and in charge."
I believe this will change Stella's life, and Cissy's life, and that they'll both start dreaming of the world outside of Gulu, and they'll get there one day, because they've already had this astounding miracle happen in their lives.

So, Granny, I hope that wherever your spirit is, it will find Mama’s spirit, apologize, and give it a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.