I'm wife # 3, been let go from my husband, and I have AIDS....Pinch me as this can NOT be real!

To suffer alongside people you love is difficult. I am certainly a newbie living in Africa because each time I experience something new, I go through every emotion imaginable. I know living in Africa my heart will always be sensitive to these things, but I hope I will do better at handling the extreme emotion I feel with each new situation.


I just cannot wrap my brain around my newest situation. I am telling you that people drop dead here all the time. I have never seen so many children living with tantie or grandma or village friends because mom and/or dad are dead. Yesterday I had an African friend come to my home and she sat for over an hour and wept. Africans do not like to cry and most often they won’t in front of others; however, this has not been what I have experienced since I have arrived. Anyway, the reason she was hurting so much was she has a cousin who was infected with aids. She was the third wife to her husband and when he found this out he left her about 10 years ago. Not divorced as we know it, but just left. They had 3 children together. Two of them are older and could take care of the youngest who is now 12 but if they take her on, they almost throw every chance of marriage out the window. My friend was asked to take this 12 year old when her cousin dies and that appears to be very soon. She cried and cried because she said she had to tell her cousin no. She herself along with her husband have children of their own and an additional 6 people that live with them and they can hardly afford to live themselves. I still cannot wrap my brain around 11 people living in a 3 room home that is the size of my den.

Ok so what will happen with this child... she will either just remain in her village and really have no place that she really belongs or in many cases like this the child becomes a street kid because the MVslims will take them in. They will cram all these false teachings down their throats, filling them with lies, provide them enough food to just stay alive, yet use them as begging slaves that walk the streets on Burkina. They receive no education and learn to survive which in turn many times makes them really rough kids.

In times like this I want to explode and the reason I want to explode is that this is normal.

Please stop right now and pray for this 12 year old girl. Pray that God will provide just the place for her when her mom who is a Christian by the way, goes home to be with the Lord.