Sibling Rivalry
This past trip was set apart by the amount of time I was able to spend with the girls. They do an amazing job at welcoming their guests with song and dance, but what I was really looking forward to was the time void of choreographed celebration—time that contained real life.
Staying there for four days afforded me many of those moments.
We prepared nearly a dozen meals together. We danced. We sang. We prayed. Many of the girls shared with me the details of their pasts, and we cried together. There was one incident, a silly incident, that’s managed to stick out and make me smile each time I think about it. It was an argument over a mosquito net.
A girl on a top bunk didn’t want to share her net with the girl below her. Though she was calmly trying to state her case, still, it made no rational sense whatsoever. Having the net drape down and cover the bunk below simply didn’t affect her at all. I had to laugh because it reminded me of the countless times I’ve had to settle equally senseless arguments between my own daughters.
Never has sibling rivalry sounded so good to me. Most of these girls were left orphaned by way of AIDS or genocide. They are relearning what it means to operate as a family and be a sister again. For those of you that shared a room with a sibling, you can attest, it ain’t always pretty!
They worked it out, apologized, and I went to bed that night thankful for silly discrepancies that can be fixed with laughter and a hug.
