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Giving Away a Smile

2/12/2016

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During our recent visit to Uganda, I traveled ahead of the team by a few days.  I had two days to do some work with our staff and to visit a remote village that has no partnership.  I love these visits; new faces, new friends, and a chance to see a place I've never been.

Making the journey to this village was a bit of an adventure.  It is quite a distance from the main road.  A bus  bumping along these crater-filled roads with a white woman on it was quite a departure from the normal traffic of children walking to get water and the occasional bicycle.  We must have been a peculiar site!

As we passed mud hut after mud hut, I noticed a pattern of response from the dust-covered children we passed.  When they heard the bus coming, they would run to the edge of the road with a stoic, confused expression.  But, as soon as they caught my eye and I smiled and waved, their faces lit up!  It must have happened over a hundred times!  Confusion, recognition, connection - time after time.

This went on for over an hour and made me consider the power of a smile.  It was a mood-changer, for sure.  But it also is a connection-maker.  When your eyes lock and you share a smile,  you are connected, if only for a moment.  But that moment lasts.  You move on, whether it's by walking past or bumping along in a bus, but you've shared something for that brief time.  And the little bit of happiness you shared can change a day.

As I looked out the back of the bus, I could see kids stay by the side of the road until we had faded into the distance.  Then they most likely returned to what they were doing before the interruption - playing with siblings, helping their mother weed a garden, washing plastic dishes from a recent meal - but I have to believe they felt a tiny bit different for awhile.  I know I did!

So make it a mission to share your smile today.  You never know who needs it.  And it just might change YOUR day as well!


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The view from the bus window.
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  Traffic on the road to Nawampiti.
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A boy lucky enough to own a bike.
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One of the smiles I received!
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  • Home
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