Life Through My Eyes

Every life is as beautiful to me as the sun rising through the forest in my village in Koc-Gulu Uganda. It is 7:00pm Thursday of July 2, 2015 and my daughter's life is about to be snatched away by diabetes. She is in a diabetic coma...will she wake up? I want see her grow up, dance, read to me that favourite book of hers. I want to be able to tell her how nicely fitting her dress is around her waist as her laughter rings through the house It is at that moment that i realised the pain of losing a loved one Janae is 7 years now and she is very vibrant. She was misdiagnosed several times and that is why i want help people to detect diabetes early and be able to optimally manage it and i do this through educating and creating awareness on diabetes and that is why the one thing i want you to do now is to schedule in your diary at least one day every three month to go to that laboratory and screen for diabetes” Ayenyo Joanita; 2017

My home is a habitat for humans, animals and birds alike We welcome everyone to our home We do not accept you to join us because we have so much space, Because we have nothing else to use our space We love humanity We embrace you because you are a part of us A part of this beautiful universe The boundaries we find ourselves in should not and can never divide us Our home is your home But; When you come to my home I am trashed away and my voice is taken I cannot cough in my own backyard, let alone compound All eyes turn on you Everyone wants to identify with you Support comes flocking in I love you and yes, I want to see you stand tall again  I am as human as you are You didn’t find me with everything, but I chose to share the little I have When they come to treat you and find me with festering wounds Must I die from it when the doctor who came to treat you can treat me too? My daughter and son are employed in that healthcare facility ...

I hold my breath as the moonlight sweeps through your stature at midnight It is a sight to behold! Yes! At midnight when you wake up to go get me some water from the well I need to clean up the next day and run chores See, we are in this same universe, but the climate change has hit us real bad Our wells are drying up and when the rains take long to return Like now, he cannot watch me stay with unquenched thirst, with my body pale from dirt We cannot predict any more when the first rains fall Nor the last rains sinking into the soil They call him weak They call him soft Why? He helps me with house chores He bathes the children He sings for me Surprises me with full kisses on the lips! Massages my body when It becomes a wreck! He sweeps me off my feet as I do the dishes Like a baby I cling on him as he sways me around Singing sweet melodies meant for me The kind you will never hear What has society done? What right has society to dic...

Every life matters Every life matters like your heartbeat, Like your mother and father, your child, your siblings, your wife, like your husband Refugee lives matter My people did not choose to come to your country I do not choose to stay in your country My home has been raided Instead of the birds chirping on the trees, the cats meowing at the verandah, the cows mowing on the grazing ground as the goats and sheep bleat at the edge of the compound It is gunshots that race in the air, bomb blasts that leave one deaf The sight of blood, of the dead, is what we have left to see It leaves me dizzy I dream to see beautiful flowers being kissed by the bees Will I ever have this spectacular sight again? Our children are pale with hunger and grief No mother, no father We long to see our children play and laugh on the compound I want to touch my children’s rosy cheeks again, not the bones their faces have become I want to see life in my child’s eyes...