Sister Mary Salome Nnambi

In December 2007 GTL hosted our Ugandan scholarship coordinator on her first vacation and her first experience of the USA.  Sister has rarely left Uganda and most of her traveling has been confined to East Africa.  She said she could never understand what attracted people to “vacations”.  Following our week-end in New Hampshire, she was able to imagine the learning, the fun and thus the value of having an experience vastly different from one’s daily life.   She had never seen snow and her wish when we first discussed the possibility of her trip to America was to arrive in the winter so she “could see the earth when it was asleep”.  She said she had prayed for snow often and it would seem her prayers held power as December was an exceptionally snowy month!  

Sister Salome traveled to local churches and high schools.  She is the headmistress of a beautiful girl’s secondary school in Uganda. Sister found the size of our large regional schools overwhelming but she was most fascinated with our school buses taking the children to and from school every day.  In Uganda students either board at school or walk to school.  Sister has many young students from the States who want to locate “pen pals” from her school and some of the teachers want to keep in touch with Sister themselves.  She spoke at many gatherings of students and teachers, as well as in the homes of friends of GTL and in the reception area of our churches.

It was a gift that went both ways to have the wonderful experience of seeing our world through the eyes of someone as capable and kind as Sister Salome.  One morning we walked together along the street as the snow was falling once again, and I mentioned that the Eskimos have 100 words to describe snow.  Sister looked at me and replied, “I wish there were 100 words for Thank-You”.