A gift for Mavis

Tuesday morning I visited BOTUSA, where Sechele Sechele works as communications director. The organization is a joint operation between Botswana's Ministry of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It helps conduct research and provides prevention/treatment programs for HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis patients in Botswana. Throughout the halls you can see evidence of Sechele's work translating studies and programs into readable and concise posters that explain the mission. He graciously took me on a tour and helped me find Mavis, the former housekeeper to the former U.S. ambassador Robert Krueger and his wife, Kathleen.
The Kruegers hosted me in their home last month at a dinner I'll never forget for the way the Kruegers shared their memories of Africa. They asked me to carry a card to Gaborone for Mavis. It featured a family portrait on the front. I cannot express how much happiness one can feel when delivering a precious gift to someone. Suffice to say, the humble task made my day.

Mavis is a housekeeper at BOTUSA now. She and I had talked by phone on Saturday, and here I was meeting her. I pulled the card from my bag, and she moved a few steps away to hold it up to the sunlight at a window. Her eyes, squinting hard to inspect every detail, filled with tears. She was silent for what seemed like a long time.
"My baby!" she said of the son, now a preteen and a hoops enthusiast. "I can't believe how grown up these ladies are! They're big and beautiful. " The older daughter is at Duke; the younger will follow next year. Mavis cared for them 10 years ago. The Kruegers will never forget her.
Mavis said she will put the photo in a frame beside her bed. "They're the reason I'm here. I'm here because of them," she said, her eyes still welling with tears. "I love them very much." She nodded to me, as if to confide in me.
"I can still feel their love."
She promised to write "a piece of paper" that would detail all that has happened in her life and in her children's lives. She will give it to me to deliver to Texas. But at that moment she needed to go back to work.
Later I stepped down the stairs outside the BOTUSA main building into the brilliant midday sun, and Sechele pointed to a building on the right, the TB building. A shiny brass plaque was visible even from this distance; it commemorated the building's important dedication day and the honorable U.S. official who presided: Robert Krueger.
The world felt suddenly intimate and intricately connected, wonderfully so.