Some Days Are Distractions

It is freezing outside.
It is the week before high school finals.
Several new children and families have been added to my work week.
During this past week alone, I have misplaced my credit card, a giftcard, and my terrycloth duck puppet.
And Juliana Yabuku remains on our kitchen whiteboard.

Eight months ago, Boko Haram militants stormed a high school in the village of Chibok in Nigeria and abducted more than 200 teenage girls. Juliana Yabuku was one of these girls

We know about Juliana Yabuku and the other girls because of Ibrahim Abdullahi.  Ibrahim Abdullahi, a Nigerian lawyer, began the hashtag Bring Back Our Girls campaign, bringing international attention to the abductions. Without this campaign, we may have never known.

Despite international attention and international efforts, the kidnapped girls remain missing. In the meantime, Boko Haram has continued a reign of terror, striking again this week in the northeast area of Nigeria.

And it is freezing outside.
And it is the week before high school finals.
During this week alone, there have been so many distractions.

In Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, hundreds of people continue to gather daily. These people include families and neighbors of the missing girls. They carry signs and chant "Bring Back Our Girls." They do this daily. 272 days since the girls went missing.

Juliana Yabuka's name remains on our whiteboard. Her name is there to remind us of her life, to ask that light shine upon her, to keep hope alive that she be returned to her home and family.

It is so amazingly cold and finals week cometh. I am meeting new children and families as well as devoting time to lost and misplaced objects. The weekend is full. Lots going on in our lives. Lots of distractions. That is why Juliana Yabuka needs to stay on our whiteboard.