![\"Orphanage](\"https:\/\/ellisand.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/20190406-SMILE-403-Edit.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThis family in the orphanage is the only one Happy has ever known. She\u2019s never seen her father, who left after her mother died in childbirth. When Florence, of the orphanage, told people that she wanted to adopt Happy, they said she was crazy. A baby with HIV\u2014what if she infects all the others? \u201cBut this child needs love just as much. A family that loves and cares for her.\u201d Florence asked a social worker to come by and help her how to handle it. \u201cShe can\u2019t share food or stuff like razor blades, if we\u2019d stick to that, it would be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, some twelve years later, Happy is a big help for Florence and Niona. A natural caretaker. She brings all the kids to school and takes them back home. She helps them cook, clean, and care for themselves. One thing she\u2019s strict about is that all the kids have to wash their clothes and scrub their shoes. \u201cThey need to look smart in class. Their outfit needs to be clean,\u201d Niona says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And maybe naming her the way they did helped\u2014Happy is a happy kid and even though she has HIV, she\u2019s never sick. Today, she\u2019s taking care of her little sister Precious, who will turn out to have malaria. Everyone in the orphanage has had malaria at one point, but not Happy. Every kid has had to skip school because of an illness, except Happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Happy smiles and lives with her teeth and heart laid bare\u00a0in circumstances that would make me hopeless. As I see that little girl, taking care of her brothers and sisters, all smiles, I take a mental picture. One that I\u2019ll view whenever my life will start to feel hopeless and I\u2019ll remember to be as happy as Happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe named her \u2018Happy\u2019,\u201d said Niona. We stood looking out over the small yard of the orphanage where a teen girl was making some of her thirty brothers and sisters wash their clothes. It\u2019s a hot day, but the kids don\u2019t seem to mind as much as I do. It\u2019s always hot, here in Masaka, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2208,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[68,69,70,71],"countries":[17],"class_list":["post-2206","people","type-people","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-happy","tag-hiv","tag-orphan","tag-story","countries-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Portrait](\"https:\/\/ellisand.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/20190406-SMILE-384.jpg\")
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