Today we took a winding road up a hill past the sights and sounds of Addis—blue and white vans belching clouds of diesel smoke, corrugated sheds with back packs hanging from the ceiling, goats and donkeys outside western looking office buildings, children pouring out of school, the girls with white scarves wrapped around their heads. We arrive at the top of the hill and a gate opens to admit us to another whole world—The Sisters of Charity orphanage for HIV positive children. A beautiful sister greets us. She proceeds to show us around an incredibly lovely campus of low lying buildings nestled into a hill. The beauty and peace of the place is hard to describe. The sister tells us that they teach the children to be comfortable, even proud of their condition, before sending them to public school starting in fourth grade. One day it was National HIV Awareness Day and so the children decided the nuns should excuse them from school and give them sweets. For them it was a day to celebrate. Of course, all this belies the truth that 400 children live under the supervision of 4 nuns and some day laborers and all of them under a death sentence. But these children focus on their privilege and the joy of the moment. I hope I will remember to practice such gratitude in my life as well.