Sorry for not doing a post on Saturday but let me explain… Life for us here now is so different than at home. That soft bed and tucked in sheets have now become a 3″ foam and sheets that roll around with you each night. The disco from the golf course club that’s not too far from us has been celebrating many (but not all) nights so much that Cathy had to get her ear plugs last night. (I slept though most of it, thankfully). Then you hear the mosque at 5 am and the roaster starts after that just outside our window. (our window just happens to be the only one in the house that does not have a screen but we have great mosquitoe netting that we brought with us this time!) Around 6 you hear Rose starting the fire and singing to herself – yep – just outside our window. But that’s most more enjoyable to hear. Every morning we start to hear the children getting up at 5:30 and sometimes I will hear Maureen leaving quietly for school.
Today I will investigate why the toilet seemed to be have a slow trickle last night and what repair part we need for the handle that broke on the toilet. With 30 C tempereatures, we are so very thankful for a shower – even when the day came and it was definitely brown water!
Last night we had a display of dancing from the various ages and then finished off with singing. After having gone to the market for souvenirs yesterday morning and been encouraged by each and every local enterpretur to come to their little shop, we came away with our picks of the day. I promised I would return later (with Jasmyn – she doesn’t know what kind of treat this will be for her yet!!)
Yesterday we also went to an orphanage that has babies that they rescue from either the streets, people turn them in to hospitals + notify them of those who they can take in. Just the night before they had received a set of twins. It was a real experience to see the 46 children that they have in their care. They have nurses on staff, separation of new little ones to the ones who have already cleared their “health check list”. The toddlers were outside on the front porch with their workers having play time. A wonderful clean place for babies. They then can be adopted after 6 months. An interesting statistic that we didn’t know until we read it in their brochure was…. “As a result of proper nutrition and medical care, many of these children born to HIV + mothers, and who had tested positive at birth, in time tested HIV – and have the opportunity to live like every child deserves. To date there has been over 70% seroconversion rate amoungst the babies who were HIV+ upon admission.” In layman’s terms: this is the rise of antibodies in 70% of the HIV+ now become stronger than the HIV virus. This was really good news to hear because we realize that there is a potential of some or many of our children being HIV+. But the effect of good nuitrtion and medical care that the children receive, they may really improve. We are going to be parterning with the Red Cross for them to come and do a test on all our children here for verification of their health status.
Today is Sunday! And we are off to church – right next door and then will be tackling more paperwork!
But I’ve included some interesting photos that I hope you will enjoy. Only Benjamen is sponsored right now.
Joan
Benjamen, Richard + Felix L
Dunsky + Felix L
Dina – Florence is her sister
Florence