Jennifer and Johnny joined us for dinner tonight. Jennifer asked us what the best thing was so far. That is such a tough one. The only thing I could answer for her was what was the worst.
And, that happened for me today. There is a little girl here. Her name is Carol. She is 9 years old. Her favorite color is purple. Her favorite animal is a cow. She is in the 2nd grade and her favorite subject is Kiswahili. She loves to play soccer and wants to be either a policewoman or teacher when she grows up. If she grows up. She is HIV+ and has TB. She is absolutely beautiful. She has the longest eyelashes I have ever seen - lookout Hollywood! She recently got out of the hospital and she has been very weak our entire visit. But, today, today was the worst. She was so lethargic that she could hardly move or participate. She didn't eat her lunch and threw up the little she had eaten. I asked Christine if I could put her in her bed to rest a little and she said to do so. When I picked her up, there was nothing there. Her little arms are so skinny. She had to have wieghed less than most of the younger girls and boys at HOREC. It broke my heart. I cry everytime I think of her.
As for the best, there are so many things. One memory of note is my visit to the market today with Christine. WOW! It was so much fun to buy all of the food on her shopping list and to watch Christine bargain with the shopowners for a deal. She got one lady to give her 20 extra heads of cabbage - a total BOGO (she had purchased 20 heads)! We loaded the truck up. Thank you Kerry for sending some money to buy the food and giving me this opportunity! While we were in town, we stopped and bought sodas (pops for you Yoopers who are tuning in) for the kids, workers and missionaries. It was Bryan's birthday and Thomas (from the company that arranges our drivers - Nappet Tours) and his wife made Bryan a cake and we had a birthday celebration with the kids. Someone brought noisemakers and it got so loud in the new dining room, it was absolutely amazing. Danny kept tooting his horn long after the celebration was over. He is an absolute doll! A pistol as Sandi likes to call him.
It was also nice to spend some time with Christine. Some of her stories broke my heart - like the one about how the hospital originally refused to treat Carol for her TB even though TB treatment is free in Kenya. Or, how they nearly left Danny to die because he was HIV+ and sickly and not worth saving. Or, how Mary is treated differently at school because her skin is discolored from HIV. Or, how all of the kids are shunned at school because they live at an orphanage. With one in six in Kenya being HIV+, you'd think attitudes would be different. But, not only have these children been abandoned, they also are continuously shunned (refer to the story about swimming in a public pool). Yet, they have smiles on their faces. They call Christine "mama" and Alois (Christine's husband) "baba" as though they are their true parents. She calls them her kids. It is great what she is doing to help them. Yet, I cry as I write this. I was just so sad today as I heard these stories and recount them for this blog. So sad. Yet, I praise God (Buana Yasifiwe) because they do have a mom and dad in Christine and Alois.
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