Joy, Praise and Tears.

Thursday January 9, 2009 A range of emotions. It was a day of joy, giggles and tears. Joy is waking to a household of giggles, laughter and hugs. The morning starts early. The Mama’s and Aunties getting the kids cleaned up, dressed, fed and ready to play or ready for school. The giggles echo through the house and could charm even the grumpiest of people. Deborah our sweet girl with CP comes running. Arms out. Giggling and grabbing my leg with the universal “up” sign for a big hug. Then more giggles and laughter from her. Then Ariene and Dorcus which could practically be twins except Dorcus is the one who simply lives to laugh. She’s about 2 and can find joy in simply anything. A shoe, a sticker, a twig…just anything makes her happy. Oh if we could all live such a simple life. She simply cracks me up nonstop. I have no idea what she’s saying but she does try to mimic what I say. Her favorite is “whoops”. The Mama’s and Aunties sit on simple wooden stools and start the wash. 3 buckets, some water, some bar soap formulated for just such a “hand machine” and lots of elbow crease. It’s tough tough work. The greet me with joy and “allo (hello) Missie Donna” The sky continues to be gray and moments from rain at most times, but when the sun shines it really shines. The people are so happy to have the rain that they rejoice in every ounce of mud. Rain is especially good for those that have ways to collect it as it means less walking to a stream to collect some for the day. Kids as young as 3 can walk 1-3 miles for semi clean water with their brothers and sisters for the day’s needs. And we simply turn on a faucet in the states. I walked to the 1st home and checked on the new kids. As expected they had already begun to come out of their shells a bit. The youngest was fully groovin’ on her new world. She came running, full of hugs and joy. The middle one was in the zone and the oldest gave me a smile and a hug. Progress. Another 24 hours and she’ll begin to understand that this really is her home and she’s on her way to reaching her fullest potential. The notion of fullest potential is important to Chantal. She doesn’t just want these kids to get off the street. She wants them to not only survive….but to THRIVE. She is committed to having them reach their fullest potential. As we now have 30 kids she is also trying to build some systems into the care giving. One of these involves food. All 3 homes have worked independently on that front. She is now creating monthly menus, bringing someone into train the cooks and then allocates the needed food each day via Sieba their social worker whom the government now requires us to have. They process ensures a more well balanced food intake for the kids and helps keep control of budgets. Money is needed everywhere. The country operates on a cash basis for 95% of purchases and things are needed all the time. Charcoal for the stoves, someone is sick and needs to go to the doctor, a light breaks etc etc. The outflow is nonstop. Yesterday we were blessed with 2 super old computers that were donated. I was able to get one working to the joy of Chantal. We’ve given it to the teacher to keep track of lessons etc. She has never worked on one, so that is one of my projects for tomorrow. The afternoon was filled with praise. All the Mommies and Aunties gathered with the children for about an hour or more of praise to God. They sang lots of songs that filled the classroom and the Mom from the 3rd home did some preaching. They gather every Thursday to do this and each home trades off on leading the lesson for that week. It’s beautiful. Miss Donna had the opportunity to sing the Our Father for them as it’s a prayer they know in Kinyarwanda and they appreciated the difference in the music. I ran an errand with Chantal. At the stop I was able to check out their new supermarket. It was amazing. Darn near as nice as anything you’d find in the US. Shelves, dollar store like merchandize and stoves, and us branded items too. I was blown away. Kigali is on it’s way to its 2020 vision of being “Chicago”. On it’s way …but it will take a bit more time. It’s even possible to use a credit card in the store. Unbelievable. I was also able to get some chicken breasts and meat for me. Yes, I am indeed living large in Rwanda. Then came the heart break. We wanted to visit Rebecca. Rebecca is a half sister to Paul and Rosemary who were adopted by a loving family in the US. While we are NOT an orphanage, under special circumstances we have adopted some of our kids. Rebecca is about 2 and had been living in New Hope Homes for about 9 months. Her mother has aids and initially brought Paul and Rosemary to us when she was no longer strong enough to care for them. Unfortunately this young woman has been full of some lies and has taken us on a tough journey. We always have the kids tested to determine if they are HIV + or have aids. Chantal has always believed that we will take what God sends us and thus far we have not had to deal with the aids issue. Until now. Rebecca had always seemed “warm”. Recently she broke out in a rash all over her body. The doctor wanted to have her re-tested for aids. And yes, indeed his worst fears were realized. Then the challenge became ….what to do. The Mommies and Aunties are not simply trained to deal with these disease yet. Remember, it is the number 1 killer in the country and education is still in the works. Chantal began to see Rebecca being ostrastacized and tried to give them proper training to care for her. But it wasn’t working. So at the end of last year (08) Chantal decided that the best thing for Rebecca was to return her to her Mom who has been doing well via her meds and was able to care for her. Because she has aids she is fearless in touching and loving her and Chantal felt that at 2 years old that counts for A LOT. So the plan is to have her Mom keep her, Chantal will provide the necessary funds to ensure she gets the food and supplies she need and watch on her progress via the nearby clinic and doctors. So yesterday was the day to check up on her after being back with her Mom for about 2 weeks. She living is a moderate slum area. Dirt floor, brick walled home. 1 bed for 4 people, a small pan on the floor for cooking. We also wanted to bring the care package that The Leahy’s (friends from Lowe) created for Rebecca. Imagine living in those conditions and getting new shoes, socks, undies and a new outfit. It was very exciting, yet heart breaking. Rebecca is getting new test results on Monday so we’ll be checking in next week on her status. As we returned to our car. Chantal just stared out the window and cried. Enough said.