Still-Had-to-Labor Day

I apologize for not updating the blog yesterday...Nicole and I had a packed day. I hope you all enjoyed your three day weekend, because we certainly did not get a day off :) In reality, yesterday was probably one of our busier days. We started the day off at school, moving from the first grade class to the 4th/5th/6th grade class and finally ending in the office. The older girls are trying to play catch up with their work before the term ends in three weeks, so they are continuously too busy to talk.

After school, we went to the orphanage to hang out with kids for a few hours. Nicole and I were shocked by what we found. No one said a word to us when we walked in - in fact, we had to search for someone to in charge. We could have easily picked up a kid and walked out the door, and no one would have been the wiser. Once we found and introduced ourselves to the supervisor on duty, she asked a little girl to take us to a housemother. All of the kids in the orphanage are split up into 4 houses, and each house has a "mother" who is in charge of the well-being of her 15 or so children. We introduced ourselves to the first housemother and told her we were there to help the kids with homework, play with the kids, take care of babies or whatever they needed. She told us that the kids didn't have homework because of the strike (most kids haven't been in school for weeks), and they were being entertained just fine by the TV. She told us to try another house. We went through all 4 houses that way, with each housemother telling us that she didn't need us.

When we walked into the last house, all of the kids were huddled around the TV like they had been in all of the other houses. We realized, however, that we had walked right into a sex scene, followed a few seconds later by a murder scene! Mind you, these are kids ranging from 2 months to 13 years old. We asked the housemother, who was busy enjoying the TV show, if she wanted us to take the kids outside in the beautiful sunshine to play on the orphanage's playground. She grumbled at us and told us that they were fine in front of the TV. Then she got up and left. A few minutes later, we heard a baby crying from the back room. Since the housemother wasn't there, and none of the kids seemed to care, we both went back to the baby's room. Sinalo, the baby girl, is 2 months old, one of twins who were born prematurely. The poor thing had an extremely wet diaper, and had so many clothes on that she was literally dripping sweat (it was about 80 degrees outside). It was obvious from the first few minutes that Sinalo lacks proper stimulation: she doesn't respond to light, touch, or sound, and she won't follow movement with her eyes. She had had a bloody nose who knows how long ago, and blood was caked around her nose and mouth. She had a really hard time breathing. We cleaned her nose up and changed her diaper (which was way too big - the back reached her shoulders). Then we decided to play with her. After about 30 minutes, she was reacting to sounds and the tickling of her feet. She had a hard time making eye contact still, but she would follow your finger if you moved it slowly in front of her eyes. It was obvious the poor thing was in desperate need of love and attention, and it just broke my heart that she wasn't getting it.

After 30 minutes or so, she started getting really fussy, and she was sucking on anything she could get her hands on. The schedule in her room said that she was supposed to be fed every 2 hours, so it was pretty obvious that she was hungry. We brought her out to the house mom and asked if she needed to be fed, but the housemother said no. Apparently she had been fed several hours earlier, and the housemother didn't want to overfeed her for fear she would spit it all up. They are not open to any advice or criticism, but it seemed pretty obvious to us that you can't just not feed an underdeveloped baby because they have acid reflux! We highly doubt they burp her, either, because they give the babies a bottle in their crib propped up by a blanket and then let them go to sleep. The housemom then grabbed Sinalo from us, shook her a few times (without holding her head), and sat back down in front of the TV. Needless to say, we were furious.

Our plan is to continue to spend time at the orphanage for the remainder of our time here. Please pray for us and for the kids at the orphanage. It is a truly heart-wrenching experience, but these kids desperately need love.

Nicole helping Gugu (1st grader) with her vocab

Me helping Audrey (1st grader) with reading

This is Sinalo. She is 2 months old, but she is so small.