Our Tuesday (Day 1) plan was water truck/delivering clean water. However, we were told last night that our water truck was down for the count and we may have to change plans for today. The change of plans was confirmed at breakfast, as they were still fixing the water truck. Our change of plans was to go to The Home for Sick and Dying Children in the morning and La Pherre orphanage this afternoon.
After a delicious morning breakfast of french toast, eggs, oatmeal, fresh-squeezed juice and, my personal favorite, avocado (it's SO GOOD here...) we hopped in the tap tap for a quick drive to The Home for Sick and Dying Children (HFSDC). Our job here is simply loving on the kids and helping out the sisters by changing diapers and feeding the kids.
For some background: most of the kids at this hospital are either malnourished or sick with (or recovering from) any variety of ailments. The one thing they all have in common is their desire to be held. One room seemed to have sicker kids than the other. That room had kids connected to IVs and seemed to have more parents at the bedside, whereas the other room there were no IVs and the kids seemed to be more independent.
One thing I'm always amazed by at this hospital is the ratio of sisters to children. I'm just taking a guess, but I'd guess that ratio of nurse to patient is 1:10+. I give them so much credit. They feed the kids, change the kids, and care for the kids. I would imagine it would be everything like having octuplets and being a single parent. From the outside in, it looks absolutely exhausting; physically and emotionally.
This was my second time visiting HFSDC, and both times I've had questions constantly running through my head. Like-- What is this baby's story? Why are they here? Do they have parents who come visit them regularly? Were they left here for the sisters to take care of? Will they ever get better enough to leave? Am I even doing enough by simply holding them? Do the nurses even know the names of the babies?
I picked up a little boy first. He was grinning a big toothy grin. He was one of the only babies not crying or holding his hands up for someone to pick him up. I immediately wanted to know his story. I could see his name on his tag wrapped around his tiny ankle. His tag noted that he was a year and a half old. Immediately I started asking other questions -- Is he as sick as the rest? Was he abandoned here? Is he getting the attention he needs from the nurse? Will he get to leave soon? These are obviously questions I will never get answered. But all I could think about while we were here was Psalms 139. How God knows me intimately. He knows each of those babies intimately. He knows the whole story and he sees the whole picture. All we get is this little glimpse, and I can only hope the little bit we are helping is doing much more than we can even see.
After our stop at HFSDC, we made a quick stop back at the guesthouse to change and load up our supplies for La Pherre orphanage. Visiting the orphanages are always one of my favorite parts of the trip. I think it's because there's a smaller group of kids, where everyone can interact with one or two children primarly. You leave feeling like you had a connection to one or two of the kids.
La Pherre was so much fun. We brought face paint to do drawings and designs on the kids faces. They in turn wanted to paint our faces which turned into Dave and Jeremy getting their whole heads painted. The kids just loved it.
We also brought some jump ropes and had some friendly competition jumping rope and even attempting double dutch. The time at La Pherre flew by, as it usually does at most stops. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversations I was able to have with some of the children and teenage/young adult guys who were there. Hearing about their lives and dreams is so interesting to me. They also seem to enjoy learning about our way of living too.
Thanks for checking in! More stories to come!
~Angela
Great comments and pictures. Keep up the good work!
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