as long as I shall live I will testify the love....

As always the week has flown by so before I know it it’s Friday and I still have yet to write my blog entry- naughty Lindsay always leaving it to the last minute! I suppose the major thing for me this week actually doesn’t have anything to do with the children. Last Friday the phone lines went down and they are still down. That means that I’ve not been able to read any emails you guys have sent me (so sorry for not replying already!) and even more importantly I wasn’t able to have my weekly phone call from my parents. Every Monday I go the office at 8pm ready for my parents to call. We chat for at least 2 hours- well I say we, to be fair it is mostly me who does the talking. Those two hours are so special to me. They keep me connected to home. They allow me to stay focused and grounded and above all they keep me feeling supported and loved. Initially I thought that the lines would be back up quickly but it’s now Friday night and we’re still without the lines. Only now do I know how blessed I am to be able to talk to my parents even though they are on the other side of the world. Only now do I start to appreciate phone lines. Clearly it’s not just me who this affects- the entire village suffers. We don’t have our intercom service between all the houses and buildings which means a lot more running about to deliver simple messages. Lots of different people only have our landline number such as social workers or staff at the local hospital. For all we know there could be a child somewhere who desperately needs to be placed at the village. That child could be in a horrendous situation- they could be living in horrible conditions or worse be suffering terrible abuse. They could be lying all alone in a hospital bed just waiting for us to pick them up and give them the love and care the so desperately need and deserve. Without the phone lines we could be and am sure are missing so much.
One of the little babies was admitted to hospital on Monday as she was vomiting all weekend and so was dehydrated. We arrived at the hospital at 8am to find a full paediatric ward. Usually on a Monday the ward is quite empty as a lot of children should have been discharged the Friday so we were quite shocked to find it full. We sat for 3 hours with a poorly, uncomfortable, tired and visibly distressed little girl. She was quiet for about the first half an hour but then she was getting restless and tired so I sang to her a little and rocked her and eventually she dropped off to sleep. Then the rather (when I say rather I’m actually being extremely polite) incompetent nurse started to fill in all the admission forms. I lost count of the number of times she got up and wandered off and then came back 5 minutes later. Some of her questions were ridiculous. The baby is 5 months old and so was obviously born this year. Knowing this the nurse then asked whether the baby had previously been in hospital this year or last year! Ah! Needless to say the whole process was very frustrating. All made worse by the fact that the nurse kept poking the poor little baby with a thermometer so each time she woke up with such a fright that she started crying- who could blame her? My heart really went out to her. She was in so much distress and there was little I could do for her but sing and rock in the hope that she would somehow find comfort. Eventually we said that we would take her home and bring her back when a bed was available in the afternoon. The nurse was less than impressed and wandered off again. Miraculously 2 minutes later a bed was available and within 2 more minutes I put her down, said a little prayer over her and then left. It was heartbreaking leaving her in the knowledge that while she might receive the right medical treatment she probably wouldn’t receive any love or attention until she was discharged back to the village. All in all it took 3 hours to admit the poorly little girl. Thankfully she came home on Wednesday and looked significantly better than she did on Monday. She is now back to her smiley, noisy self. The whole experience served as a reminder not only that these kids are sick but that we are in South Africa where there are limited medical resources and medical expertise. How much to we take for granted that in the UK we have free medical care which is of extremely high quality- it may not seem like it is high quality sometimes but trust me it is. Think about that next time you complain about the NHS.
On a better note there have been some lovely memories made at the village this week in baby crèche and big crèche. I feel that maybe I’m leaving them out a little bit so here are a few pictures of some special moments..

I also did some dancing with the older children one afternoon as they’ve been asked to dance at their church next Sunday. Most of the children are now at an age where they are really starting to worship God with so much passion. You can really see the Hold Spirit moving in them as they dance! I was astounded at how quickly they picked up all the moves! By the third time through they not only had all the moves mastered but they were singing along to! The words to the song are so powerful and they sang them with such conviction! The chorus starts with "as long as I shall live I will testify the love" and they really meant it when they sang it! I felt so blessed to be among them that afternoon! After dancing we just played together in the activity centre. I really cherish these times as the children just completely relax and really show off their different personalities…