The end of an era

Into the community we went again this week. A few years ago a little girl who was staying at the village was adopted into a family in the local community because it turned out that praise the Lord she was HIV negative. It was her birthday on Saturday so all the crèche children were invited to her birthday party. When we arrived there were already lots of adults and children crammed into a tent but we were ushered in to find seats which I assume had been left especially for us. We were apparently the guests of honour- and obviously Robbie, Tamara, Yvonne and I were the only white people there so that was an even bigger thing for them. I’m now used to almost always in the minority so being stared at is nothing new to me now. Whenever we go to the local hospital people stare, whenever we go to KFC people stare- that’s just the way things go and I’m fine with it. Anyway I digress. So we were the guests of honour and Yvonne was asked to make a speech. While she was talking I looked around the room at all the faces and I knew that well over half of them would be infected with HIV. Perhaps even more disturbing I knew that a good proportion of the children would be subject to some form of abuse be it verbal or physical everyday. The whole experience served as a reminder that while HIV and even TB are rife in this country we forget that while these children have that to deal with they are sometimes suffering horrific abuse from those that should love them unconditionally. We were there quite a long time and were offered so much food- birthday cake, then sweets, then crisps, then chicken with rice, then fruit and yoghurt. The food just kept coming and people just kept eating more and more. I’ve no idea how they could afford to buy so much food! Music constantly played in the background and lots of the children got up and danced. Again like our children they have such natural rhythm! We ended up sitting outside as it got far too hot in the tent. It was good to cool down but our kids then started to wander about and it was rather difficult to keep track of them all. There were lots of men drinking beer like it was water outside and one of our kids went and sat with them. We were quite worried that they might try and give him some beer so we kept a close eye one him. Then a few of them went off exploring as children do so I went off in search to find them playing with some other children which of course was harmless enough. However with lots of drunken men wandering about and lots of disgusting looking dogs (most likely with rabies) looking for food it wasn’t safe for them so they needed to stay with us. All in all it was an interesting shall we say day and a good way to remind myself of where I am in the world and what I and everyone else needs to pray for!

The schools and big crèche finished for the year on Friday so we had a wee party in crèche to celebrate a fantastic year and to say goodbye to the children who will be leaving us and starting school in January. 5 of the big crèche children- literally half of the crèche- left so it was quite an emotional moment to realise that never again will crèche be the way it was. In January we get a new influx of the younger children from baby crèche so the whole dynamic of the group will totally chance. For now though we have 6 weeks break. 6 weeks to prepare for a new year. It’s so good to think that a few years ago no one thought that we would ever be in a position to have so many of the children at the village going to school. Last year unfortunately we lost 4 children to HIV/AIDS but this year the Lord has truly blessed us and we’ve not had any losses. One little girl who is 6 nearly died so many times last year. But now she is doing so well and she’s going to start school in January- again we have been so blessed! Wow there’s so much to be thankful for! Here are a few pics of the party we had. The last one is a pic of the 5 children who are going off to school. Please pray for them that they would really be able to use the next 6 weeks to prepare themselves for their futures and that they would thrive in school.