Community Visits and the PM Shift

Our first rostered shift at the orphanage was to undertake the PM shift with the children. Prior to this we went with one of the founders of the orphanage to do some community visits including providing clothing and food to those in need. There are so many children that genuinely require assistance- we stopped in on one family whose father recently died and the mother is struggling to care for her five children. The eldest child who is just 16 has just had her own child which complicates things even further. Sahra took great delight in giving the children biscuits to nibble on- the smiles on their faces were amazing. We left some clothes and grain for the family, perhaps Sahra and I will revisit them before we leave and provide some further support.

We picked up Mamma Agnes a respected community elder who then guided us through the rabbit warren of streets to get to our next family. This family has endured the death of two children in the last month- one from cancer and the other from a heart condition. The mothers eyes were really expressive of the grief that she felt inside- her youngest daughter arrived home from school just as we were leaving- she was beautiful.

When we returned to the orphanage I did some manual labouring before the PM shift started while Sahra provided assistance in the kitchen. At 4.30pm we started our shift- the children are beautiful and they each have their own personalities, some are cheeky and as you can imagine with 43 kids under one roof their manners need some work. They love to sing and dance and always want a hug. Watching over so many children with only three people on watch requires some serious juggling. They need to be fed, bathed and changed each night before bed- the whole exercise takes several hours and did I mention they're all under seven, I've lost count of the amount of times I've been asked "what's your name' and I left out the thirty minutes of worship which they have each evening. The orphanage has a strong religious influence which adds an interesting twist. Overall the children were great but it was an immensely long day but very rewarding- off to bed at 9.30pm- Sahra's been asleep for an hour.