I'm just a little bit in love with you.

Today I spent most of the day making a website for TCHD. They already have one, but it is very old and has no page that describes how people can help. They desperately need funding. There is plenty of material to go up (I’ve been gathering it these past few days), and a gift catalogue with different ideas for money gifts- but no way for people to know what’s needed or how to help unless they specifically ask! It looks really good, but getting it hosted is a different question. Anyway, when we do get it up, I will most certainly put a huge link on here.

I also got to spend time in the nursery with the babies. I went right during feeding time, so all the moms were in the room. I fed Joseph. Please pray for his development. One of the nurses brought up the idea that maybe, even though we thought we found him in time, maybe there was already a lot of damage done. I keep comparing him with a normal baby’s development points (following a finger, smiling, reaching for things, etc.), and I always forget that he was found washed away in a latrine, abandoned. Today I left the nursery feeling a bit sick. I’m not sure if it was from thinking about a new born baby in a plastic bag in a latrine, or if it was from looking at and holding the other premie babies. Knowing that some of them just won’t survive is a hard thing to grasp.

Anyway, then I headed over to the pediatrics ward. Most of the kids had fallen asleep, so I didn’t stay long. But the ones who did see me all sat up with bright smiles on their faces- so excited. I had my finger over my mouth and acted out that people were sleeping and said I would come back tomorrow. Seriously, just seeing their smiles made my day. Today I was walking around the hospital grounds and saw the parents sitting out with their kids on the grass doting over them. Again, it just made me pause and think, parents really love their kids here. Just like many parents do in the United States. WHY that should make me pause – I don’t know. Maybe it’s because there were no parents at the hospitals we visited in South Africa. Maybe it’s because it might just be too much to think about how the parents must feel watching their kids waste away from hunger, malnutrition and disease.

But! A positive story- I did say I would keep those coming. I might have mentioned a teacher training workshop TCHD has been putting on these past few days. At least twenty teachers have travelled from up to 200 miles away, to stay at the Green House Training Center and learn how to become better teachers. Not academic stuff, but instead how to create positive social changes within the lives of their students AND how to encourage the children themselves to create positive changes within their families and communities. Yes, in Africa- teachers take days off, kids get substitute teachers and have field trips, just like in New York.

Tomorrow is Megan’s last day and she is travelling back to Nairobi. The nurses have also found a home for Joseph, so he will be going in the van leaving tomorrow. I am going to miss him! I have to make sure to get a picture of him before he goes! We are celebrating Megan’s last night with a dessert party at the Fitzwaters. Then we are heading up to Mount Montigo to stargaze. Already the stars look SOO big here because we’re 7,000 feet up. I can’t wait to see what they look like from Mount Montigo!! The Whites camped up there a few weeks ago- I wish I could do that!