Left Behind

11-6-2008

We got an earlier start this morning, and with only one stop at the cabinet shop, we arrived at the orphanage the earliest we’ve been there to date – 11A.

Several rooms are painted and one room is wired. We’re making progress!!



It was generally a sad day at the orphanage; it was most difficult for some of us as the facts of living in poverty weighed on us heavily. We’ve dealt with the cuts and bruises, minor infections, belly aches, and ear aches, but today seemed senseless in several ways.

First, let me say that this is a harsh land that they have to live in and the kids are brought up without any pampering, forcing them to try and survive – survival of the fittest. Even in a solid family environment, there seems to be little caring or empathy from a U.S. perspective although we know a lot of this is just cultural differences. The orphanage workers, although providing care, do not seem to be concerned with how a child is feeling, but perhaps it’s just that there is no perceived alternative.

Today was hair cutting day and Shantel broke out a razor blade! She proceeded to shave the kid’s heads while they cried whenever a corner would nick their scalp. Literally she held a raw razor blade – no handle, no widget – and shaved their head. While doing so, they ended up with more than a 100 nicks and cuts, and sat there in silence afterward waiting for the pain to subside.

We were horrified and Shannin insisted that they stop - they were puzzled. Shannin asked Gabi why they didn’t just use clippers. He stated that they had never seen a pair of clippers and this was just the way it was. Even if you dismiss the pain that the kids endure, it seems silly to needlessly subject them to infection. Gabi told us that this was the way he received his haircuts growing up, and this was very common even among the middle class. Shannin put her foot down and said she would buy a pair of clippers with batteries so they could resume the hair cutting. Shantel was excited at the prospect of using this new fangled gadget for cutting hair!


While we were there a Mother arrived with 2 small children: Honore’





and his sister Paula. The kids were lethargic and malnourished, and their Mother was an amputee from a car accident that she had been in. She walked the kids in saying that she was there to drop them off – she was leaving them there! We learned that their Father died (from disease) and she could no longer take care of them. There were no tears, no goodbyes, no hugs; she simply dropped them off, signed the needed papers, and asked for bus fare back to the city. The kids were heartbroken, but did not shed a single tear. This was more than Shannin could handle and she broke down sobbing, slapped in the face with deplorable conditions in which there is no alternative.

What seems strange is that with new arrivals, in this situation, you would think that the local Orphanage workers would try and make the new kids feel welcome, but they didn’t. They barely spoke and simply pushed them into the circle of other kids. Apparently they’ll get the basic human needs filled here without the luxury of affection. Since most in this society are religious, we’re going to try and use the examples of Christ to show how he ministered to the heart first and try and change a little of the culture. I realize that we can't, and shouldn't, impose our culture on them, but this seems a universal need that has been lost here.


Honore’ is sick and has diarrhea so Shannin bathed and put some new clothes on him since no one else did. She pushed some vitamins into him, water, and a little food so hopefully he’ll look a little better tomorrow. Paula seems to have had to be independent, for a little while, so she began to respond to her new environment by the end of the day - interacting with the other children.

The word is out – people as far as 40km away have heard that we’re at the orphanage and arrived today to try and sell us some African crafts. It’s crazy in a society, where few have cell phones and there are no road signs, that they would know exactly where to find us.


Tonight must be National Burn Your Trash Night as we went to bed to the smell and smog of burning tires and trash. There is no trash pickup so people burn their trash to get rid of it, and since trash doesn’t burn so well, they’ll use old tires to get the fire hot.

I know we keep talking about the pollution, but you simple cannot imagine it. I’ve tried to capture a picture of it, but it doesn’t do it justice. We are experiencing some respitory distress and could use a little help from the big man upstairs to get us through the remainder of the week. I’ve joked that in order to acclimate, we would need to pick up smoking in the US for a month before we come out here.