Medicine For The Soul

George: None of us are medical professionals! Although, Shannin and Paul did take a year off of college to go through EMT school – it’s more of a “pack-n-go” though. What little we know seems to be going a long way. The Pierro’s leg (the one that was filleted) is healing wonderfully. While Mercy For Children has no official church affiliation, the eight of us are indeed Adventist and attend the Florida Hospital Church in Orlando. The pastoral staff there is awesome and employs true Christian principles; one in which an individual is challenged to think and form their own conviction about what is presented. There are two services there and we go to the contemporary one; sometimes leading out in Praise. Father Gabriel is obviously Catholic and the local Passionists are also Catholic. We are a multi-faith organization though, with Jews and even Muslims in the mix; each following the whispers of God to do what he or she can. If you’re ever in Orlando, we’d love to see you and put you up.

Teri: thank you so much for your encouraging words! They come as such a blessing to us and really fill our souls! Teri, Shannin says she could really go for “coffee time”! Love to the Maksoudians…Tell Noelle & Chloe the kids say hello and miss them!

David (Sunshine): Thank you for your comments…What happened to you? We haven’t heard from you in a couple of days!

Adrian: Livy lost a tooth, have you lost any yet?
Vickie: There are other orphanages, but few are taken care of and Gabi says that some of them resemble a concentration camp – in fact, some of our kids have come from other orphanages very malnourished. There are a couple that have asked Mercy For Children to take them over, but there simply isn’t the funding yet. We are looking into it for the future though.

(Zach and Fortina)

Mom P: Yes, there are dogs here, but we have not noticed any particular breeds. All of them are skinny and medium to large sized mutts. Perhaps, the fat ones get eaten.

Ape: Yes you made Shan laugh…all of us! We love you very much and we really enjoy your comments…see you are funny! Very funny!!

To all of you: We love you all very much and your comments are truly just the encouragement we need for each new day. We serve an awesome powerful God, and we are humbled to be here serving him in the DRC. Today is a good day! It is our Sabbath, and what could be a better way to spend it!

With the fighting going on in Goma we have noticed an increased military presence. I failed to mention yesterday that, while coming back to Kinshasa after our lovely lunch in the mountains, we passed through a military checkpoint. The military in the DRC is seldom paid and quite frequently the soldiers will ask for a “gift” for keeping everyone safe. Sounds a bit like paying the Italian mafia for protection from the Italian Mafia. We paid them the equivalent of $0.75 which they accepted and we went on our way. It is quite common for Gabi and Father Emery, but it does make the Americans in the group a little nervous. No worries though, we’ve had no problems.

The military do not like their picture taken and this photo was shot from the car as we passed by. Didn’t really mean to take it as I was shooting something else, but I continued to click away as we passed them.

David A: Nyesha’s shoes came from Samantha in Collegedale, TN. We learned that she had to save up her money for 4 months before she could buy them, but chose to sacrifice and give them to an orphan in Africa. Special girl and her shoes also went to a special girl. We hand carried these rather than pack them in the crate to make sure that her sacrifice was fully realized. Nyesha is eternally grateful.

Nathan: Christian says that he plans to pump up the volume (in the classroom) when he gets back.

Luke: Christian says that he’s in chapter 15 in FE.

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We’ve found a little 600 sq. ft. modern grocery store that we have nick-named “Publix.” They have a lot of the usual junk we’re used to like Peanut Butter, whole grain bread, yogurt, and yes potatoes chips. We’ve elected to start bringing our lunch to the orphanage so that we can save the time of getting shuttled to a nearby monastery for the noon-time meal. Since we arrive around 11A, it doesn’t make any sense to leave 45 min. later to waste another 2 hours for lunch.

We’ve noticed that the little boy that received the haircut, the day before, now has a lot of infected soars on his head. Too bad he didn’t get saved by Mama Shah-neen (Shannin) before he had to endure the razor blade trim.

Progress on the building is moving along. Painting is about 50% completed on both the inside and outside. Electric is slow as Paul and Doug try to show them how it should be done before they move onto something else. Later they return to survey the progress and then need to correct some of the mistakes. Probably would be better just to sit there and watch, but no one likes to sit around. Paul has started drawing the diagrams in the dirt in order to try and make it clearer.

Today we brought the kid’s clothes to the orphanage that we had brought with us. The kids were extremely excited and lined up at the door to the multi-purpose room by youngest to oldest. Since Americans are generally on the “healthier” side and African have a tendency to have a minimal body fat percentage, we’re running into an issue with sizes. We’ve got a dozen pairs of husky pants and no one to put them on. Some of the clothes, and there larger waist bands, have puzzled some of the locals. So let’s just call it what it is, we’re fat and could probably lose a few.

Each kid would proudly pick out his new clothes and go through a quick fitting session, march over to John (the orphanage worker) so he could write their name on them, and the do a little fashion show strut to Shantel’s singing. They were so proud of their new second-hand clothes and immediately proceeded to put them away for a special occasion; putting their old clothes back on.

Once they discovered that we had shoes, a frenzy broke out. Shoes are a very coveted item here and the order that we had previously maintained, with them marching in two by two, was transformed into chaos. While the clothes were divided up over the span of an hour, the shoes took all of 5 min!

Near the end, we kind of left the left-over clothes unattended and the kids proceeded to grab as many of them as they could – even ones that didn’t fit – and horde them away. It’s easy to criticize this behavior and the apparent lack of discipline, but I guess this level of poverty just simply creates or programs the behavior. It simply cannot be overcome even though we tell them that there is plenty to go around or we’re sending lots more. It’s sad, but a product of the conditions.

Every single thing of value in this country has some sort of lock on it or protection around it. Whether it be a home (it will have tall wall around it), car, or shoes. If it is unattended, and freely accessed, then you must not want it anymore. The old government (before the 1997 war) erected a tall monument of National Pride, and put a sample of the most valuable natural resources this country had to offer: silver, gold, diamonds, uranium, copper, and iron ore. The government thought this monument would be impossible to scale as it sits at least 300 ft. tall. Guess what? Someone climbed to the top and stole the goodies. Several others died in the process. It feels like a total lack of respect, of other people’s property, when in fact it starts as a product of the environment and then quickly becomes a way of life. It’s similar in Honduras.

Sadly, Fortina was crying that he didn’t get any shoes. His feet were just too small for the shoes that we had. We loved on him and he was smiling in no time.

It’s interesting to note that Shantel was much more affectionate with the kids today. She gave one of the kids a piggy back ride (like we’ve been doing) and has been joking around with the kids; even singing them songs while they strutted in their new clothes. One of the women (Annie), commented to Nellie on how much we like to hold the kids and was marveling as to why. Father Gabriel thinks that we have made a silent impact with just our example…we’re hopeful.

I know I gave a little background on Fortina in one of the earlier posts, but can’t remember if I mentioned that when we first arrived he was one of the new kids at the orphanage; having only been there a couple of months. Gabi has been worried about him as he has not been very interactive and hasn’t gained much weight. In the few short days that we’ve been here, he has absolutely blossomed. Earlier, Zach has been carrying him around everywhere, but now he is bouncing between all of us, always ready and willing to flash a smile when his name is called. While Gabi’s original concern was that perhaps he had a medical condition, turns out, all he needed was a little TLC. He is the neatest little guy.

Honore’ and Paula (the new arrivals) seem to be responding well with the affection and new surroundings. Paula is very interactive and we got Honore’ to smile today with a little tickling game.

We had a new orphan dropped off last night. We don’t have the background yet, but will fill you in when we do.

Some of you might wonder…all of the kids at the Mercy For Children orphanage are screened for various diseases including HIV. The sad thing is that if they are found to be positive, they will be forced to leave as there is no care for them and they will endanger the other kids. It’s a true death sentence and the thought sending kids away to die is unconscionable.

Honore’ and Paula have yet to be tested for HIV, but if found positive, they too will have to leave.

(Honore’s and Paula’s Mom)