Prisoners of War…Almost

11-8-2008

Tim: Yes, we can indeed ship to the orphanage. Mercy For Children is arranging their first container containing clothes, tools, supplies, and a vehicle. Anything you would like to donate would be welcome.

Bob P: Good to see you on the blog…just wanted to say hi.

Today was a good day as we woke up to electricity. In fact, right when my feet hit the floor, it came back on, which means we can have toast for breakfast!! Unfortunately we came home to no power which means that we won’t have a fan for going to sleep; not for the noise in order to drown out the music that people like to play into the wee hours of the morning, but for the movement of the stale, humid, hot air on our perspiring bodies. Oh well…at least we had toast.

We arrived at the orphanage expecting the usual mob of children running out to greet us, but today…nothing! It was a ghost town and Zach started whistling the famous Wild West whistle (can’t think of the movie) expecting to see a tumbleweed roll through. We hunted for the kids and discovered that it was bath time and everyone had gone down to the river for their bath. It seems strange that while the new bathrooms have showers, the children and staff still elect to go to the river to bathe. It’s probably more fun that way, but for health reasons, we should attempt to get them to take their last bath of the day in the shower.

Progress is moving along on the building, but we’re a little behind schedule. The concern is really the wiring as we’re missing some supplies needed to complete it. 2 rooms have tested out fine and hopefully we can get it close enough for the locals to follow some simple directions to completion.

Ashton slept most of the day as he has not been feeling well. Hopefully he’ll do a little better tomorrow as his “team” is waiting to play. This is a pic, right after he woke up, with his guys.

We had a staff meeting with all of the orphanage workers to try and bridge the gap and uncerstand the concerns that they have in caring for the kids. Yvonne (the caretaker/teacher) said the most beautiful thing. She said, “Your visit here has taught us many things. It is like the brightest light making everything clear.” She pledged to be praying for us as we travel back home. Perhaps our example has caused them to think about the possibilities of what could be.

(Paul filming Bati)

We also discussed that this orphanage is going to be a place of international gatherings and that each culture would have to learn from the other. One example is the trash; although trash here in the congo is simply disposed of outside the door, culturally speaking we feel that most Americans would see this as the locals not taking pride in their orphanage. While this isn’t the case, we probably can’t afford the “bad press” and have elected to have them dispose of the trash in a mini-landfill.

We also asked the staff for their needs. With 52 children, the one cook, the one laundry lady, and the two care takers are feeling the strain. It’s no wonder that the clothes the children wear are dirty when you have 52 kids playing in the dirt all day and then 1 woman to wash the clothes by hand. While it would be simple enough to send them a washing machine, there is no way to plug it in. We going to need to bump up the staff.

Making sure the staff is well taken care of is also our concern. How could they possibly have the energy to attend to the individual needs of the kids if they themselves are worn out? We’ve got to get this place running more like a well oiled machine, but we’re still in the early stages.

It’s interesting to note that I’ve seen 6 Albino Africans while I’ve been here. I probably pass that many in the U.S. in the course of a week, but they don’t quite stand out the way that they do here. One guy grabbed an albino as he was walking by our parked Landcruiser, and shouted that “Look! You are the same.” Funny.

(A fun dancing game we played with the kids)

Today we were stopped at a traffic stop. The two military guys demanded the car registration and the driver’s license then ordered us to pull over. Gabi got out of the car and walked back to them to discuss what was wrong. Panic started to come over a few of us as Paul used his phone to get a fix on our GPS coordinates and readied to call the Embassy’s hotline. Doug pulled out his hidden fanny pack and started to shove his money into in case they rifled through our stuff. We stowed our memory cards in case they took the cameras, and then sat poised, ready for any contingency.

Turns out they were traffic cops and claimed that it was illegal to have our cooler on the front seat. Hmmmm, in a country where we have seen people riding on the outside of the car at 50mph or riding on the roof – literally the roof, this seemed ridiculous. The 2 officers held their ground, but claimed that the whole mess could go away if we paid them a little money - therein lies the rub. Gabi told the two that they were nuts and to give him a ticket and he would fight it in court. Eventually, they let him go and we went on our way – a little sleepy from the adrenaline rush we had just been through. Situations seem so much larger when you don’t understand the language and only here the shouting. I think Zach soiled himself. :-)