Wednesday, May 2 2007

Today we went to two orphanages out near Red-light. Both have been closed at least a year and the children are still there. The first had no food because the WFP has finally cut them off. Many of the children had chicken pox and for the most part looked malnourished. They are so resilient however, hamming it up for the camera and playing little games with us. It makes it hard to show the desperation of their situation when they are so over the top with the camera. It's almost as if they don't realize how bad their conditions are. Time and time again it's just a few tattered mattresses on the bare concrete floor. It is all so common place it almost seems clichéd sharing it with people at home. We left a bag of rice and Matt and I talked briefly with the director, Reverend Kofa, about portion sizes. He seemed receptive but it just seems these guys are just waiting to be rescued. There is no initiative on their part. They were cooking inside the house for Gods sake. When we got back home we did a little research on this guy and he only had 19 children last year. Now he is up to 48. I don't get the thought process. If you can't provide for the first 19 and you get shut down what is the point in taking on another 29. It is so angering and frustrating. On the other hand, though, most of these directors really do care about the children. Maybe he just had to take them in. Friday we are going to have the difficult conversation with Kofa about reunifying the children. We can't help unless he agrees. If we can get him down under ten real orphans then he can have a foster home that is so much more manageable. The whole deal is so very frustrating with this feeding program. I feel like this is going to be where I am going to excel this time but none of us are getting a great vibe about any of the orphanages we have seen. I desperately want God to just give me some sort of insight into how this is supposed to look and whom we are supposed to help. I feel like I am ready to have these hard conversations and to do the teaching that comes with the undertaking of a feeding program. It can be so hard to teach common sense to people that are much older than me. I don't want to be to heavy handed. To be the all-knowing white man does not appeal to me, but at some point I do know more than they do. The second orphanage was a guy with 35 kids that got evicted from his home and they were staying on the porch of another orphanage that has been closed since 2004. The whole thing had a really bad vibe. It was a sizable compound with broken down vehicles littering the grounds and lots of building. We toured the entire facility and there was plenty of space for everyone but they would only let the evicted director, Marcus, have a porch of one of the buildings. When we were walking around we met two of the older boys. They both had cell phones and nicer watches. I just did not like the whole situation. Before we left we gave them each a bag of rice. Then the old lady gathered all the kids and they sang a song about helping orphans. It all seemed so rehearsed. I did not like it. I doubt we will be helping them. When we got home Mariel and I started playing some wiffle ball and it started raining. The guys came out too and we played for at least an hour or two. They kept hitting homers over the wall and we would all run out and try to find the ball. Steven from across the way came up to me all freaked out like there was something wrong. I explained to him that we were playing baseball and Mariel had hit a home run. He said "For true?" It was hilarious for our neighbors and us as we played in the rain that Africans stay away from.