Reality bites

So this week has been crazy busy at school. We've had a teacher off and so we've been covering extra classes etc. I have also been writing a profile on each of the children that will be sent to people who want to sponsor children in the school (we want to get every child a sponsor!) Anyway, this has been a real eye opener this time. I wrote about all of them in regards to school-related stuff, then I met up with Douglas in the Providence office to find out more about their home lives. Seeing the children coming to school every day in their beautiful school uniforms we provide it is easy to forget the poverty they leave behind each morning. I have been hearing stories and looking at photos of their houses and living conditions. Heart breaking. One boy in my class lives in a 2 room house with 20 other people/children. 21 of them in 2 rooms!! He sleeps in a single bed with his mother and 2 of his sisters, which is behind a curtain in the 'living room'. Then behind another curtain is his aunt and her family on their bed. Each of his brothers and sisters has a different father. And so it goes on. But they are such a happy well adjusted family. Another girl in my class sleeps on a single mattress on the floor of her house with her brother and mother, whilst other family members do the same on their mattresses. Yet no-one complains. Another girl goes home - and goes walking thru a small stream to get there. Her father doesn't work - he lost his hand and wrist in a drunken fight. None of the family have been to school past Grade 7 (at the most, others dropped out in Grade 1). She is a mal-nourished girl. Heart-breaking.

But just so easy to forget. When the mums come to help cook and clean in the school they look so nicely dressed - easy to forget that Providence provides them with clothes in payment for helping cook and clean at school (which is their payment instead of school fees!)

These children live in sheer poverty. Yet come to school with a smile and a spring in their step.

We have a team coming from the States next week. Opthomologists etc, will be testing the eyes of all the children and people in the community and doing surgeries etc. Due to a lack of people available to translate...I've been drafted in to translate for some of the eye tests etc. HAHAHAHA!! Heaven help me! Heaven help them!