So I have not been very good about blogging lately. Sorry.
There are 55 kids at the orphanage presently. I have been working for the last couple of week to register them. I prepared a registration form that we are using for all the kids at the orphanage. We are gathering information on each child such as their name and any other names the go by, their date of birth (40 of the 55 children do not know their birth date, several of them do not even know the year they were born so they guess at how old they really are), health information, current class in school and their guardian’s name, relationship, phone (if available). We are also gathering information on their parents – whether alive or deceased and any health information they have on their parents or their families. We are taking pictures of each child and pictures of them with their sibling, if they are at the orphanage also. Of the 55 kids, we have 11 sibling pairs. I took all of this information and put it, along with the picture of each child and their sibling’s picture into a spreadsheet. (Imagine that!) That took quite a bit of time as I could only register a few kids per day because it took time and they were not all around at the same time. But, we only have one more sibling pair picture to take then we are finished registering all the kids. Yeah!!
I have learned that the definition of “orphan” in Malawi is not the same as the definition we think of. When I think of an orphan, I think of a child with no mother and no father or a child whose parents have relinquished rights to them. That does not appear to be the case here. Most of the children have a living parent but that parent is not able to take care of them. Of the 55 children, we have 10 orphans by our definition. We believe an orphans here is a child in need, whether or not they have a parent – a child whose guardian is not able to care for them.
On a different note, it is avocado season right now so I’ve been purchasing avocados. I made a great salad the other evening with tomatoes, cucumbers and avocados. The price of them is unbelievable. I purchased two avocados at the market yesterday for a total of K100 (71 cents). These avocados are huge and for those of you who know me, you know what I made - guacamole dip. So, I had guac dip for breakfast this morning. It was wonderful.
Have a great day. We are off to see the kids.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
It’s the small things
Fri, Jan 9, 2009
Ray laughed because I was appreciating the small things this morning. I was appreciating the small cubes of frozen water that were floating around in my glass. I haven’t seen them in such a long time, I forgot what they are. Ray thinks they are called “ice”.
When we got our new refrigerator, we got a small ice cube tray with it. We don’t drink the water here and only drink filtered or bottled water. So, last night I put some filtered water in the tray and this morning, life was good!!!
It’s some of the smaller things in life that we are learning to appreciate.
On a more serious note, we had a major rain storm in the middle of the night. Rolling thunder like I have never heard before - hugely authoritative. At one point, Ray said, “Tell me God is not in that thunder.” We also had a lightning strike on our property. That was weird. It was a huge sound, a loud pop then the lights went out. Ray thought it hit a transformer outside our house but when he looked out the house across the street had power. As soon as he flipped the circuit breaker in our house (yes, our house has circuit breakers), the power came back on.
On Tuesday, we were at the orphanage and Esther, four of the older girls and I mended some of the younger girls clothes. Wow. These were clothes that we would have tossed a long time ago. The dress I was mending was very worn and was hard to mend. Anyway, we mended several dresses and now these few small girls don’t have “see through” clothes. It was funny because one of the girls tried her mended dress on and it was a bit snugger. Ok, it was a lot snugger. Maybe it’s time to either hand them down or use them inside furniture. (The stuffing used inside furniture made here is strips of old clothes.)
In Pastor Keith’s words, “Blessings on your day!”
Ray laughed because I was appreciating the small things this morning. I was appreciating the small cubes of frozen water that were floating around in my glass. I haven’t seen them in such a long time, I forgot what they are. Ray thinks they are called “ice”.
When we got our new refrigerator, we got a small ice cube tray with it. We don’t drink the water here and only drink filtered or bottled water. So, last night I put some filtered water in the tray and this morning, life was good!!!
It’s some of the smaller things in life that we are learning to appreciate.
On a more serious note, we had a major rain storm in the middle of the night. Rolling thunder like I have never heard before - hugely authoritative. At one point, Ray said, “Tell me God is not in that thunder.” We also had a lightning strike on our property. That was weird. It was a huge sound, a loud pop then the lights went out. Ray thought it hit a transformer outside our house but when he looked out the house across the street had power. As soon as he flipped the circuit breaker in our house (yes, our house has circuit breakers), the power came back on.
On Tuesday, we were at the orphanage and Esther, four of the older girls and I mended some of the younger girls clothes. Wow. These were clothes that we would have tossed a long time ago. The dress I was mending was very worn and was hard to mend. Anyway, we mended several dresses and now these few small girls don’t have “see through” clothes. It was funny because one of the girls tried her mended dress on and it was a bit snugger. Ok, it was a lot snugger. Maybe it’s time to either hand them down or use them inside furniture. (The stuffing used inside furniture made here is strips of old clothes.)
In Pastor Keith’s words, “Blessings on your day!”
Thursday, January 8, 2009
More kids and haircuts
Jan 7, 2008
So it appears that our last entry was about New Year’s Eve. Well it has been relatively quiet since then and we have not had any lizards in our bed since then either. Thank you Lord. I woke up in the middle of the night last night and couldn’t believe how quiet it really was. I thought maybe I was back in the states instead of Malawi.
Most of the children are not at the orphanage at the present time. Most of them have been sent home for “holiday” and are supposed to start returning any time now.
However, there are now two more new children at the orphanage --Joseph is 12 and his sister Agness is 8. Their mother left them originally in the care of their 14 year old sister. The mother is very sick. The 14 year old is now pregnant so the dropped Joseph and Agness off with an auntie so she could go die in peace. The children have different fathers and both fathers died of HIV/AIDS. The auntie could not keep the children as she has a family of 12 herself – 8 of those are orphans she is caring for. So her husband kicked her out of the home because of these two additional children. She came to the orphanage with one of Esther’s friends, begging for them to be allowed to stay at the orphanage. After some discussion, Stephano agreed and now there are two additional children at the orphanage.
With time I am sure they will adjust. Joseph was crying the day after they arrived and seemed to be a bit scared. Agness was isolated when she was at home with her mother and seemed to isolate herself at the orphanage too. It will take time for them to adjust. They both have been assigned a “friend”, a partner to help them learn the ropes of the orphanage. Maybe after more of the kids return, they will be more comfortable.
I forgot to mention that we got our 2nd Malawi haircuts since we’ve been here. Oh -- what can I say. Ray says that I miss the food from the US and he misses a good haircut that looks like it got cut with something other than hedge clippers. His first haircut was much better than the second one. My second one is much better than the first. We are trying different places until we find one that either we both like or is adequate until we get home. Esther has a barber come with his clippers to the orphanage periodically and both Ray & I have considered sitting down in his chair and having him shave our heads like the kids. Well, Ray has considered this more than me, actually. All I can say is that right now, it’s a good thing we can’t post pictures, huh?
Thursday, January 1, 2009
New Year’s Eve Celebration – Malawi Style
On Sunday in church, it was announced that the orphanage was having a prayer service at 2:00 PM so went over for the prayer service but they didn’t have it. They were planning a “crossover into the new year prayer vigil” but we have been told by several people that we need to be home before dark so we did not attend. So we went home, ate dinner then watched “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. The grocery store finally had popcorn so I made popcorn in our big metal pan made out of old car parts. No microwave popcorn for us – oh, no microwave either. So I made popcorn on the stove (cooker) and we broke out the M&M’s that Jamie brought us when she was here in November. Thanks Jamie, it was a great treat.
Then the LOUD music started about 9:30 – this was the “thumper” music. It sounded to me like this music was louder than the Christmas Eve music. I think it was because it was directly across the street from us this time as opposed to up the street. We also had lots of fireworks with this music. Then we had dueling music and they were both loud. Unbelievable. And there is absolutely nothing that anyone does about it. Whether it is New Year’s Eve or any other day of the week – no one cares. We closed the windows in the bedroom before we went to bed even though it is really hot with them closed. We put earplugs in, rolled over and hoped we were tired enough to tune it out.
I fell asleep because a little bit after midnight, Ray woke me up to say “Happy New Year”. He said it was really loud at midnight but I slept right through it - must have been the good ear plugs.
This was one of those nights that we wish we would have had a blackout because it would have been quieter but no blackout – we had power all night.
Happy 2009 everyone!!
May God bless you in this new year.
Then the LOUD music started about 9:30 – this was the “thumper” music. It sounded to me like this music was louder than the Christmas Eve music. I think it was because it was directly across the street from us this time as opposed to up the street. We also had lots of fireworks with this music. Then we had dueling music and they were both loud. Unbelievable. And there is absolutely nothing that anyone does about it. Whether it is New Year’s Eve or any other day of the week – no one cares. We closed the windows in the bedroom before we went to bed even though it is really hot with them closed. We put earplugs in, rolled over and hoped we were tired enough to tune it out.
I fell asleep because a little bit after midnight, Ray woke me up to say “Happy New Year”. He said it was really loud at midnight but I slept right through it - must have been the good ear plugs.
This was one of those nights that we wish we would have had a blackout because it would have been quieter but no blackout – we had power all night.
Happy 2009 everyone!!
May God bless you in this new year.
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