The Beginning of Home Visits

Yesterday, we began home visits. The Family Needs Assessment forms take a lot longer than we had expected. We DID manage to visit 10 orphans and their families, BUT we spent 9 hours straight doing these surveys! Which means-- including the half hour of walking to and from work-- I was essentially walking for 10 hours yesterday. Tiring as it was, it was incredibly rewarding. I can't get photos to upload on any computer I've found here, BUT I will try to get pictures out ASAP.

Today, we continued with home visits, but we only made it through 5. We were all tired from yesterday, plus, (in my opinion) some of the visits today were a lot more emotionally challenging. We began this morning with a visit to an adorable 11-year-old boy who has AIDS, who is sick, and who may have been perscribed the wrong dosage of ARVs, which is making him even more sick. The situation in itself is sad, but what made the visit heartbreaking was how loving his family was towards him. His grandmother, who took him after his parents died, wasn't there, but her brother was. Every chance he got, this boy's great-uncle was hugging him. As we were leaving, they asked us to stay and to eat oranges with them.

At least for me, I was walking a lot slower for the rest of the day... worrying about the boy's medication, and wondering what it must be like to watch as a child you love dies. Pretty heavy, to say the least.

On the bright side of things, we got one of the smaller, quieter girls to have lunch with us. We suspect she is not getting enough food at home, and despite her TINY size (she's somewhere between 2 and 3 years old), she ate two mini-cakes, half of a large avocado, and half of a cucumber. Between mouthfuls, she managed to tell me she loved avocados-- the first thing she's ever said to me-- so I promised her I would bring her another tomorrow.

With 15 down, that leaves 12 more home-visits to go. I don't think we'll finish tomorrow, but the work has been good, and it feels like we are accomplishing a lot. I am also realizing how much support these children and their families need, and hoping that we can get what they need to them, as soon as possible.