village life

As I walked over to the home of a friend today, these kids said, "hi, how are you?"  I said "Fine, how are you?" which provoked a torrent of laughter.  Somehow my appearance in combination with my voice is just too much for them.  I think they have caught on to the sound of the question, Hi how are you?  but they have no idea what it means.  I am glad to provide them some entertainment in an otherwise dreary, hot day.

These kids are from the village and do not go to school.  When you are on the school grounds of the charity I am visiting, there are thousands of kids attending school for free - an awesome sight.  It is hard to imagine that there are any more kids here that aren't in school.  However, the truth is that there are still so many kids without an education, without health care or vaccinations, and basically without  much hope for something better.

Along the way, I also saw this little house with a homemade tin bird house (better termed a bird hotel) on top.  I asked someone what kind of bird lived there, and I was told pigeons, and that they are raised to eat.  Hmmm, I wonder why the pigeons stay in the hotel if they are going to be eaten?

A family visit...  I was able to stop by and visit with John and his wife Grace.  She is holding their youngest child (of 4 children).  Some of you may remember that John is an administrator of the school and he had been kidnapped by the reels to be a soldier when he was in his teens - he is 29 now.  he tried to escape and was beaten and they hacked off his hands, ears, nose, and upper lip with a machete.  They left him for dead, but somehow he survived and was found.  Today, John lives near the school in a mud hut with his family on a small plot of land owned by Andrew Wright, the doctor from Australia I am working with here.  He is allowing John to live on the land as the caretaker.  Below is a photo of Doc Andrew on the piece of land.  He is deciding whether to build a small home on it for when he comes to help with the medical work.Andrew spent 3 months here a few years ago - has come back frequently over the last 10 years and now is planning to come back every 3 -4 months to continue to develop an outpatient clinic on the school grounds.  I 'll tell more about the medical work in a later post...  until then.