This morning started with a cold shower and breakfast. I actually got up to go and get bread. The guys told me that because cause of the riots the bread has had to be collected and apparently it tasted better than that which was delivered… not sure the logic of that but anyway.
Church was good. I saw John and spoke to him, that felt really good. I saw Thabo who is thee most malnourished kid I have ever seen. He arrived here sick but Iris has been looking after him and managed I think to help him increase his weight but got sick again and went into hospital and came out worse and so each time he is sick now he never quite recovers to the same level as before.
I had some of the kids from the rubbish dump sitting with me which was great, and again I got covered in ash.
Church wasn’t too long – We wanna see Jesus lifted high sung in Portuguese with me singing it in English I am sure really blessed the Lord!
Quick bite of lunch then off with Tracey. She has her own car. Being out with her today has been a real blessing. Just chatting about life in Mozambique and watching what was once a beautiful life before the civil war. Today I saw kids washing in the sewers and driving though the streets saw people fighting over food.
We went to the poshest western Mall in Maptuto. I don’t think it is open long.
Tracey, Yolanda (Tracey’s house aunt) and I took 8 kids from her house into the Mall. Today (for the most of them) was a totally new experience. The Mall has a very grand entrance will mirrored glass on the roof. I wish you could have seen the kids looking at their refection above their heads. Next was the escalator. Ruthe and others had never been on one before. Watching their faces riding this for the first time, not knowing what to do except jump on and trust. It was magical. There I was walking though this mall with 8 orphans gazing at all the glitzy shops full of clothes and shoes. We went into the kids’r’us shop to get a t shirt for Tino and good Sunday shoes for the boys. The kids just kept staring at the mirrors, they had never seen so many in one place.
Next was a trip into the supermarket. This makes Shoprite look rubbish. The supermarket felt like one in the west and had all the things I would find there. So I pushed a trolley round with 3 kids in it. Tracey had a trolley made from a car with 2 girls in it and Yolana had the other three in another trolley. – it was a riot!
When Tracey drives through the capital and has beggars come to her car she gives them small packets of biscuits which she buys here. Packets of biscuits for 3 meticals roughly 6p!
Yolanda walked around the shop quite mesmerised. Today was obviously her 1st time in a shop like this. I was walking through this shop as a white western with orphans struggling to work out how they see this or bring to put this into place in their lives. Maybe they don’t maybe this doesn’t effect them at all the way it does me. Maybe I think too much but it's how I process what I am seeing around me.
Anyway. So..some shopping later, a Mozambican sim card and credit, a tip to the guy who watched the car, another tip to the guy who helped us load the car and another one to the guy who watched the car while we were inside- we finally were on our way to Ice Cream in the park. My feeling was that this was a big day out for them, I do hope that this was the cause….
The park was beautiful and no doubt if they were not living with Tracey they would not get these treats whether at Iris or with a family member.
At the park ice cream was ordered and they saw one of the other girls, Martha, who used to be at the centre with them. She has been adopted to a French/Beligum couple. I just don’t comprehend how it must feel for either party to see each other. Maybe I have to thank God that they are maybe too young to understand how different each others lives are.
A play on the swings and run in the park and then off to the hospital. We paid 20mts (41p) for parking in the grounds, but with 8 kids some how it seemed worth it.
Tracey and I headed off to see Tino. He is on the HIV kids unit. I went on hospital ministry here on my last trip and didn’t see anything too grim but today felt harder. Today I really knew and had taken to heart the ill child lying before me. The Tino I remember is the one I watch on my video at home – the 3 sec clip of him and me. The one who would eat a bowl of rice when he has his photo taken. The one who ran into my arms to be picked up and held, the one who out of all the kids I desperately struggled to leave and he never really left my mind when I got back to England the last time. This is NOT the Tino I saw today.
Today I saw a very sick helpless 5yr old orphan boy with a Tia (paid carer) looking after him, feeding him yogurt through a tube which had not been changed for over 10 days; a boy who has lost his sight and any use of his arms and legs and only cries when he is moved; one little boy who’s body is on fire with whatever has caused his deterioration in the last 4 weeks. 5 weeks ago he was most probably walking, talking, seeing and laughing now he is just waiting to die. There is nothing gentle about his care, the Tia seems rough when she is cleaning and feeding him, I am sure in her own way she does care but its not the care a loving mother would give her dying son. If ever I was going to adopt a kid and take a kid under my wing the way Tracey has done with Filishmina the Tino is it for me, even now I still hold and love him for as long as he has left.
The ward he is on is an HIV AIDS ward. Before we arrived the kid next to him had some sort of emergency and the Dr’s were rushing him off to OR. Well whatever the equilivant is here, but the blood and bodily fluids were still on the bed and blood was all over the floor, kids from the other beds were walking though this. It’s an HIV unit! Hello! does anyone not see risk, does anyone really care. The relatives arrived for visiting hours and the other people on the ward had to tell them what had happened to the kid. The children’s unit is over crowded at the moment with 2 kids to a bed. The kids are under 18mths old must have someone to stay with them the whole time, so this adds another 2 adults to the bed so 4 in total. These kids have no cots, no care and no food unless a family member brings it in. We stayed as long as we could.
And so we left neither Tracey or I really knowing what to say. We prayed for him before we went. That’s when the tears started to sting. I desperately want him to recover and yet can’t watch him slowly dying and slipping more into a comma. Oh God why Tino? He’s only 5 and never really had a chance to live. This part of life I won’t even begin to understand. Lord take him home to you.
And so we collected the 8 kids and as we knew we would miss dinner we took them to KFC! My shout – 8 kids, 3 adults and enough left for tomorrow for 1150mts (£22). KFC never tasted this good. And so I am back at base, there are rumours of more riots tomorrow over food prices, I do feel a little uneasy about this.
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