Thursday, December 30, 2010
Givensky
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
28 boys and their presents
Outside playing with the toys
Davidson with his games!
Samson so happy!
Danita with all the boys in the church!
Christmas celebrations with 28 boys! We did it in stages. I think that’s the only way to handle presents for that many! Not one boy asked for his present so we were able to get through breakfast, Christmas lunch of delicious goat and do presents at 2pm! So much fun! A church in the US donated funds specifically for presents for the kids so we were able to really have some fun! Tinkertoys, trucks and board games are all we’ve been playing with since!! I love TROUBLE! I’d forgotten how much fun it is. We didn’t even do socks until Boxing Day! It’s kind of fun to spread out the presents.
Enjoy the pictures and I hope everyone has had a Very Merry Christmas!
Some sadness amongst the celebrations.............
Along with the wonderful celebration of Christmas we had some losses in our community. Dameus (second photo with Linzi, a missionary who lived here and befriended Dameus) passed away on Dec 22 and we had the funeral here on the 24th. He had battled brain cancer for over 3 years getting chemo and radiation to no avail. He suffered so much with no proper medication here for the last year. No morphine. We were blessed to have Sam, a student nurse care for him daily, changing his dressing and caring for him. I am so glad he is not suffering anymore.
Tiny baby Junika (bottom photo) also passed away before Christmas. She is the 5 month old baby whose mother died of Aids and she herself was diagnoised with the terrible disease at 2 months old. The only prescription she was given was Vitamin C and Similac. Her grandmother was doing her best to care for her and we were giving her food regularly. Too young to go on the medication for Aids and too sick to survive.
The 3rd death last week was an “older”gentleman (first photo) whom no one knew his name but would come every day with a plastic container to get food at lunch. He had no teeth, walked with a cane and asked me for a job every day. Once the medical clinic was done he wanted a job. At least that was what I think he was asking. It was really hard to understand what he said because he had no teeth but he was adorable.
I feel so blessed to have known all 3 of these people. So different, at different stages of their lives all with something to contribute.