When the kids first arrived and came running down to get their nametags it took everything in me not to start crying. After we had talked so much about them and the environment that they are surviving and what their lives are like. Seeing them for the first time made them real. I now saw real kids in front of me that are living in these conditions that we all had talked so much about. I always knew that they were going to be little kids, but they were all so small. Once they started to play and laugh, their smiles lit up the entire yard. Some of the kids had the ability to completely melt me with their smiles. They are very unique smiles with so much character to them. They were all just so sweet and innocent that it is just mind boggling how someone could raise their hand to one of these kids let alone beat them. So many of them had so many scars. Some from accidents and some were from beatings. But they are still so full of joy.
It was interesting to see how the adults had the same look of wonder as the kids whenever they were playing with the cameras. The teachers that came with the kids would sometimes act like the kids. They would decorate their journals with stickers and coloring lying on their stomachs with the kids. Even when we passed out lollypops they would even ask for two sweets. Sometimes they would even hold our hands as we walked or talked. They were just as sweet as the kids were. It was so much fun to see how excited Linet got when we asked her to be in one of the skits. She jumped up grabbed my hand and ran over to the rest of the players to find out what she would be doing.
There was one little girl there, Rosemary, which seemed very independent and motherly towards the rest of the kids. She would keep them in check a lot of the time if they were starting to get out of line she would lightly pop them in the back of the head to get them back in place. All of the kids are incredibly strong there to be able to survive the environment that they are living in, but Rosemary seemed stronger in the sense that she was also looking after a lot of the other kids besides surviving herself. I didn’t feel like I was able to do anything for her the entire time that we were there because she had things under control. But then at the end of the week when we were leaving she was one of the kids that was crying the most because she didn’t want us to leave and she was going to miss us all so much. I always wonder if we are actually doing anything to really help them while we are there and seeing how she reacted to our leaving made me feel really good about what we were doing there. We aren’t changing the world that they live in there at all. But at least we can give them some hope and show them that people really do love them. So many of the kids have nobody to raise them so they are just learning how to live on their own on the streets with no guidance and no one to set a good example for them to live up to. They didn’t even know what to do when they got cut or hurt. They didn’t know to keep it clean, what to do with a band aid, or how long to leave it on once it is on there. I was able to help a kid named Lucas with his hand. It had a huge blister on it that had already become infected. It hurt him a lot, but he would hardly even flinch when I was working on it. Every time that I asked if what I was doing hurt him, he would very calmly say yes. We had to pop it and squeeze out as much as we could in order to clean it out. We changed and cleaned it out every day that we were there. On our last day while I was cleaning and rebandaging his hand for the last time, I realized that we really couldn’t do that much for them. I did as much as I could to help him, but it still wasn’t enough. I have no idea what is going to happen to it from then on. Over three weeks have gone by now and I just pray that has healed by now. We left him with some more band-aids and a small packet of Neosporin. I got one of the translators to translate exactly how to use it and what to do, but was he going to be able to keep it clean enough for it to heal properly? What would have happened with the infection if it was just allowed to go on without anything being done to clean it out?
I now have something to look forward to. I can’t wait to go back and see all of my new friends again. It’s going to be hard this year now that I know so many of the kids there and have a small idea of what they have to live in. All I can do is pray that they are safe. With the droughts getting worse and worse for them I can’t get them out of my thoughts and just pray that they will be able to find enough food for themselves and their families. So many of these small children have to provide for smaller siblings and friends. It does give me hope for them to see how well they all look out for each other. I miss all of them so much every day.
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