Hello!
Thank you so
much for your support everyone, you have no idea how encouraging that is to
keep going! So today was our second day at the orphanage, as you may have
guessed from our Facebooks we were appalled when we saw the conditions that 11
of the children are kept in. They are pretty much kept in cots that look like
prisons all day with nothing to stimulate them, no toys and only rare human
interaction. They rock backwards and forwards a lot, often bang their heads
against the cot/walls and one always huts himself in the head with his own
hand. I’d love to say that that’s just some examples of typical childhood
phases, but I think we all know that it’s a form of frustrated madness from the
lack of stimulation. The children are all in nappies (even the five year olds,
although maybe they don’t have bladder control) and are often left with them
wet and soiled for hours because there is not enough funding to change them
regularly. The orphanage is filthy, it smells of wee and sour milk, as to the
clothes which are dirt and poo-stained. I praise the two ladies that work in
this part of the orphanage as they work there full time and probably aren’t
paid much (if at all), but it scares me that one said to me “the night nurses
sing and read stories, you don’t need to cuddle the children at all or they
will not sit in their cots”. There is a room with a mirror in where a 3 month
baby is often left lying alone; I was told “he likes to be on his own”. We disagree;
he smiles a lot when you cuddle him. These rooms are so bare, there is nothing
for the children to even look at whilst in the cots, and the women didn’t even
want us to hang mobiles up above the cots.
I feel I am
passing judgement here, and that is wrong, who am I to judge others when I am
just as bad as them? The orphanage is amazing for the work it is doing, the
rest of the children are being fostered before adopted and come in for a small
school session in the morning. But it’s like there’s this hopeless nursery full
of babies, toddlers and disabled 5 year olds who have just fallen through the
net. I have no doubt that the babies will be adopted, but the process can take
up to two years and that is a long time to know not much but a cot. We live in
a very broken world and the rich/poor divide between western and non-western
countries is evidence of that.
Ephesians
6:11 says “put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand
against the devil’s schemes” and this is what we’re doing. Yesterday I went out
and bought packs of crayons and paper, and drew some animal outlines with the
words on bubble writing for the three older ones to colour. And then tomorrow
we’re taking my laptop with the DVD “Tangled”, have coloured pictures to blu-tack
to the walls, and Eloise has drawn them the outline of T-shirts for them to
colour for a competition.
I’ll admit
it, the sinful side of me desperately wants to jump on a plane and get away
from this place, forget what I have seen and never come back. But I know that’s
not the right thing for me to do, so I am going to stick it out a bit longer
for Mark 9:37 says “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name
welcomes me”. I’m hoping to get some supplies sent over (the cost of which I’ll
cover) whilst I am over here, for they are desperately needed to make a lasting
impact. Plastic toys and cuddly toys especially, these children need to be
occupied, not internalising into their minds.
I thank God
for bringing me here despite the fact that I am quite miserable and have a
small temptation to deliberately get bitten by a rabid dog so that I have an
excuse to fly home 7 and a half weeks early. I still have some fight left in
me, God has given me work to do and I need to learn to love it, for these are
Jesus’ babies, and He loves them just as much as He loves you and me. I don’t
know where it’s from, but I’ll end on this bible quote “Stand firm, let nothing
move you. Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know
that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.”
Love and
hugs,
Charlotte
xxxx
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