We're now living in a compound in Zimpeto which is home to about 200 orphans and quite a large staff. It's part of the Iris Ministry which has many homes like this in Africa. (Corrie's was one). Terri had recommended this as a good place to spend time.
We were given a thorough orientation which included a tour of the buildings: several girl or boy dorms, a baby room, disabled kids dorm, medical clinic, volunteers dorm & meeting hall, kitchen/dining room aka church on Sunday and also a school. The school, medical clinic & church are open to the community.
Brandi, the hospitality Director emphasized the steps Iris takes to try to keep kids with their family...even offering free food and/or medicines.
Of course, the baby room is my favorite and my first and last stop each day. Yesterday, the 2-5 year olds were playing in a pool barely big enough to hold all of them & the 3 littlest ones were splashing in a tiny pool. So fun to watch the how joyful & cool they were! I also visit the girls dorm daily playing games, putting together puzzles, playing London Bridges and reading books. I have to take a deep breathe & say a prayer before visiting the disable kids. Nine kids, most with extremes limitations rock & smile as I caress them, talk to them and encourage them to play with a toy. I'll never understand.
Rog carries balloons & a game and the young boys gladly join in. He also has a soft spot for one little 7-9 month old guy with huge eyes who always crawls to you when you walk in!
We are living in a small room that is a hot box but thankfully we have two fans since there are no other volunteers here. We are mostly fixing our own food as we'd made a run to the grocery store our first day here. Rog eats with the kids sometime but rice & beans gets old especially when we have fresh fruit, cz, eggs, pb & lots of bread...Rog bought 8 loaves...and Coke Zero in a cold frig!
Evenings are slow as the kids watch movies & the mosquitoes take over. It's hard to go to sleep in our hot room but a cold shower & both fans help a lot! Once you crawl under the mosquito net, you don't want to get out!
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