Here's some prayer requests that we have over the next couple of weeks. There also kind of what has been kind of the main theme of what has been happening here on a day-to-day basis.
Truck Repairs: They are actually really going great. We found the windshield for the truck and it was the correct one (and expensive). The body work is mostly all done and we were painting it today. What remains is to assemble the cab and dash. We stripped all that out, so right now the cab is just a big glossy empty shell. Hopefully within a week we'll be up and running, but realistically with the way delays just naturally occur here I'm thinking it'll be 2-3 weeks before we're back on the road.
Rain: It hasn't come yet, and water has been shut off to our neighborhood for about a week. That being said, we were doing better than other bairros that haven't had water for about two months. Statistically speaking, in about a month we should be out of the rainy season. The drought hasn't effected us thanks to our well, but it has resulted in long lines of neighbors waiting to use it.
Typically, water gets shut off (for individual areas of about 10,000 people each) for three primary reasons. They are that people don't pay their bills, people break open the water mains to get free water, or drought. Right now we are in the last two reasons. Unfortunately now when the water gets turned off for drought, people break open all the mains to access any water they can, which results in nobody getting water that is “downstream”. It also results in flooded streets and unusable water after it gets turned back on.
Out in the districts where there is no water utility, it just means there's no water right now.
My foot: This prayer request is not for healing necessarily, its for TJ to use common sense and stay off his injured foot. I bruised my foot a couple of weeks ago playing soccer and haven't had the good sense to stay off of it for a couple of days. I thought I finally beat the system this last time when my foot was almost all better so I decided to wear shoes while playing soccer so nothing would happen to it. It was the first time I've played soccer in shoes in over a year. Consequently, it was also the first time I've been running in shoes in over a year. I'm convince the muscles used are completely different because I never am tired the day after playing soccer normally, and here I am still sore down to my bones 3 days later. And my foot got worse. I need to just not play for a couple weeks to fully heal my bruised foot.
New kid: We may or may not have gotten or been getting a new addition to the orphanage. Sound confusing? It is frustratingly so for us here, too.
We don't get new kids all that often. That is because we keep them until they are successful instead off setting them loose when they turn 14 so there just aren't many vacancies. It is also because we have a really high retention rate. We are not a hotel and we are not baby-sitters. Kids can not check in and out as they please. We take in kids when they are younger and work with them and teach them about Jesus so that we don't wake up one day saying, “Well, looks like Billy murdered somebody. Might be time for him to set out on his own.” We are not a lawless lord-of-the-flies orphanage like many others in the city are.
That being said, we know that kids with needs are in never-ending supply. Its just that we're pretty maxed-out on resources here and can't scoop them all in. There is also a lot of consideration that comes with taking a kid in here. We are welcoming them into our family and far too often people come to us saying they know of kids because they are trying to take advantage of us. Are this kids the one suffering? Yes. It is a very difficult situation to explain---there aren't any set criteria for letting a new kid come live in the orphanage. Families all over the place here have no means to take care of themselves much less their own children much less their nephews or nieces that live with them.
We also want the kids maintaining their connections with their blood-family, but when the family is advising them to steal money or food from the orphanage they don't have the kids' best interests in mind. When the family is encouraging the kids to engage in the sort of behavior that can get you HIV, they don't have the kids' best interests in mind. When the family is telling the kids that they are being used by us to make ourselves rich and to spread rumors, they don't have the kids' bests interests in mind.
The flip side of the coin is that we can't force anybody into the orphanage for the kid's best interest when we see that staying with the family is the thing that will destroy the child's life. A week ago a lady brought a girl to the orphanage that was living with a family that does not have her best interest at heart. Its actually a kid we've been trying to get into the orphanage for some time now. Allow me to explain.
Some time ago there was a girl that lived in our orphanage. Her name was Bionista and you briefly read about here on Victor and Christina's blog. She died about a year and a half ago, leaving behind a baby girl. This baby has been living with Bionista's aunt during this time. Meanwhile, Bionista left two sisters and a niece living with us still at Evanjafrica. We have all been pressuring the family to let the girl come and live here but up till now the family has had no interest in allowing this. That was until last Sunday, when the aunt showed up and asked for help taking care of the baby. Specifically, she asked for clothes for the baby.
And for a cellphone.
The cellphone was ostensibly to call and keep in touch with the baby and the three othher relatives here in the orphanage once she goes back to the village. Never-mind that the girls here don't have cellphones. Its good to know in a country where the average person survives on a dollar a day that a cellphone ranks at the top of the list of necessities. But, after some talking, we convinced the aunt that this is the best place for the child.
How could I make a judgment like that? The aunt has three kids living with her that aren't even her kids that do all the work (cooking, cleaning, laundry, farming) while her own children are living with some other relative performing the same function for them. That is very much the (tragic) normal for family live here, except life here is a little more brutal than cleaning the table and putting clothes in a machine and going to the grocery store. It's walking miles for water and then carrying 20 liters (45lbs) back on your head when you're 10 years old.
Were this little girl to stay with her family in the village the same fate would would apply to her---she would not be encouraged to finish school and would be married at too early of an age. Here she could be with her two aunts (ages 13 and 15) and one cousin (age 7) that love her dearly and would really want what is best for her. When the baby girl arrived here the, her relatives in the orphanage got everyone together and asked them to pray and give thanks to Jesus that the baby finally arrived in the orphanage.
The next day was spent mostly noticing how scared and frightened the baby was. You can tell how bad it must have been by the fact that the only things she was saying were phrases along the lines of “go away” and “I'm going to hit you”. Every kid when they get here has some variation of a look on their face that says they've been through far too much in too short of time. What's more is that for being 30 months old she was about the same size as Yohani, who is half her age. (Ton's of pictures on Victor and Christina's site for reference). And to top it all off she had a belly about the size of a basketball from malnutrition and worms.
Unfortunately, the story of potential redemption hit a false start. Barely 24 hours after arriving here, the relative came to take the child away. She claimed that it was because we would really just use the kid for our own evil machinations and she now needed to take the baby to the witchdoctor to undo all that we had done to it. In reality, she was trying to use us and in the future will use baby for her own benefit.
We have to right to demand a kid stay in the orphanage. The relatives have to sign off on it. There's no such thing as the government taking kids away here for poor living conditions. Truthfully, as far as living conditions go, to be living with an uncle or aunt where you are the one that does everything (laundry, farming, carrying two cases of beer on your head back from the store because your uncle is too drunk to remember his name) in and around the house, this baby's case is frighteningly normal in Nampula.
Pray for resolution and perseverance as we try to get this baby girl on the right track in life. I'm taking the long approach on this one and know that there are still several years left to bring the child in here before she gets too old to enter. Pray that God softens the hearts of the relatives and can do a miracle in this situation. Pray also for her family here with us in the orphanage, Anabela, Virginia, and Mena. Anabela, the oldest, was especially upset after this latest attempt and you can pray for her, and all of us, to have faith that God's will be done.
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