The natives got restless!

Today was a tough day for the kids. They had a much more difficult time listening and interacting. They were crying, fighting and just sort of "out of it". Because of that, playtime began a bit earlier than normal.

Little "Tinkerbell", that I mentioned in a previous entry, was patched up again today. Zenyeto and I had to carry her to the school as she was limping terribly. Her band aid from yesterday had fallen off, and it had been tied back on with a string! When playtime began, Zenyeto and Roxanne (the volunteer who has been great about cleaning her up each day) walked her to her hut and told her Mom that she needed to go to the hospital as the infection is worsening and she can barely walk. We aren't sure if she will follow our advice, but we really hope she will.

Two little boys were fighting while outside and one came in with a huge wound on his head that was gushing with blood. He was screaming and crying. It is horribly disappointing when you want to just scoop him up and carry him and you can't because the chances of him being infected with HIV/AIDS is too great. Grace, a social worker that we teach with, cleaned him up.

One thing that is still hard to get used to is feeling unsafe and not knowing who you can trust. There has been a man coming to school each day who says he was trying to learn English. Yesterday, however, he wrote a note to two of the volunteers asking them if they could help his family by giving them some money. The volunteers explained to him that we are here to give our resources to the kids and that we wouldn't be able to give him any money. He was polite, but left soon thereafter and said that he will not be coming back. It is hard to think that the locals look at us and see "rich white people" and not people that are here to help their children and, ultimately, their village. We are encouraged just by knowing that we are loving these kids and they love school. Seeing them smile is enough to keep us coming, no matter how we are viewed.

One of the little boys we teach in front of his home in the village.
Twin girls that come to our school. Not only did I not know that there were twins at school, I have no idea what their names are. These African names are really long and hard to remember!!
A little boy who was pumping water from the village well.
(Henry Bridgforth- this is what we were talking about in our JK class. Your money from your piggy bank will help this little boy have clean water from this well! You are making his family happy and keeping them healthy. Way to go!)