Good news, not so good news, very good news, the mountain.

Today was a full day at the orphanage - and yes, I know I haven't posted about the Safari yet, I will soon, I promise! - but with some very exciting results. First of all, and most thrillingly,

ZAWADI'S HIV TEST CAME BACK NEGATIVE!!!

Happy HIV negative babies!

This means that I have to take an unnatural interest in her poop to determine whether she has worms, but it's obviously very, very good news. Also fairly good news is that Emmanuel was deemed too young to start school this January, which means that all of the kids who are ready for school are sponsored and set to go - specifically, the twins Asimwe and Nisima, and Farajah.

Farajah looking serious, me, um, not looking serious.

So that's very good.

As for the not so good news, we have two new babies, who are five and seven days old today. That in and of itself is always heartbreaking. In addition, we had to say goodbye to our wonderful Mama Margaret, who is retiring - well deservedly! but we will miss her desperately. On top of all that, Mama Pendo, who is the heart and soul and brain of the place, is gone for a month for vacation, which is, again, extremely well deserved but will leave us a little helpless in her absence.

Vicki

Philipo

No idea what we'll do without her!

But. All that said, today was a very exciting day, because we got to go ahead to move forward with some very important projects for the orphanage. Right now, the water situation for the orphanage and the hospital it is next to is precarious at best. Water comes from capricious springs in the mountains, and they are so high up that tapping into any other source is impractical. As a result, during the dry season especially, both the hospital and the orphanage are frequently without water, sometimes for days on end. That means choosing between giving the kids water to drink or bathing them. It means no water to cook food, so they ration what they have. It means more bugs, skin infections, and degeneration of the facility they would need to go to in case things get bad. Even when we have water, the kids frequently don't get anything to drink because it takes so long and so much gas to boil and sanitize it. Food is similarly precarious, as so much depends on the cash flow that particular month.

How can you not want to help those little faces?

Enter our projects - my housemate Peter is converting an old toolshed into a chicken coop and planting a circle of banana and plaintain trees, which will be fed by the food waste that is currently being burned. Meanwhile, Guilia and I are co-funding the drilling of a well to supply water first to the orphanage, and then to the hospital. It would be preferable to have two wells, but each well costs almost $3000 US, and that is beyond our current budget. HOWEVER, if more of you lovely people jump on the bandwagon (already populated by many wonderful, wonderful family and friends, thank you!) we might be able to fund two. In addition to the big projects, there are a few other things I'm hoping to fund while I'm here. Thus, the mountain. In no particular order:

-My incredible American grandparents have commited to help me send Rehema, one of my students, a brilliant twenty-two year old with excellent secondary school grades and a perfect record at Tamiha, to go on to college to study computers and information technology. She actually cried the day I told her, we are currently working on finding the right school and preparing applications. She immediately said that she wanted to sponsor someone else in her position when the time comes, and I know she will.

-A small library of kids books, as right now there are literally a grand total of three in the orphanage, and they're decimated. It will have to be kept under lock and key, but it's still a huge improvement from the current situation.

-A ceiling fan to keep the flies off the babies. I know that sounds unpleasant, but the truth is that the tiny babies spend a lot of time on mattresses on the ground, of necessity, and the toddlers have actually begun copying our waving motions to shoo away the flies.


-Replacing the slide of death with something that won't, you know, knock out the front teeth of five or six kids a year (no joke.)

This thing is terrifying.

-Beginning sponsorship for next year's group of kids - at least three of whom are unsponsored at this point. I'm hoping maybe two or three people would be able to come forward and pledge a half, or a third, of the $900 tuition - which covers more than just school, take a look at the website of the organization that facilitates the placements. I'll write more about the specific kids soon.

-And because I'm a sucker, and as much as I should be objective, I'm simply not capable, and because even if she's HIV negative she's still tiny and vulnerable and sick all the time, I want to make sure that Zawadi is ok. I don't know exactly how that will look, but I need to know that I'm doing everything possible to keep her safe and healthy. And if you don't understand why, check out the two videos below from today.

And yet again, if that doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will. Happy babies, happy day!