P minus 7 days

That's right, the lovely David and Dorothy will be arriving exactly a week from today, and I am very excited - trying desperately to stay focused on being excited about that rather than thinking about the fact that it means I am three weeks away from leaving my babies. So instead let's not think or talk about that at all, kay? The kids are mostly doing wonderfully - Z is standing on her own (albeit for only a few seconds before toppling!), the toddlers are all utterly fascinated by mirrors, and the good health kick seems to be continuing for now, although the toddlers have been wracked by a prodigious outbreak of ringworm - their hair is all falling out in little circular clumps, which I guess is ok since they shave every few months anyway. Not beautiful, and not fun to get the antifungal on squirming kidlets twice a day.

Movie star Neema practicing her pout

Sweetheart Maureen giving a kiss

Simoni thinks the whole thing is hysterical

And Zawadi being her cheeky self, as usual.

Standing alone for the first time! With the inexplicable but omnipresent shoes on the hands... don't ask me.

However, I'm NOT thrilled with the way the school kids looked upon returning to the orphanage a few days ago - they come here first and then Mama Pendo brings them individually to their homes and checks on all the conditions before leaving them. After only four months, some of these kids had lost significant amounts of weight, and all complained that there was never enough food and they were beaten all the time, and most said they disliked school because of it. These are five and six year old children, GOOD kids, not just the ones who are mischievous - all reported being beaten regularly. So that's absolutely not ok, and I'm getting in touch with several people to see whether this is something that's fixable at the school or whether we need to look for another school for at least Ericky and Steven, both of whom are being sponsored by family and friends of myself and other current volunteers (thanks Rita!).

Immanuel at Christmas

Immanuel now, all his clothes falling off

I also spent yesterday with the palliative care team, since my parents will be working primarily with them, which was... quite an eye opener. The team consists of three women with minimal medical training, overseeing another thirty volunteers in the villages, taking care of over 700 patients, with conditions ranging from cancer, to HIV, to diabetes (which is a terminal condition here) to children without caretakers in dire poverty. They are provided with medication, but it is drastically inadequate - tramadol, which is a medicine commonly used for back pain, is the most extreme painkiller they have available, even for women like the one pictured below. Her cancer is covered by her scarf, and out of respect I'm not going to post the uncovered picture, but it is about the size of a cantaloupe and visibly open and painful, distorting at least half of her face - and all they can offer is tramadol.

Using an antiquated BP machine - in most cases the only care they can provide with current equipment

Meanwhile, these patients clearly cannot work and often have been abandoned by their families (especially HIV patients), and so lack even a few thousand shillings, a dollar or less, to buy soap and disinfectant. Meanwhile, the women running the program, who are in no way, shape, or form wealthy themselves, scrape up a few shillings from their own pockets in almost every home to help them out. Even more heartbreaking, if that's possible, was the diabetic patient we saw - apparently maximum life expectancy for diabetics is about 30 years here, and the hospital owns a single glucometer, which they do not lend to the palliative care team - so the team goes out into the village and is unable to even test the sugar of the patients, and instead must try to evaluate their condition from their reports of pain, etc. Cancer and HIV are often killers even with the best care, but to see such an easily treatable condition taking lives is deeply upsetting. I am hoping that we can help formalize the structure of their program, donate some supplies, and then work on raising some money to help support their work, as they are currently almost completely unsupported, internally or externally, and run by local volunteers.

Just what I need, another big project I want to get involved with weeks before I leave...It's all worth it though, and I WILL be back.