had brought the last few days, God has been revealing His purpose for us here. Seven days ago, I felt so helpless, watching children with no toys and having minimal interaction with the people who care & provide for them. I really feel that God is telling us to not worry about solving the problems of this world but just show love. Today I saw children playing and having a great time with these simple toys. It was so awesome to see! Just as equally important, I could also see the girls (workers that live there) watching Chloe & I playing with these children and imitating us with the same playful nature. I really think they are starting to see the value and pleasure of play and toys. Hopefully this will bring change. I know it's a cliché but in this case, with such a language barrier, actions really do speak louder than words.
I also feel like I'm developing a bond with these girls. As I mentioned a few days back, there were a couple that were just down right scary and made your hair curl when they spoke in their loud, harsh kinyarundi language. Now when we arrive through those gates, they all greet us with "bonjour" or "gooda moring" in their broken English. They've also tried to teach me some kinyarundi words like "mudocha" which means car and "itwa unda" which means what is your name. Now I must sound like a goof to them when I say it but who cares...they're smiling... or laughing.
It was considered an unusual day...on Sunday, visitors are allowed to tour through the orphanage and help out with feeding. So Chloe and I stepped back and helped out in other areas like bottlefeeding infants (less than 6months). This particular room is usually kept quite dim. The infants are basically fed ad lib (when they wake and cry) but some are awake, not hungry and just want a toy or interaction with someone. I was able to bring a few "recycled" soothers from work (soothers that have fallen on the floor at the hospital that I took home to sterilize)...I wish I brought more. Some of the girls had NEVER seen a soother before. They just laughed. They sure came in handy with a few of the fussy babies. There are a few ill or fragile infants where the mom is dying of HIV and another one who has just recently been discharged from the hospital on oral antibiotics. And another fighting malaria. The two nuns aren't usually the direct caregivers instead they are in charge and oversee what's needed. They also take on "nursing" responsibilities. Because doctors and hospital admissions are not paid for by the government, everything is paid for by the orphanage and it can become quite costly. Therefore, the nuns will do as much as possible at the orphanage before taking the child to the hospital. That includes IVs and IV antibiotics. The IV antibiotics are of course ordered by the Physician. However, behind they're skill is very little knowledge.
They currently have an infant that shows signs of obvious prematurity and doesn't appear to be full term yet but is 2months old. The nun said that she was very "skinny" when she was dropped off??? I am pleased that I can offer my gift of nursing while I'm there by providing them with education. Just today I was asked to start an IV on child with hydrocephalus and an internal ventricular shunt due to signs of dehydration. The poor nun knows there is something funny-looking with her head but didn't know what. I was able to explain where the shunt is, how it works and how it know if it blocks and thus to go to the hospital. The only thing I couldn't do was bring myself to hook the IV up to the same tubing that was used on the premature infant 5 days ago due to limited money and resources...she had to do it, it just didn't seem right. They were also going to use these drops for an ear infection , donated by some Spanish people. When I translated it, it was actually like the tears plus eye drops. Shockingly they had gentamycin eye & ear drops in their stash which was perfect! Wow, what responsibility they have.
The orphanage borders Tanganyika Lake, so Sister Elsie took us and the children on a small walk along the shore but it was quite dirty on the shoreline. Although the children enjoyed it! My understanding is that you can sometimes see Hippos swim along the shore line.
That's it for today!
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