This morning we woke up at 5am and traveled through dense
fog to Malindza to meet our 30 school children pioneering our GHFP Primary
School. The anticipation was killing
me! We arrive to our school site and
once again it was like a dream…I exclaimed to Pastor Maseko that I still could not
believe that it was actually happening even though I was seeing it with my own
eyes!! He agreed that it seems to him
also as a wonderful dream that we will soon awake from. We once again toured the site with all of the
Gogos who have volunteered their time to build for us. There is a toilet already standing, land
cleared and bricks built for the 1st grade classroom, a field being
cleared and tires donated for the sports/gaming complex, and many more acres
awaiting our command… we’ve already discussed having a rainwater collection and
filtration system to irrigate vegetable farms to feed the kids, a computer lab,
a library… the dreams were forming so fast in my mind that I couldn’t even keep
up with them! Then the children arrived!!!! One by one we saw them walking
alone down a dirt path. We must have
looked like creepy eager beavers as the kids – at first – were terrified. Our friend Nelly assured us that they have
just never seen white people in the deep rural areas. After a few seconds of smiling and playing –
they warmed up to us and I silently prayed for each of them to learn hard and
change the world. Just as I was tearing
up from excitement, anticipation, and love for these kiddos we heard some heart-wrenching
news.
One of the women from the village ran toward us and was
speaking quickly in siSwati. When Nelly interpreted
for us, I immediately wished that she hadn’t.
A baby girl was found screaming in a port-a-potty latrine nearby. They assume that she had spent the night
there and was suffering tremendously.
They rushed her to the closest hospital 20km away and we all took a
moment of silence to pray for her recovery.
Unfortunately this practice is common, especially in Malindza. And many of these babies – if they survive
the long fall – suffer from permanent brain damage, respiratory failure from
breathing in the fecal fumes, and burns.
Kait and I looked at each other and immediately looked away as we knew
if we saw the other person cry, we would lose it in front of the entire
community. Our GHFP kids – luckily – didn’t
know what was going on and I felt like it was our responsibility to keep it
that way. The last thing they need is to
watch the terrifying white ladies doing the Oprah-ugly-cry with snot running
down their faces and screams protruding from their foreign mouths. So I just
ran around doing what I do best…being the crazy lady who squeezes the crap out
of the darling GHFP school kiddos hoping that they know that I will never ever
ever ever forget them… But it was
definitely one of the hardest things I’ve ever done trying to keep it together
when I felt like throwing a serious tantrum. Throughout the rest of the day
full of meetings, I just kept picturing the frightened baby, alone, scared,
hungry, hurt, and wondering what she did wrong to be so unwanted to be dropped
in a toilet. Heartbreaking. Tonight I turned my music on and hid in the
other room and lost it. I wish GHFP was
bigger. I wish we could care for every
kid in the country. I wish I was in a
position in life to adopt these unwanted babies, and I wish more than anything
that there were no kids that needed help in the entire country…or world. My mom said that she didn’t know if she could
ever come to Swaziland with me as she couldn’t survive the heartbreak. On days like today I am not sure I am built
for it either.
No comments:
Post a Comment