Christmas Week at Lily of the Valley Children's Village

Finally-- Internet! Lily of the Valley is in the middle of nowhere, so it is quite a drive even to get some groceries, so getting internet has not been possible until now [I am at a mall where the internet is 5x more than what I usually pay back in Pietermaritzburg... ugh]. A storm a few weeks ago raged through the area and a lightning bolt actually struck some box that blew out all the phone lines and internet in the orphanage and killed some computers while it was at it... so no communication methods there, because it is too expensive to get it fixed any time soon.

Anyway, being at Lily has been a completely different experience and I am grateful that I came. It is an orphanage where there are 19 houses with at least 6 children in each house and a house mom... so it is like a family in each house. There are about 130 children there, but at the moment more like 100 as many of them got to go home with sponsor families. There are little houses there where the volunteers live, and there are 3 [5 a few days ago] German girls and one boy from Korea. They say they love having me there because I am patient enough to help them all with their English, haha. Little do they know I have been hired as an English teacher on more than one occasion, so I am pretty used to it.

Playing with the children has been fun. It is also a bit sad as you see the physical manifestations of HIV/AIDS-- remember about 90% of the children there have AIDS. The first full day I was there I spent most of my day with a young girl named Smangele. She was literally magnetized to me, following me everywhere I went, crying if I walked too fast for her to catch up. I spent hours with her in my arms, sitting in my lap, or letting her wrap her tiny arms around my legs as I watched the kids playing in the pool. She is a happy girl, but when you look into her eyes you see that there is little there. Nearly 4 years old, she is at the mental level of a 1-year old and has many learning disabilities. Looking at her face, past her constant smile and empty eyes, you also see some bubbles on her skin. You look down to notice that these skin bubbles are on her hands, and then you look around to see that these bubbles are on the faces and bodies of many of the children there, either due to their HIV-positive status or the ARV medications they are taking to keep them alive. On Smangele's arms, legs, and stomach lie deep open wounds in large patches of really dry skin. The dry skin and the scabs itch, and it is hard to tell her not to scratch because she doesn't understand. Soon enough she is scratching at her leg and blood starts running to her feet as the fly-ridden wounds open up again. Immediately Smangele throws her arms up in the air for me to pick her up... and I will admit I am a bit scared... not because I am wearing white pants, but because I was told one rule when I got here: if you see blood, don't touch it. I try to tell her to wait there as I search for a bandaid or something at the clinic, but she watches me walk away, her skinny legs walking towards me with hands in the air, tears running down her face, mouth wide open and even if you couldn't see her you know she is crying. Oh dear. So I do what I would do with my own child in that situation-- I carry her like a "sack of potatoes." Body faced outwards, my arm wrapped around her torso, I carry her to the clinic and ask the nurse to clean her wounds. Smangele doesn't cry anymore, but smiles. It seems as if she is just happy that I am sitting there with her, even if the alcohol does sting. Fortunately it is easier for me to see these children as what they are-- children-- and not living containers of a deadly disease. I fully believe you have to treat these children with the love that every other child gets, something that they cannot get from their parents. I love the kids here, even the naughty little boys... and I am learning that I am actually quite good with kids, although I do lose my patience a bit when I try to do food distribution and there are 15 kids in a small room trying to "help" me, when in actuality they are undoing the work that I am doing. In the end the volunteers just have to say, "Please let me do it." Then, "Please leave." Then, "Phuma!!! [Get out!!!]" At one point I told some kids, "Hambani lapeyah.... manje! [Go over there... now!]" I think they were so impressed with my Zulu that they couldn't help but to listen.

Much of the week was spent getting donated gifts for the kids, wrapping them, making sure each child had a gift that wasn't too broken and at least fit a bit to their personalities. Christmas morning I put a Santa hat on my head, we loaded the back of a truck with all the wrapped gifts, and sang carols as we went house to house with the toys. The kids, for the most part, seemed excited. Genuine smiles. I loved it! And selfishly, it felt good to be focusing my Christmas completely on others.

Christmas in Germany apparently really happens on Christmas Eve. A storm came in and blew out the electricity for all of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the so girls from Germany resigned to thinking that this would be the "worst Christmas ever." I didn't really mind brushing my teeth by candlelight, but I did sympathize with them as they wanted to do a nice Christmas dinner. I had already made the dessert and the salad that morning, so at least we could eat that. We ended up going to the Lily of the Valley community center where there was still electricity and cooked some delicious chicken there. It was a nice dinner! We went back on Christmas day to watch Love Actually on a laptop-- a movie that I have seen too many times, but realize it is an awesome movie. If any guys need tips on romance-- this is the movie to watch, haha.
Christmas also came with a panicked phone call from one of the housemoms asking us to go pick up a 15-year old boy who was drunk and passed out on the side of the road. By the time we got back to Lily he was laying in the grass in front of his house, responsive but not able to walk or talk, laying in his own vomit on the wet grass in the rain. Oh dear. I am sure he is in a lot of trouble. Having 4 years of college experience, I am well-trained in how to take care of drunk people and moved swiftly into action. Woohoo.

Anyway, I have many more pictures but no internet time left. :(
Will have to update next week! Merry Christmas!