Day 7 in Review

Crystal's account of day 7 (Monday March 24th)

• Savannah-Hope slept pretty well, I had a harder time sleeping. The rats have refused to die and have been conducting some type of soccer tournament in the attic above my head.
• Lloyd picked us up around 9am and we went to town with Thandie to pick up some supplies for Savannah-Hope's village.
• Then it was off on the long bumpy ride to the village. Lloyd drove. Mrs. Miller, Thandie, Peace, Margret, Miriam (orphan from the same village and distant relative to Savannah), Savannah and I piled into the Mazda truck.
• We arrived to the home where Savannah-Hope had lived with her mother and grandmother. Many villagers and family members gathered around. Tamandani still lives in this home with the grandmother. The other twin, Sidala lives with the paternal grandmother in the father's village. They have a 10 year old brother named Jameson who lives in the father's village but not sure with who. I found out today that the father has remarried.
• I brought clothes for the three children and food supplies for the caregivers. They were grateful but started sharing other requests that they had. The needs here are so great in this country and this is one of the poorer villages. So heart breaking.
• Tamandani screamed when anyone besides the maternal grandmother held her so it was pretty hard to get good pictures, but I did the best I could.
• We waited about 2 hours for Sidala to arrive. She went to me right away. She looks much healthier than her twin. Both girls will be three in couple weeks, but are just a tiny bit bigger than Savannah.
• I was able to get some sibling pictures of the girls in matching dresses.
• The children of the village surrounded me. I took pictures of them with the digital camera and then turned the camera around so they could see themselves. They got such a kick out of this. They have no mirrors, so most of them have never seen what they look like. They would shout and laugh. It was alot of fun.
• It is difficult to put into words how my heart was affected by the trip to Savannah-Hope's village. It will probably take a long time to process it. But since Chrissie is insistent that I give her some thoughts for the blog here it goes:

I imagine that every American who would visit this village would walk away with some thoughts in common, such as extreme poverty. You can't miss that the children are barely dressed. The ones that have clothes, they are tattered and torn...barely hanging on their bodies. They have worms, both in their bellies making their stomachs bulge out, but also in their skin making little mountains all over their arms, legs, and head. There is dirt everywhere. The homes are one room mud huts with grass roofs and mud floors. There is no furniture, no electricity, no glass windows, and no water. The people are extremely filthy.

But then there are other thoughts that may be more individual. For me it was my kids. I couldn't help but think of Amelia, when I saw a 7 year old girl with a bucket of laundry on her head and a baby tied to her back. Or think of Izabella, when I saw a 4 year old girl selling tomatoes on the side of the road with a 2 year old the size of Maggie tied to her back. The roads are so dangerous, and she is working just to live. Only 4 years old and completely unsupervised. I thought of my boys, when I saw seven year old boys walking with machetes chopping down corn in the field. I think of my children and their decorated bedrooms, warm blankets, shoes, toys, hair bows, car seats, parents. My children have parents...two of them. They get to be educated, they don't have to work. They don't lay in bed at night shivering begging God that they may have a bite to eat tomorrow. They don't have to worry that a wild animal may get into their house, or their grass roof may cave in or catch on fire. My children have so much, but only because God has allowed us to provide that for them. This could have been us. I could have been born a Malawian woman and had to watch my children starve and beg for food. I could have been sick and sent my child with strangers to a far away land so she could live. This has been a completely life changing experience. I am not coming home the same person or the same mother. I wish that Shane and the kids could have made this trip with me. I just hope that I can find a way to portray what I have seen to my husband and children.