The Second Week

Random pic post: Meet Fredrick. He did not move from this place the entire three
weeks we were at the mission. He was alive, I swear.

This week we had a regular week of therapy which was so fun and flew by. It’s crazy how fast this trip is going by. This week was actually a little interesting as on Monday audiology students from PurDue University came to do hearing tests on everyone at the Haven. In addition, something was going around at the Haven because many kids got sick along with a few of our student clinicians, thankfully not me. It was still a great week, but many of the kids were not feeling well and just wanted to be held. Which we gladly obliged them:) Monday night we all watched Princess Bride which was amazing as usual. Sadly, some people did not think it was very funny and therefore lost major brownie points in my book hahahaha IT’S A CLASSIC PEOPLE GO WATCH IT, NOW.

Tuesday and Wednesday were regular days. Wednesday night we watched Singin’ in the Rain and by we I mean Kelsey, me, Taylor, BWeave, Stefan, and Mrs. Taylor. Everyone else is not cultured enough to enjoy the finer things in life like old movies hahaha

Soccer field near the mission we walk past/through every day

Thursday was a bit of a rough day. We had a regular day of therapy, but then at 12:10pm, we went to see the cemetery behind the Haven where they have buried lost children. We were told to not joke around or anything before entering, as angels were living there. Most of the children that were lost were lost in ’09 or ’10 when AIDS was particularly bad. Back then, the government would not give treatment to children until they reached a certain age, but by then, the children would be so sick, the treatment would not do anything. Now, the government is being more aggressive at treating earlier and in combination with Meagan’s efforts at the Haven, the morbidly rate has gone down. BWeave told us that there were about seventy-two babies that have died since the opening of the Haven, which was in ’89. I did not take any pictures. It was a very sad, somber place, but as we entered, I felt like the Lord kept saying comfortingly, “They aren’t here.” Immediately I felt better. As sad and awful as the graveyard was, it was comforting hearing from Abba that those kids are not there, angels aren’t living there, because they are with him, laughing and playing and running in Heaven with him, sickness-free. Knowing that helped me at least, but for everyone, it was a heavy afternoon, caused everyone to be crying, and feeling down.

As we walked back from the graveyard, we could hear laughter and life coming from the Havens and that started to brighten our attitudes a bit. We were walking back from so much death, but walking back to so much life as well. The walk back to the mission was a quiet one until we reached the end of the Haven road that met the regular road and we saw Fred crossing the road.

Real talk, a real life, real chameleon walking, well dancing, across the road, right in front of us. Naturally I named it Fred.

One of the supervisors picked it up and I got to hold it. Then we put it on my shoulder to see if it would turn purple and match my shirt (it did not, DISAPPOINTED). The whole time I was terrified that it was going to attack my jugular. I don’t think chameleons can even do that or even would do that, but I was terrified and loving it all at the same time.

After our encounter with Fred, I was thinking about how good the Lord is. Like, how random was it that we saw a chameleon right in front of us, causing all of us to turn in to blubbering laughing three year olds, immediately eradicating any and all spirits of sadness and depression. How good is our Abba, that he knew that his kids’ hearts would be broken and hurting after seeing something so sad and thought, “I know! I’ll place one of my strangest creatures right in front of their faces to cheer them up.” That’s the first chameleon I’ve seen while here and definitely the first time I’ve ever help one, let alone a wild one. He’s so good and so intimate and knows all his children so well. Our walk back to the mission for lunch was much more upbeat after that.

Friday we had therapy again, I had to lead our song time this time which was an adventure in of itself haha While I lead, I got to do feeding with Vernon and some oral stim using my gloved hand and then fed him. On our way home, Chloe and I met a new friend in the road! Such a strange little dude. There were randomly so many of them!! Just a caterpillar crossing. Who knew.

After therapy we went home and had supper. At about 7:00, everyone went to sing at the Merritt’s again, but I stayed home. I needed some me time, to finish blogging, and to just be quiet in my own head.

Saturday we rode the bus for two hours and went to Livingstone for a few hours, went shopping, ate at the internet café, got gelato, and tried to blog on slightly better wifi than at the mission. When we got home, we had supper, and watched Les Mes. We are missing two of our Ole Miss pals and Jessica as they had their Bush Walkabout this weekend. BUT while in Livingstone we picked up some movie candy like peanut and regular M&Ms to put into our popcorn and watched at movie outside. It was super fun. The stars are so bright and huge here that it honestly feels like we are in a planetarium because everywhere you look around you, you just see stars and stars and stars and stars. Brighter than I have ever seen them because there are no evil American lights blotting them out. I wish I could take a picture…Honestly, I actually tried, but it’s all just complete darkness, so, sorry world. Thanks to my Astronomy app Star Walk I could see the different constellations. Still don’t understand how scientists thought up some of those shapes, but must have been a fun job playing connect the dots.

NDE

You heard it here first.

Took a cabby, Vincent is the best! We were only a minute away from
our destination hahaha oh well

Sunday was a pretty low key day for me. I was sick. I think my malaria pill reacted badly to being taken without food and with milk. Bad combo. Basically made me super light-headed, almost passed out in church, got walked back to the house in the middle of church, crashed for about two hours, and chilled on the couch in Hamby for the rest of the, go in and out of waves of my stomach trying to turn inside out and eating teddy grahams cheese its and drinking tea. Not the best day of the trip, but thankfully only lasted one day. Not messing with my malaria pills again though, definitely taking those after I eat and absolutely no milk.

Nurse Maddie. Love her.

That's all for now!

Mallory, or in Afrikkan, "Mallory"