What a mess!!!!

Hi everyone,

Time to write a short summary. Tuesday 9th of October we packed up the car with our beds on top and headed for the orphanage. When we arrived we were welcomed by 66 children out of the orphanage plus children from the surrounding village, waving and smiling from ear to ear. Under instructions from Leanne I spent the next hour cleaning our room which when I had finished still didn't look any different. We then made up the beds and put our rubbish into a space not big enough to swing a cat. We were invited to eat with the kids, you should have seen Leanne and Lisette's faces, cement (corn dough) and chickpeas. We tried to sleep with the noices of dogs, chickens, cats, a turkey and at 5 o'clock the children. We then went to the police station to arrange for to armed policemen to protect us at night, then to the village chief, then to the social Welfare. In the afternoon another cleaning job for Sue. The toilets and the showers. Filthy is not the word but it's amazing what detol can do (I could do with you here mum). Lisette and Leanne gave the children their own box of colouring crayons (thanks Harold) and colouring pictures. You should have seen their faces. And the results were fantastic ( these children have got absolutely nothing). Sport was the next event a football tournament and a game with a skipping rope. Loads of fun and the whole village joined in. The first problem then became visible we saw a boy with a bandage on his leg. I put onmy medical gloves and I couldn't believe what I saw, two huge great holes in his leg. I asked father Goodwill how long he had this and he said two weeks. I then lost my temper as you can imagine. To cut a long story short we now have 4 boys with the same skin problem, 5 boys who are urinating blood and a boy with a fractured wrist. The next day to the hospital after trying 2 hospitals we have now found a private hospital where the children were helped fairly quickly and the doctors spoke reasonable English. The treatment for the skininfection is horrific disinfectant is poured into the wound. The children scream, cry and kick, the tears rolled down my face as I had to try to hold them still. I then went to pay it cost for the treatment, medicine, and an elastic bandage and sling, medical certificates 6 euros. Everyday we try to do something nice with the children sport, drawing, dancing and singing and then you see how happy they are with so very little.
Love Sue