Hi everyone back in Illinois!

A rooster woke me up this morning and it wasn’t even light outside yet.  Can you believe that?  It was around 5am.  Today was a really hot and sweaty day.

After breakfast, we did some therapy sessions with some of the kids to help stretch their muscles out.  They are so tight.  We are trying to get them stronger so eventually they can stand and walk.  It was fun using all the therapy things we brought down and the things we made for them to use.  We think some of these kids may eventually walk but it will take a long time.  Winsley is the one I spoke about way back when.  She was the one the police took here and told Gertrude that she had to now take care of her.  She was very scared when she arrived but she is much better and knows that this is a safe place.

Christine

Christina 

Phonsley

Winsley

The girl below is Olge.  Do you see how her hair is kind of orange colored?  When you see kids with orange or reddish hair it means they are malnurished.  Her hair is coming back in black again which is good.

Olge

There are only two nannies for the disabled kids and two nannies for the regular kids.  Because of the number of nannies and the number of kids, it is easier for the nannies to feed the kids themselves.  So a lot of the kids get fed because they have never learned how to eat.   We have been working with a few kids to get them to eat on their own.  It’s very messy and you have to be very patient.  They are actually learning. It all in baby steps.   We are hoping that the kids will eventually eat by themselves.  They look like little baby birds waiting to be fed.  It’s kind of sad, but it’s just the way things are down here.

Jonathon

The boy above is Jonathan.  He should be in school but he does not have a sponsor yet. We are hoping next school year he will be able to go with the other kids.  He was messing around with me and this is his goofy face.

This is Kendina.  She is about 2 years old.  Hopefully she will get adopted one day. She's cute!

Shirley goofing around

After lunch, we needed a break so we went out into the neighborhood and gave out some of the hygiene kits that have soap, shampoo a toothbrush and other things to keep clean.  The people we met today were very appreciative of their gifts.

We also went back to the Church we attended on Sunday.  They were doing a lot of building on the property and today they were building a back wall.  Father Matt from St. Patricks in Yorkville gave me a bag of rosaries, some prayer cards and some other religious items.  A few of the people took some of the items but they wanted to keep the rest so that the priest could see these gifts for the church and the people.  The older women were very excited to get a few of the items. 

They were repairing the back wall.

We walked around some more and tried to find some sugar cane but we did not.  We get a lot of strange looks from the people in the neighborhood. The little kids always shout, “hey you”, I always shout it back and they laugh or I try to say it first.

Dog and Pig

One of the men here is raising a pig.  His dog guards the pig from predators or whatever else.  Well today the pig got out.  I tried to get it back to his area.  The dog was afraid of me mostly because I had a cane  I thought I could wrangle it back into it’s penned in area.  It didn’t work.  I started to have a small crowd watching me do this.  I think they thought I was nuts or “fou” which is crazy.  My friends couldn’t believe I was trying to get the pig.  He went out onto the soccer field so I figured, ok, at least they are close.  Eventually the owner got them back into the pen.  The dog and pig are good buddies and eat together. 

We call this goat alley because all the goats hang out here.

Tomorrow we take the kids to horse therapy again.  Most of them really like it.  The little girl Marice with the club feet has to get new casts on her legs tomorrow too.  Every week they have to be changed.  I would hate having a cast that covers both my entire legs because it is so hot down here.

Not too much other exciting stuff to report about.  Let’s see what happens tomorrow.