Today we woke up and had a wonderful breakfast. Fresh fruit, eggs, pancakes etc.. I guess I should back up a few steps and discuss our night last night after the blog. There's no hot water here at all, we are all becoming very used to cold showers. By cold showers I do not mean luke- warm, I mean COLD. After a long day it is energizing, exhilarating, and leaves you feeling just slightly frozen. We are all sleeping in bunk beds. They are cozy. During the day the electricity of the guest house is completely off so they kick on the air conditioner at night time. Unfortunately the power goes out often so for a small phase of the night instead of hearing the humming of fans, we heard barking watch dogs and cock-a doodling- do roosters from all over. It was surreal.
After breakfast we got dressed up to go to the home of sick and dying babies/toddlers/children. We took a 10 minute bumpy ride just a few blocks away. We waited at the gate for some time along with a few mothers waiting to visit their sick children. After some more time we discovered the home was too busy and that we will have to come back at a later time..
From there we went back to the guest house, changed and headed up to Grace Village. It is at a much higher elevation than the guesthouse allowing us to overlook the ocean and surrounding land. The whole trip there was eye opening. The things we saw still blow my mind. Mothers carrying buckets that must way over 60 lbs on their heads, skinny horses with wooden saddles, and thousands of children roaming the streets without parents. I will have pictures to follow.
We arrived at Grace Village which is a home for orphans. We got a tour from Jessica. She showed us all the school children in class, swing sets, lunch halls etc.. Then we saw the children. Or should I say...the children saw us?! It was only a matter of seconds before we had all been ridden of our headbands, sunglasses, and cell phones. Children were literally leaping into our arms begging us to hold and carry them. They would say things like " You are beautiful! " "What languages do you speak?", and "Are those lashes real? ". It was so funny because we didn't know what they were saying until we asked the interpreter. The interpreters would Laugh out loud and then tell us what the children were asking. It was always a surprise what would come out next.
At grace Village the kids were dressed beautifully. Hair was braided and perfectly, girls were in dresses and boys were in dress shirts. Tomorrow we are going somewhere where the orphaned children will not be as dressed or not dressed at all. From what I hear they will be even more eager to see, touch, and be held by us.
When we were finished playing with the kids we thought it might be time to begin some dentistry. We set up 4 units and elderly workers began to line up. We saw a total of 11 patients in the few hours we were there. Tomorrow we plan on seeing more because we will have more time. It was a wonderful day and we will be sleeping well tonight.
I will continue to keep you all updated.
Annie
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