Beany Babies and Bouncy Balls

Monday:

Well, our first day of “work” is behind us, and I honestly, don’t quite know how to adequately describe it. Overwhelming, tragic, joyful, thought-provoking, thankful are all words that come to mind … and still don’t do the day justice.

To begin, we left for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital at 8:30 and got there at our expected arrival time of 9:00am. However, typical to most state-run institutions, red-tape prevailed and it took a while before we were able to enter and we were warned that we wouldn’t have quite the visit we had anticipated due to doctors “handing over” after the weekend’s intake of new patients. We were well prepared by Bayana about what to expect, yet how do you prepare first-world teenagers for an experience that hits your senses so vividly? As we walked through the warren of corridors towards the Pediatric Unit, we were overwhelmed by literally the throngs of people lining the corridors as they waited to be seen to or standing in line in the hope of maybe seeing a doctor sometime today. As we proceeded, we heard and saw a woman wailing desperately accompanied by several female friends and relatives who had come to be with her. They were singing as she was wailing about how she was going to provide for her children now that her husband had died. (It is Malawian tradition that in the event of someone’s death, family and friends will come to the hospital to collect the body and take it away for burial). These were hard moments for our kids … and yes, there were some tears … but God is stretching all of us completely out of our comfort zones … and it’s producing growth and character.

We were then taken to the main special needs Pediatric unit. This was so heart-wrenching. There must have been well over 50 children in the ward (a room about 2/3 of the size of the “W” at TKA). The beds were small – more like boxes with a sheet and a blanket and next to almost every child in each bed was a mom or grandmother or aunt. These women take care of their children – feeding them, nursing them, changing them, - to be honest, I didn’t see a nurse, although there were some doctors around. The supplies are minimal and many of the children had those vacant looks, but the smiles were precious as we handed them their beany babies (thanks to Kathy Harvey for donating them). The mothers were so appreciative and thankful. We were able to bring a greeting, sing a worship song and go and meet mothers and kids and pray for them. We then broke up and a large group went to visit kids in the surgical unit while a small group of us headed to Pediatric Oncology. There must have been at least twenty kids in this ward with their moms. They are very sick and some of their tumors are horribly visible. What struck me was how there is so little the doctors can do – no chemo or radiation and even many of the drugs that reduce pain are not available … tough to know that they are probably not going to make it.

We had to leave after this, but plan to go back on Thursday afternoon (amazingly, our kids want to go back). We will hopefully have more time and be able to visit the same wards again in addition to the Nursery, Medical Bay with severe diseases, Malaria unit and the ward with kids suffering from malnutrition. We plan to go and buy lots of candy for the kids and soap for the parents to bring as gifts. All in all, this was an amazing experience – tragic, humbling and even joyful seeing small appreciative smiles.

From there we headed to Malawi Children’s Mission for an afternoon with the kids. We arrived early not expecting many kids to be there … but many were heading down to the center and started running after the bus. They were so cute, and as we arrived and climbed out of the bus … a group of kids came out of the center doors with Welcome signs for us (we hadn’t even done anything). Initially shy, they soon warmed up and got very involved playing with beach balls, bouncy balls, tennis balls and soccer balls. We blew bubbles, tried blowing up balloons (and kept popping them), painted nails (sometimes 3-4 colors between fingers and toes!), painted faces, and just loved on the kids. Lisa did a great bible story on God the Creator, with Austin, Maddie, Cassie, Rob and Savannah acting it out in mime and of course the kids sang to us. We greeted the chiefs and they welcomed us and there were many thank-yous shared.

All in all, the afternoon was fabulous – these kids are SO precious. The hardest thing was knowing that there were about 100 more than we anticipated and because they are not registered with the center, they will be turned away tomorrow as not every child can be on the feeding center schedule. We are so excited about going back tomorrow. We also have a high school visit tomorrow morning which should be a joy.

Please keep praying for us. We are sorry that things are a little slow – it’s really hard to get an internet connection. Thank you so very much for praying for us – we do need your prayers.

Karen (for the Team)