Day 2: The Girls Have Failed.

7/16/2009

Wow, today felt like the longest day ever. . . It started bright and early with a trip to the hospital with the nurse, Gilda, and the sexually abused girl.  We had sort of been wondering what they wanted us there for. . . We guessed to observe, or maybe provide some Western medical input (it seemed far fetched given what all we don't know, but we couldn't come up with any better explanation), but after maybe an hour of waiting and an hour of consultation with the doctor without us in the exam room, and 20 minutes of price-talking, we figured out that we were just there to pay for the testing.
It makes sense, all the pieces sort of fell into place. . . but we had left our money at the compound because we were pretty oblivious as to what they had expected from us.  It was kind of embarassing, honestly.

On another frustrating note, the little girl didn't get told anything about what was being done to her-- a pelvic exam, a pregnancy test, and an HIV test-- all negative, thank God.  They had a counselor there, but the nurse didn't want the little girl to see her.  It was really frustrating, but we all felt like our hands were tied as the outsiders here for two weeks.  Obviously things were bigger than what we could see, and we didn't want to go in, get all angry and up in arms, and undo a lot of the progress that has been made by the mission board over the past few years.

But anyway I don't want to focus on the negative alone. . . We did get a legal document stating that the man forced himself on her, so action can (and probably will) be taken against him.  And we got perspective (limited, but still very eye-opening) on the Cameroonian health system and why
Gilda (the nurse) probably feels the way she does about our records.

So we hiked back to the orphanage and ate lunch and generally were almost too exhausted to move.

In the afternoon we unloaded all the supplies (pretty haphazardly and into very unclean spots).  We all sort of tacitcly agreed that once the nurse was gone we would inventory and clean it up a bit (she was not very concerned with either).  But when she left we were once again zonked-- I somehow managed to chill with the kids a little, and the other girls went to listen to Philip and Eric lecture.  I laid down for a bit and then we all spent a good few hours brainstorming/venting/processing/encouraging after our morning of what felt like failure.  We just have to focus on the positive-- the kids.

After dinner and prep for our devotion, I went to get some stuff we left in the clinic, but there were like 10 billion kids outside the door and they saw I had a boombox, so there was an AMAZING, explosively successful, possibly the most fun I've ever had in my life dance party. Then we did devotions.

One more hilight-- the girls and I braved what we thought would be the kid-parazzi (God gave us gracious cover) and stepped out to find a sky full of brilliant diamonds, way more stars than I've ever seen in one night before.  It was dazzling and breathtaking.  God is so good.

<3RH

Ps-- I may or may not have gotten poop on my jeans from lifting up and carrying a little girl wearing a dress without underwear.  It could be mud, but regardless I'm pretty sure I accidentally mooned by proxy.  Fail.

Meep!

Quick real-time update:

We got our first monthly report email from the Harvest Childrens' Home staff today!  This is really exciting because it means that the staff has been continuing to do physical exams since we left, has documented them, and is meeting regularly to keep the childrens' health needs under surveillance.  We didn't even have to follow up with them about getting the report in to us, they sent it without prompting.

I am so excited!!  All of our blood, sweat, and tears (or mud, shivers, and tears as the case actually was), creative thinking and tailoring of the records system has paid off, at least for this month.  Hooray!

<3RH

Beginnings

7/15/2009

Is it the end of Wednesday already?

We accidentally overslept breakfast (which was sort of flexible seeing as how it was coffee and bread.)  After breakfast we met with Emmanuel Ngala and his wife Comfort to cover the essentials (meals and water).  We girls trekked to twon (Three Corners) with Comfort and two of the older kids, Clovis and Jude.  Comfort mostly did the shopping and we chatted with the boys.  Unfortunately a storm hit and knocked out the internet so we couldn't email out to tell everyone at home we got here. 

We rode back to town on motorcycles-- awesome!!  we played for a few minutes with the kiddos and then got a tour from Emmanuel Ful.  After the tour I think it was lunchtime, and more planning with the team, Emmanuel Ngala (EN) and Emmanuel Ful (EF).  We unloaded our supplies and debuted the chart system which the administrators liked, but the nurse Gilda seemed a little skeptical of.   Hopefully we can convince her to keep using it after we're gone.  Gosh I sunk so much time into that project.  Gilda overall was pretty honset with us and a good resource on what actually works and how people respond to things.

While we were meeting with EF, he brought up the sad story of one of the girls who has been sexually assaulted multiple times by an older man from the town.  He asked us if we could do a "virginity test"-- we basically said we don't have the equipment-- we don't have anything to do a pelvic exam or collect biological samples, not that much we could do would be definitive anyway.  It's so sad, though, and really surprising to see how OK she seems.  Maybe she's just good at hiding it.

Another sad story-- Christina and Kelsey both got notes from one of the older girls, basically saying that she neede love and wanted them to be her mom.  They're still formulating a response. . . but what do you say to that?  We're here for two weeks.  It's heartbreaking.

Later, after dinner, Kelsey heard some singing coming from the older girls' room, so we ventured out to see what was going on.  It was amazing-- tons of kids singing praise songs and getting down with all their sould.  About 5 of the younger kids pretty much attached themselves to me.  Even if the rest of this trip is miserable and we get nothign else done, it was entirely worth it for that half hour or so of praise.   I about lost it, needless to say.  That is what heavien is going to be like, and I cannot wait.

I also came to a realization. . . I guess a realization I've sort of had before, but never quite this tangible, and anyway it's good to be reminded-- I'd like to have someone journey with me into the wild missions onder, but if young, beautiful orphan hands like these are all I ever get to hold, it is more than enough. 

Thank you God for an amazing day.

<3RH

Ps-- Lizette cornrowed (plaited) my hair.