Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Are you from America? Do you know Mr and Mrs Kelly?

About 79 patients came through the clinic today. Some were patients from Mildmay, I am not even sure where the other children were from, but they arrive in vans with twenty five or more to a van. Maybe one or two caregivers, the rest are children. We get wide eyed wary looks from most of the kids, but some warm up to us quickly. first they go through a bit of a registration process, then they get their pictures taken for the photo we send home with them. Jess one of the teens takes most of the pictures and is good and getting a little smile. Jess also writes the name on a backpack of goodies. Then comes a very long wait to see the dentist. In the background as they wait, is crying and screaming from the clinic. So we try to keep the kids busy with puzzles and chalk, stories, face painting and more.

The kids tend to be very soft spoken and so polite. If they speak English I ask them about if they go to school, and can they read, and do they like to read etc. Then we talk about how important school is. One group of three thirteen year olds sang a beautiful song for me after we talked.

We also had a highlight today, when the Mildmay Childrens choir came and sang a lovely song outside the clinic. The lyrics were some thing like We are strong, we are brave, we are warriors and we have a life long battle to fight. They were singing about living with HIV, but with such joy!!

About mid afternoon I was sitting for a few minutes with a little girl of maybe three, she had been here all day and was so tired, I laid her down on a bench and she was immediately asleep. Her dress was so worn and and I could see it was wet on the back, so l lifted it up and underneath were just tatters for undies. It's not like you can find something for her to fix it, because after her are all the others just as needy.

Some of the kids have sponsors in the US, that help them. the title of this post comes from the little girl who asked me in her soft spoken, most sincere voice if I was from America and did I know Mr and Mrs Kelly. After talking to her for a bit I finally figured out, while she has a sponsor the way it works is she does not actually know their address.

Finally at the end of the day, the kids eventually go back in their vans with a backpack, some small goodies in the backpack, maybe a pair of shoes(we are starting to run of the right sizes) and a beanie baby stuffed animal or a small toy.



I really have not been writing much about the dentists and the amazing assistants, but that is where the real stuff is happening. They are doing a wonderful thing for these kids, and all they talk about is how to do more.








The kids are all coloring on a long scroll with doodles from someone at Crossroads church.





these two just loved getting their pictures taken.








Same little girl as above, this time happy to be sitting with Deb, an RN from Crossroads volunteering here with the team.






At the very end of the day this little guy needed some comfort, and after holding him through som extractions Amanda provides just what he needed to calm him.





This is just starting to load up a van all thumbs up and waves

All for now ~~C

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