This has been a great week for me, but today was especially great. I finally got the chance to go to Endebes to talk with Pamela and visit the kids. Protensiana, their older sister, goes to school in El Doret and got the chance to come with us to visit her family. When we got out of the car they were all standing there dressed in their nicest clothes waiting for us. 

The view of the kids house from the road

         We went into the house and sat down to talk with Pamela. She started off by telling us how her health is doing. The last time she went into the clinic, they took her CD4 count and it was at 23, when it should be around 250. This means that she has progressed into having full blown AIDS. They gave her the ARV’s, but she was told to return when they were finished and didn’t have the money to get herself to the clinic, so she’s gone 2 weeks without them. 

            They also don’t have much food in the house. I didn’t know that the kids were going home for the break, so I didn’t send them home with food or anything. Marvelous was so sad and didn’t smile once the whole time we were there. Pamela explained to us  that they only eat dinner because its all the food they have. This also is bad for her because she needs to take her medicine with food. Margaret told me that Pamela was at first resistant to the idea of her taking Marvelous to live at Purpose Driven Academy. Pamela wanted Marvelous around because she thought that she was going to die. With Marvelous in the home, people would be able to find that she had died because the baby would cry after a few days. My heart broke as she was telling us this. Pamela told us that her pain was so bad that she lost the will to live, but she told us she was doing better now. 

Pamela with Allan, Stella and Junior inside the house

  After we got caught up on a few things I asked Pamela if she had given anymore thought to the idea of telling her kids what was going on her. There are so many signs of the children being effected by the idea of not knowing what is going on with her. I told her that I love her children and I want to be able to be available for them to talk to me about anything. Then I told her that I was scared to tell her kids that because if they asked me about her health it would put me in a tough position because I wouldn’t want to betray her trust, but I also would not want to lie to them. After I told her this she agreed to telling them. She really does love her children. She has so little, but has taken in three extra kids and loves them as her own. 

Me with the whole crew.

             Today she was telling me how much the support of my parents has blessed her family and she wanted to give me something back. So the whole family rallied together and spent about fifteen minutes trying to catch a chicken to give to me. It was so sweet to receive something from people who have so little. I am thankful that God has brought me to meet these children and I am excited to see where he leads them in the future. 

Me with Pamela and my new chicken

My chicken hanging out at the compound.