Special visit

Today I went and visited the orphanage called Project Liberty which is run by a young American lady called Jenn Jestes. Jenn has been in Mozambique for 13 years now and had taken in many children. At present she has 20 children aged from one young man going to university, teenagers and little boys and girls. The youngest is 3. Many Jenn has taken in as babies or toddlers who have been very sick and malnourished. I can't even begin to fathom what it is like to a lost and abandon child. Thank heavens for people like Jenn. She relies a lot on donations and volunteer help. That's where I come in.

In true , Aussie tradition... You never go somewhere empty handed. My driver, Silvano helped me source some basic necessities to take. We bought a 25 kilo bag of rice, some condensed milk, sugar, merely meal (corn based meal to make a porridge), pasta, and some soft drink and lollipops for treats. This all cost me about $80 Aus. Here I paid 2.560,00 meticais.

I also took the paper used to wrapped my air shipment belongings in. After chatting with Jenn for a while, I met all of the children who greeted my respectfully with a handshake and two kisses either side of my cheeks. I know I will get to know their names eventually! One little boy was running around with an old bit of carpet around his neck trying to be superman! I will have to find a cape for him!

It has been raining for 5 days now and the children are beginning to go stir crazy inside their very cramped house. (Did I tell you they have two dogs that insist on bring in the middle of them all? Tiger and Bagheera)

I gave them the paper and asked for some crayons/ pencils . They immediately started to draw . One little girl whispered "can you help me?" Which of course I did and then everyone wanted me to draw something.

After a few hours, it was time to go. I got hugs from everyone. I asked if I could come back to visit. "Sim" (seem - yes) they said. "Adeus, Mrs. Dee-Anna!"

As we were leaving the heavens opened up and Silvano skilfully drove us back through torrential rain and flooding streets. People were drenched as they had no protection walking or sitting in the back of "charpas" (sharpas - open taxi
Utes). Many young children were playing in the soccer fields that had become swimming pools or in the drains along the roadside. It was the first day of school for many children and they were saturated in their new uniforms! That or they took them off as they walked home.

Home for midday. What an interesting morning! I look forward to going to Jenn 's on a regular basis.