A New Arrival at the Orphanage

Baby Kayla

“Kayla” is the newest arrival at St. Jude’s Orphanage. She is one day old in this picture. She is named in honor of my daughter, Kayla, who is very excited to have such a beautiful baby girl named after her! Baby Kayla was brought to the orphanage after her mother expressed a desire to kill the child. So now I split my time taking care of one month old Sandy, and little Kayla. They usually sleep much of the time, so I just hold them and feed them.

Eating beans and poshe every day at the orphanage.

My Kayla is spending this week living at the orphanage full-time. I hope she is having quite a life changing experience living with all the orphans, eating their redundant food, doing chores and helping with the babies. We need some time apart from each other. I will still see her every day when I go to the orphanage. Her room there is nice; it even has hot water which is something I don’t have! Now that the weather is not so sunny and it is raining every day, my morning shower is freezing! The diet at the orphanage repeats every day; breakfast is corn porridge with sugar, lunch is poshe (thick corn meal) and beans; dinner is poshe and beans again. They eat meat only once a week on Sunday.

The orphanage knits sweaters for a source of fund raising. I watched these young ladies make the one she is holding up. Next week I want to make one myself. All in all, my time at the orphanage continues to be rewarding for me, and I am making some great friends.

Knitting sweaters at the orphanage.

The rainy season has come early this year and it rains every afternoon and often at night. The streets are easily flooded and the water and garbage flows openly down the streets. It is no use using an umbrella because the wind just turns it inside out. The rain just pours and pours like I have never seen it, and I have seen heavy rain when I lived in Texas, Florida and Hawaii where it rains a lot. Our windows are closed at night because it is too cold outside now. We sometimes even need our jacket during the day now.

This last picture is my neighbor. She often cooks me a little bowl of beans. Today she brought me some cabbage and poshe. She is a very nice lady. I have picked her up some beans at the market and given her money occasionally. She can’t speak a word of English, but we always seem to communicate our needs to each other.