Play For Hope

Since Ira left it has been a struggle not to let all the emotions become overwhelming.  But I think sometimes being vulnerable presents opportunity for finding meaning and reflecting on experiences.  I look back over the last few weeks here and it has been chaotic, challenging, heartbreaking, strenuous, and hopeful.  Many times I have been amazed at how much the human body can actually handle.  I see this among the people here and also in myself.  Many of the kids we work with have very little to eat and i hardly ever see them drink (when I am thirsting after only a half hour in the sun!).  Somehow the kids find the energy to get to the field (a considerable walk for many) and then they are excited and energetic throughout the drills!  Thankfully the last two weeks we have been able to provide food and water for some groups of kids who are desperately in need.  For me, I never considered carrying Olivia on 3 mile walks over steep hills in the hot african sun a possibility...but i can tell you i have been given the strength to do it more than a few times here.  Some days consist of waking around 6am to hand wash laundry, I wake Olivia to eat breakfast around 7:30, we head out at about 8.  After driving between 15-45 minutes we hike for anywhere from one hill to 3 miles to our first clinic site.  We meet with the kids and run warm ups (though God knows we are already warm ;) and drills for one and a half to two hours, then we gather for singing, dancing, skits, and Jesus sharing for another half hour.  We hike back to the car, maybe return home for lunch, maybe eat sandwhiches we pack in the morning on our way to the next site.  We drive or walk to the afternoon site by about 3pm and start warmups (we are definately warm by now!) and drills for theses kids.  After the last of drill rotations and sometimes scrimages we hang out with the kids, chatting, playing, praying and just loving on them until the sun begins to go down.  We return home by foot or car, have dinner and debrief, discussing details for the next day.  By the time I get Olivia in the bath and read bed time stories, I all but fall asleep next to her before I get up and make other preparations for the following day.  Despite how we may be feeling physically, we have learned that we have to bring a lot of energy to each site since our energy sets the tone for the whole clinic.  We have all different age groups and in order to keep everyones attention we have to stay up-beat and have several back-up ideas for entertaining!  My favorite this week was having kids who are waiting in line at different stations to repeat patterns of high knees, butt kicks, clapping and whatever else I could think of...the kids kept busy and had a blast!

Looking forward...we have 3 more jam-packed weeks!  I cant wait to return to the kids we see every week and meet many more new ones as we begin new clinics at different sites each week.  Every afternoon mon-sat we go to the same site (each week).  Tues and thurs mornings we meet with an incredible group of street boys who have totally stolen my heart.  MOnday mornings we play with street kids who are fed by Africa New Lifeon mondays and thursdays.  My heart breaks for these kids every time we go here, the kids literally live in a dump up the street from where we meet them.  They sing so joyfully and we get to dance with them and hang out with them all morning, but when I have to watch them walk back up the hill to the dump, my heart cries for them, I want to gather them all up like a hen gathers her chicks and take them all home, snuggle them in a warm nest of blankets after bathing them in a warm bath and dressing them in untattered clothes...feed them some african version of chicken noodle soup (comfort food...you get the point) and tuck each one in kissing his forehead before he drifts off into an undisturbed sleep.  These kids desperately need love and caring for...

Wed, Friday and Sat mornings we go to various other orphan or street children programs which deserve more detail when it is not 4am.

Thank you for all your prayers and votes on ideablob.com...keep it up!!! :)