Family Village Visits

Family Village Visits

I wish I could insert the pictures with today's post so you could truly see what we did today. 

I know that I will not come back to America the same after today. We had the most heart-wrenching experience that I could ever imagine. We drove about 30 minutes out of the city and  drove back into the bush to make some home visits. We bought 100 pounds of rice and sugar and divided it amoung the five families.

First we visited a family of four. The father was in a motorcycle crash one month earlier. He was crossing an intersection when a drunk driver hit him. Luckily he was wearing a helmet but his head hit the windshield and he had many stitches in his lip and chin. He broke his leg and hurt his wrist. He has been unable to work for the past month and therefore unable to feed his family. They were so grateful for the food we brought them. The rice should last the family until he can go back to work. We actually saw his motorcycle and the front was demolished.

The second family was an older lady who was taking care of a baby. Someone just left the baby with her and now she has to care of it. They live in a one room brick hut. The problem is the baby is sick a lot and the older lady has no way to get medicine. She walks around the village begging for any medicine for the baby. We brought them food, clothes and shoes for the baby, and toothbrushes. 

The third home was a lady who had aids. She had no family left. She also lived in a one room brick hut. She has no way of earning money so she was so grateful for the food and the company.

The fourth family was heartbreaking. This family had a son with a deformation of his right arm and right leg. As he has been growing, he is having a lot of seizures. They have no money for medical treatment. Along with this son, there were also 8 other children. They all lived in a two room brick hut. One room the parents slept in the other room all the children. They did not have beds, they all slept on the concrete floor. The room was about the size of my bathroom. I have no idea how they all fit into the room. We brought this family food, clothes,shoes, and toothbrushes.

The last family we visited got to all of us. We all left crying. The family consisted of the mother and 6-8 children. About five years ago the mother had a banana tree fall on her and hurt her back. She was basically paralyzed. She can move around some but not much. They live in a two room half built brick hut. They do not have a roof on their house. The kids sleep on a 3 x 5 makeshift hammock. Again, I have no idea how they all fit. The children's sleeping area did not have a roof but they had some plastic. They have no doors on their place. During the rainy season, they just sleep in the rain. Our hearts broke when we saw this place. We gave the family food, all the clothes we had in our car, all the shoes we had left, and then we all went through our backpacks and gave them all the snacks we had. We had about two gallon ziplock bags of granola bars, fruit snacks, and nuts. We decided to fix their roof before we leave Africa. 

As we drove out of the bush, we were completely silent. These visits were etched in our hearts forever. 

As we were doing our nightly devotion with the family and sharing about our day, we couldn't share without crying. There is so much poverty all around us here! It is overwhelming.