RENEWED HOPE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION, INC.

Working Together For Zimbabwe's Future

Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006

Got up early.  Oswald was worse.  Roberta and Florence , the nurse’s aide, went to attend to him at 6:15 a.m.  If you have been following Roberta’s journals, you know Oswald is a 16 year old boy who suffers from HIV/AIDS.  Today was to be a hospital run and Oswald was scheduled to go.  Because of his condition, it didn’t seem likely that he would be able to make the trip.  When Roberta and Florence got to his house, he was dressed in his school uniform, wanting to go. 

My son, Doug and I visited Oswald with Roberta the time before.  His condition deeply affected us.  The left side of his face is particularly infected.  Thick yellow pus oozes out of his ear.  The ear is filled to the rim with it.  Roberta cleans it with boiled water, a q-tip, and gauze.  Then she does the same with his eye that is oozing with the same ugly pus.  He has at least one boil on his eyeball and his eyeball is swollen.  His skin on the left side of his face is splitting open.  There is an unhealed open gash where the core was sometime ago.  His skin is splitting open in areas on his neck now.  Roberta treats it with a tar like substance that is designed to draw the infection out.  This is the result of HIV.

No one knows how he got it.  Both his mother and father died of HIV but if he would have gotten it from his mother, he would not have lived longer than 6 or 7 years old.

Roberta has granted his request and brought him a banana.  He eats it with difficulty.  His throat is badly swollen and he eats and drinks very little these days.  Roberta dares give him only one because he has diarrhea.  Except for swelling in his head and neck he is skin over skeleton.  Surely he can’t last much longer.  It is evident that he is in much pain.  He deserves a better death than this.

The H.C.O.C. Toyota pick-up is fully loaded now with sick children.  Oswald sits in the seat leaning against his uncle Yogi.  The roads to the hospital are very rough.  It will be a painful trip for the children.  This is just another day in Nyamashato!

We see the truck off and then we go into Ralph and Roberta’s house and fix a breakfast of healthy fruits and a sweet roll purchased the day before at a wonderful bakery Ralph and Roberta have discovered in Harare .  Again while in Harare , we searched for flour.  What flour that is left has been taken off the shelves to put back out at Christmas time at a higher price.  The prices are so shocking I can’t even comprehend the amounts.

Many people stop by in a day’s time.  There are so many needs.

Roberta goes to get the women started sewing.  She has to make new patterns for them today.

Ralph and Doug have computer problems to solve today.  They are off to the feeding center to begin working while the generator is on.  There is no electricity and the generator is used sparingly. 

I went to the preschool building and shook hands with many children.  They are so eager to touch a white person.  Amidst giggles and much laughter, we talked about the differences in the color of our eyes, skin and hair.  Of course, they are very curious about my funny looking hair.

I asked the caregiver if I could read the children a Bible story.  She said yes and she and another worker gathered about 100 wiggly bodies together in the largest room.  I began by trying to teach the kids how to clap in rhythm, patterning after my rhythm. This is used often in the states to get the kids focused.  It was pretty much a disaster because the kids wanted to clap whenever I did and didn’t much notice that I was clapping in a pattern.  I asked the worker to help me model for the children.  This helped some but definitely needs work.  Perhaps we’ll try this another day.

Next, I do right brain/left brain exercises with them.  They liked it and tried to mimic me.  I told the care giver that it was good for their brains.  The caregivers’ reaction told me that this was way beyond her comprehension.

I read from a children’s Bible I had brought with me as the worker translated in Shona.  I began with the story of Jesus’ birth, paraphrasing often to make it easier to understand.  I went on to tell them how Jesus grew to be a man and traveled around teaching and healing.  He still helps people today.  I started teaching then “Jesus Loves Me”  The care givers said that if I write down the words, they will continue to work with the children on it.  I will do this on Monday.

From preschool I went to a grade 2 classroom.  Many of the classrooms contain familiar looking tables and desks shipped in sea containers from Colorado .  They are so proud of their furniture from the U. S.  I look at it thinking how glad I am that our hand-me-downs are so well received here.    

I gave the kids some information about the U. S.  They are most interested in what kids in the U. S. are like.  I tell them that I am a teacher and a Christian and in some cases explain the cross that I wear around my neck.

I speak about the importance of having hopes and dreams and how education is the key to fulfilling your dreams.  But even as I speak, I feel guilty because so much more is involved for these children.  Lack of opportunities, transport (transportation), an economy that is headed for self-destruction and an oppressive government will stand in their way.  Only a few, if any, will ever achieve such possibilities. 

Despite that, I walk around and pause with each child.  They tell me their name and what they want to be when they grow up.  Amazingly, despite their desperate situation as orphans, they tell me that they want to be a nurse, a teacher, a mechanic, a dressmaker, a headmaster, a doctor, a policeman/woman, and even a lawyer and a pilot.  I shoot a glance at their teacher since none of them have probably ever seen an airplane.  She quickly explains that her brother is a pilot and she has told them many stories about what he does.

I encourage them to come to school every day and learn as much as they can.  I also suggest that they try to become acquainted with someone who is in the occupation they are interested in and ask them what they need to learn.  I suggest possible contacts – the women who make the school uniforms, Florence , the nurse’s aid, their teacher and Mr. Bondeponde, the headmaster of Nyamashato Primary School .

From there I pull out small groups and work on addition flash cards until it is time for lunch at the feeding center.  I had planned to work with grade 3 as well but the morning is over and afternoons are spent in working on traditional dances and other things so that will have to wait for another day.

Later, the H.C.O.C. pick-up returns.  Precious, who also has AIDS, was kept overnight for treatment.  The others were returned, even Oswald.  Florence, the nurses’ aid, tells us that the doctor refused to remove the bandages or even look at him.  He said the bandages were very well done and he didn’t want to disturb them.  This either means that the hospital had no bandages to replace them with or they can tell that Oswald is dying and so they don’t want to waste any resources on him.  Either way, we were terribly disappointed.  Now we know that the only care he will receive is what Nyamashato can provide for him.

The day draws to a close.  It is nearly 5:30 p.m. now.  It will be dark by about 6 p. m.  Since we have no electricity we have to use our daylight hours wisely.  I will end this journal now and Roberta will send it the next time they go to Harare .

Joann and Doug Briggs 

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Renewed Hope Charitable Foundation, Inc. | a 501(c)(3) charity | P.O. Box 1476 | Castle Rock, Colorado | 80104-1476

2006 Journal 01 B