Happy Saturday!! I’ve already described one of the kids at Rafiki and there
are actually 15 kids living here now. A
new boy arrived this week, Hadid. His
father just discovered that this 8 year old is not his biological son and no
longer wants him. Since this writing, I learned that his father dropped him off at a police station and told the police to tell the boy that he was going out of the country. A few days later, the police stopped by Rafiki to drop off Hadid's things and the boy asked the police officer if his father was back from his trip.
It was heart wrenching and I pray for the workers at Rafiki, Esther and Florence who will have to one day soon tell Hadid the truth of his story. At Rafiki there is
always hope. Their goal is to reunite
the children with family even if it’s extended family. They have to heavily weigh the safety and
well being of each child which is why they work with the families to ensure
safety and continued education. In some
cases they will continue to provide education costs (you pay to go to school in
Uganda) for the child when they are reunited with some of their family. The house is quite crowded and
efficient!! All the girls sleep in one room. There’s a two sets of triple bunks for the
grade school girls and three cribs in the middle for toddlers. All the boys sleep in another room, two sets
of triple bunks. The littlests sleep in
cribs with a worker who lives here.
There’s a boy’s bathroom and a girl’s bathroom, a living area that is
open to the eating area. There’s a small
galley kitchen and a small office.Fausiya is probably the oldest girl here. All of the kids got to go “home” for
Christmas, except Fausiya. Her mother
doesn’t want her simply put. Rafiki is
her family.
 |
| Hadid - He's very very bright and kind and enjoyed doing crafts! |
Fausiya and Cocous are the big brother and sister to these
younger ones. They help willingly with
everything from cleaning, to peeling sweet potatoes, to consoling someone who
is crying.
These white skinned ladies are a fascination to these kids,
especially the new ones who may have never been exposed to white people. They are constantly “petting” Patti and I
rubbing all of our skin and our legs.
They touch spots and moles as if we might say “ouch.” Our hair is another fascination with all the
children. Mostly all day long, someone
is running their dirty fingers through my hair.
Patti and I have given up being clean!
It’s really not important for this time.
(We do bath every day and wash our hair too but within an hour of
bathing, we both look at each other and make a promise to never posts some of
these pictures!!!)
Today is Saturday and we have enjoyed a more laid back day
with the children. They have nap
time/quiet time from 1-4 and it was helpful for both of us to take an afternoon
nap. I hear all the chatter downstairs
and look forward to these very dark faces lighting up with white teeth and
white eyes when we walk into the room because they so willingly accept love from strangers. How will I leave them in four days. Fausiya has already said, she will cry. I hope not.
I pray that our visit isn’t too hard on the kids when we leave; there
will be others that will come and love on them and we know we are leaving them
with a lot of love from the staff.
Thanks for your prayers, Patti and I are healthy today and minus
snotty
noses, the kids are too. We look forward to Kyle and Moses return from
the village of Buwooya on Tuesday. We will all spend the last two days
together here at Rafiki. Love, Patty 
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