Yesterday we talked a lot about HIV/AIDS. We did the first session in a quiz form, so that they were teaching each other. They really know a lot about HIV/AIDS. And it was good to see them explaining to one another. We talked about the ARV medicines, all the children are on ARV's, they know where they talk about... Then we had a lesson about acceptance, that was a tough one. It is hard to accept your status, it is a process and we talked about the phases of that process: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and then the last one acceptance. The last item was: disclosure of your status to others, that was difficult, the children are afraid to be rejected. Many of them have been rejected so much in their life.. We gave some steps they could take. In the afternoon we had our four peer groups and they all talked a lot about the teaching from that morning. They were very open and shared their own experiences. Some were very painful.
There was a lot of rain yesterday, we even had to all pick our chair and run to the shelter, because we didn't trust the tent. But the programme went on and we could even do a game in the afternoon, when it was dry again.
We see this year a lot of unity. There were Amun weeks (this is our 7th Amunweek), where we had struggles with little groups, but this year it is so good!! The older children are helping the younger ones. I took this picture of Esther, who was cutting the nails of Simon! This is beautiful to see. Yesterday an older boy came with a small boy to show a wound at his leg. And he walked with him to Amecet (2 plots further on the road) to get treatment from the nurse. The games we do, they all participate.
There are several sick children, but not so sick that we have to let them lay down in Amecet. We took several children for malaria test, some were positive, so they are now on treatment, but they still follow the programme. We have two boys running around with a cannula in their arm, they were put on I.V. treatment and they will be finished before the week end. So they can go home healthy.
Today, the first teaching was about growth and development, how our body is changing when we get older, this was done by Simon and David. The second teaching was given by Jane and Andrew, this was all about relationships in the family. Some of the children have a hard time. Most of them are orphans and live with their relatives. There are problems sometimes and it is not good to just point to the relatives, the children do have a responsibility as well in the home.
In the mean time is Amecet going on, we got 3 new baby';s, one baby of a week old, he was abandoned in the hospital and two new born baby's, who both lost their mothers after the delivery. You can understand that it is a busy time for us, I am thankful for the staff of Amecet, who is smaller now, as several staff is helping with the Amun week. But everything goes well......
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