Mo's visit to Christ Outreach Orphanage 7/18/09

What a bunch of great kids. About 40 in all ranging in age from 3 months to 16 years of age. In a word -- heartbreaking. It was simply unimaginable for my western mind to fathom the deplorable living conditions that my kids, Ama and Jojo, lived in. Absolute squalor. Easily, there are at least 8 to as many as 15 kids per 10 x 10 size room. And not all have a dirty and torn foam pad to sleep on. And to think that this time of year is the rainy season when it's a cool upper 80's with at least 50% humidity. I can't imagine being here when it's hot. And when it came time to hand out crackers to everyone, sometimes it was hard to watch. At times, it was literally like watching pidgeons and ducks when you feed them bread crumbs. But the sad fact is that these are kids and not animals. I can go on and on and on. So, please pray for the kids and staff still at Christ Outreach and the countless many who live like them.

For Ama and Jojo, this was home. And they loved being back with the familiar. To be with other siblings and friends that they've grown up with their whole lives. Ama and a group of the girls performed some traditional dances while some of the boys took turns beating the drum. It was great to watch how their faces did not reflect the poverty around them as they seemed to escape in the solace of the rythm and dance. Jojo was very clingy to me initially, but was eventually drawn by one of his sisters, Rose, who is about 5 years old. I just wanted to take her home with me, too. She just wouldn't leave Jojo alone. In all, I spent about 3 hours at the orphanage. And pretty much that whole time, I was thinking about all that I could do to clean up the place and make the conditions better. When the time came to leave, Ama was in tears sobbing and holding one of her closest friends. I think she knew that this was the last time she would be here. I put my arms around her and brought her into the car. As we drove off, I reassurred everyone that Ama and Jojo were going to be well taken care of. That is my promise to each of my kids.---Mo