Out and About

Today we got out of the compound and away from the security that this hotel, surrounded by cement walls and coiled barbed wire, provides.  Our first stop was Malachi and Isaac's foster home....where they have lived since we agreed to adopt them in March.  It was a nice home by Congolese standards....there were several rooms, concrete floors and walls, and some pieces of furniture.  Their foster mother and her two daughters were home and they kissed on the boys and spoke Lingala to them.  Isaac was all smiles but Malachi would not let go of Brian.  He is very cautious and it makes me wonder what he has endured in his short 19 months.

From there we took some shady and extremely dangerous drives to visit the two orphanages where the boys lived.  Some sights we saw and experiences we had on the way...two gunned security guards removing a van driver, large pot holes that decorated every street,  market day and the Congolese version of rush hour with cars deadlocked in every direction, unlined dirt roads, cuttting up on a dirt sidewalk to avoid traffic, having to give the security guard money in order to drive on the street, and that is just the beginning...

Then we arrived at Isaac's orphanage.  We entered through blue gates and as we entered children ran from all over to a central room.  They greeted us and sang for us.  It was adorable except that it was heartbreaking...they were giving us a show admist the dirt, lack of space and toys, and barrier of communication.  Brian counted 70 children in the  room with young girls holding the infants.  We brought some toys but I am unsure if the children will ever get to play with them.   My stomach was in knots and I thought I was going to start crying. This is where my smiley baby boy lived for the first month of his life.   This was nothing compared to what I would see at Malachi's orphanage.  We arrived there and saw a church first with someone singing beautifully inside.  Oh, this is going to be better I thought.   We walked around back and there were older boys, dirty with tattered clothes and no shoes, playing with an empty bottle, some bottles caps, and a board.  When I waved at them, they would come up and greet me...big smiles, looking for love.  Then, they asked if we wanted to see where Malachi stayed while he was there.  We walked through their dining room lined with tables and plastic chairs.  A lone plate sat on the table and I opened it up to see green mash inside.  My stomach churned.  Then, we saw the bedrooms.  The babies sleep on thin foam matters on the bottom of bunk beds.   The older boys sleep on wooden slats laid across bunk bed frames.  There were no toys, no matresses for the older boys, no bright paint, dirty cement floors....it was horrible I was going to cry or be sick I didn't know which one.  I walked outside and walked off by myself....there on the bushes laid some thin green mattress covered with flies.  I gagged.  Now, I am beginning to understand why Malachi is cautious and reserved.

I'm not sure what to do with what I saw today!  I'm laying here in bed unable to sleep.  I pray that someone will do something..someone will love those children and show them family.   The problem seems so big and I am so small!  So for tonight, I will snuggle with Isaac and rock Malachi to sleep and leave the rest up to my Heavenly Father who knows each orphan by name!