Home Visits

At the end of our training sessions today we broke into two teams and accompanied the Kafwa (health workers) on home visits. The word sobering is a vast understatement. One of the homes we visited was that of a young husband and wife, Ernest and Enada, who have been attending the training. He has AIDS and she is 8 months pregnant. They have two older children, though they are only 22 years old. Both of them are delightful people. We became acquainted with them at the training but had no idea they were dealing with such a challenging future. Grace, our Kafwa, is working with them to keep Ernest in ARV treatment for AIDS and to be sure Enada receives testing and treatment before she is due, to prevent passing the HIV to the new baby.

We also went to see Catherine whom we first visited last June to find her totally out of food. This time, on top of her continuing fight with AIDS, she was in bed with malaria. Again she had no food. Since she was too ill to cook we bought bread and tea and sent it in for her. She continues to be gracious and welcoming when we visit in spite of the tremendous odds she faces.

I went on a solo visit this morning to the home of 9-year-old Peter Mulenga, a second grade student at our school. He lives with his blind grandmother along with two siblings. His mother and father died at the same time when he was a toddler. Relatives brought the 3 orphans to the grandmother to raise. The home is very humble with a rough dirt floor and very little furniture. Again, however, I received the same warm, gracious welcome. Peter's hope is to keep in school and get an education. Right now he's a good student and learning well in spite of frequent absences due to illness. We're planning to feature Peter in a video and introduce him to you with pictures.

Tomorrow is our last day of training so we'll have graduation with certificates and all. Hopefully the new bicycles will arrive for the participants in the Income Generating Activity class to see in real time. Exciting times ahead!