VISIT TO KAOMA ORPHANAGE AND SCHOOL

Yesterday, I visited the orphanage that one of the sisters here in the house runs. The sister has been in Ireland since I've been here so haven't met her yet. She comes back next week. I walked through both orphanage buildings. There were a lot of little babies lying in cribs...their mothers have died of aids. Some of the babies looked pretty sick as well. The older children were in school, so I didn't meet any of them. The younger children who weren't of school age were running around outside and a few came up and hugged my legs when they saw me. Some I picked up and held...others just held on to my skirt wanting some attention!

Today, I went to the school where one of the Sisters teaches high school students. The Catholic students meet every Wednesday afternoon for singing, discussion, etc. I met with the group of about 25 students and did some activities, discussion and singing. You have to be creative here because I didn't even have paper and pencils. I taught them a game I've done with american youth groups and they loved it! They wanted to play it over and over. They did a great job using the game to associate to the discussion topic, but I did have some trouble understanding everything they said! It is a challenge to understand the dialect and the African names. However, people are very patient and are willing to repeat! The children learn english in school so they are anxious to practice on us!