My First...

...Shower

Squeals echoed the dark room as the first drops fell. Have you ever witnessed a 6 year olds first shower? A 10 year olds? A 15 year olds? It makes you smile for hours.

The showers are up and running. Separately, of course, the boys and girls have made use of them, many experiencing the first shower of a lifetime. The boys met the experience by running around naked in the showers, shouting. The girls were a little shy at first about getting undressed but once under the water loved it, and in order to get them out I had to literally turn their water off. The little ones, my favorites, didn´t know what do do with themselves. Four of them crowded into the first shower and as the water came down they just squealed in delight. Later they danced naked in the sun and it took a good 15 minutes for them to get their clothes back on. I myself experienced my first Cidadela shower the other day, Brian guarding the door outside so no boys came in (we still haven´t worked out a system yet). Soap, shampoo, and conditioner. It was worth every penny.

...Mosquito Net

80 bright pink nets are now hanging over beds throughout Cidadela. It was the only color the store had enough of, and when we first saw them Brian and I shook our heads "This is never going to work. The boys are going to freak out". You know what? Not one person said a word about the color. Not one. Most of them were just so excited to have something new, out of the wrapper. The picture on the front of the packaging is hanging on the walls of some of the boys rooms, I know for a fact. Installing them, I got to see the conditions of some of the rooms and I must say it was shocking, especially the boys rooms. Have you ever inadvertantly walked into a swarm of mosquitos at dusk? Hundreds surrounds you, swarming your mouth, your eyes, your ears. This is what is was like in all of the boys rooms. You couldn´t hear yourself think. I´m surprised the infections here arent worse, these kids were literally getting eaten alive at night with no protection. Many of the mattresses they sleep on are just foam, there are no sheets, just a blanket thrown over it, and at least one or two kids dídn´t have mattresses at all. One kid was sleeping on the concrete floor. You wouldn´t let your dog sleep like that. All because of lack of supervision, the older boys steal from the younger ones. The worst thing for me was the little boys rooms, where three or four sleep on one bed. Some of them, being four or five years old and having gone through God knows what in their young lives, wet the bed and it stays wet, and the smell in the room, and the resultant mosquitos, is visceral. One bed was still wet from the night before. Without someone there to live with them, to take care of them, I don´t know what to do about this - suggestions are welcome. Who is there to take care of them? How can one not adopt?

...Doctors Visit

Saturday, finally, the doctor came. YAAAAY! I don´t know when the last doctor visited Cidadela, but for some I am sure it was the first time they had been seen by a doctor. The clinic the Humana staff in Maputo uses agreed to come see the kids and on Saturday a doctor, a nurse, and the head of the clinic arrived. Unfortunately not all of the kids were able to be seen but the visit turned out better than I could have hoped for. They offered at the start to come once a week for two hours! I had been hoping for once a month = ). The kids with the most serious problems were seen to and the doctor has promised to come back on Tuesday to see the rest of the kids, and to come armed with compiled lists of each of the diseases each kid has and recommendations for them! Can you believe it?!

Already some good news. The boy with the worst scabies has been given pills to take three times a day for three days. Raul, whose 40-odd infected sores Brian has been treating every day for two days and who we were really worried about, is doing much better and is like a different boy - happy, smiling, jumping, and with a little attitude. And finally Phillipe, a seven year old who I have a soft spot for, finally smiled at me. Phillipe is not mentally 100%, often gets bullied, and sometimes completely shuts off for hours at a time. Every day I say hello to him, joke around with him, and he just stares at me blankly. The other day about six boys started bullying him viciously and something came over me - it was the closest I have ever been to hitting a child - anyway I ran them off, picked up Phillipe, held him, and then let him color with me for half an hour. And today, he smiled at me. What´s better than that.

There are a number of problems here that are worrying me. Questions of sustainability, staff motivation, etc. But still, it´s important to focus on the wins, on the good days, and of course, on the firsts....