Themba Care and Crossroads (Babies and Paint)

My clothes have been covered in Drool...and paint. On Monday we were taken from the Gammon's house to Themba Care, a hospice for babies with AIDS located in a township near central Cape Town. It was heavy stuff, but an awesome experience. We were shown our "office" for the next few hours: a room with some couches, high chairs, floor mats, and a sea of babies. We spent 3 or 4 hours just trying to entertain the babies, and being entertained ourselves. It was sad to see what we saw, but it was a place filled with so much hope and so much love, and some really beautiful children. The year Themba Care started (2002), they had a death rate of 70% with their children, and last year they were down to 2%. There is no medical explanation for this, as they have new babies coming in a lot, and they are all given the proper ARV's and medical attention for their disease. I believe it is a miracle, and simply a matter of the children being shown the gift of hope and love. An amazing place. The babies are all very underdeveloped (babies several months old were the size of newborns), and some show signs of being malnourished and struggling with various sicknesses. Highlights were just wathcing the babies as they broke into massive smiles, or crawled up behind me and began trying to climb my back. Remy was trapped at one point when a larger child fell asleep as she sprawled across his lap. It was a lot of fun, but we were tired!

After leaving Themba Care we went with some of Pete's friends to a different township, called Crossroads, where we started our official project for the week. We met with a short term missions group of University students from the States, and we were shown a community training centre in the township. Our project for the week has been cleaning and painting the community centre, inside and out. It's been a really fun experience there as well, and a few people from the township have even come in to meet us and help out with some painting as well. Very cool.

It's been fun getting to know the American group and we've been able to work well together and quite efficiently. They've welcomed us two "Canucks" into their community and we've enjoyed our time with them a lot. We're back at Pete and Katie's house chilling out in Somerset West, and getting ready to say goodbye WAY too soon. I can't believe we leave South Africa this Sunday.

Hope everyone reading is still entertained and doing well.