Ringworms and bleeding hands
For the last month and a half I have been in Africa. I was in Ethiopia last month and am currently in Rwanda. It has truly been a blessing but also an eye opener. The places that I have been are so far away from the city, hospital or even grocery stores. You have to walk for hours or pay a lot of money for transportation just to be able to get to an ATM, find a pharmacy, or even to buy “normal food.” When we were in Ethiopia we were at a very high altitude and it was so dry. The air was dry to the point that my hands were bleeding because of it. I know this sounds terrible and also exaggerated, but sadly it is true. Many of the kids at the orphanage we were living at had really dry lips and skin too. Unfortunately many of them also had ringworms. Some had more than others, even covering almost their entire bodies. Ringworms are contagious and because we were spending more than 12 hours everyday with them I got some too. Thankfully I was able to treat the ringworm after I got the right medicine for it. On top of that some of them were sick for weeks with cold or flu, running nose, and cough but because they don’t have access to treatment they basically just wait until it is gone. Here in Rwanda malaria is so common. Did you know that last year more than 2,000,000 cases of malaria were reported just here in Rwanda? Can you imagine?
We have been teaching English for the last week and painting in a local school. Everyday we see different kids with different sicknesses. For example, there was one kid who sat on my lap every day and each day I could feel his fever getting higher and higher. A few days later I began to feel sick and I wouldn’t doubt that it was because of that. There was a different kid that we prayed for yesterday while we were evangelizing, he had malaria already and has been so sick for the last couple of days, probably going without treatment. There are also many kids that start following us any time we walk outside of our house, more than 15 I would say. The majority wear the same clothes every day. Their clothes have become more brown and muddy than the colors they should be with their noses all dirty. So many times (99%) I identify them by their clothes because that’s all they use and probably all that they have. There was also a young girl that we met some days ago that has diabetes and is losing her vision because of it. Treatment? It would be so expensive, and they probably cannot afford it. Also going to the hospital for a treatment will be hard for them not having a way of transportation. Their house? Just four walls made of mud or some kind of clay.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining or blaming this 2 year old kid who had a fever for getting me sick, or the kids at the orphanage that had ringworms. It is not their fault, these are their lives. This is the life that I chose and I’m so blessed God brought me here to be able to see all of this. There is no place I would rather be than here just loving all of these kids, but I really want to give you an inside look at what happens on the other side of the world.
Every morning we go to the school which is just a little classroom with 3 benches made of wood and a mini chalk board that doesn’t even work. You have to fit like 25 kids on those benches (1.5 m each) and basically the school is for every kid that wants to learn, so the ages are from 2 years old to 13 years old. It is a new school too so they just have two teachers that switch when the other is sick. The first day we had a warm up time where we gave them some coloring sheets to color and they didn’t even know why we were giving this to them. They didn’t know how to color. They still play with old tires, bottles as soccer balls, caps of soda bottles, marbles on the ground, dirt and mud. The church is a tarp that gets so hot and almost impossible to breathe for the lack of air and also the floor is just dust and so many times when we are dancing with the kids for Jesus gets so dusty. This is Africa! A place that is so many times forgotten by people, society and the world, and to be honest it is true. That’s life for them! A life that none of us know. How many of us know about the genocide that happened here in Rwanda some years ago? What about the diseases? Hunger? Sometimes we actually know but we don’t care, it is just “Oh poor people, God please help them” but actually we can do more than that.
You don’t necessary have to come to a mission trip to help, there’s some other ways to do it. You can start on your own community! Just be kind and quick to forgive. It is just trying to find a way to make a better life, better world, better people.
PD: My team and I would like to help the school, church and the community. If you would like to help us and support us please let me know through my email [email protected] or you can donate to my paypal account [email protected] with the description “Rwanda”.
Some kids I found at the market holding my hands! We had a great time 🙂
This is the little classroom of the school. Learning the numbers! 🙂
Preaching at church ! 🙂
