CanadiansforAfricaBlog

Today was another emotional day. Today we went to the refugee camp that you see in Africa: Sing Me Your Song. We were welcomed and signed a guest book. Then we thought we would meet a few of the
orphans from the camp / settlement and hear their stories … instead we entered their church to face a group of over 1000 orphans and caregivers sitting quietly, waiting for us! It was amazing! They sang a song for us and welcomed us. We also sang to them and Daniel said a few words and Elias explained why we were there. Part of our intent was to begin to help in establishing a system of gathering information to catelog or organize for orphans to be able to be sponsored through Save Africa Now. This is a laborious job that
could be a full-time position for someone since there are almost 1000  orphans just there alone! We worked with Elias as a translator and were able to hear the stories of only 15 children, while Jeremiah
(another member of the church) did the same thing at another station.

It was heart-breaking … they lined up by the 100s, hoping to be able to find support for the children. Widows lined up and had to be turned away, since their children were not truly “orphans”. Some
children had lost their parents only 2 months ago. Others had lost their parents soon after birth. Many have died from disease, but most from HIV /AIDS. The children look into your hearts with sad eyes … they are beautiful! It was so hard to know that so few (at this time) could be helped …. There are so many more that need to be placed into the system and sponsored!

The people fed us a beautiful lunch meal and we felt like royalty! Totally spoiled! Then the good news was that after we left the church, we went and saw Esther (from the movie) … she looks healthy and well, and Richard … he is chubby and adorable, and the rest of their family. It was uplifting to see them and to know that Esther is still doing well.

We are emotionally exhausted tonight. But we are so blessed to be here. These people are so wonderful … and so grateful that we are here. And although we know we are doing such a little bit right now,
we are hoping and praying that this is only the beginning for being able to bring help and relief to these people!

We love and miss you all, and so wish that you could see and experience what we are seeing and taking in! – It is beautiful here … and has been life-changing for us!
Mungu Atubariki – God Bless You

(Nathan and Geannette)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 4:14 pm and is filed under AIDS orphans, Africa Sing Me Your Song, Save Africa Now, Save Africa Now Task Force Team, Tabora, Widows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.