Healing 2 The Nations International ~ Dr. Claudia R. Wintoch ~ Blog April 2010

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Friday, April 30, 2010

Construction & Highlight

Eva has a new job - climbing up the watertower to take pictures of the construction progress. It's exciting to see them work on building #3 again!

The hightlight of the day was when Joseph (17) had a message from God for Eva that I translated. It was powerful, and right on! I'm proud of Joseph who is the furthest along spiritually. He's turning 18 in December, and I'd love to take him to the US with me next year.

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Thursday, April 29, 2010

Swimming Pool

It's the hottest time of year, and the kids had been asking me to go to the swimming pool. However, at $7 per child, there was simply no way to afford it.

And then we had a very generous donation, and I decided to fulfill that dream of theirs. And so today the moment had come to go swimming. Our little handicapped boy hadn't been talking about anything else but going swimming, and all the kids had been behaving perfectly since I had told them it depended on their behavior whether they'd get to go or not.

I decided to have a quiet afternoon at home while they were all gone, and so Eva and the others went to the hotel by themselves. They had an awesome time with lots of fun there!

During the week hardly anyone is as the swimming pool, and so our kids literally took it over.

It's actually the hotel where Eva and I spent a night last weekend. Eva was happy to return there.

Top right: Jérémie and Daouda.
Below left: Jérémie.
Below right: Eva with Hama, and some of the other kids.

Left: Joseph, Philippe, Paul, and Daouda in the forefront.
Right: Florentin and Sarata.

Left: Philippe, Abdias, Amadou, Sarata.
Right: Florentin, Boubacar, Philippe, Jérémie, Amadou, Daouda.

A fruit stand the car stopped at on the way home.

The little ones were so tired after hours of fun in the water, that they all fell asleep in the car. What a cute picture of Sarata (5), Hama (8), and Bakary (6)!

Bakary did something pretty serious this morning - he used the shower as a toilet, and the next person going in to shower found his heap. We were very shocked, and actually considered having him stay home from the swimming pool. Instead, we talked about it at the family meeting, and I had Paul punish him after the meeting. He hit him 3 times on his behind, and then hugged him, telling him he loved him. However, for some reason Bakary was pretty upset. So I ended up holding and comforting him for quite some time. Our little boy definitely needs a lot of a mother's love!

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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Construction

It's wonderful to send out construction pictures again!

A few weeks ago we had a decent roof put on top of our metal structure, so that the cars would have shade to park under. It wasn't a good situation with the cars in the intense sun during the hottest time of year.

This picture was taken from the top of the water tower (brave Eva), and you can see our two finished buildings. The house most of us live in in the forefront, and then the dining hall. Behind the dining hall is a big open space where the main building is going to be.

And the work on house number 3 continues. Right now we have enough money to build the wall up to roof level.

Kids Impressions

In March Amadou (10) broke his wrist doing push-ups. The doctor said the cast had to stay on for 45 days. However, it wasn't made to last that long, as it was already falling apart big time.

Since we're going to the swimming pool tomorrow, and he wanted to go as well, and it was 42 days since the accident, we decided to cut off the remains. So our resident "nurse" Eva went to work! Amadou was relieved to be liberated again!

It's been impossible so far to take a picture of Hawa (now 10 months old) where she does NOT look like she's upset. So I was really happy when Eva succeeded in taking this picture of her - the best so far!

And finally, nearly 5-year-old Sarata on my shoulders. In two weeks we'll be celebrating our birthday together on the same day.

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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Construction Continues

The last few weeks the workers have been making and drying bricks to continue construction. Yesterday they started work on the walls again, and so the walls are coming up again, all the way to roof level.

Eva climbed up the water tower to take these great pictures from the top. I'm glad she got up and down safely.

This picture was shot out of my office window, watching them build the second half of the wall.

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Monday, April 26, 2010

One Day Off And Away - Part 2

I woke up early - since I'm used to it - and saw that it was 23.5 C (74.2 F) in my room. Wow, I hadn't been in such a cool place in a long time! I enjoyed it! I stayed in bed for another hour before getting up at 8:30 am. Eva and I had decided to have breakfast at 9:30 am, half an hour before it was over. So I had one hour to spend with God, which was a bonus.

Eva had also woken up early and enjoyed the air condition. Because of having eaten too much, I hadn't slept as well as I would have liked, but decent enough. However, I realized I was very tired later in the day.

We walked over to the main building, where we found the breakfast buffet. It was somewhat poor-looking, with little left, but just enough for us. And then they offered to make us an omelet - but they were out of onions. It was still very good.

We also had bread, ham, cheese, fruit, croissants, tea and coffee. We sat at the same table outside again, enjoying the view. We were watching fishermen the whole time who did their fishing right there, as if they did it for us to see.

We were stuffed once again, and headed to the swimming pool. This morning there were several other hotel guests. We had one hour to enjoy the pool, and that's what we did. Then we returned to our rooms one last time, changed, packed, and headed to the reception. We paid and left the hotel to head towards home.

On the way we stopped at the big supermarket, just in time before they close for their lunch break at half past noon. We bought some groceries, and then headed to the restaurant closeby - one we used to go to, but Eva had never been there before. Since we were still full, we just had dessert for lunch - Eva fruit, and I my beloved mousse au chocolat. Satisfied we got back into the car to go all the way home. It had been a wonderful 30 hours!

Abdias's 17th Birthday

Back home the reception was very cold - or should I rather say non-existent - which led to a discussion later. And it was not the only unpleasant thing we found. Discouragement came back full-force.

That didn't change that I had a cake to bake since it was Abdias's 17th birthday. To the day 4 years ago Abdias was the second child that stayed with us. He's caused us more problems than any other child, and it's a miracle he's still with us.

Since those who give a gift receive a soda, everyone had a gift for Abdias. Paul gave him some perfume - a great gift - and I gave him traditional Malian clothes which he also loved.

The other kids were happy about soda and cake - the latter one gone within minutes!

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Sunday, April 25, 2010

One Day Off And Away - Part 1

All week we had been looking forward to this one day and night away, and especially to one night in an airconditioned hotel. I have up to 100 F (38 C) in my bedroom and have therefore not slept well in many weeks. I felt I really needed this - and I did. Eva was also very excited.

The hotel told us we could come at 8 am and use the swimming pool all day. It's the hotel where I always take our kids swimming. It's beautifully situated on the Niger river.

We left home at 8:30 am and got there about 45 minutes later. On the way we stopped at a little store to buy some water for the time away, since it's more expensive at the hotel.

We checked in at the hotel, and were taken to our rooms. I had room 1, and Eva room number 2. I was positively surprised that there was a little fridge, and negatively that the bathroom was extremely basic.

But we didn't stay in our room for long, but headed to the swimming pool right away. There were hardly any people, and it was nice and quiet - at least to start with. We were told that the pool was not to be used before 10:30 am, and so we waited for half an hour.

Then it was finally time to jump in - it was beautiful! We spent about an hour enjoying the swimming pool before heading to our rooms to get changed and leave to have lunch in our favorite restaurant, which isn't too far from there.

We had only been at that restaurant a week earlier, not knowing we'd be at the hotel this weekend. But we didn't mind at all :-). I ordered the same as always, and Eva a chickenburger instead of last week's cheeseburger, but she got a cheeseburger anyway. Oh well.

Then we had a wonderful dessert - icecream for Eva, and milkshare for me. I knew this was not the day to count calories! We had a great time talking and eating.

When we left the restaurant, I stared in shock at the bus parked in front of it. It was EXACTLY what we're looking for! We've been praying for a bus for quite some time, and said that this was the size we needed, but I hadn't actually ever seen one that size. And now it was sitting right there!

We immediately took pictures, and I talked to the driver who didn't know how much his boss had paid for it. It has about 24 seats, which means we could squeeze at least 40 kids in there. Now may we find an affordable one like that for sale!

We returned to the hotel and to the side of the pool where we spent the whole afternoon - swimming and talking. Unfortunately lots of people came to use the pool, plus they brought radios with loud music, so it wasn't really very relaxing. I enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with Eva, talking to her, and telling her much about my life story.

There was a hotel restaurant menu in Eva's room, and we were shocked at how high the prices were. That's when I had the idea to order pizza from the only Italian pizza place in Bamako which was not too far away. Unfortunately I did not have their number with me.

We returned to our rooms, and I called Paul to ask him to give me the number to be found in my office. I had left my house key with Fanta so she could clean the floors in the morning. I reached Paul but Fanta had left and would not be back for quite some time. So Paul sent the kids to find her since he knew she was in the neighborhood somewhere. In the meantime Eva and I waited, zapping through the few channels on TV. We were both getting more and more hungry. Finally I called to tell Paul we were giving up and would eat at the hotel restaurant, but that's when they had found Fanta, and Paul could give me the pizza place's number.

I called and ordered a pizza for each of us - I hadn't eaten there in a year and a half and had forgotten how big the pizzas were. We could have split one! I should have taken the other half to give to the kids, but I didn't. I paid for that later.

Pizza or not, we had decided in advance we wanted to sit on the beautiful hotel terrace over the river at night. We'd be able to afford a dessert! And so we did. The dessert wasn't really good - and expensive - and the waiter rather unfriendly. It was pretty deserted as well. We still enjoyed the water and breeze.

After some time we returned to each ofour rooms. I was so stuffed! I knew I shouldn't have eaten so much, especially since my goal was to get a good night's sleep. I was pretty tired, and turned off the light at 10:15 pm. However, as expected, I had a hard time falling asleep because I was too full.

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Monday, April 19, 2010

Sunday Restaurant

Many Sundays we take one child that has behaved very well with us to a restaurant for a good meal. Yesterday, that was Florentin (picture). At first he didn't want to use the silverware, but then he did. Paul is obviously full and satisfied after his meal.

In the afternoon we played Monopoly with the children - for over 3 hours!

This cute picture shows 2-year-old Jonathan sleeping next to 1-month-old Casimir. Jonathan lied down next to him by himself.

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Saturday, April 17, 2010

Saturday Service

I let Paul preach - he's a great preacher, and nobody fell asleep (they do when I preach).

Nightly Family Meeting

2-year-old Jonathan sitting in the baby chair that was originally made for Hama.

Jonathan sitting on my shoulders while I listen to the kids say their memorized Bible verses.

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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Daily Life

Yesterday my kids came over to play with the Nintendo Wii with me.

Left: Bakary, Boubacar and Hama. Right: Eva with Hama.

Little 1-month-old Casimir.

The newly-made bricks laid out to dry.

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Saturday, April 10, 2010

Construction Picked Up Again

FINALLY - after a 7-month-break they have started to work again. They're making lots of brick that they lay out in the sun to dry for a couple of days before they use them.

Two-year-old Jonathan is taking a bath.

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Boubacar's 8th Birthday

Boubacar's birthday cake, blowing out the candles, and opening presents.

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Our Puppies

In February our dog Uppy had 8 puppies. Only these two survived who are now looking for a new home.

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Monday, April 5, 2010

Easter Street Kid Party

The time had come for our yearly Street Kid Easter Party. Philippe and Paul left to pick up the street kids at the bus station. In the meantime, Eva, Jérémie and myself hid the 88 eggs we had colored and numbered yesterday. The other kids had to stay in the house, as they wanted to participate in the egg-finding game.

The car finally returned with the kids, and we started giving a paper with a number to each child, plus candy, plus marking their hand with a black cross, so they couldn't cheat later. Jérémie and Florentin helped with that.

Since our car doesn't hold that many kids, we only had 37 children, plus our own. That meant that everyone got two papers with a number. It was time to start the game.

The first game was to find the two eggs with the same number that they had on their papers. The first ten to find their eggs would get to do the second game. They ran around like crazy, finding eggs and comparing numbers. They then compared eggs and numbers among them, hoping to find theirs. It took them quite a while, but finally nine had found their two eggs.

Those nine went on to the next game. The first six to be able to throw the baskeball through the hoop would go to the third and final game. They did a great job - it wasn't easy for 6-year-old Bakary (to the right). Finally we had six winners.

I had been looking forward to the third game. I had bought water bombs that we had filled this morning, and put on the roof. The kids had to run along the house, while those on the roof tried to hit them. Those who were hit had go to up to the roof to join them there. The last man standing without being hit would win. The winner was Moise - a kid that had lived in the house with us for many months, but then decided life on the street was better, and returned there. He won not only candy, but a thermos bottle.

Everyone gathered inside the dining hall, where it was time to praise and worship God. Paul led them in that time, and the kids sang with all their strength. It was a joy to hear the sound of their loud singing.

Then it was time to share the gospel. I started with Adam & Eve, and shared the whole story of salvation. Some of the children were riveted by my words and listened carefully. When I came to the cross, I turned on the MATTHEW video for them to see that part with their own eyes. Then I wrapped it all up, and gave a call to those wanted to know this Jesus and Father in heaven. Everyone who did got up - those who did it for the first time, and those who had done it before - and we prayed a prayer of commitment. Then this part was over.

Before having lunch, it was time for their gifts that they had been anticipating for a long time. Some kids invited others telling them only that they'd get shoes. Jérémie and myself went into the storage room where we had arranged the shoes according to their size. Then each child could come in, one after another, in the order of the number on their paper.

Some children had no shoes, others had shoes that were falling apart, but all of them were extremely thankful for their new pair of shoes. Thanks to the generous donor in Austria!

After we were done handing out shoes, the kids finally received their meal - rice with onion sauce. It's amazing how much these kids can eat!

Only one thing remained - to hand out cold drinks, which is a very special treat for them. Again, we gave them out one by one as they handed us their papers with the number on it. Today was the first time no one tried to cheat or complained that they hadn't received anything. It worked out just fine, and they were happy with their drinks.

The party was over, and we drove the street children back to the bus station. What a wonderful way to celebrate Easter by blessing the least of these!