Back to the Children

It was great to go back to Madre Teresa this morning. Some of the elderly ladies who live there and some of the sisters remember me. Of course, Chiquinha, the director of the orphange did, but the children I knew are too young to remember six months ago. Some of the children are no longer there. Tiago and Christian have apparently disappeared. They left one weekend with their respective parents two months ago and didn't come back. The nuns went to check on them and couldn't find them, so no one knows where they are. Franciella, Larry's favorite, is living at home. Her 11 year old sister looks after her. She came to the orphanage every day last fall. I don't know why she isn't in school. They said she lives nearby and is doing fine.

Jade and Raphael come and go. They were not there today. Apparently there is a battle with their father and he does not want to bring them. But when Raphael gets in bad shape (he is severely mentally and somewhat physcially handicapped), they'll drop them off.

For the good news, Davi, almost three is delightful. He is talking up a storm and taught me Portuguese words for some animals I don't know. He knows his numbers, colors and talks all the time. I have to constantly remind him I don't know much Portuguese. Felipe is now two. He came late today after being home for a few days. Many of the children from the daycare don't come either in the heavy rains because their parents have to walk long distances to bring them. Felipe is also talking quite a bit. There is also a new boy, Jonathan, just walking.

The lunch time routine consists of sitting at the table, feet under, hands folded, for lots of prayers. Many of them are cheery songs and Davi and Felipe are now old enough to sing along on some of them. But they last a LONG time. Today Davi was impatient. After about the second prayer he said a loud, "Amen, amen, amen!" Like enough already, let's get on with it!

Today we rode tricyles and I built an obstacle course for them, but they never quite got the hang of it. Davi read me picture books, then we lunched, etc and everyone went to sleep. Then came laundry. It has been raining so long, the whole place was frantically doing laundry trying to get some things clean and dry while the sun was shining. But now at dinner time, it's raining hard again. I hope they got the laundry inside in time.