Long Weekend Festivities

I hope that everyone had a wonderful long weekend and enjoyed their time with family, friends and most importantly, God.

My weekend here was nothing different. I was supposed to go to the children’s home on Saturday but woke up with a migraine from crazy land. I was so incredibly nauseous. It was about 12:30 or so before I was able to get out of bed. Needless to say, I didn’t get to see the kids. I was NOT happy about that.

On Sunday, I went in to town to do a bit of shopping and found Paul, the boy I talked about in my blog dated March 20th, 2008.

As soon as Paul saw me, he came running. He told me in his broken English (and a bit of translation from his friend) that he took the money I gave him, went to the local clinic and bought medicine. He pulled out the big red pills to show me. He said that he was taking the medicine like the doctor said. He was told by the doctor to take food with the medicine and to be cautious of what he ate, so that it didn’t upset his stomach.

Paul was so proud to show that he didn’t spend the money on anything stupid but on medicine to help clear his “sickness” up. I asked him if he got an HIV test done and he said that he couldn’t get one done as it cost money. I told him that the local clinic was free for HIV testing but he was adamant that it cost money to get it done. My plan is going to find out from them this week to see if there really is a charge.

Some may think I’m stupid or crazy for doing this, but I just really felt I needed to. I left Paul to go in to the grocery store and when I came out of the store, I summoned him over. I handed him over a grocery bag containing three loaves of bread, 2 bags of tea leaves and one bag of sugar. I told him that this was for him and ensuring that he had something to eat when he took the medicine and if I found out that he did something else with it, I would kick his butt.

The smile that came across his face was priceless. He stared at me for a moment, surprised. “Awe, Mary. Asante, asante sana.” He put his arms out to hug me but based on his age and his height, I gave him the handshake with a small Baptist hug/nudge. He said he loved me; smiled another big smile and then ran off.

Today, I saw his friend (and my sweetie) Gideon in town. I asked Gideon if Paul was around and he said that he was over somewhere eating bread and tea. I had to laugh when I heard that. I asked how Paul was feeling and Gideon the medicine was good and so Paul was doing better.

Gideon asked me if I was going to take Paul to the hospital and I said that I wasn’t going to take him. I said that the medicine should help him with whatever is wrong (Anne, our social worker and I assume its gonorrhea).

One of the few boys that came over to Gideon and me said that he refuses to have sex with “those ghetto girls. They’ll give me AIDs or something.” I patted him on the back, said, “Good for you Alex! Try not having sex at all until you get married, okay? That way you won’t have to worry about any diseases. Sawa?” He laughed and said, “Sawa Mary.” Then I turned to Gideon and a few other boys, “No sleeping with the girls, sawa boys?” They all were disgusted at the thought of it and then one of the younger ones said, “I don’t want what Paul has. I don’t like medicine.”

So thankfully and hopefully, Paul’s experience has scared the other boys away. Unfortunately these boys (and girls) aren’t being taught sex education, whether it’s safe sex or abstinence all together. When living on the street, they (the boys) get bored and to them, there’s nothing else to do so they have sex with the girls. And the girls, well, this is how they make their living…by prostituting themselves, never wondering or sometimes never caring that they are one moment away from killing themselves or the man that they are with for that thirty minutes.

Love you all!
Meredith
xoxoxo