I Can't Think of a Title

Things continue well here- Savannah's gotten several more mosquito bites- we've decided she has sugar blood. They love her. We're slathering on the repellent, sleeping under the net, and putting on hydrocortisone for itch relief. I've had a sore throat that today turned into scratchy throat, but with popping lots of vitamin B & C and some Zicam I think it's not going to get much worse.

We've spent lots of time with some of the girls this week- there's a group that are quite fond of us, and especially Papa Big Dan, so it's been fun coloring with them, making necklaces, playing on the playground and eating meals with them.

Just a couple of hours after my last post, Kylie and Savannah really started to click with a girl named Liza (Lee-jha). She is beautiful (can't wait to post some photos when we get home), and speaks enough English to help the girls not be intimidated. She's eight years old and lives with the directors. They are an Australian couple who came here in 2001 with their 16 & 18 year old children. When they came, the baby house was full and ten more children arrived that needed a place, so they took them into their home. There is a separate living quarters for these kiddos, and they have a Tia (Mozambican aunty)who stays with them around the clock. Since then, four of these children have been reintegrated to their families (the ultimate goal for all the children here), so they have six that remain.

We also have been spending a bit of time each day in the nursery with the six little ones - they are smiley, happy, giggly babies learning to walk, play peekaboo and LOVE attention. At least one is HIV positive - she's a tiny little thing but beautiful and just as happy to charm you with a smile.

Yesterday we went on an incredible drive (by incredible I mean shocking) through flooded streets, potholes that put all of the U.S. potholes to shame, and lots of traffic to Machava, another Iris location about an hour away. This one is a little more remote- it's off of the main highway and has a more open feel to it- beautiful eucalyptus trees, bamboo, palm, mango, papaya, etc... The girls saw two things there that they fell in love with: Sally, the monkey (A pet given to the directors by some friends when they were moving away). Sally wears a harness and has a long rope that connects her to her home- she was the smartest little thing (untangling herself along the way) and loved to find bits of things to eat in our heads, arms, legs and pant cuffs (who knows what she was finding!!). The other thing the girls loved was the soon-to-open Salao de beleza "beauty salon" that they'll have to not only pamper the girls, but teach them a trade. They have a salon chair, the blow dryer chair, and all sorts of nailpolish. Kylie's response after seeing this was, "We SO have to live here!" :-)

That's about all for my time - please keep praying for health so we can maximize our time here, and that we'd be open to all that the Lord has for us during this time.