Day 2

Today was a real eye-opener. We went to AHOPE which stands for “Africa HIV orphans project embrace”, to meet with the guy who runs the orphanage. When we arrived we were met by all the children playing in the yard and they all shouted....”Harry Potter” when they saw our son David as apparently he looks like him with his glasses and hair!! They all wanted to hold our hands and touch us as we are “white” and they were fascinated with our watches and sun glasses etc. Even the babies and children under 2 crawled up to us and just wanted to be held. It was obvious that they all craved touch, love and attention.

AHOPE has 2 homes...”Little Ahope” houses 35 kids from 5 months-8 years and “Big Ahope” houses 46 kids from 9-16 years. They have all been orphaned and have HIV, but they have a great advantage being at Ahope with all the medical care along with education and a safe place to live. The guided tour was quite humbling, as although they have shelter and food, it is very basic and there isn’t much privacy. It was quite humbling to see the bedrooms set out like a dormitory with loads of very basic bunk-beds or small beds all together...it was like a scene out of “Snow-White and the 7 dwarves!”

The thing that hit us the most was when the man explained that they mainly have boys brought to the orphanage as in the Ethiopian culture, girls are more useful. The girls do all the cooking and cleaning and are helpful in the home. Also...girls are far more likely to be adopted so the boys have less chance, especially the older they get!

They were thrilled that we had time to spend at Ahope and were keen to know what skills we could offer. They were pleased to know that we were Christians as they wanted us to be able to do bible stories and songs with the children as well as playing games and sports.

Lots of people are quite surprised that we are happy to work with HIV children, but we know that we are in the place God wants us to be at this time and he promises to protect us. It is so good to be able to pray for our protection each day (often many times each day!) and to know that we have a God who hears and answers.

So...tomorrow we are back to “Little Ahope” to play games with the kids and to get to know them better. No doubt they will think that Harry Potter has returned!!