Again, a Horrible/Amazing day at placement

Today was our first day back at placement since we were there last Wednesday before our safari. There were A LOT of children at school today and after being there for three days, there were about 5 new kids that I hadn't even seen at the school yet.

The amazing news of today was that two volunteers that had been there for two months but that were gone on safari last week, came back and we met them today. They will be here until around August so pretty much my whole time there. It has been difficult in my classroom because the teacher is young, doesn't speak much English, and seems disinterested in the children's learning process. Today she wasn't there but one of the volunteers that came back has been in the same classroom as I for the two months previous. His name is Oliver and he is from France and is so good with the kids. He was able to explain how they usually teach the kids to me and we actually did small art projects and games and actual learning! It was so great! I am excited to have Oliver with me for the next 5 weeks.

I also worked with Samwely again today on signing his alphabet. It is coming very slowly but I have complete faith that by the end of my 6 weeks there he will know the whole alphabet. Oliver has been learning signing as well and is working with him. There is also another little boy who is deaf in our class named Joely, I am also going to start working with him. This is only his second week at the school and I am sure we will be starting signing from scratch. I am taking this on as my mission and it will get done.

Horrible part of my day... Elisha is a little boy in my class that is so sick. He has jaundiced eyes that stream tears constantly,  he has a cough, runny nose and even though it is hot outside he shivers constantly. My first day there we decided that we were going to take him to the hospital to be seen at the beginning of this week after we got permission from his caretakers. His father died last year from AIDS and his mom is an alcoholic. She sent him to live with his uncle and his two wives that live by the school. I am not sure what is wrong with Elisha but he seems to be bright but just uncommunicative. Elisha was not at school today and when I asked about him they said he was also gone from school on Friday. I told Mama Mary I was worried about him and she said that since he lived close we could take a walk to his house to see if he was there and could come back to school with us. His house is cement and very small. I heard from Mary that there is no room for him and he sleeps on the concrete floor, often without a blanket or pillow. On of his uncles wife's just had a baby who is one week old and she is busy caring for her baby. She told us that on Thursday (the Tanzanian holiday) Elisha got much sicker and could not stop shivering. She said since the baby had come she could not care for him all of the time (bathing, feeding, dressing, etc.) So she called his mother who lives three hours away up in the foothills of Mt. Meru to come and get him. He is gone and who knows if he will even get treatment now. Mary says he may not be back for months because the new mother needs him to be healthy because she cannot care for him and her new baby. After my persistence, Mary said she would try and contact two nuns she knows who do AIDS treatment in that area to check in on him and make sure he was taken to the doctor. My guess is that he has HIV or worst case scenario, AIDS and that is why his immune system is shot. A blood test here is only 30,000 shillings which is about 15 dollars and if you have AIDS in Tanzania, treatment is free. Meaning all of his medications would be free of charge and he may get better. But Elisha is gone now and it is so frustrating that he was sent away before we could take him to the doctor ourselves. He will also not be going to school now as there is no special needs school for him in his area. I had to try so hard to hold back my tears on the walk back to the school and have been in a funk all day long. If Mary gets a hold of his mother and she has not had him seen by a doctor, I am going to pay our house driver to drive me there so I can take him. Once again, we live such a blessed life. Please say prayers for Elisha.