Home visits...

Bear with me as I write down some things that I have seen in the last few weeks.
In the last week and a half we have visited with several families. As mentioned in my previous post, right now we are visiting the families of the children to bring their paper work up to date. At first we did not know how the families would react to us, but the paper work has given us a nice excuse to be invited into their homes. Most of the families have been welcoming and open about their situations.
The children who attend CHS come from various home situations. Some of them live with both parents, some of them with only one parent, and some with a different relative. Some live in brick homes with windows, beds and doors, others live in tin shacks with little or no necessities. All of the homes we have visited so far have a limited number of beds and many people living in the house. So I think that there are people who sleep with at least five other people on the bed, but I suspect that most of the children probably sleep on the floor.
Most of the homes that we have visited so far are the homes of children who live with their grandmothers. The grandmothers of this township are the true mothers of Katatura. When a mother dies, it is common for a child to go and live with their grandmother, and sometimes the parents abandon their children and they end up living with their grandmothers. I have met women who are in their late eighties, they are blind from diabetes, their backs are bent over from years of work, and their limbs complain with pain whenever they move, but they have several grandchildren to take care of. One lady has 4 grandchildren, and two children living with her, the only money she makes is from her tiny pension and a token amount from the government for orphans. She lives on less than $150 a month.
Some children go home to filthy shacks, and drunk parents. Some go home to a mother who is laying in bed sick with HIV. Many do not eat at all when they are at home, as any  money that comes in is spent on alcohol.
The more time we spend in the community, the more we realize how important Community Hope School is. Even though the children from Katutura have so many different home situations, they do have one thing in common, they all go home to homes where there is no hope, and CHS exists to change that. Please continue to pray for us, and to pray for the 88 students of Community Hope School.