Work & play

A group from Jasper, Indiana, was down a couple of weeks ago. They are a very strong force in the ‘orphanage’ that Nadege runs called House of Hope. There are 11 girls there aged 3-13. They all come to the school here except for the oldest one who is in 7th grade and so goes to another school. Most of the girls have 1 parent living but who cannot support them. There is a house mother, cook, guard and cleaner employed there to take care of the girls. The Jasper team was here to work on getting the second floor in order so that more children can be helped. They spent the week sanding and painting the second floor. I went and helped by taking all the light and plug plates off the wall so that the painting could go faster…and sanding the walls so they would be ready for paint.After church on Sunday, they took the girls to the beach (and us staff). We went to Wahoo Beach (I’d never been before). It was beautiful. Kind of busy but not overly. Many of the girls had never been to the beach before, but they all seemed to love it. They started shivering as soon as they entered the water but they didn’t want to get out at all. They people jumped in between all of us and sometimes wanted to go to complete strangers. We thought that was strange until we realized that is what they get used to being in an HOM school and an orphanage where many blancs go to visit only once. It was a great day and all of the girls fell asleep on the ride home.