Day 5

Today we went along to the street kids project in Gatenga. The project had been going for a few years and you will see the difference in the kids from the new project in Batsinda. We played games with them in the field and the kids all came out in there new football strips to try and beat the Brechin high team. It was all played by the rules but I cant be sure who won in the end possible the kids. We feed the kids and there families and as sponsored children there families get 7kg (14 cups) of maze flour a month and they also receive soap twice a month. This is used for washing clothes and everything else. In the afternoon we visited a few houses. The first was Claude who my daughter Rachel started sponsoring when she was here 2 years ago. It was a great disappointed to me that when we got to his house his mother told us he had gone to the church. I had a bag of gifts for him that Rachel had sent with me. We chatted and found of his mother had malaria and is very weak but still had to care for his other siblings with no husband. Then .....great joy Claude appeared and I felt like one of my family had arrived. People who know me know I never get emotional but today I am not embarrassed to say the tears were flowing freely. Like any child he opened the bag of gifts and the clothes and toothpaste were set to one side as he focused on a footall and pump which he loved. His mum told us Claude is head of his football team, is a very good student in class and normally gets 75% in tests. He is doing really well. We also visited a young 16 year old girl. She was heavily pregnant and was also holding a baby of about 2 months. After talking we found out the baby was her brother and that her mother had died in child birth. She herself had been raped but the perpetrator had not been found. We had 2 suitcases of baby and toddler clothes with us that we were able to give her for her little brother and also her own baby. We met another 16 years old who had a 2 week old baby who we were gave clothes to. She was also raped but he was caught and jailed for 25yrs which is standard sentence for rape here in Rwanda. My happy photo today is of me and Claude.