We've learned to safely maneuver public transportation to get to My Father's House and then take a Mustard Seed bus to Jerusalem (which isn't on the best side of town). These little shacks are what we see all along our way. I tried to upload a video of our drive but no such luck.
We start our day with morning prayer and then help with breakfast in the children's room, which takes a really long time because there are so many kids and they all need assistance. Several of the kids that are able to walk or crawl are constantly trying to take food from kids in the wheelchairs, which is so sad to see and hard to help with (they all are fed plenty of food but they all tend to try to get more by grabbing handfuls). I was with the severely physically handicapped kids on the first day and we spent over 2 hours during "stimulation" time - I was with up to 15 kids (that are typically in wheelchairs) all laying everywhere around the floor and I was given a few toys to interact with them (3 big lego blocks, a baby toy, a squishy ball, and a sort box). As you can imagine it's hard to play with that many physically handicapped kids with just a few toys and many of them lay there just falling asleep as you move around with other kids. I've also spent time in their play room which is awesome, they have a trampoline, swings, a ball pit, and all kinds of appropriate interactive and stimulating toys - I wish they had more areas like this as their population is so large. I've also spent time in the "Sensory Garden", we were given a few books for them to look through but most of them weren't engaging books and the kids just sat around for a long time. It is very hard to engage all of these kids when they have limited staff and especially limited resources. Their day mainly consists of the life skills of eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner and taking a shower, because these kids are so dependent on adult assistance this takes HOURS (can you imagine what a difference it would make if the time they had in between could be spent interacting with engaging toys/academic materials???).
You can always check out My Fundraising Page (most of you know I HATE asking for fundraising but as you can tell I really love this place and these kids!).
We've had so much fun this week with the kids and continue to feel welcomed by the staff. You can tell that it is difficult for some of the caretakers to accept us as new comers, but most of them are warming up quickly. The staff at Sophie's are all amazing! We were wished happy independence day by so many people yesterday. Dalene is the cook here at Sophie's and she threw us an All-American celebration complete with decorations, chicken, hot dogs, potato salad, corn on the cob and the Jamaican twist of coconut drops (soooo yummy!). Check out her decorations and welcome sign, sweetest thing ever!!
They've made us feel at home and the short term group that is here is great! The group brought tons of glow sticks for the kids and they absolutely loved them :)
Today (Thursday) we went to adoration and mass at 4:30 a.m. with the Brothers and many of the kids from "My Father's House". Although it was early it was such a great experience, seeing kids climb out of their wheelchairs to try to stand up to sing is an amazing sight. Every Thursday they have "Thank You Thursday" and they focus on expressing their gratitude for all of their blessings. It was our first true day off and we had a great time going to the beach with the group (which was awesome because we had Mustard Seed transportation)! It was a little seaweedy but still fun :)!
We work Friday and Saturday at "My Father's House" with a smaller group of kids, starting a basic summer program with them! Can't wait to see how it goes!
Miss you all thanks for taking the time to check in :)
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