On Tuesday, when I went to the hospital, a few interesting things happened. Visiting hours at the hospital are only from 12pm-2pm, so we only have two hours to visit with the patience there. After being in the children’s ward for about an hour and a half, I walked over to the women’s ward to visit with a woman and her two sisters that I met the week before. One of her sisters, Thembile, told me that they had been coming to the hospital every day for 3 weeks to visit their sister who was suffering from stroke-like symptoms. Due to working with broken English and no...

A few weeks ago I wrote about my friend Phileseway. How her lungs were deteriorating as a result of her having TB. How she was supposed to be able go home in November but now the doctors didn’t have a set date for her to. She has been at the hope house for over a year, separated from her children for over a year. How she couldn’t even remember the last time she saw them because she can’t afford the bus fair for them to come visit her. How she felt like such a burden and a failure as a mother. How her children were upset with her because they didn’t...

Some of you may remember from my previous “Truth’s of the Jumbo” blog the meaning of a Jumbo Run. For those of you who forgot, a Jumbo Run is the term used for the rushed transportation to the Jumbo in order to prevent premature arrival. Yesterday, I witnessed this race. As I was standing in the girls hut, along with numerous other females, Ryan Bodine ran past our window in the general direction of the Jumbo. His intentions could have been misinterpreted if it were not for the phrase that he yelled as he ran by, “IT’S COMING!” I’m not sure weather...

Winnie is a little 2 year old girl at the Hope house. She has been staying there for about a month with her mom, Cynthia, who is sick and dying of AIDS and TB. She takes care of herself at only 2 years old. Her older sister is the caretaker but she has her own baby and is so overwhelmed with all the tasks that she has. When we come to visit usually the house smells so badly because no one has cleaned the house or bathed Winnie. Just this week we came with the intentions to clean the house and bathe Winnie. I stepped into the bathroom and there was a pile of dirty/ soiled clothes....

Playing his guitar to himself, Ryan pauses, looks around, and readjusts his chair.  SCREACH! “Awwww!” I scream.  I didn’t realize that his chair made the noise. “Sorry,” Ryan chuckles, and continues playing his guitar. On the surface, Ryan Collison is a warm-hearted, gentle kid.  He is a natural talent with the guitar,  leading worship for our team and he also plays in his church band back home in the Baltimore area. He never makes you feel dumb for an experience he’s had and you haven’t, but rather invites you into his...

is believing in something you can not see. About two and a half weeks ago I went to the hospital like normal except I took a few extra minutes to go inside. I waited a couple of minutes so that I could walk in with Zama (a little boy who spent about a week in the hospital). Before I went inside I had an overwhelming feeling that Eli wasn’t going to be there. I almost needed someone to go inside to make sure he was there and come back out to tell me. I couldn’t bare the thought of him not being there. So many other children and adults who my teammates...