Remar Schools & Remar HIV Home

Since I did not blog yesterday, I am going to start with that, and then do another posting for today to keep them separate!

Yesterday we started at a school called Remar. This school is where a few different homes of children all come to school together. There are all grades (k-12)at this school and all of varying backgrounds, health status’ and abilities. Remar is the name of the area that all these children are from.

We were in a great space for the health assessments with good airflow, something we do not take for granted. If there is not good air flow, you are ether in sweltering heat or there is terrible smell, sometimes both. So having an open air place to do assessments with lots of space was great! The health of the children yesterday was fairly good.

 For lunch we went to a park along the Atlantic Ocean where we made PB&J sandwiches and were able to enjoy the “beach” for a little while. The beach is not typical at all, it was very rocky with steep edges to the water. There were many blow holes in the rock where big streams of water would splash up. Though we were not there long it was so beautiful we greatly enjoyed our time.

Next we went to the aids home where a few of the children were since they had not been in school that morning. As soon as we walked into the home, the smell of urine and sewage was overwhelming. I could not imagine living in a place like this, much less children with a disease and very sensitive immune systems. Makes me so sad for them. However, despite the smell, it is obvious that the children are well cared for and their needs met. There was a full pharmacy with all their meds, a room for a dentist office, and a room for a doctor’s office. The children here were also in much better health condition than others. So despite their HIV status and the smell, it seems they are doing well. It is hard to imagine that these children have such a tragic disease though.

 When we went to the home, we were under the impression there were thirty children to see, however we found once we got there we only had about ten, so we finished early and were able to head back to the hotel and have a little more time to rest. There is a beautiful pool here that almost the whole team jumped into and prayed Frisbee and goofed around. I was super tired, so I swam for a while and then ended of laying by the pool and taking a nap. It was much needed R&R for everyone. 

After dinner last night a few of us ended up sitting in the hotel hallway and talking. It was really fun to get to know a few better and just have time to process. One funny thing that happened was we were all on our way back from dinner and the van that half the team in it happened to be the “younger” part of the group. We are all in our mid twenties with the oldest thirty two, and Wes (the 32 year old) said as soon as we got into the car, “oh no, we don’t have any adults with us,” we all laughed so hard because despite the fact we are all adults, on this trip, we are the kids. It was funny to feel  like the kids again!

OK, that’s yesterday!

Outside the Remar School

Mom singing and playing with the children

Little girl doing her vision screening.

Emily with a little girl named Emily :)

Ok, nasty, i know! BUT look at how swollen my feet are! My hands are the same, Iguess it has to do with the heat an humidity! I look like a monster!

At the beach with a few translators

This boy had a fairly large cut on the top of his foot that Wes was cleaning out.

These children were following Hillary around.