This December....

Cindy walked to the guesthouse tonight at 10:00 pm- not a normal time for her to come around (she lives at the boys' home and takes care of the younger boys). She had a nine year old boy in toe. He goes to our feeding program. He showed up at the boys' home tonight saying his mother and father both died from cholera yesterday. Today he says his uncle, who he is living with, beat him and doesn't want him back. Where does he go? Cindy came by to get my opinion about what to do. Bill and Sue are asleep so we can't ask them what they want us to do and it doesn't seem right to send him back to his uncle or to the streets tonight. I made sure he hasn't had diarrhea too, gave him some water, and then Cindy walked back to the boys' home to wake up Marlval to seek his advice, both of us hoping he can stay there for the night. Please pray for sweet Aston tonight. The stories of people here always seem to be multi-layered (what we call "The Onion") and it can take multiple conversations to figure out what is really going on in their lives- where they live, who died, who is now responsible for them, what their names and ages really are, etc.

*Update: I wrote this Saturday night, but wasn't able to post it due to slow internet. This morning, Cindy said one of our staff ladies heard what Aston was saying about his parents and called him out on it. She went to fetch his mother down the street. His mother came, not looking at all worried, and took him home, but not before he pleaded with Cindy not to let his mother take him. What is the truth here? Is he afraid because he told a bunch of lies? Or is he afraid of his mother or other relatives? We may never know.

On a completely different note, here are some recent pictures of Maison de Lumiere kids and staff kids. I've started uploading my pics onto Flickr, so to see more, click on the slideshow to the right.