Week 10

I went on my first home based care visits this week. I went to two homes. The first was the home of 4 children and their parents. One of the children and the two parents are HIV positive. I found the first home really sad. It was in a big block of flats that were still being built at one end. The flat consisted of one room with a tiny balcony and a small bathroom built into the room. The father is a motodop (scooter taxi) driver and the mother sells dried chilli. They are very poor and were both out at work leaving the children at home alone. The flat was a mess and very dirty and had just a double bed frame and a small TV. The Home base care worker Srey mom and I sat with the children for a bit and Srey mom spoke to the children about not being lazy about their hygiene and invited the HIV positive boy to our aids day celebrations on the 1st. The second home seemed much nicer, it was a similar size but had more furniture, (some deckchairs and cushions and matts that are used to sleep on) and was much cleaner. A family of a Tuk Tuk driver and his wife and daughter, they seemed like a really lovely family and they gave us cold water and jack fruit to eat, which I considered very generous. The mother and daughter had both been in a traffic accident but they were pretty much fully recovered.We spent more time with this family, I got a little bored as I couldn't really understand what was being said but it was really interesting to see the homes. At some point Bethany and I will start updating all the files of these Home based care children.
We have been doing some much more productive liaising with Lakina, one of the Cambodian Magna staff, about Aids day, this week. We have it all organized, Bethany and I will spend most our day doing hygiene related activities and playing games with the younger children. These children are very early on in the stages of disclosing their HIV status, so we are not doing HIV related activities.

Bethany and I have been finding living so closely together in the orphanage a bit emotionally grueling so we are looking for some outside activities. Bethany has found a christian home group which she is going to start attending and I am looking for a music group to play with as I (much to the children's and ma's amusement) brought my trumpet with me.
We made an English speaking friend this morning! She is doing an internship for the Phnom Penh post newspaper for 3 months and she is going to come to the cinema with us next week to see 'Breaking Dawn'.

Skin infection much better :)