There’s nothing like love Mama. Love is first class. ---M’e Augustina

All I could think about was how on earth 20 children fit to sleep on the floor of the rondavel I was standing in. A large pot of beans were cooking in the corner, supper for the evening. M’e Neo was glad for our visit, we went to play games and share a snack with the children-lift M’e Neo’s load for a little while. Over time, she has taken in children whose parents have passed away or have chosen to not care for them for whatever reason. Her home sits in front of the salvage yard on and long dusty road and the roar of large trucks hauling scrap metal gave us notice to temporarily halt our games so they could pass. Each night they move their table with three chairs out of the way so they can all lie on the floor to sleep. A small stack of blankets provide their warmth for the night-it is currently 49 degrees here. Several of the children are HIV positive, their only inheritance. There is one teenager with her 18 month old daughter both positive, with no one to care for them but M’e Neo.

This woman loves each child like they are her own. In fact her home is so welcoming, children play there before they go home to their families. I watched my children playing and laughing with these children just like they would at any play date. Playing has no cultural barriers-neither do peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Not one of those children would turn down the snack offered to them; they do not have the luxury of being picky.

Then there is M’e Neo. I often think when was M’e Neo last alone? When is her break from the ministry that she has so boldly taken on? Each night she lies down with 20 children and each morning she wakes up with 20 children. The burden she carries for those children. The prayers she says on their behalf. The shame I feel for knowing that I would not have the strength. And what does this woman have to offer these children? She clearly does not have the financial resources to provide. But what she gives them they need more than anything else. Love, a hug & kiss good night, and the very best she has to give. So in a place that could not be further from any life I previously knew, I find myself with something in common with this woman. I, too, pour out prayers for my children, offering what money can not; love, an hug & kiss good night, and the best I can give.

We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.
---Mother Teresa