Hello Again

Sorry for the delay in posts, Traig has been trying to finish a post about what has been going on in the mountains but he remains as busy here as he was in the States so I am just going to go ahead and post another update. First, thank you all so much for the tremendous outpouring of prayer and financial support for the Beautiful Gate these last couple weeks. I want you to know how much it has meant to the people there. I have with great joy delivered bags of papa, apples, potatoes, eggs, diapers, and money on the behalf of those who have given. Benno, the acting director, told me that I must have great family and friends to so quickly respond to their needs. Please know that a good work is being done there.

It is with a heavy heart that I share with you that the little boy who was so badly burned is now in the hospital. Today he underwent surgery to scrape the burned flesh. I understand that it will be extremely painful for him the next few days. He celebrated his 1^st birthday yesterday. Last week I went to visit him in the hospital and it was the closest place to hell on earth that I have ever seen. I had always heard that it was a horrible place but I could not even begin to know just how horrible until I was there.

M’e Augustina’s cousin had been shot in a robbery and she wanted to bring him lunch and I knew that would be beneficial to have a Sesotho speaking person with me as I tried to navigate through the hospital to the children’s ward-so off we went first to the “Casualty Ward”. It was a huge room lined with beds only a few feet apart. It became clear that there was a theme among the patients. None over 35, all with cracked skulls, arms in slings, bandages around their heads-M’e told me it was all gun wounds and stabbings. Queen 2 does not provide food or beverages to patients so it is possible for people to starve to death in the hospital. No one changes the sheets on the beds or the bandages on the wounds either -if you want a blanket, you must bring your own-hence, why M’e was bringing lunch for her cousin. While we were in the room, I noticed others being fed, having their bandages changed, being helped to the restroom—by what I can only assume where their “gang” friends. These men looked like they had just finished up a drug deal and were now spoon feeding mashed carrots to someone who had not made it so well though whatever happened the night before. M’e told me that one night when she was there, the man in the bed next to her cousin died and it was over two hours before they could get anyone to come and remove the body. It was not an easy place to be.

With great fear for what was next, we walked to the children’s ward and just thinking about it now brings a wave of nausea and tears. There were no colorful pictures on the walls, no toys, books or soft blankets. Just rows of sick children, many dying of AIDS, mixed in with children with broken bones, burns, bruises and cuts. We made our way through the people and found my little one. A Beautiful Gate staffer stays with him at all times and she was holding him while he slept. We talked about how his nights were and how he was eating while I tried not to think about what was going on all around me. The place was heavy with death and I could not find the small ray of hope that I cling to everyday I am here. A kiss on the forehead for him and a hug for the M’e who is spending her days and nights in a place where I could hardly be for more than a few minutes and we left.

Please pray for safety for him while he is there, and for his little body to heal. Also, it is common for patients who are not HIV positive (the baby is not) to contract the virus while in the hospital because of the unsanitary conditions-needles are reused and there are just no precautions taken. Queen 2, currently has a 40% infection rate among patients.

In 2007, the Lesotho government spent almost 28 dollars per person on health care, in the U.S., same year; the government spent 7,439 dollars per person.

Please be ever so grateful for the many undeserved gifts God has bestowed upon us.

Grace and Peace, Laura