Hope House

Friday-
   In the morning we went to the clinic in Libreville. I got to help with the pharmacy area. That day this mother with an eight month old baby boy named Jeremy who must be the most beautiful baby I have seen this whole trip has malaria. Kelli and Heather were trying to figure out what meds to give to a baby since a lot of them were larger doses. But the thing was they could not cut the pills in half for it was not the kind of pill where the medicine was evenly distrubuted throughout the whole thing. But they figured it out what to do and then before the baby went home we prayed over the baby. That's the cool thing here is that doctors and nurses will stop and pray over patients. There is no fear of offending others and its a great way to show that really medicine can only go so far and that God is much bigger and can do miracles.
  After our time at the clinic, we went back to the house to eat lunch where afterwards we went to Hope House. It is not an orphanage but it is a house of children that were left behind or the parents could not take care of them anymore. They say it is not an orphanage because orphanages don't have hope and can carry almost a negative feeling but this house does have hope and is lively hense why it is called Hope House. Hope House was started by Pastor Isreal and his wife. They had a hard time getting pregnant so that is when God called them to start this house. They did adopt one child which in Gabon is very difficult. Gabon does not allow adoption that much because they want to appear to take care of their children and therefore adoption makes them look bad to their eyes. The other children are just taken in due to the difficulties with the law. They were able to finally conceive a child her name is Grace. Hope House in total has 28 children. The max they can have is 30. It is just amazing that they are able to do all of that. I don't think I have explained but Gabon is expensive. Back in the 1960s they gained their independence from France and shortly after had a good fortune with a few exports. The exports made the nation rich compared to the rest of the countries near by, but the wealth is not shared equally therefore you see mansions where the government people work and then you see shacks. But even though most of the country is poor, it is expenseive to live which makes every day at the Hope House a miracle. 28 children is a lot and for good nutrition it is costly.
   Christi and Kelli brought toys for the children. Christi runs the children church back at her home where the kids there raised money for the children here. It was really cool to see them get excited for bouncy balls, soccer balls, and other toys. We played a lot with them with bouncy balls. There is one girl that I played with more than the others which made me feel bad that I did not hang out with more of them or divide my time up more. But this one little girl is 2 and she had so much energy. Also she is known as the brat because it is her way only. She throws the biggest fits when another child takes a bouncy ball. Since I don't know French I could not talk to her to calm her down. But the afternoon was great just to see how all the children got along. The older children definitely helped out with the younger ones. It was really cute to see.

Saturday-
  Our Saturday was about helping the Kellys-the missionary family in Libreville. We got to paint and help move a few things over to the house. I got to prep the walls before they got painted, and it was not the most glamerous job. These walls when I actually got to prep them and look closely at them was just disgusting due to all the dirt around and the windows are always open to let air in since there is no AC. But the paint job did wonders to the house that is for sure.
   That night we had street food for it was street food Saturday. Now it is not doctor reccomended but they always do it and don't get sick so I thought might as well too. We had some amazing chicken, fries, fried bananas and donuts. It was all street food and so tasty.

Weird and fun facts
1. We saw monkeys hanging upside down ready to buy as meat for food
2. People of Gabon love Obama. They have shirts with his face on them with HOPE on it. they have paintings of him. They even have cafes named after him. But when they are told he is for abortion and homosexual marriage, it shocks them terribly. For both those things in Gabon they are totally against.
3. People are not afraid to ask us for things like anything. In fact a lot of girls when they come here are asked by the men for their hand in marriage. For men and women here are allowed a few husbands or wives. And they praise people if they do have more than one spouse. When we were at the market and there were a few of us women to one guy. People would tell the guy nice work on all the wives. He knowing French just to make it simple said we were his sisters.