Photo opportunity caring

I’m not sure I approve of “photo opportunity caring”. Over dinner last night a German couple asked if they could come and visit the kindergarten. So this morning I took them to the school just before class started and introduced them to the kids as they arrived. The owner has a donation jar for the kindergarten in the office near where people pay their bill. From what I’ve heard there is more than $1,

000 in the fund but the school has nothing but one functional, small table and another small table that is so rickety it falls over whenever a kid leans on it the wrong way. The chairs are children’s safari fold-up chairs that are ripped and falling apart. There is a filthy bed mattress in the corner of the room where the children can take a nap. I think my mission is going to be to wrestle some of that donation money away from the owner and force him to buy some proper furniture. Anyway, the German couple came by, acted concerned, hugged the children, took some photos and then went away with the promise to contribute to the kindergarten fund. It felt strangely like I was pimping out the kids for donation money. “Give these folks a hug and we’ll get new furniture.” But am I any better? I wander into the kids lives on my big Namibian adventure, make a small effort to teach them something, and then disappear from their lives. There is something very wrong with Patrick. I have been told he has tested HIV negative even though both his parents are HIV positive. However, he has strange episodes in class where he will grab his chest, get very glassy-eyed and look like he’s going to pass out. He also has a chronic cough. The first time this happened I thought he was going to keel over dead right in front of me and I sent him home to his mother. His mother sent him right back to school. Today it happened again and I got him to lay down for half an hour and it seemed to pass. Then he didn’t eat any lunch. Poor kid. I’m going to have to make sure this isn’t being ignored by his mother.