Today I had a chance to make a house visit to some people in what is called the "Location". The location is where over half of the population of Grootfontein (our town) live. The average home is built of scrap pieces of tin that they find in order to build a make shift shelter. The size of these tin houses are about seven foot square. Normally anywhere from 5 to seven people live in a house.
The house I went to today had what looked to be around 7 people living there. We went to see a man who is in his mid 40's who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. Because he does not have access to good medical care he is usually just laying in a make shift bed made of various pieces of cushions he has found. Otherwise he just sits around all day.
Today he was in bed, and his room is field with smoke where the 7 year old child was cooking lunch over a fire. I could hardly breathe from the smoke, but this is normal for him.
This man never complained as we tried to help him with some stretches, and to teach him some things he can do each day to strengthen his muscles. He smiled and was so glad that we were just their to see how he was doing. It didn't matter that there was not much that we could do for him, but just the simple fact that we cared enough to come to his house to see him made his day.
It was a very humbling experience for me, yet this is normal for a lot of people in Grootfontein. In the US this man would probably still be walking because of available health care and medications. But this was a reality check for us. Just to be thankful for our blessings that we, many times, take for granted.
1 comment:
Wow,impressive new look! Nice!
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