High School Girls in a Hostel

Last week, I was trying to find a sponsored child that I knew, a friend’s child, to get photos of her and give a small present. She goes to Molapo High School, one of our biggest, and very near where I live. Walking home yesterday, I saw Jacobina- lovely and always helpful at the Camp. I asked where I might find the girl, and she said she had been sick and not going to class. It seemed she had a painful, swollen neck. She thought she knew where she was living.

Today, Sunday, we set out to find her. Jacobina thought she was staying in a hostel, these are motel like buildings made from concrete blocks, commonly built by families here to rent to students to supplement their incomes.Peg warned me that they are bad, more like a hovel than a hostel, another fact of life for kids that have to come to town from the villages to go to High School. Fairly warned, I headed out with my 16 yr old friend, crossing the swampy fields and washed out dongas.

After a 20 minute trek, we found the place. A long concrete rectangle, with four windows and four battered wooden doors on each side. She was apparently living on the far side. As I rounded the corner, I almost caused a BoM’e (lady) sitting there to fall off her stool, a white apparition in white pants and a yellow top, so far from her normal place. Indeed, we were signalled to the right door.

Inside, there were two bunk beds against the right hand wall. Around the perimeter were pots and pans and small oil stoves.There were neatly piled clothes on the beds, no chairs or table to be seen, and no water or electricity.

A dirty old oilskin covered the floor.How do they study? How do they get to school on time and clean? The three other girls scampered out giggling, but the girl in question seemed to recognize me from our meeting three years before. They were all just beyond childhood, around 15, and far from home with no adults to watch over them.

Her neck was terribly swollen on the left side below her ear and she said it was getting worse, and very painful. She could not afford a doctor. She was having trouble eating and turning her head. Pretty sure it was an abscess related to tonsillitis or strep throat, I asked her to meet me tomorrow and get Ibuprofen and antibiotics from me. I am worried it is a retropharyngeal infection and may need to be lanced. I am worried about a lot for her, including the possibility of an anaesthetic. She will pick up my antibiotics and painkillers tomorrow, half of each twice daily- what if she has a reaction to them? I will be gone.

I got back to a dinner party at our place just in time for the burritos. I cant stop thinking about her over there, in the dark,long after my guests have gone home. Is it enough, what I have done, just to try or to care?

No water again today, despite the crazy rain flooding the roads and fields.

People here wonder if God is angry with them.