The Adventures of Balloon Boy

Last night was actual scary. Let me lay it down for you. Last night after supper I was in the main house in what we call the playroom which is actually where the kids eat their meals and where we do some homework and after supper the mamas change shifts, so all of the kids stay in there until the second shift mamas arrive. They usually sing or play games but yesterday was just madness and everyone was running around and screaming and having a pretty good time. Then three kids start shouting “Look Auntie Kassi, look!” I turned around to find three kids pulling up little Ayabonga’s pant legs to reveal an infinite amount of bumps. I noticed that he also had them concentrated all around his mouth and that they seemed to be spreading to the rest of his little face. I took him into the kitchen and sat him on the counter and noticed that they were all over his stomach and his arms and his back. It looked like an allergic reaction to me and I started asking the moms if he had any allergies and no one knew. I took him to Rita who was working hard in the office and she said that it was probably an itchy rash and had one of the moms put calamine lotion on him and that was that. All of the kids went to their rooms and Tally and I were standing around waiting for round 2 of tutoring for the day and I was telling her that I was really worried about Ayabonga because the spots seemed to come on so fast. I am kind of the spot queen and I am usually the one who notices when the kids have weird rashes or spots and I had not noticed anything developing on Bonga at all. Anyway Tally offered to tutor the two boys that we usually work one-on-one (someone came for tea during homework time the other day and I offered to skip tea to do homework with the kids and I ended up handling homework time for 8 of the kids all by myself, so it was a trade). Anyway I was real tired and I knew that Rita wanted me to help her with some paperwork later so I went to my room to shower and just rest for a little bit. About an hour later Rita knocked on my door and said that we needed to have a meeting. She explained to Tally and I that Bonga’s whole face had started to swell (it was actually his whole body, but most obvious in his face) and that she had called for an ambulance because our drivers get off at 6 pm and Rita can’t drive because she has one arm and I can’t drive because I’ve only ever driven one time and that she was going to send one of the moms with him so one of us needed to sleep in one of the houses with the kids. I offered to sleep with the girls (the house with 9 absolutely insane little boys intimidates me, they pulled a sink off the wall once and sometimes they get into the toilet and throw the water on people) and took my blanket and flashlight and iPod and settled in with the girls. After I made sure the girls were ok (they were scared because they didn’t know what was going on, why the mama in their house was leaving, etc) I took a peek at Bonga and he looked terrible. His face was SO swollen I could barely recognize him. Luckily he wasn’t having any problems breathing yet but while he was mostly calm he was obviously scared. Long story short, several phone calls and about an hour later it was clear that the ambulance was not coming and Bonga was starting to breathe heavier. By this time I had already read Psalm 91 (which all the kids are learning) to the girls and prayed with them and they were all asleep so I snuck out to see what was going on. Rita decided that she would sit in the driver’s seat and shift and Tally would steer. I told her that I could probably do it, but the only vehicle we have on the property at night is the new truck, which I have never driven and I still have close to no shifting skills. She was actually able to drive mostly by herself and the two moms and I watched as they drove down the driveway until we couldn’t see them anymore. We then tried to call the ambulance to tell them not to come (I think that one of the moms actually wanted to chew them out) but they didn’t answer. Rita was almost positive that they would need to keep him overnight at the clinic (it’s the same free clinic where we take the kids and it is also kind of a hospital but doesn’t have a lot of services, a lot of times they just stabilize the people taken there so that they can get them to East London) or take him to East London. I knew I wouldn’t be sleeping much so I went and made some tea and went to sit in the house with the sleeping girls. I spend most of my nights sitting in my room watching movies on my laptop, writing e-mails or reading a book and very rarely do I just take the time to sit. I took the opportunity while I was sitting in there listening to my iPod and drinking tea to pray for each of the beautiful children in the room individually. I prayed different things for all of them, but for each one I was sure to pray that God’s love would heal the wounds left by their past and that their futures would be driven by that same love. It was beautiful and a powerful experience and it also helped me take my mind off of worrying about Bonga. I’m not sure how much timed passed, but when I heard the truck driving back up the road I expected to see just Rita and Tally pulling back into the garage and instead saw an already less swollen Ayabonga! The nurse at the clinic gave him something, he immediately started unswelling and she sent him home with some medicine. He was already returning to his crazy, normal self and we all could not have been happier. It turns out that one handed Rita drove just fine and of course they passed 0 cars in Komga, South Africa at 10 pm. We still don’t know what he’s allergic to. We didn’t eat anything new yesterday, but he is known for sticking random crap in his mouth (and stealing food from smaller kids, think Maja’s birthday brownie…and eating food off the floor once it is all gone from his bowl) but hopefully that never happens again because balloon boy version of Bonga was scary and stressed everyone out.

LOVE!
kb

p.s. Family members- tonight is MEXICAN night at Open Arms : ) we are having tacos and rice and I think the moms are going to make me help especially because the mama who is cooking today LOVES to laugh at me in the kitchen. I will let you know how it goes…
p.p.s Ash bo Bash- I wrote that last blog on Monday and put it up on Wednesday. Also I like you. Let’s be best friends forever.
p.p.p.s. Hi Lauren! Comment on my blog! Do it! Now! Or in my next blog I am going to write out all of those rules I gave you for how to behave while I am gone : )
p.p.p.p.s. S. Furman are you still coming?! Both Rita and I have tried to e-mail you and seem to be having 0 amount of success.
p.p.p.p.p.s Is it weird that I used all of my P.S.’s as shout outs? Maybe. I’m ok with it.