Orphans everywhere

Yesterday we went out with Dr. Jan to the Lulwanda Children's Home to give the 90 kids that live there a physical. Amanda looked them over, including in their mouth (some of them have attrocious teeth) and asked about their general health while I weighed them and took their temperature. Sometimes it was quite difficult for Amanda to acsertain whether they were sick or not and for how long because you have to ask through an interpreter, and even then some of the kids just answered yes to everything. (pretty typical for kids) After we finished that we sent them over to Connie who took their height measurement (in cenitmeters of course) and then she sent them to wait for the doctor to see them. We had put up a screen around the area where the doctor was doing the physical, but the kids were still very curious, especially after one of the boys came out and told all the other boys what was happening back there. Then they all wanted to see. We had to keep chasing the kids outside, because we were basically in a big warehouse and the sound from one side carries and multiplies to the other making it very difficult for the doctor (or anyone else) to hear what the children were saying.
One striking thing to me is that a lot of the kids did not know how old they were when asked. Some were definitely 6 or 7 and would say they were 2 or 3 because their parent of grandparent had lied about their age to get them into the home. Some were certain they were 10, but were obiously 13 or 14. Generally no one knew their birthday, or they might know the day, but not the year. We guessed a lot of ages based on physical development.
The kids were a riot though. We had one little boy at the very end who apparently had not been at the home very long and was scared to death of the whole process. As soon as Amanda and I went outside with our cameras we were swormed with kids wanting their pictures taken. They especially like mine because they could see the picture instantly. They would all huddle around and push each other to get a better look, and then would just laugh and giggle about whoever was in the photo and the pose they had taken. One little boy thought he should be in every photo whether it was his face or and hand or finger, some part of him had to be in the photo. I finally had to tell him to stop and he did.
It was a long day. It took us almost 7 hours to see all 90 children, which broken down is about 4 1/2 minutes each. Not a long time to diagnose anything. One child had hepatitis and a couple had malaria, one had a big gash across his belly from playing football (soccer) and falling against the gaol post or something like that. But over all they were pretty healthy.
Times u so I gotta go.
Love to all.