Dorothy

Another picture of the most beautiful girl in Africa. Her name is Dorothy.

So, I begin this blog with no idea of what stories or things there are to tell you, though I'm sure they exist. But I think I will simply begin with this little girl. Her name is Dorothy (pronounced Dority) and she just turned 1 last week! In fact, she has the same birthday as me, both according to the 'date' and the day of the week! We are both July 1st, Wednesday borns. I visited her house for the first time last night (her father is Emmanuel, our driver) when Emmanuel and I left separately from the rest of the group. He recently moved into this new home, where he rents one side, while the landlord lives next door. I have been excited to see his new home, and to have another chance to see Dorothy.

Emmanuel's new home isn't quite finished, he's working on it as he gets the money and time to finish things up, and is made up of 2 rooms. The front room has a large couch planted right in the center, loaded with clothes, possibly in some state of laundry. There isn't a TV, but the radio was playing the Spain/Germany game, and no other power seemed to be in use in the house. The back room was larger, has a bed with a mosquito net over it - which Dorothy was lying in - and a couple blankets revealing a small sleeping pad below it, with a pillow. Otherwise, the one wall of the house was lined with boxes, had a small table, and a couple suitcases.

Dorothy was alright for the first few minutes I was in the room, but once I came too close, she began to cry a little. I hate being the scary one! Her dad came and got her, and after a few minutes she was alright with me touching her arm lightly and talking to her. Poor girl, she was so tired, and now had to deal with the stress of some strange colorless creature trying to talk to her. This morning we went around Asofan (the community I'm living in) to check on some individuals to issue them another group loan. Because we were going to be out around Asofan anyway, we stopped by Emmanuel's home again. Today Dorothy was pretty content with having Josh and I there, and after only a couple minutes was alright with me holding her. She is so very sweet, and I hope to see her again!