The Government Hospital in Mbabane is a place where people go who are too poor to go to private hospitals and doctors. The Government hospital is much less expensive, but the care is poor. We were only allowed into the Children’s Ward. At the end of the hallway, there is a room for abandoned babies. This room is about the size of a living room and usually has about 12 babies in it. 80% of the babies in this hospital are HIV+. There is only one nurse to take care of all the children in this room. The hospital cannot provide the proper care that these children need. When one of our girls stubbed her toe, she had to call our team members that were back at the house, to bring her a band-aid.
Difficult Stories – Our group, in the short time that we got to spend at the hospital had to experience some of the toughest realities in Swaziland. One of our girls was sitting down at the table in the abandoned baby room when a woman walked in with a baby, handed the baby to her, told her the baby’s name, and left. We had witnessed the abandonment of Nosweilo. On the last day at the hospital, our group was exposed to the hardest reality, the death of a child. When we had first gotten there, there was so much joy in everyone, and then the Lord took one of His children home. Though there is great mourning in losing a child there is also great comfort in knowing that this child is home with the Lord. God is good and works all things together for good.
Mxolisi – The first day we went to the hospital I went to the abandoned baby room. Outside there were two children in wheel chairs. One of the boys was already with one of our members, the other was alone. Immediately I got attached to this boy. His name is Mxolisi / Mcosili / Sena (Nurses will tell you different names) and he’s 7 years old. Mxolisi is mentally handicap and has to spend his whole day either in a wheel chair or on the floor. Right away when I saw his eyes the Lord broke my heart over him. I had never seen so much loneliness, fear, and confusion. Sometimes he would start to get frustrated and throw his head back, often hitting it on something, or he would hit his chair with his hand. Every day we went back to the hospital I went straight to the back room to find him. The nurse had me feed him and clothe him many times. I miss that boy so much. I’m not sure how long he’s been there, but unless someone adopts him, he’ll probably live at the hospital the rest of his life.
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