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FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: APRIL 22, 2023
 
A RESCUE THAT DEFINES WHY JESUS SENT US HERE
 
On Wednes­day, April 19th, an elder­ly Granny walked in with her 5‑day-old grand­daugh­ter, fol­lowed by the baby’s Uncle.  After hear­ing their sto­ry and read­ing the Vil­lage Chief’s dec­la­ra­tion, they asked us to please take the infant as Granny can­not not care for her.  It was obvi­ous this fam­i­ly is very poor and these 2 were over­whelmed with new respon­si­bil­i­ties. The baby’s moth­er had died short­ly after giv­ing birth, leav­ing them with 5 sib­lings and the new­born baby.  All oth­er fam­i­ly mem­bers had died, includ­ing the father, in JANUARY, 2023 from an out­break of cholera in their very remote vil­lage about 12 miles/20 km from us.  
 
We imme­di­ate­ly agreed to take the tiny 2.7km/6 lb. infant girl, named Luisa, as I tried to men­tal­ly rearrange our present 22 infants in my head! This child need­ed a Fos­ter Moth­er who can han­dle such a tiny new­born.  I called our Head House Moth­er, Gil­da, and she helped me sort it out, for she knows the moth­ers car­ing for infants bet­ter than any­one.

As tiny Luisa slept peace­ful­ly after con­sum­ing 3 ounces of milk, my staff and I asked many ques­tions to get the full pic­ture of the chil­dren left at home. The Granny and Uncle hadn’t eat­en all day and were very hun­gry.  I gave them each a bot­tle of water and a big bread roll.  They had nev­er had a bot­tle of water before, and asked us how to open the bot­tle!  I then knew we were work­ing with peo­ple who were very iso­lat­ed from the mod­ern world. We explained in Makua that they need­ed to return on Fri­day with a Dec­la­ra­tion from the Vil­lage Chief request­ing that baby Luisa live with us.  I gave them the $7/R126 trav­el mon­ey for a round trip on a minibus taxi from Bala­ma to their vil­lage with the return on Fri­day.  We then took Luisa to meet her new Fos­ter Moth­er, Ami­na.
 

(L to R) Granny, Fos­ter Moth­er Ami­na with Baby Luisa, and the Uncle.
 
On Fri­day, we wait­ed, and wait­ed. The Granny and Uncle final­ly arrived at 2:30pm as they had used the trav­el mon­ey to buy much need­ed items. I doubt they had ever seen $7/R126 in their entire lives! Start­ing out on the Uncle’s dilap­i­dat­ed bicy­cle for trans­porta­tion, the rear tire explod­ed part way through the jour­ney, leav­ing them to walk most of the 12 miles push­ing the bicy­cle. They had brought the need­ed doc­u­ments required by law for all orphans, but the date for the father’s death was incor­rect and will have to be rewrit­ten by the Vil­lage Chief.  
 
Know­ing more trav­el mon­ey would be used to by oth­er items, the only sure way to get them home and back here on Mon­day with the cor­rect­ed doc­u­ments was to send them with our dri­ver in a Land Cruis­er to their remote vil­lage.  This vil­lage is so far in the bush that the first  “car dri­vable road” was built late last year.  All 5 chil­dren and the Granny will be enrolled in our Food Give Out Pro­gram that takes place each Thurs­day. In order for the Uncle to be able to fetch the food, we bought him a new bicy­cle tire and tube at the local mar­ket. Also, tak­ing them to their vil­lage assured us a good look at where they live, and a pho­to of the oth­er 5 chil­dren.  Our con­cern is that some of the younger chil­dren may need to come live with us also to light­en the load on the elder­ly Granny.  If some­thing hap­pens to her, the chil­dren have no one to live with, as the Uncle said he can’t care for them.


Uncle, Granny, and 4 of the 5 chil­dren. Pic­ture tak­en by our dri­ver when he arrived at their remote vil­lage.
 
Our staff will fetch ALL 7 of them, and the cor­rect­ed doc­u­ments ear­ly  Mon­day morn­ing with our Land Cruis­er. That way Social Ser­vices can review the entire fam­i­ly his­to­ry with them, and pro­vide anoth­er doc­u­ment need­ed by all chil­dren in our homes.
My sto­ry ends here, as you must wait along with us for “the rest of the sto­ry” as it unfolds next week.
 
I tell you this sto­ry in detail so you can bet­ter grasp what flex­i­ble solu­tions are nec­es­sary to save chil­dren in these kinds of cir­cum­stances.
It’s not always easy, or sim­ple by any means.
 
Pray for all of us this week, that we can sort out the need­ed Death Cer­tifi­cates of the moth­er and father, Birth Cer­tifi­cate for Luisa, and any of the oth­er lit­tle ones who might come live with us.  Social Ser­vices requires these doc­u­ments on each child liv­ing with us, so with­out them, Luisa must return to her Granny.
 
BUSH BUNNY TIDBITS
 
1.   LITTLE AMBROSIO, now 2 years old, is final­ly walk­ing!  This is a great mile­stone for him, as he came to us in a very mal­nour­ished state. It just took more time than nor­mal for him to gain his bal­ance and walk­ing legs.  His many broth­ers and sis­ters who were already run­ning all over the place, were a great encour­age­ment to him.
 
Ambro­sio show­ing us he can now walk like the oth­er tod­dlers.
https://youtube.com/shorts/CdR7OExIeBM
 
2.  The Granny who is rais­ing our first set of triplet boys, now 12 years old, came yes­ter­day. The boys were in school so there is no pic­ture of them. Granny need­ed a new cook­ing pan.  Thanks to our New Jer­sey spon­sor for our Cook­ing Pan Give Out Pro­gram, we were able to place 2 brand new pans in her hands as well as two 5 gal­lon water con­tain­ers.  She left a very hap­py Granny, and YES, we gave her a hand car­ry­ing it all back to her mud hut. 
 

Ancient Granny who suc­cess­ful­ly raised triplet boys. 
 
THAT’S THE NEWS FOR THIS WEEK! 
 
Stay tuned for more African Adven­tures next week with Bush Bun­ny Bren­da and her staff.
 
Bless­ings to all of you, in Jesus’ name!
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF