The other day I went to a village to check in on a Man who came to us about wanting his child to join our Orphanage. The man has 4 kids and doesn't have a job, just a farm where he grows his food for his family, and wanted us to take in his youngest- 11 months. His other kids are 11, 9, and 6, with the two oldest still in school. There is a long process for us to admit a child, and we scheduled an appointment with him, but the man never called us to instruct us where he lived exactly. I went myself to the village and asked around if anyone knew him, and there was a women selling maandazi (like donuts sort of) who did. She told me that the child had already passed away.

I felt like garbage, and told her (I never met the man, no one knew where he was at the time) to have him call us from a friends phone, and we'd reimburse his phone credit. I didn't know what else to do, and so my drive back to our village was pretty depressing. It was the first time really that I saw the responsibility of this new job in a really tangible way. It was also the first time it seemed like there was actually something I could have done to make a difference in whether or not someone lived or not.