Richardo’s Home Visit

As we set out this morning, I had a different team of people traveling with me. There is a new lady that we are trying to get involved with some of the community work at the baby house. Leonora is pretty good at English and this was her first outing for the baby house.

We left the house at around 9:30 in the morning and road the chappa to the Benefica Market. When we arrived, we phone Richardo’s father and he was on his way to meet us at the gas station that was near to where to our location. It was a pleasant surprise that he was coming to meet us and that we wouldn’t have to search to find his home.

We stood and waited for about 15 minutes and I finally saw his father’s familiar face from his visit to the baby house the previous week. He was so excited to see Richardo, and as I handed the little boy over to him it was neat to see them both excited to see each other again. Richardo looks just like his father, and as I followed his dad, we walked toward a larger bus that would carry us closer to his home.

The bus ride was long and I stood smashed between many people most of the journey. When we arrived, I immediately realized that we were in the same neighborhood as last Friday on the visit to Marcelino’s family. The walk was much shorter this trip and we arrived at his little grass hut in no time.

We sat and chatted for about an hour, he showed us pictures of Richardo’s father who died of AIDS shortly after Richardo’s birth. She was a beautiful woman and it was neat to hear her husband talk so fondly about his former wife. After our visit, he took us to the front yard and dug up some roots of a plant to take home. As he was digging up the roots, two ladies came by the house that were friends of Richardo’s mother. It was neat to let them see how well he was doing. The visit went well and it was great to take Richardo for the first time to his father’s house.