...After lunch we drove to a school named Jacaranda. It was established by this really awesome woman, Marie Da Silva, to provide free schooling to orphans. It's a fairly large compound that includes the house that Marie was raised in when she was a child. It's now a house of classrooms for K-12th graders. Almost all of the kids that attend school here lost their parents to AIDS and a large number of them have HIV/AIDS themselves. Marie was nominated for CNN's Person of the Year because of her efforts.
Here's a video clip that introduces Marie...
We sat under a gazebo after the tour of the facilities with Marie and a few other people. Two girls were sitting there with us. Luke, the cofounder, explained that the girls had just found out that they will be going to London in two weeks to sing at the Opening Ceremonies. They sang us a song they had written - they had such powerful and beautiful voices.
We also met two boys who showed off their dancing skills...
One of the boys, John, lost both of his parents to HIV/AIDS and he has HIV/AIDS himself. Before he came to Jacaranda he would beg on the streets for food and would walk miles into the city each month for his HIV meds. Now he is living in a house near the school and is being taken care of. I am so glad that he is alive today and he had the chance to show off his dancing skills for us.
