Balloons

Today I realised I'm maybe becoming a little hardened to people's suffering here which worries me. Even at church this morning I ended up dealing with a lady begging for money with a sad story, and I really resented it rather than being compassionate. 

Then we went to see friends in one of the huge refugee camps (for lunch- but no lunch emerged- just biscuits after an hour or so; we were a little hungry!). Their situation is bleak and I just felt like I don't have the energy to deal with it all. The aunt in that family went blind (over 40 days) and paralysed when she was 13 and all her family members died apart from her little brother (our friend). It was due to chemicals in the wheat. (I managed to call her 'Mushroom' rather than her real name which probably didn't make her feel any better- oops.) We then went to visit our old neighbours and it felt like a relief to be somewhere a bit more normal and less sad.

The children have learnt a new skill: balloon animals. I don't know how many they made today at the camp- more and more children kept appearing in the tent wanting one (or two or three!)