Follow up home visit to Chipo and Chabota's family

On November 27 we visited twins Chipo and Chabota. They went home to be with their father and his new wife on June 17 - at age 16 months.

The twins have adjusted and bonded well with their new mom - but since she is their mother's aunty, she really wasn't new at all and because she's a blood relative she is genuinely caring.

Looking closely, you can see that neither twin is too happy. That can happen when you've been wakened from a nice afternoon nap to see two very strange makuwa faces! They were clinging closely to their parents! The other lady in the picture is the other sister to the twin's deceased mother. The little boy is Chipo and Chabota's 3 year old brother.

We found the twins sleepy, but dressed to the nines in their matching recently purchased by family, frilly dresses. The household is typical rural - grass thatched home-made brick small sleeping structure, open kitchen, skinny dogs, chickens running around, no electricity, no running water. The dad, Henry does "piece work" by laying brick sometimes and he grows maize. Many family members live nearby.

While there we were treated very graciously and hospitably. Henry's brother arrived with a small roughly made table and samp was served!

Just less than 1 km. away is Macha Hospital with a nursing school, almost the best mosquito research in southern Africa, an airstrip for emergency medical use, and one of the best computer systems around. But...for these guys - they have little work and no conveniences. Systems are just not working so well, are they?

What they have for their family is genuine love and care. And...they have better access to medical help than any of the other babies that have been recently released. They also have good family values and are closely connected to their church.