On Friday I cried. After one of my children was absent for a week, I sent a teacher to find out what was going on as I knew he wasn't sick. Joseph is an orphan who joined the school this year. He lives with his aunt and her mentally challenged son. Joseph is the tallest boy in the class and pretty quiet but a very cheerful child, so it was unusual for him to miss school.

When he saw the teacher coming, Joseph locked himself in their one room house. When the teacher (Ben) looked around the village, he found Joseph's aunt who is sick at the moment with a bad back as well as caring for Joseph, his sister and her sick son.

The aunt told Ben that Joseph has been very down and because she was sick, she didn't have the energy to force him to go to school. She told Ben Joseph's family history. Joseph's mother was murdered by thieves who came into their house a couple of years ago. Perhaps she tried to resist their demands, who knows why, but they cut her from head to toe with a Panga (like an axe). Joseph was in the bed beside her and witnessed all of this. Not long afterward, Joseph's father discovered he was HIV positive and hung himself, leaving Joseph and his sister orphans to be cared for by their extended family.

Today, Monday, Joseph didn't come to schoool, though his aunt assured Ben on Friday that he would. I suspect he won't come tomorrow in which case, I'm going to ahve to go and get him myself! We have a counsellor from the local community who helps us so I'm going to try to get him to come with me.

It's such a powerless feeling, knowing that you can't erase this terrible tragedy, and heal a child. Sure, I can teach him and help him as much as possible. But it broke my heart to know a child had endured such heartache and witnessed such a brutal murder and I can't do anything about it. How can you heal a broken heart or erase such memories - you can't!