Sister Louise's voice cracked then broke, her eighty year old eyes brimmed and spilt with the same vitality as the orphaned babies regularly given her by overwhelmed neighbours or nameless policemen. In a room with crucifixes, icons and pictures of the pope and numerous children she has raised, all hung with the same reverence from permanently yellowed walls, she told us the story of a 6 year old girl. It is a story of a boy who, having received love, felt compelled to share it with a girl who's only home had been the local market. It is a story of moving from abandonment and homelessness to the stability and shelter of the Dominican Sister's orphanage for children who lost their family by disease, war and poverty.

Sister Louise spoke through laughter and tears, telling us about 'one of her boys', an 8 year old now attending a local primary school, who's learned compassion sparked the saving of this little girl. It all began when he met her while she was seeking the charity of children, begging bits of lunch on the school grounds she would frequent if the market did not prove fruitful. After realizing his meagre contributions and failed attempts of encouraging his classmates to contribute to her well being could not sustain her, he brought her to the place he had come to call home. A home where he also had found consistent food, shelter, and above all, love.

It was his willingness to share what he had received that another 'waif in the market' has begun the long road of healing her physical, emotional and spiritual wounds. Struggling to tame the catch in my throa,t I reeled at the profound, life altering work of Sister Louise and the women alongside her who, by giving of their lives, had given life to so many over so many years.

Currently Emmanuel Centre is home to 148 children, who now have a place to belong and to contribute, all learning to receive and give love and life. They live in small homes with 12-13 other children and a 'house mama' where they are given opportunity to grow up as kids, with stability, relationships and education. Much of the food required to feed this large family is raised on the surrounding acres, with drip irrigated market gardens, cows, goats, ducks, turkeys and chickens along with an 'in house bakery', all tended by local people hired by the Sisters. It is this place and these people that will receive the gifts of money that friends at home sent along with us. It is this place and these people that remind me that light always overwhelms the shadows.