Day Two
The sun has been shining today and a few of us are sporting some rather pink necks! Today has been a day of planning our activities for the next couple of weeks. It consisted of challenging and thought provoking conversations as we split into teams and looked at different tasks that we hope to accomplish; there were many excited children who crowded around the office door in the hope of speaking to/touching the Mzunga (white people)or receiving sweets, or saying “How are you?”
In the course of the morning, we learned something that most of us felt was unbelievable. Kim revealed that virtually every person in the slum suffers with worms, something which we find unthinkable at home. They accept as a part of life that they need to take worming medication every three months, but these tablets come at a cost and many of our families in the slum can’t afford to buy them, but pumpkins are a source of helping to deal with these.
After splitting into our work teams and discussing the various tasks we had been allocated, we returned to the office for lunch which involved us sharing whatever we had, namely eggs boiled in the kettle, tomatoes, avocado, banana crisps and many other bits and pieces.
Following lunch, some time was spent unpacking some of the cases which were brought over from the U.K. There was a real sense of emotion in the room amongst both men and women, as each revealed so many things that had been created and donated with such love by wonderful folk at home. There were little knitted cardigans and hats, tiny socks and shoes, and of course the sewing machine, not to mention the England training kit that had been donated from the English FA. All will be put to really good use and Joyce is already thinking of the pregnant mums that she knows in the slum that will benefit from some of them.
After lunch, we piled into the van to visit the new plot of land which is about a 15 minute drive away from the slum. This was an encouragement to us to see the plot full of all sorts of plants, chickens, ducks, rabbits and a dog. They are growing sweet corn, cabbage, onions, potatoes, pumpkins, spinach, passion fruit, bananas, all are being used to supplement the food that our supported families receive from Doxa. It was a cause for great thanksgiving to see this plot being used to such good effect.
For those of you who do pray, would you please pray that we will receive Caroline’s case and it’s full contents which went missing at the airport ASAP.