8

Gail Girbach sent garden seeds with us so today we set out to help plant three gardens--we were taken to a man who had some tools & he and his daughter came with us.  Unfortunately, we found all the garden areas too wet to plant much but we did what we could to clean up the gardens & passed out seeds with directions on how to plant them once the plots dried out.  Though the dry season should have started in December...it still rains often and the ground most everywhere is saturated.  Several locals have mentioned the climate has changed.  We left hoping the seeds would someday flourish...and with several red ant bites.

7

We met four shining stars:  all young girls so eager to gobble up all of our books and all the math problems we could provide.  After a long, hot day at school & a long walk home, they were thrilled at the opportunity to learn more.  We spent an hour & a half with them and a neighbor boy while two younger siblings & their mom with a baby in her arms watched smiling the whole time.  Sound glorious?  Let me try to describe the conditions.  We had to wallow through mud to enter their home--a one room, plywood box where 9 people lived without electricity or water.  Though cluttered with clothes, dishes, beds & one chair, it seemed organized and as neat as possible.  The surrounding area was totally mud--thick & slippery.  How anything or one could be clean there was beyond me...yet the kids' white school shirts...were white!  What was most amazing was what hung on the wall:  four school certificates of excellence awarded to the four girls.  In spite of the bleak conditions, they were truly shining!!

6

Primitive is the only word I can think of to describe our classroom today where we worked with about 15 kids ranging from pre K  to 15 plus one adult.  We were under the make-shift tent using a piece of styrofoam Rog had found in town to hold up a poster with the letters I had printed in random order.  Using two straws we'd joined together as the pointer, Rog worked with the kids & the adult who had not learned their letters. I pulled several kids and did quick assessments and then gave them materials at their level and passed them on to a skilled kids who had come to help tutor.  Several wanted to work on carrying and borrowing as well.  I rotated through about 8 kids keeping them moving forward.  The few mat'ls I'd brought with me seem to multiply like the loaves & fish.  It was rewarding to see the smiles as they caught on to each new skill.  The sun set as we ended the session.  We hiked to the Pastor's home where she had prepared meatballs with rice for us.  We ate as she again told us multiple hardship stories of the people she was trying to help and also of her dreams of how she could do more.  Emmanuel showed up, grabbed a plate of food & he drove us back to our hotel.  We told him to stop for gas and filled his tank.  Twelve gallons cost $64 US ...no wonder there are so few vehicles here!  Prayers flowed from Emmanuel's lips giving thanks for the gas.  How many times have we filled up our vehicles never giving a thought about how lucky we are or how thankful we should be?