I tried to get Ellie to kill the spider, but she couldn’t get close enough to it without freaking out. I got out of bed to kill it, and I was talking about how I was afraid that I was going to miss it...and of course I did. The spider scurries off and both Ellie and I scream at the top of our lungs. (No one comes to check on us...thanks friends) I go and find someone on staff to ask them to come help us out of our dangerous situation and after the guy killed it. He said it was a small one...yea right! Well onto the funny part of it, apparently our spider story affected others like Matthew, who had a dream about a spider and woke up yelling “SPIDER” and swatting at his mosquito net, while waking up his roomie/ our team leader, Ken. Matthew later admitted that he felt like he was dreaming the spider but proceeded to kill the spider because he felt bad for waking up Ken. Ken related that he observed Matthew smoothing his sheets and tucking his mosquito net in for 5 minutes after he “killed” it. While this story may not be funny to you, when I look back on this and read it, it will be funny.
Now to the first day....It didn’t know what I should expect the first day. I mean I am with a different group and half of the group are teachers and will be at the school all day. Unlike last year, Awanas (the children’s program) only meets on Monday and Wednesday. This was my favorite part last year and we met everyday. I would be working on a special project this year working with Lusungu. She was hired about 3 months ago to oversee all aspects of the Family Sponsorship Program at Adziwa. Then, would I see all the kids that I remember from last year. My hope is to see Sara and Mikey, not to mention Innocence and Salome....among others including the staff, James and Joy. I had hoped to see them all.
Upon pulling up, I saw James and Joy. When the car stopped, I jumped out and hugged them both. They both look exactly the same, James still looks like Eddie Murphy and Joy, still beautiful, smiling Joy only with lighter, longer hair. I failed to mention in the CCBC post that I met Lusungu, with him I would be partnered with over the next 2 weeks. She was there to greet us as well. Not to mention, a few guardians were at the building to greet us. After a short introduction and orientation, the guardians, Joy, Moses and James sang a few songs.
Lusungu and I didn’t waste any time. Once everyone was situated, we made our way to visit the guardians. There are 84 families within the program. At one time, the number was at 97 but some no longer meet requirements, aren’t really in need or haven’t made contact with the staff in over a year. There are 2 different locations for the families of Adziwa. The Adziwa side and in Kauma village (Adziwa lies within Kauma but is on the opposite side of the street. Very hard to explain, right) On the Adziwa side, you would find the Adziwa school which serves children in Nursery (our preschool and Kindgarten) and Standards (grades) 1-4. As well, the future school blocks for Standards 5-8. These standard make up their primary school. Also on the Adziwa side are the offices for the Adziwa staff and Adziwa Gardens (community center). There are currently 22 families who live on the Adziwa side and once the school blocks are finished, then they will continue the progress on adding more houses. The other 62 families that make up Adziwa live within the actual Kauma Village. Kauma Village is huge! I don’t know how anyone finds their way through it, much less 3 year old kids who come by themselves from the extension part of the village to Adziwa Gardens for Awana. These kids are really good at directions, that is certain. In Kauma there are about 40,000 people. Yep, your read those zeros right, forty thousand all within about a 5 mile radius if I had to guess, maybe smaller. I will ask about this later....must ask, must ask.
For the first day, Lusungu that would be best to visit with the families on the Adziwa side of the village. I agreed. I was given a questionnaire/form to ask the guardians questions. The questions on the form to ask were : if any new children/orphans had been added to their care, how everyone’s health was and how their lives have been impacted by the family sponsorship program. (This is a program that our church has started where families adopt (sponsor) a family in Adziwa on a monthly basis. After a few visits I got a little discouraged as everyone was saying that they haven’t seen any changes. Af the end of the day, I was really saddened that no one had seen any changes. After talking with our team leader, we decided to ask more specific questions like what changes have you seen at the school and with the feeding program, with spiritual discipleship and vocational training.
I met one lady who’s husband passed away last Thursday. He had a heart condition for some time. It was really awkward to meet with her as I really didn’t know what to say. Her name is Denesia and she is a guardian for her grandson who is deaf and mute and who is a major epileptic. Please pray for her and her grandson.
Then I met with sweet Mary’s mom/guardian she informed us that she has a bloated tummy and has for sometime. It’s not because she is malnourished but they don’t know why. They haven’t taken her to the hospital because they can’t afford transportation (which costs 400 kwacha equivalent to about $3). I had to restrain myself from not pulling out my wallet to pay for her to go.
That afternoon, we had Awana. Because standard 3 and 4 meet during this time, there weren’t nearly as many kids. I didn’t really see any of the kids I had hoped to see except Innocence and he is not the same Innocence as he was last year. This year he is very distant and doesn’t really talk or play with the azungus (the white people). Last year, you couldn’t have an empty hand without him holding it. We sang songs with the kids, Ken did the bible story on the resurrection and the kids colored a scene from the story.
Came home and washed all the grime grime off us and ate dinner. My menu selection (and Matthew’s too because he has sympathy cravings) was grilled cheese and tomato soup with the most amazing croutons. While the tomato soup wasn’t like our normal tomato soup (it was more brown then red) It was delicious.
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