Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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Sorry for so long between blogs. The last two weeks have been super busy and the internet has also been on and off.

Last week Jon and I helped organize a room in the sick bay here at the orphanage. It took a couple days and consisted mostly of going through a huge amount of medical supplies and separating expired medicine from things that were still good.

 After we finished that we worked on the farm about 30 minutes away. They grow quite a bit of the fruits and vegetables that they use here at the village at the farm. They are also in the process of adding a chicken coop that will provide 3000 chickens a week to supply meat for the children and funds to help provide for housing and schooling. Jon and I worked clearing weeds in the potato field with Tiny, who has been our main contact here and is a pretty remarkable man I’m sure you’ll hear more about him later.

We have also spent a large amount of time working to organize rooms stacked to the ceiling with toys. Lots of different people and organizations have provided toys for the children for Christmas and other occasions, but they have come in faster than they could be given out and they were stacked waist high in 3 different rooms.

 

What we found ranges from completely destroyed toys to brand new and wrapped toys ready for Christmas. Unfortunately, Christmas has already passed (all the kids got toys, don’t worry), so the wrapped toys need to be unwrapped and organized so they will be able to see what is there and they can have some kind of order.
 
 

 
  
For the most part it is fun. We get to unwrap presents so despite being away from home its safe to say I’ve opened more Christmas presents than ever this year, even though I don’t get to keep them. There are also a few things that I get to repair that are very entertaining like RC cars because they have to be tested, of course, but the sheer size of the task is sometimes overwhelming.

Once we get all three rooms sorted out, they are going to open a toy store for the children. The residents here at the village are going to be able to earn Nkosi Dollars for various things- keeping cottages clean, chores, schoolwork, etc. They will be able to use them at the toy store and the clothing store, which the girls are working on. Its a lot of work, but I’m glad to be able to help at a special place like Nkosi’s Haven.

BT, a telecom here in South Africa recently donated 10 brand new computers and internet service for the residents to use. Some of the kids have adopted families that they can skype here or they can use the internet to help with homework. Its a great resource to help prepare them for the future.

A few days ago Mari handed me a letter one of the mothers had written and asked if I could type up a for her. I decided to track her down and ask if I could teach her to do it for herself.  Apparently, I can’t say anyone’s name here because anytime I ask where someone is people say they don’t know who I’m talking about, but eventually I found her.

When I asked if she wanted to learn to type it her face lit up and she eagerly agreed. It turns out she had never used a keyboard before in her life, so I had signed up for a much bigger task than I’d imagined. After explaining the basics she was able to type it on her own. 
She waws pretty slow but worked methodically and I even got to show her spell check and editing when she finished. It was a much bigger job than I thought I was volunteering for but I was so happy to get to teach someone such and important skill as word processing. It also blew me away that someone the age of my mother had never used a keyboard before. I guess I still have a hard time grasping what it is like to grow up outside the US.