(The title of this blog comes from the girl at the top left corner)
Wednesday was a hard day this week; it was rainy and brutally cold. It’s winter here and the temperature is often unpleasant. One step outside my tent caused me to put on pretty much every piece of clothing I own, leggings, a skirt, 2 tee shirts, a long sleeved shirt, sweat shirt, waterproof rain jacket, socks and shoes (despite the fact that I swore I would never go for the missionary look of skirts with tennis shoes.) Even with all the layers it was a struggle to stay warm.
When we showed up at Mbutu, one of the care points, I was saddened to see all the kids huddled against the wall of the building attempting to keep warm. Their ripped up dresses and tee shirts with shorts were no defense from the pelting wind and rain. Almost all the kids were barefoot and most didn’t have underwear.
At the moment the Mbutu care point is an abandoned, partially enclosed, brick structure, on the side of the main highway. The kids, many of which are orphans, walk miles by them selves to get there every morning. If the government decided to deliver food that month the children are then rewarded with a bowl of milly-meal, thick corn meal porridge. For many it’s their only meal of the day.
(One of the Gogo’s dishing up some Milly-Meal)
We often lead songs for the kids and there are always a few 5 year olds struggling to do the motions because their baby brother or sister is asleep on their back. On Wednesday a 3 year old kept trying to hold her baby brother who wouldn’t stop crying. It was pitiful watching her use all her strength hold him 6 inches off the ground and comfort him.
Every day this last week we have been working at Mbutu helping run a makeshift preschool. We hold kids, sing children’s songs again and again and teach English words. Our hope is not to lead this forever, but to teach the women who help feed the children songs and games, so they can lead.
Next Monday we are leading a teachers training seminar for the women from a bunch of care points. The women will learn how to structure a preschool type class room, lead songs, and play games with the kids. I’m excited about empowering more women from the community to get involved with the kids at the care points and because we have time slotted into the end of the training to give the teachers pedicures.
(One of my favorite kids, he is always taking care of younger siblings. His parents are too pour to afford to send him to real school.)
I’m hopeful about the Mbutu care point because the business men we have been working with have decided to focus their resources on making it a better place for the children of the community. The men have given land and will begin constructing a classroom building before we leave Swaziland. The eventual goal is to build a center with homes for the orphans, a real school, a church and projects which will help the community become self sustaining, like a garden and a koi pond.
It’s hard to be at Mbutu right now, the needs are overwhelming. But it’s also a place with amazing hopes and dreams. God is using us in this place for bigger purposes then we realize in the day to day. He hasn’t asked us to do everything, or to meet every need, but he has asked us to do our part. Our group is a little piece in a huge puzzle that includes orphans, business men, missionaries, people from the United States, churches and more. Our group is fitting our piece into the puzzle by doing our part to help, however small that part may be.
