Monday 17th July

Today we visited a life centre and did some holy home visits. We all agree that the high point of the day was to see how the community pull together supporting each other in times of adversity. The group split up into three groups and did three separate visits.  One of the home visits was to a home where a young woman of 22 had taken in her 3 nephews after their mother lost her life to domestic violence. The boys were clearly traumatised.  Their auntie explained that they had improved, more so since their youngest brother who is 20 months old came to live with them.  Whilst we were in the life centre we observed the 2 older boys joining in with games, prayers and singing. This was fabulous to see. Alison, Ryan & Dom

Another one of the holy home visit involved meeting a family whose mother was finding life

difficult, she has a daughter and two younger boys and is faced with mobility issues that meant collecting water was left to her children. This journey to collect the water is difficult for small children, which made us all realise of the dangers posed to the children and how they are quickly brought up to deal with adult issues. One thing stands out clearly in all of our minds after today, which is that the joy that has been shared throughout the community is incredible and the feeling the people gave us will stay with us forever even after just one day spent in community. Brian, Molly & Harry

The third holy home visit involved three other members of the team visiting a woman at her home where she lived with her five children and grandchild. When we arrived, we witnessed some people starting the foundation of a toilet that they were building and when we offered to help move some bricks that needed moving. The mother was very surprised that we offered to help them saying that we didn’t need to do that but we insisted and helped carry them across to the foundations. We also had a little sit down outside and asked questions about her life. She had six children and we were very interested in their names. When we asked we found out that all the names of the children had different meanings. For example, one name was described as meaning like ‘a light’ which meant something special to the mother considering the situation she was going through at the time of the birth. Today was a very memorable day being the first holy home visit and has had an impact on the members of the team in a very positive way and we are already feel like we are adapting to a different way of life to the one we are used to. Jayne, Jack & Bobbie-Rae

On our return from the Holy home visits, we helped to finish stirring the pap and after playing catch with the children, Dom and Harry served them their food.