Our
long, early day had started around 6:45. We had awakened by the sound of
Millie’s alarm. Everyone was a bit tired, except for Millie who apparently had
an exceptional sleep. In the morning, Georgia had found a note from her family
and most of us got quite emotional, except
for Millie our "cold-hearted" teammate. The good thing was that we hadn’t got jet lag and none of us would be grouchy for our hour long journey.
After we had breakfasted, at around 8am we all
attended a prayer meeting, held by Hands at Work, that they do every week. We
introduced ourselves to everyone and since it had been Mr. Leonard’s birthday
recently, everyone crowded round and sang and showered him with birthday hugs.
We then sang the African version of Hallelujah. It was beautiful but it was
quite hot and dry in the morning, especially whilst we had been singing.We split off into 7 groups and were
given anecdotes of vulnerable children living in the communities that Hands at
Work care for and support. We then had the option of listening to a variety of
stories and reading them out ourselves. Each member had the chance to say a
prayer for the child and wish them all good things in life, ranging from their
dreams to keeping their families safe and being able to protect them. It was
quite a emotional task but we all accomplished that without the shed of a
tear. After the 20 minutes group activity we went back into one big group and
said a prayer together and with that we packed away.
We got our stuff together and met on the sunny
front porch, our host, Jen Waspe, had briefed us about the village of
Mafambisa. Telling us about how to act and what it would be like. We got our
stuff and set off for the sunny Mafambisa. The minibus ride was long and hot
but the view was picturesque and eye catching. Once we had arrived, the sun was
beaming in our faces and the heat surrounding us. We had been welcomed by two
of the care-workers. We had later been split off into groups. Georgia and Libby
in one and Amelia and Millie in the other.
Libby's and Georgia’s story.
Libby and Georgia went on two holy home visits, the
first was to see a lady who is a care worker but unfortunately wasn’t at the
care point because of some difficulties she had encountered. She had three
children and none of the were at home, her eldest was her 19yr old son, her
other two children were at school so we didn’t get to meet them. Then we went
to see another care worker but she is unfortunately quite poorly we also met
her daughter as she had come home from school.
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| Helping at the care point in Mafambisa |
Millie’s and Amelia’s story
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| Millie and Georgia are in charge of washing up tonight |
Millie and I had gone to visit a lovely woman in
the local area, we'll call her Susan. It was quite a trek and the heat had
nearly defeated us. This lady had quite a story. She was a mother of four, all
daughters with the ages of 12, 12, 8 and 3. We had met the 3yr old which was
very bouncy and lovable. Whilst the other ladies were talking we were playing
peek-a-boo with this little girl and her neighbours child, who was being cared
for by Susan. Susan's husband was born in Swaziland and because he didn’t have
any papers he couldn’t get a proper, full time job. He tried to make money
through a little painting and decorating. This meant the family of six had no
proper income and weren’t financially stable. This is why the children came to
the care-point for a proper meal and care. Her 8 yr old daughter came back with
us as we left and had joined us in all of the fun and the games. We sang,
danced and played endless games and had endless fun.
Overall, we all had an amazing experience at our
first care point jobs, home visits and feeding the children of the local
area.
It had all finished after we had fed the children
and we set off home, awaiting the arrival of a storm that was due to come!
Relaxation was ahead for us all after our tiring day.
The views expressed in this blog post are those of the contributors and not of Link for Life Project or Hands at Work in Africa