Wow! How do you even begin to explain what we saw today?!! It was incredible! The church is doing so much to help these people become more self reliant!! They have such great need and the people always show so much gratitude!! Be prepared for photo overload!
Today we spent a few hours with Elder and Sister Pease. They are the humanitarian couple serving in Zambia and Malawi. Some amazing people!!! They took us to see a couple of projects the church is involved with. One was a school. There were many buildings but very primitive according to what we are used to! After members of the community, including parents, build walls then the church will come in and help with some funding to put a roof on, maybe some desks, if needed, books, etc.
These are the outhouses. Squat only. No flushing toilets!
The lady in the back of this photo is one of the teachers. She was more than happy to show us around!!
Notice the wheel barrow. EVERYTHING is done by hand...including mixing the cement. There are not machines of any kind!
Here you see the concrete wall that is almost finished. The community has to show that they are willing to do their part so they build the walls to this point. After the roof is on, the community fill in the gaps between the roof and the walls with more bricks and mortar. Here they are filling the gap between the walls and the roof. The floors will remain cement just like you see here.
The children all were so excited when they saw me take pictures. They quickly lined up so they could be included in the pictures.
These kids watched and watched us as we walked around...always smiling and eager to have their picture taken!! I'm in the back. Hal went to show some of them the picture he had just taken and more came than he bargained for and they nearly knocked him over!!! It was really funny! The video, unfortunately, would not load onto the blog.
Elder Pease is inspecting the work that had been done so far on this building. The church usually has to request that they make the walls a little bit taller.
They plant large gardens to help feed the kids. The older children are taught how to plant, take care of, and harvest the crops.
As we were walking from one building to another I noticed this barbed wire along the path. I don't know why it was there. There were children everywhere.
This is their enrollment chart. Total enrollment: 4603 students (here they are called "learners")!!! The school holds three sessions each day. The older children get three hours of instruction while the younger children get two hours of instruction.
Eating their lunch. This particular school had desks but no roof, as you can see. They are some of the lucky ones. Elder and Sister Pease say that the schools in Malawi, where they spend most of their time, do not have desks.
For obvious reasons they can’t hold school during the rainy season.
This is the nursery class. Lots of children here. They are as young as three. There are pictures painted on the walls but I didn't see any toys, like we always have in our schools in the US. Very few chairs and very crowded!
This building is going to be a maternity ward. Sometimes the clinics are so far from the people’s homes that women in labor have to walk up to 2 hours!! I cannot even imagine that! I'm sure they don't always make it to the clinics. Once the building is completed, midwives will be hired to help the women. The scaffolding being used here is quite good. In Malawi, the Pease told us that the scaffolding is just made of sticks and they cringe every time they see it!
This was taken at the maternity ward. Notice the pile of concrete that is being mixed on the ground. The work is all done by hand...no fancy equipment.
These are the outhouses. Squat only. No flushing toilets!
Comments
Post a Comment