Into the Bush
Fortunately however, there were a couple of very nice ladies who spoke a tiny bit of English who agreed to take us to the Chinkuli school. They, along with two young babies, climbed into the back seat of our truck (Sister Wilkinson and Sister Hatch were already in the back seat)! It was a little crowded but they were very determined to help us out! They gave directions, "turn that way" or "go straight," or "not far." After driving on the worst roads we have even been on in our lives for a long time, Elder Phelps finally stopped the truck and said, "ok, I think we have gone far enough."
They kept saying, "not far, not far." Well, after trying to communicate where we were going, we continued on and sure enough that school was "not far" from where we almost made them get out of the truck!!
It's quite dry right now. This is the kind of scenery we saw on our drive today.
These pictures were taken before we got to the super rough country. The people put up little shops to sell their food and other things wherever they want to and they are everywhere!!!
I wish pictures could convey how bad the roads we traveled on were!! They were FULL of the deepest ruts! Forever and forever!!!! We bounced and banged our heads kilometer after kilometer!!! When they told us "not far" they were probably referring to a direct line through the fields or trees, not along the road itself!
Just before the Pease left, their children who came to visit, had gone to this school and spent the day there playing and teaching. They had the children break a pinata (they had never seen one before). They showed them how to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and how to eat them (they had never seen or tasted these before). They provided the school with soccer balls (the family had brought the balls deflated and spent hours blowing them up with a portable pump) and corded bracelets. One of the packages of bracelets was forgotten in their luggage so they asked us to take that package to the class that didn't get any.
When a camera comes out, the kids all gather around!!! They love to wave and with such great big smiles! A couple of these ladies were teachers at the school.
The project here was completed but the teachers we saw wanted to show us all around. The church had built a couple of teacher accommodations, provided the school with desks for all of the classrooms, and built flushing latrines. Up until this time the children all sat on the floor and the outhouses had been just open pits.
The room that holds 125 children!
When I saw the desks in one of the classrooms, I was totally amazed. The desks were as close as they could get. I was told there were 125 first graders who crammed into these desks!! They had two sessions of school per day and both sessions had that many students. How do you teach 125 first graders how to read all at the same time????
The girl in the blue skirt was a 12th grader. She is hoping to be a nurse one day in the near future.
Here, Elder Phelps is writing down the names of people we were talking to so we could report. He was also discussing where we needed to go next.
The next place we needed to go to was to Kalemsinga Health Post
This man was welding on the steel beams. I noticed that he was wearing flip flops on his feet.
The next place we went was to Chasa School.
These are classrooms that are being built.
At these two places, Elder Phelps talked to the construction workers. They loved to get their pictures taken!!! One man was outside when he saw Elder Phelps taking pictures of the other workers inside so he ran to get inside so he could be in the picture.
This man was showing us the water pump the Church had made possible. We saw huts like this all along the trail!
This is the kind lady that showed us where to go. Her name was Brenda. We put her bicycle in the back of the truck so she could ride it wherever she needed to go after helping us. As it turned out, we took her to where she lived. I am quite sure that the bike ride would have been much more pleasant than the truck ride!!! The hut we are standing in front of was her kitchen. The next picture is where she kept animals...I think the goats.
Inside the kitchen was just a dirt floor. The "shelving" on the wall was the only useful looking things that I recognized. No pots, pans, dishes, etc, etc., of any kind. Just piles of dirt, charcoal cinders and a tiny bit of wood. She told us that one day she hoped she could replace the grass roof with a metal one.
As we were getting ready to leave, she said, "Would you like to see my church?" Well, “of course” we told her. She was the preacher!!! Elder Phelps reached up and taped the rafters. Not sure what they were holding up...they just wiggled when he tapped them. There were a few crude benches for people to sit on, but nothing else. But she was proud of her church!!!
We were truly grateful for her service to us!!
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