Day 10:
This morning we woke up early and drove to Malindza to meet
with our friend Nomfundo. She showed us
where the Malindza community garden was located. We purchased over 800 rands worth of produce:
lettuce, spinach, carrots, green peppers, and cabbages. The farmers were so happy to receive such a
high request (for instance 50 bundles of spinach that filled our trunk of the
car). It was wonderful to support rural farmers instead of just a grocery
store. (Thanks Mitali). When we delivered the food to the primary and
secondary school, the headmasters were thrilled. When we were unloading the tons of produce,
all of a sudden a spider the size of Katy (or so she thought – it was actually
more of a large peach size) came crawling out of a cabbage. Katy was gone in a split second…running and
crying. She wants me to emphasize that this was a serious matter. The spider
was hairy and scary.
We walked up to the Maziya homestead and played a round of
Candyland Swazi style with Celimpilo, Mazwi, Samkelo, Amber, Katy, Kait, and a
neighbor boy. I left the board game
there years ago and it was nice to see that they are still playing with
it. All of the little people are missing
now except 2, so we used sticks, leaves, rocks, broken pieces of beer bottles,
and other litter to mark our place.
Mazwi won which made his (and my) night.
What a sweet boy.
After visiting with the kids, our new friend Hannock took us
to a local wholesaler. We bought 10 of
everything for our 10 sets of families: 10kg sugar, 10kg beans, 2L cooking oil,
matches, 10kg rice, soap, and canned fish.
I cant wait to deliver next week… the kids will be thrilled to no longer
have to beg from neighbors.
Day 11:
This morning we woke up and drove to Matsapha to our meat
wholesaler. We purchased 150kg chicken
and 100kg minced meat for our primary school children (Thanks again
Mitali). It filled the entire trunk of
our car (GROSS)! When we got to the
school the headmaster called the 7th grade boys to come get the food
from our trunk. Every time they grabbed
another bag, they yelled “CHICKEN!!” and hugged us. The headmaster had the cook ready and waiting
for it. They actually cooked some of it
today for lunch and later when we saw Celimpilo, she said it was delicious and
they “ate like kings” today. Usually
these children only eat meat for Christmas.
Now they will be able to eat it once a week at school for lunch.
After the school, we parted ways. Kait and Amber went on safari and Katy and I met up with Hannock (dance team choreographer) to watch his Lozita high school boys perform at the national stadium. The boys did great! Then Katy and I walked an hour from Lobamba to eLangeni to play with the children. We went to the Maziya house to check on their solar power system. The LED lights at night are really bright! They were eating dinner – the spinach we left them yesterday. We played hangman, Pictionary on his DoodlePro we gave them a couple of years ago and watched a movie on my laptop. The neighborhood kids heard the laughter and joined in the party. At the beginning of the movie there were 9 neighborhood kids, Katy, and I lying on a tiny thin mattress on the floor watching the Goofy Movie. When it was Pilo’s turn to choose the word for our hangman game, she chose a siSwati word that means “when do you leave the country”. When Katy answered “Monday” it brought me back to reality. I will be leaving these kids in 10 days and wont see them again until December...
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