This morning we awoke at 5am to drive to Malindza to have a
party for our orphans. I cannot imagine
a more exciting way to start my day! We
met our friend Nomfundo and went to the nearest garden (farm) to select and
purchase vegetables for our feast. As we were hacking the cabbages with
machetes, I just kept imagining adorable faces consuming these vegetables with
glee. (PS, for Christmas this year someone needs to buy me a machete, please). When we reached the random trees with pots
(referred to as cauldrons by Kait) in the middle of nowhere, we realized we
have reached our destination. For the
next 4 hours Kait, Mary, Katy, and I diced 13 cabbages, 10 pounds of potatoes, 10
lettuces, 10 tomatoes, 20 beet roots, 20kg of chicken, 10 onions, and 20
carrots. We mixed this with cooking oil,
spices, and beef soup stock to create a masterpiece! This fed almost 100
orphaned children from Malindza village.
Nomfundo said that the rice alone will remind the kids of Christmas
(they only eat mealies/porridge everyday) but the chicken will excite them even
more.
From all of the cooking, Katy and I realized that we better
marry chefs like GHFP co-founder Kait as our domestic abilities are severely
lacking. Our backs hurt from hours of
crouching…we developed blisters on our hands from the chopping, and we were
glowing (errrrr, sweating) from the fires all around us to cook the “cauldrons”. The Swazi women, on the other hand, were
completely effortless! When we were
dishing for the kids, I was astonished at how much food the women were giving
them. Two and a half cups of rice, a
chicken leg, cole slaw, potato salad, beet salad, spinach salad, cooked
cabbage, and carrot beef stew. Kids as
young as 3 were cleaning their plates!!
How is this possible?! Their stomachs are smaller than my fists! Oh and they also downed 2 cups of orange
juice.
During the church service they were dropping like
flies. We saw one of the baby boys
nodding off while sitting up. Every five
seconds his eyes would close, his head would drop, and then he would startle
himself awake. This happened for about 5
minutes before I couldn’t take it anymore.
I wasn’t sure if the head dropping or a white girl grabbing him would
startle him more, but I decided to take my chances. I picked him up and he immediately fell
asleep in my arms. I couldn’t have been
happier until I noticed that he was not wearing diapers and I immediately remembered
Bheki’s warning, “Sister Annie, you need to stop holding the babies – they will
‘poof’ on you!” But once again I decided to take my chances when I heard him snoring
with happiness. As I was sitting on a
Swazi grassmat with Baby Snores-a-lot-sans-diaper in my arms listening to the
ladies cooking and singing “Siyabona Jesu” (Thank you Jesus) I thought to
myself – things absolutely do not get better than this. After the party, we drove our GHFP student
Nomalungelo home to help her install her new solar panels. We had already delivered a cell phone for
safety and showed her how the solar worked and how she can now charge her phone
in the USB port. She might be our shyest
student but that should not be mistaken for a lack of gratitude. When we were alone together today she explained
how when her parents died 5 years ago from HIV, so did her hope for her
future. And then we came along and her
hope was renewed. I told her that the
Swazi kids – like herself – renew my hope every single day and she should not
be thanking me – rather all of YOU who donate your time, money, and prayers for
our children. I get all of the hugs and
you all get only stories and pictures… THANK YOU!
First little sweetie down at the church service.
GHFP Co-founder Kait dishing for the little sweeties.
Katy and Mary dishing out for the little sweeties.
Little Malindza Sweeties eating FOODOM sponsored nutritious meals!
You can't see his sweatshirt but it says "Tall Dude" with a picture of a giraffe. A-gosh-darn-dorable!
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