annie in swaziland: "God told me to take this path"

Today Sydney and I once again trekked into rural eLangeni to spend time with our children. The primary school was not in session today due to their sports and dance competition so we spent the day at the Maziya child-headed home with Mazwi and Philo. As we walked to their homestead we decided to be lazy and take a short cut through other people’s homesteads and subsistence farms. Just as our thighs were on fire from the practically 90 degree incline straight up a mountain we look up and see gorgeous Philo giggling at our exhaustion. I asked her how she knew we were going to take this road instead of the main one and she replied “God told me to take this path”. (Kait will want me to plug right now that we are not a religious organization even though our children are Christian) That being said, I am so glad that God speaks to our kids… because they are listening!!! They live life to its fullest every day regardless of their insurmountable challenges because they have their Buddy up above. I’ll never forget when the Msibi child-headed family told me that they never felt hunger because when they did they would sit in the kitchen, close their eyes, and recall their mother singing gospel music while she cooked them dinner. As Philo giggled about God showing her the way to us, we hugged and tried to dodge the cow-pies in our path to her home. When we get there Mazwi was there waiting for us with his award winning smile. And, we were in for a real treat as their 18-year old sister was there with her 1 year old! I immediately grabbed him and checked for a diaper – nope. So I held him on my lap and hoped he wouldn’t poop on me. (Joey, if you’re reading this, I was wearing your VERY expensive pants today thinking about how you would feel that they are now covered in glue stick, glitter, baby poo, and some major Southern-African-sun sweat… but I knew you would secretly love it!)

Give Hope, Fight Poverty sells recycled Christmas cards. Many of you know this as you have donated your old Christmas cards last year. Today we cut them up and remade new ones (on sale 5 for $10). The kids LOVE doing this. It started with only Mazwi, Philo, myself and Sydney but soon the neighbor children joined in and eventually we had at least 10 “nuggets” (as Sydney endearingly refers to the adorable little ones). Kait (being an elementary art teacher) alleges that they are all beautiful in their own right as they are created by children, but if you want the honest truth, I will sell some of the ugly ones for 50 cents! The baby ate at least 3 of the Christmas cut-outs and no one seemed to care. Pretty soon he will poop out his very own Christmas card…but that one will be at least worth $5.

Afterward we traveled by foot through thorny bushes and mountainous inclines to our secondary school. I am SO proud of them!! When I first visited Swaziland, it was only 2 classrooms and an admin building. Today it is the top performing public school in the country and ranks position one in all of the sports and dance competitions as well. I am SO proud to send our GHFP orphans there to receive the very best education. When we were there, I spoke to the headmaster about our GHFP Agriculture program. He said that our GHFP garden and GHFP ag director has been able to cultivate enough vegetables to not only feed the school but to also send a monthly grocery bag home with each of our sponsored child-headed families. This is wonderful news!! (Thanks Mitali/FOODOM)

Tonight I go to bed feeling exhausted yet absolutely amazing. Things that were only hopes and dreams years ago are becoming a reality and this is solely because of you. I can sit and dream all my life but without the support of family, friends, and GHFP supporters – none of this would ever be possible. I am forever and ever grateful for all of the donations, letters, emails, funds, and warm wishes that come our way and I pass them all on to the kids. They cannot believe that they are so popular in the United States!! I tell them every day that they are JUST behind Kanye West and Lil Wayne in popularity and if they continue to work hard, one day they will be on t-shirts and billboards as role models. I already look up to them every single second of my life. They are my inspiration to be a better person and to hope for a better tomorrow.