Day 2: That will be the mother of all parties!
Today was 12 hours of action and far too much happened to
describe all of the details, but here are some highlights:
1.
The day started off by delivering food (Thanks
Mitali!) to the eLangeni Primary school where Ty, Andrea and Michael chopped
onions, potatoes, and carrots – enough for 634 children. Ty’s eyes were burning from the onions and
Andrea’s hands hurt from forcing the dull blade through the thick carrots but
Michael seems to have a future in Swazi culinary arts. Then they dished to 634 kids wearing the
exact same uniform yet tried to memorize faces to avoid the children cutting
back into the line… And they did so with ease.
2.
Today we met with the Deputy Teacher at eLangeni
Primary who was saying that the fruit trees we planted previously are abundant
with fresh produce daily. The kids are
free to go to pluck the paw paws at their leisure and there are enough to go
around. She was asking if we had funding
to provide seedlings of various varieties of fruit so they had more of a
mixture. Thanks to my brother Jake for
his recent donation toward sustainable programming, we were able to purchase 8
mature fruit trees for eLangeni Primary including orange, nectarine, mango,
avocado, and peach. The problem was that
the rental car is quite small, so 8 mature seedlings + 4 adults + Ty’s lost
luggage we finally retrieved from the new Swazi airport = not a whole lot of
room. Andrea kindly drove the entire 30
minute ride back with a suitcase on her lap and peach trees in her face. We will plant tomorrow.
3.
Thanks to Will Bendix’s IndieGoGo campaign (link
here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-send-50-kids-to-school-in-swaziland), the Bendix family’s support of the campaign/fundraising, and
Andrea McCurdy’s family bypassing Christmas; we were able to not only sponsor
our previous orphaned students’ tuition, but add 3 more children! Senzo, Zinhle, and Mlondi - more to follow on our young ambitious new eLangeni
high school students.
4.
Tonight we went to Nando’s with Philo, Mazwi and
Lungelo – three of our original 9 sponsored students. It was to celebrate victory because Mazwi is
in position 1 in school despite his consistent absences due to his HIV status
and subsequent illnesses. Philo has just finished primary school (we
have been with her since she started school!!) and we just registered and paid
her high school tuition today (thanks again Bendix’s). And Lungelo will be done with his first
semester of college next week (Thanks Inbodens!)… Often when I’m here in
Swaziland, I am on the verge of tears – and not due to sadness – rather the
pride I have for these kids and the extreme happiness I feel that they have
been able to overcome their bleak futures due to the generosity of our Give
Hope, Fight Poverty donors. I cannot believe
that TWO of our recent high school graduates are now receiving GHFP
scholarships for university – qualifying for university is an insurmountable
feat for village kids, let alone orphaned village kids! Tonight, I told Mazwi and Philo that they
were looking across the dinner table at a real life university student, at
which they both exclaimed that they want to go to university as well! Although Mazwi still wants to be a kombi
driver (bus driver), so I told him that he will be the highest educated
absolute best kombi driver in the entire world!
5.
At Christmas time, with the help of the Bendix
family, we will be throwing a party for all of the orphans in eLangeni
village. I spoke to our village
coordinator Bheki about it tonight and told him that we want to have a huge
barbeque, Sizo’s quartet sing, my friend’s dance group perform and of course,
lots of meat. Bheki replied, “Wow. I cannot wait. This will be the mother of all parties!!” It
is still a month away, yet the anticipation is killing me. Most of these orphaned and vulnerable
children haven’t been able to celebrate Christmas since their parents have died
and they are all looking forward to this event even more than I am. It never ceases to amaze me that the children
here are only wishing for a big hug and a piece of meat in their metaphorical
Christmas stocking while children where I’m from won’t be happy unless Santa
empties his pockets and sells his sleigh.
I continuously learn more from my Swazi kids than I will ever be able to
teach them… about life, happiness, hard work, love and faith.
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