Jason surprised everyone with custom mercy touch shirts for us to flaunt when partaking in the activities for today. When we arrived we were pleased to see some of the children already there waiting for us. A collection of mothers, babies, and young children has filled the space around the school house at the farm. Our initial estimates are around 200 + people. Firstly the smallest children are weighed and tracked by the community leaders followed progressively by the older children. The weight tracking program allows the community leaders to analyze and adjust the feeding program as necessary to ensure its success and monitor its progress. During the feeding program a group of mothers partake in preparation of sheema, rape (canola), ground nuts and assortment of vegetables. The children are then sent home with a week’s worth of soy meal. This three time a month program is solely supported by mercy touch and its sponsors, and organized and run by community leaders. Following the feeding program we collect the children in a massive circle adjoined by hands. We prepare to hand out an enormous collection of gifts; these bags were prepared by some of our team and a massive effort by Jason and his sea cadets. The bags contain a selection of sweets, accessories, and toys. The look of sheer gratitude and enjoyment flashes across every child's face, while surprisingly they are all content with waiting for everyone to receive the bags prior to opening them. Finally the moment came and everyone of them tore into them like a child on Christmas. The feeling of thanks, happiness, and overwhelming joy resonated everywhere.
A quick lunch and short wait for Andrew (the contractor responsible for the new houses) we received the carriage bolts required for us to finish the final mock-up of a single bed. Andrew will use this as a working model when the house is completed. We leaped at the opportunity and assembled the bed in a matter of minutes, laid the final touches and marveled at our success. The Mercy Touch children ogled over the new beds and we all eagerly tested the structural integrity of the bed. We were all satisfied to find it to a standard that should leave the kids with a place to lay their heads for many years. A collective group photo was taken and we rushed the bed off to storage before night fall.
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The final night at the farm was met with anticipation, relief and sadness. Realizing that this was our last night here hit home pretty hard. The children and the team gathered around shared some stories and exchanged hugs and admiration prior to leaving for the night. We had to leave the children that evening as everyone was headed in groups to a local African household for dinner. An event organized by Sandra exposed everyone personally to a local in close communication with mercy touch. I cannot speak personally for the experiences of others but from what I have gathered it was an enormous success and quite enjoyable evening. Being one on one with families in their homes and delving into their personality left me with a deeper understanding of Zambia and its people. The stories and laughs shared when everyone returned to the hotel left us bursting at the seams, our groups genuinely had an amazing night with these people and we were thoroughly grateful for their hospitality.
Once again after a late night, and a long day everyone retired to bed. The next days activities should leave everyone exhausted by the end so a good rest is in order.
A proof how volunteers task is not an easy thing to do without expecting anything in return. Their services is for free only to serve this young children to save their lives.
ReplyDeleteJoseph @ volunteer in brazil