Health checkup day

BLOG - July 2, 2010

What a wonderful day ... not that we accomplished much in terms of teaching, but today other things were more important. We arrived early due to this being the Health Screening day in Ng'Ombe and yet we were able to begin and accomplish the first part of our planned lesson. Nina had also had the children learn a song for us which they sang and swayed to and fro as they sang "Enjoy life" with huge smiles. We were all very touched. Nina also had hung the Church School Banner from Pilgrim.

The screening group began to get set up and then people began to arrive, at one point we counted over 70 children. They ranged in age from 2 & 3 to middle school students. We sang songs and continued to read stories aloud to try to help pass the time. Finally one of the old students from last year wanted a book and we then passed all the board books around and will get you pictures soon. Erica was one of the students who arrived from last year, our major translator from last year, and I was thrilled to see her. We hugged and she read for me and additionally did some translating as she did last summer. When she left she came to me to give me a sucker and one more hug, once again, I was deeply touched.

The greatest thrill for me came as I was going outside to get a breath of fresh air and to see what was happening with the digging for the wall ... and I walked into Juliet Mawele from two summers ago. We hugged and talked and I made sure I got information to continue the contact. She was also met by two folks from SWAAZ who additionally took her information and she became scared and cried while I wiped her tears with my skirt. We hugged and I kept telling her it was OK, this was a good day for her. We took deep breaths together and hugged more. As we began to talk she asked me for a Geography and a Science 8th Grade book which we will get to her. I gave her my Kleenex packet and almonds before leaving for she was hungry, along with a book HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU. Before I left she had calmed a bit and pulled out some knitting. She was knitting with two pieces of wire and I pulled out some needles and cast on 22 stitches as she requested. Fortunately I had an extra pair of needles and ball of yarn I had brought at the last minute. She seemed very pleased.

In all the craziness of the morning, dear Cheryl Crowder and Lucia Gates also arranged to have the electricity turned on in Ng'Ombe and a meter put up sort of a pay-as-you-go system so no one goes into debt. This was a $200.00 contribution by these dear ladies of Lexington Public Schools.

We left silly bands for every child as well and some special ones to some children as Juliet and Erica and Teacher Nina.

Thank you all for your continued support and interest ... blessings, ruth.