day 5 started with a construction project in nyamata. they are constructing a building which will eventually serve as a type of fellowship hall for the community. the sponsored children will come to the new building for their saturday classes and meals provided by compassion. here's some pictures of the men -- hard at work!
this man was shoveling & mixing mortar -- by hand!
this man was mixing mud to put inside the bricks to provide stability {i think!} he would pour in water and then stomp around in the pile to mix it up. it proved to be a very effective method!
while i was taking pictures of the construction, i got a little distracted by these 2 cuties hiding around the corner
back at work...
more men mixing mortar. the man with the tie is a school teacher from the building next door -- i guess he had a break and came over to help!
the scaffolding was made from sticks tied together which were pretty unstable! the men from the village walked across them quite swiftly, but the americans, to put it lightly, were a little slow & unbalanced!
next door to the construction site was a primary & a secondary school. i really wanted to go over and visit a classroom, but i thought i might be a little bit of a distraction. being a teacher, i know how teachers feel about "distractions!"
before loading up in this thing...
...we had some gifts to give before we left. the employees at wakm donated 43 Bibles which we had the honor of distributing to the local church. it was awesome to see the looks of excitement as the people received their Bibles in their native language which they can read, study & enjoy anytime they would like. several of the people who received Bibles immediately went to the side and opened their Bibles to read. it was wonderful to see God's people so hungry for His Word!
while everyone was preparing to leave, i snuck off to find this sweet baby girl and her momma. i had been eyeing them all through lunch and couldn't wait to hold her! her momma was very gracious and let me hold her. she chewed on everything in sight -- she was precious!
as we were leaving, we took a quick tour of the goat house. {i know that was a terrible transition -- sweet baby to stinky goats, but it is what it is!}
this is one of the many bathrooms reed visited in the villages we attended. i think he just wanted to see what they were like on the inside! based on some of the reactions, i'm happy to say i never went in!
we left nyamata and went to another compassion project where there is a compassion cottage. this is another one of those things compassion does i had no idea about before our trip. compassion sponsors cottages, which are orphanages for children who have no family -- no mother, no father, no siblings, no grandparents, no aunts, no uncles -- no one. there are 7 children living in this house with 1 loving house mother taking care of them all.
while in this village, we went to the local compassion office where we were met by the project manager and several other people on staff. we saw this sign on the wall and thought it was interesting. it lists the countries and then tells the number of children sponsored in that country.
{i'm not positive, but i think we figure out that cu is england}
we passed a group of children playing marbles!
goodbye from project rw625 eer maranyundo!
