Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Tuesday & Wednesday

I was to tired last night and passed out while typing this.

This entry is going to my personal experience of the past 2 days.

We finally had the chance to work at the childrens homes. Half were sent to El Shaddai, while the other half, including myself, were sent to Emmanuel. We drive 30 min on paved roads and 30 min on dirt/undeveloped roads to the home. The crazy thing about Swaziland is that everywhere you drive you run into burnt brush or a wildfire. Their winters are really dry and in the 70's so wildfires flare up all over the place. Somehow not many of them hit the home. Part of our job at Emmanuel was to clear 50 acres dry brush to create a fire break. We "planted a garden" which really was hand lanscaping of 3 acres of land. My group ended up digging a 5ft x 5ft x 2 1/2 ft. compost hole and man am I sore!! Towards the end of the day the kids came down to help, which great to see the team working along side the children. With a majority of the work done in the first two days, we spend the end of the day with the kids before we leave for the day. The kids looooove cameras. Many of them have never seen themselves and look amazed or bewildered by their photo and/orvideo.

The past two days has been phisically, emotionally and spiritually trying. Seeing the children and how happy they are with nothing, at least what we see as nothing. The kids crave love and affection. Many have been abandoned or their parents have died, many due to aids. The children run up to you with their arms raised and hope in their eyes. The people I've met her are amazing, American, Canadian, Taiwanese and Swazi a like and they all have one thing in common, hope.

Some facts about Swaziland:
- In 2020 there will be no one over the age of 18 in Swaziland if the aids epidemic continues at it's current pace.

- Swaziland has the highest aids rate Africa at 48%

3 comments:

  1. i can't believe those projected stats for 2020... that's horrific! thank God for divine ministries like what ur doing to resist those terrible odds. i'm sure ur pretty wiped out inside and out!

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  2. Hi Shannon,

    Love your pictures and the descriptions you give about these wonderful people...keep up the great work you are doing for others...

    Fran

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