Visit Home of Hope

[ Previous Post ] Standard 2 (the Primary School class for children turning 7 years old) now possess four freshly-minted iron window grills. Carolyn, team artist in residence, has created a colour scheme for them (the red is undercoat), to run past the Primary Head Teacher and the painter tomorrow.  "That man is a builder, you say?" asked one of the construction team at 7.30am when Sue, Rafal and I went down to visit the site. "Yes!" "Does he have tools? A level, and trowels?" "Yes!" Rafal worked all morning with the team, and they are now firm friends. Tomorrow morning by 7am ten more windows are promised. We'd expected them at 2pm today, but the whole area has been affected by powercuts since morning. (Matrida and her friends baled us out for lunch, providing fire-cooked nsima with beans to replace our planned electric-boiled pasta.)The supplier of the wi...

[ Previous Post ] This evening, after our meal, each of us recorded brief thoughts on the day. I’ve transcribed them below. Helen: “It was a perfect start to the day to walk down towards the increasing volume and beautiful harmonies of the singing in the Assembly Hall.” Gill: “I loved the weather today! Most people wouldn’t, but I like it cold and overcast. Perfect!” Gillian: “Fascinating, seeing the macadamia nut project, learning all about seeds and saplings and bushes. Such vision!” Ruth: It was so good to hear Ken Mkengala [Ken is chair of Highland Macadamia Cooperative Ltd - HIMCUL, and Adviser to the macadamia project at Home of Hope] praising the staff here for the work they are doing and how good it is. Yes he still found things they need to do, but he said how good they are and how well the crop is growing.” Ken Mkengala, under a macadamia tree at Home of Hope Carolyn: “It was great to understand all of of the aspects of the macadamia nut production fit...

[ Previous Post ] “Boo-hoos and Woo-hoos time!” It’s part of our rhythm here. Over the evening meal we take time to share the highs and the lows, as part of processing the day together. We laugh, we cry. This blog is called Visit Home of Hope, and it's important not to romanticise. I woke up this morning to no running water. This I discovered after shaving and thirty seconds in to a shower when the pressure suddenly dropped to zero. I rinsed my face and washed my hair with half a small bottle of drinking water left over from yesterday, then went out to investigate. (There are water supply taps outside the building and the children sometimes turn them off…)  I mention this because it inspired my first “Woo-hoo” this evening! I don’t like an interrupted shower any more than the next person, but what I absolutely loved was the complete un-phased-ness of the team, as one by one they woke up and learned it was a dry-tap Tuesday. And this after a 30 hour journey here on Monday. Not one p...