A Visit to A Village

Don't be fooled, I am merely serving the food...I did NOT cook it on the fire!

These six orphans,with their Aunt Santa and I, are sponsored by the Well of Hope Foundation. 

Today I spent the afternoon in the village of some of the kids that we sponsor. They cooked me a great feast and treated me like royalty. The grandmother of the children wrote me a letter of thanks that is so touching. I wanted to share this with you. She says " Hello Mummy Kayla. I am thankful for what you are doing for the children of my sons who are not alive. Here in the village I have a piece of land which I need to provide for you to build your own house as much as you want. I need to do this because of what you are doing for my family and I would appreciate for you to be my daughter forever until further notice. Thank you"

Ummmm, isn’t this an amazing letter of thanks? Wow!

Starting left to right: Boo (greens and eggs), posho (corn), millet, beans, beef. 

This is typical local food and was so delicious.

Then, this morning another great thing happened to me. When Agnes was 14, she was kidnapped and given as the wife to a rebel soldier. She had his baby. Eventually she escaped, came back home, and found a job. She kept her baby and is a very good mother despite her situation. That was 7 years ago. We sponsored her last year as she went back to high school. She did fantastic, and was number one in her class at Alliance High School for Adults. She recently lost her job as cook with the UNHCR, so she had to move back to her village which is far from town. She humbly asked if I could buy her a bike to ease her transportation difficulties, and I was very happy to do so. It was a wonderful investment in this bright woman’s future. I love being here and doing what I am doing. I wish my money would never run out and that I could do this forever :)

Agnes and her new bike :)!

I have interviewed and met some amazing young people as I was awarding the scholarship money from African Promise. All of the youth had extremely difficult stories to tell. Almost every one of these young adults has lost one or both parents in the war. One young woman lost both of her parents to poisoning over a land dispute, which is not uncommon! One young man recalls the rebels entering his home at night by surprise. He was able to escape to safety, but he never saw his parents again. The other great cause of death here, if not by war, is by HIV: Mothers, Fathers, Uncles, Aunts, brothers and sisters. It is really such a sad thing. I can’t put on paper all of the stories and horrifying facts that I have heard or read. And I am sure that I have only been exposed to a tiny bit of the real truth. Their stories have made our troubles, yours and mine in America, seem trivial. Whatever it is that we have been/are/or are going to go through is nothing like what these kids have already experienced and lost.

Jackie is the Social Worker at St Judes Orphanage that helps me with the scholarships, and a great friend!

I’ve been here about a month. I have been very busy paying school fees every day, working with St Jude’s to find new recipients, and doing all of the paperwork and accounting that must be done for proper record keeping for both the Well of Hope Foundation and African Promise Foundation. I have/will have awarded about 20 students and $4600 from the Well of Hope Foundation, and covered 15 students with $4,000 from African Promise. The money is about finished, and I will turn my attention to other tasks. St. Jude’s has been asking for help in their accounting office, and I look forward to changing gears to help in that area. Another NGO, Favor of God, has also asked for my help with their Quickbooks and in their accounting area. There is always work to be found here. It keeps me busy. It keeps me happy. It keeps me smiling.

Santa is roasting fresh peanuts at the orphanage.