Cindy has an appointment at the mall with a woman who has a lot of contacts in the tourist shop industry. She might be able to find local shops to sell the Swazi Bears the women sew.
Orma's assistant, Poomsala, will be getting Paul, as there is not enough room in one car for all of us. They go directly to the Care Point at St. Mathius, so we join them there.
There are about 15 women making Swazi Bears when we arrive. These bears are sold for approximately $7.00. This money goes back into a fund to help all the women. They are all involved in micro lending. We hear from several of the women. Sophie gives us a report on the group and how we can help. Togo teaches at a local high school; she describes how she was able to institute a "kitchen" at her school to feed the students lunch. They tell us they welcome all local women; not just the women in their parish.
Nurse Alice stands and tells us a moving story of her battle with both malaria and diabetes. On her sickbed, she prayed to God to heal her and was told that He would lift her up by her hands.
Upon her recovery, she decided that she would forever use her hands to help. She is the nurse for all of the Care Points.
Cindy tells them at her meeting that morning, the owner of the Swazi Glass factory says she will begin carrying the Swazi Bears to sell in her shop. Another company also wants to help local women, and she ends with the good news of Heifer International coming alongside the Care Points to help with chickens and goats.
Then they offer us biscuits and juice. This is so generous of them that we make sure to take some of each. Cindy picks out 50 Bears to take back to the United States to sell. I pick out three that I especially like. Then we see the children have gathered outside. They are eating lunch. It's still a school holiday so there are only about 15 of them.
Cindy gives us candy and small toys to hand out. The children here are all well behaved and range in age from two year olds to a 16 year old boy who tells us he wants to be an architect.
After lunch they sing for us. It is amazing. One child begins and the others join in. It is African Idol-they are all terrific singers.
Next door is the house where the local pastor, Andrew, lives with his wife, Rosemary. Andrew is not at home but Rosemary welcomes us and we sit with her and visit for awhile. She tells us they will be going back to the England for the holidays. They have not been home for over three years. They will leave in November and be gone for six weeks.
Orma's car key had broken off in her car door so she had been driven home to replace it. She returns to tell us that the children at Orma's Kitchen Care Point have been waiting for us for over two hours to eat lunch. We had no idea and feel terrible as it is now 2:30pm.
We leave immediately for that Care Point. When we arrive, I see that it is not exactly a Care Point called Orma's Kitchen. It's actually Orma's kitchen, in her house, where the children gather every day. There are almost 100 children gathered around. They are finally eating their lunch of "maizy maize" ( a combo type of rice and corn) and beans.
I am immediately a big hit with the digital camera. The children learn that I will show them their picture instantly. I take tons of pictures. There are many more older children here. One little girl in a red dress learns that whenever I raise the camera up to my face, she can run in front of me and get in the picture. After a while I learn to take some pictures with the camera down by my waist.
After lunch, we pass out the small toys and we are MOBBED. We are standing on the back porch and the children are pressing against us and the little ones are getting lost in the crowd.
When we go to pass out the candy, it gets even worse. Orma finally has to take control to get all the children to get in a line with the little ones first. My heart breaks when I see a little two year old half-carrying and half-dragging his one year old brother across the yard to get his share. Then the children sing for us. They dance and wave their arms. Their voices are wonderful.
We then go into Orma's house for some juice. It is SCORCHING hot outside. Orma needs to get ready for dinner. She and Cindy are having dinner with their bishop. Fred and I will have dinner back at the lodge with Paul, who is beginning to doze in his chair as jet lag hits.
We return to the lodge at about 5pm. We have dinner and I speak with some of the other lodge guests. One of the women asks how I can stand to visit the Care points. She said she didn't think she could handle it. I tell her that I can go and be with the children because we are doing something to help them. It's not a feeling of helplessness; it's a feeling of hope.
It's a good feeling to have.
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