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Sunday, June 14, 2009

Day 3~ First Day in the Village!

The night before during devotions I could tell that everybody was a little down from the walk in town (that I talked about in the last post). We were all tired from a LONG day of traveling and it was emotionally draining to see children begging for money and people starving. What came on day 3 surely lifted our spirits and allowed us to see all of the GOOD that is coming out of Africa! 

Day 3 began our work at the African Hearts home! What a wonderful place!! We traveled about 30 minutes and went down a long dirt road to get to the house where Jess and her 13 boys lived. The joy in that house in unexplainable! The boys that live in this house once lived on the streets...but now thanks to Jess and African Hearts...they have a safe place to live. It is like one big family. 

We walked into their home where all of the boys were sitting on the floor eating breakfast. They had each of the boys stand up and tell us their name and what they wanted to be when they grew up! It was the cutest thing. Some of the boys wanted to be pilots, others goal keeps, and 2 boys even said they wanted to be a preacher. We clapped for each boy and they each lit up with excitement. We hung out with them for a little bit longer and then...the work began!!

The mission was to plant 2,000 trees to surround their home for protection and build them a new kitchen! Most of us girls got to work on the planting. If you ask anybody in my family how I feel about yard work...I am ashamed to tell you that they would all tell you that I hate it. Yes, that is true. BUT I have never had so much fun planting trees! We laughed about all sorts of things, and had so much fun together! We had no shovels so the boys made us sticks to dig with! 

And building a kitchen!? So much fun! The only problem was the fact that they dumped all of the bricks at the front of the property...and the kitchen was to be built at the back of the property. Hmm...no trucks to move the bricks, no "Bobcat"...all thats left is MAN POWER! Yup, you better believe we made a HUGE assembly line to throw bricks! I have never laughed so much...infact they'd get mad at me cause I'd be slowing the line down cause I was laughing so hard. 

One of the youngest boys helping to mix the cement 
At 12 noon we'd take a "snack break". We got all sorts of yummy fruit like pineapple, banana and watermelon! Best fruit you have ever had. Then at about 2 we'd come in for lunch. Let me tell you...they fixed us the YUMMIEST food in all of Africa! It was so delicious! I really do miss their beans and rice, and my favorite---cow pees! Oh and i forget what it was called...but they'd make these tortilla like things... So good... We stayed at a nice hotel...but the food from the hotel would never compare to what we got in the village. 

The wonderful ladies that prepared the food for us :) 
I loved just hanging out with the 13 boys that lived there. They were the sweetest most kind hearted boys ever. And very smart!! Jessica was telling us how one of the youngest boys made a flash light out of a few pieces of scrap material he found!! I pray that one day (SOON) I can go back to visit these sweet boys! I miss them so much!



1 comment:

  1. WooHoo Lexie! Love seeing these images and your words just jump off the screen! The Lord is good!

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