Thursday, September 17, 2009

Village Life

Wow! I can't believe that I've already been here for 3 weeks! Time is flying by. Each week seems to go faster than the last. After 3 weeks I can't believe that I still hadn't been to the village across the road yet! I've been wanting to go there and check it out, but I wasn't really about to prance my way in by myself. :) Today some of the kids wanted to go for a walk; one of the girls lives in the village, so she offered to give me the "grand tour". It was really interesting and eye-opening to see how they live. Bamboo held many of the mud huts together and they had thatched roofs-- just like I pictured. What a simple (yet hard) life they live. As we approached the village well, I couldn't help but think that it felt like I was living back in Jesus' time. Many people were gathered at the well waiting for water. (I pumped a few buckets for some girls there. What a workout! :)) We walked around and observed many women preparing dinner over a small fire outside. I even saw one of our kindergarteners cracking palm nuts for soup. She may not know her numbers yet, but she's mighty good at bringing the rock down on those palm nuts and cracking them open! It's amazing how self-sufficient some of these kids are.


We then went to the village school, and I was floored to see their "Junior Secondary School" (comparable to our middle school). It was a ton of desks lined up outside facing three different directions, but all very close together. One of the three had a chalkboard on the ground leaning up against a tree, but the other two had nothing but desks. I asked her how the teacher demonstrated or taught lessons, and she then told me they didn't even have notebooks yet. It sounds like those may be coming next week. Wow!


I don't know exactly what to make of all this, except to know that I am extremely blessed and am called to share with those in need. If you are reading this, you too are extremely blessed (yes, even wealthy beyond your wildest dreams!) just because you have access to a computer and the internet. What will you do with what God's blessed you with?

2 comments:

Emily Thompson said...

wow Dana, hope you are taking lots of pictures. Love reading about your adventures!

Quick :) Audrey's clone :) said...

Hi Miss Neevel!!! Happy belated Bday... :) All of us miss you, your creative bible class, your warm hugs, and most of all your laugh. Eugene misses you the most. :) XD have fun in Africa, if you come and visit us, i wanna see you tanned :)