First Community Visit

The following is my journal entry from my first full day in Swaziland on my first trip:

September 16,2007
(After visiting a rural community where Cup was starting a Carepoint in partnership with a local church.) No words could ever explain what this community is like., what the people are like. There is so much red dirt and trash scattered among the sticks like bushes themselves. It is very dry- no grass, just dirt. There were shacks set up here and there. Some with mud covered walls, others were stick structures with large stones between them. Some roofs were thatched and some were corrugated metal held down with everything from rocks to old tires.
Many people and children were outside kinda of "hanging-out". We immediately started passing out smelly stickers to the children and I had to model smelling them.

The children were so precious and you just wanted to take each one home and clean them, feed them, love them, give them anything their hearts desired! Love... so much love...

I then proceeded to tell about the three women who showed us their homes. One was a young woman who had lost her parents to sickness. Another was a woman raising her four sons alone since her husband had left her to return to Mozambique. She allowed us to look into her house and I noted in my journal that it was smaller than my bathroom back home and had very little inside. I won't ever forget that feeling as we prayed for her and at the Amen, I saw the tears of thankfulness in her eyes. The power of God!! Another was the mother of seven children. Her husband had died years ago and now needed support from World Vision and other international relief organizations.
What caught me the most is the challenge they have just to get basic necessities like fresh water... The people in the community have to get water from the river, which is quite a distance away (we drove there- they walk). But even worse than having to trek for your daily water, FIVE people have died from crocodile attacks. Now they have a make-shift fence around a portion of the river for some protection. Except, because of the drought they have to go around it- the water is too low inside the fenced in part. Can you imagine having to get your water- life source- from a croc infested river??

This community walk forever changed my view of the world... and this was only the beginning of my experiences...

(I'll try to scan and upload pics from my photo album...)