Day 10 - Nov 7 - C2C Villages beyond Marare

Today we visited two FH sponsored communities. The first community was Nashisa (it neighbors Marare), and iscurrently a community not partnered with a church, but potentially will be once Capilano Church (Vancouver) next year celebrates with Bufukhula in their graduation from the C2C program. We were greeted by the children with singing and dancing.

The community has one water well by the school which has three new buildings. The church is under construction at this time. The community seems to be well under way, and did receive some government funding for their initial school block.

We visited Edith Littman's sponsored child from Northgate. The family welcomed the team with open arms, and gifted the team with 3 eggs. We had a time of sharing and took some pictures with the family. They we grateful for our visit and continued support of their daughter. Next we were off to Bufukhula where we were greeted with more singing and dancing. This community is farther advanced than Marare, and is looking at graduation from the C2C program next year! It has a church, health center, beautiful school and play ground, as well as iving quarters for up to 12 teachers. They are looking at adding a secondary school for the area because of the distance from the nearest centre. The biggest difference from Marare is that they are a rural community. As mentioned earlier, this community is partnered with Capilano Church in Vancouver.

Next we went back to the FH office for lunch and then finally went to Marare around 3:30 where the parents greeted us with singing.

Some of the team went to visit Rita's sponsored child and we also had one more VSLA meeting, which went very well. Matt spent time playing tug-o-war and taking pictures with the children, about 350.

They love being photographed. We enjoyed tea in Molex's (CDP coordinator in Marare) office which we had yet to see. Another typical evening, the power was out while we had our dinner at the FH office. The FH staff serenaded us while we ate our meal.

The team was serenaded all day long by every community. Tomorrow will be our final day in Marare. It will be a emotional and joyful time. Blessings from Marare!