Village rounds - Day 5

Aug 2, 2013

This morning many of us went to visit our sponsor children. Brian and Mandy visited Shamimu and had an unforgettable visit. Shamimu has a father and mother which is very unusual. Most children live with grandparents or other relatives because of the AIDS outbreak. Shamimu has a sister and 3 other brothers. They all go to St. James school in Marare, except for the older brother who is in college. Shamimu was able to converse with us in English. This is highly unusual because most schools teach in the local language but at St. James in Marare they teach school in English. At a recent singing competition Marare students placed 3rd, but the most interesting thing about the competition was that the choir was introduced by one of the students from the Marare choir. Every other choir was introduced by a teacher. Everybody was saying "where is this school that teaches in English to its students?" In the afternoon we showed the sponsored children the videos of their sponsors from Edmonton. The children were very excited to see these. In the late afternoon we participated in several activities, such as womens' net ball, football, dodge ball (piggy in the middle) and skipping. The entire open area was alive with games.

Jennie and Erin started out by visiting Sandra, Jennie's first sponsor child. Sandra's mother was very demonstrative when she first met Jennie back in 2010... this time she was so excited to see Jennie approaching her house she made that long wavering high pitched sound (ululation) that African women make. They had a wonderful visit.

On the long walk back to the school, they happened upon Jackson's house (the Linton's sponsored child) and they were able to have a little visit outside the home and take photos. Continuing the walk, they came upon Lana's child, Ivan. It turns out that he loves to sing and wants to be a musician when he grows up. He even sang a solo for them. How appropriate that Lana is his sponsor!

By the way, Brian is turning out to be a great source of entertainment to the younger members of our team. They can't get over his eccentric ways.

~ Submitted by Wahumitsa and Nahumitsa (otherwise known as the Leeders)

Today we got to experience showing the sponsor children videos that we brought from Northgate. The smiles on the kid’s faces as they watched the messages, recorded just for them, were priceless. After the videos we showed the kids, which by this time filled most of the community centre, some photos that various team members had taken in Marare. The kids loved seeing themselves on the big screen and there were many exclamations throughout the slideshow.

Near the end of the afternoon the women brought out some hoops and I wandered over to see what they were playing. The game is called net ball and I asked if they could show me how to play. I was put onto a team and told I was centre position. They then proceeded to play without informing me of any of the rules. I quickly learned what not to do with a quick whistle from the referee and an admonition of “You don’t do that”. By the half way point of playing I puzzled out enough of the game to actually join the play. The game ended and no score was kept but it was a close game.

~ Sara Tetz