There are plans for the use of the land that was given to the church. The
first thing that was needed was to get it fenced in so the activities would be protected from
animals and thieves. One of the first things will be to grow vegetables to increase the
nutrition of the local diet. Then the ladies also plan to make bricks--to build a church
with eventually, but first to sell them to earn money.
Here's a typical house in the village. There is no running water or
electricity. Most cooking is done in the yard over a fire.
Here's a view of the land--it's quite a large area. The red bricks you
see in the distance are homemade ones, which are fine unless there is a heavy rain--then they wash
away. The bricks the ladies make will be baked so they won't run.
An e-mail group of friends of the Cheethams and ours from around the world
started a fund and ended up donating the $1500 to get the fence built so these plans can go
forward. Tony just sent these pictures showing the fence is indeed already in place.
We hope that this will help a little with the abject poverty of these children.
I made a poster of these pictures of Mashishimale and put it up at our
church. Our choir director made a power point presentation of them too so the kids can see
how some other children in the world live. It has been decided to make helping these
African children the focus of the outreach for our summer Vacation Bible School also.
This is the end of the first part of the Africa 2003 trip.
The Botswana portion begins on the next page
