to sum it up

To all my loyal blog followers (which is four by the way, five if you include me following my own blog):

I want to apologize for not blogging as much as I should be. I hate using the excuse that I am in Africa and that it is hard for me to use the internet. But in all honesty that excuse is truth and the apology is with all sincerity. Please know that I am always thinking about you (my friends back home) and that I am so excited to get to share all that I am doing.

The last month proved to be unbelievably successful. I got to serve and love with some of the strongest women of God that I know that just so happen to also be dear friends of mine. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to be apart of them experiencing Africa for the first time and I can’t wait to see where life takes them next and look forward to hearing all about how God uses them now that they are back home. Ladies, know that you are missed already.

Just to give you an idea of all we did in one month and as a reminder to all the girls that their work here did not go unnoticed and is not yet finished J:

Medical Clinic/New School

-Deep cleaned on our hands and knees with disinfectant (btw 3 times)

-Shoveled cow, chicken, goat, and other farm animal’s manure out of what will be the classrooms of the school

-Scrubbed and sanded the front porch

-Total trash clean up in and around the property

-Dug a 6ft by 4ft rubbish pit

-Sprayed the property for fleas and wasps

Village

- Held a Kids Kamp with over 180 children

- Hosted a medical clinic

- Hosted 3 movie nights for the whole village

- Had a football game Come Lets Dance vs. Kailro (we lost)

- Vision cast with Ben

- Cleaned out pig stalls

- Vision cast with Auntie Margaret and discussed plans for working alongside her this summer

Patrick’s House- a home for apx 50 OVC’s (orphaned and vulnerable children)

-Spent countless hours loving on the children

-Taught classes

-Hosted an art day (paintings will be auctioned off at CLD’s Annual fundraiser)

-Hosted a medical day-all kids received toothbrush’s, anti-fungal head treatment and care for basic wounds or ailments

T.O.L. aka Thread of Life

-Build relationships with the woman that work at the shop, empowered them, loved on them, and learned from them.

-Tagged 1,000 necklaces (that will be for sale on your side of the world)

-Deep cleaned the sewing shop-scrubbed walls, floors and the bathroom yay!

-Found 12 new ladies from Katonga slum that will be starting an eight-week sewing class next week!

Farm

SAVE THE KIAPO- the slogan for our farm work the last few weeks.

Kiapo is a plant that will one day be interwoven in our existing termite infested fence. As of now the weeds are taking over the fence line and we are one by one having to find the Kiapo to help save the future of our fence.

Katonga Medical Slum Outreach-

-Almost 200 people showed up to our medical outreach we held.

-Each person was checked in and then directed to a station according to need.

- We offered the following services

1.Eyes-screening

2.Teeth brushing and education

3. Wound Care

4.Head Fungus Treatment

5. Vitamins, Hydration, Dewarming

6. Pharmacy (Thank you Dr. Sara for attending to your long line of patients with “the flu”)

In addition to all of this we also offered our first ever HIV testing station. 25 people were counseled both before and after being tested for HIV.

WOW!!! Just typing it up reminds me of how hard all the girls worked during their time here. Thank you, Sara, Robyn, Catie, Carol, Elli, Kristin, and Teresa for setting the bar high for an amazing summer of volunteers.