It was the second day~

Hello from Africa. I have one more day before we drive back to Jo-Burg for my flight home. There is sooo much to get caught up on with the blog. The second day of the trip after breakfast we drove from Johannesburg into Swaziland (about 4.5 hour trip). Close to the border between South Africa and Swaziland, the terrain changed quickly from rolling hills to mountainous. Outside of Jo-Burg were very few tress, mostly red clay farm land and cattle country. At one point we crest a hill and suddenly there were miles of huge pine and eucalyptus trees.

As soon as we arrived to Manzini Swaziland we were taken to our first CP called BaleKane. This care point has been developed from nothing but a 20 acre plot of land to a location where about 100 kids come for food and school over the past three years. Some of the children walk for 2.5 hrs to get there. Most are orphans, but the primary objective is feeding, education and Swaziland led spiritual discipleship for the children. There are about 10 Go-Go’s (Grandmother aged women) that rotate through cooking and feeding duties. And there are teachers on site for grades pre-4th. These children are relatively well nourished and are receiving love and hope at this care point. I can give more details later, but significant progress has been made to date. They plan to add a 5th grade class room in January of next year.

From the moment I stepped out of the van, the children were on us with bright faces and greetings. We spent time interacting by taking pictures and showing them the screens. At any point in time there was one or two little ones riding on my arms or legs depending on if I was standing or sitting. They were hungry for the attention and love. I was happy to give hugs to these children. The reaction was once they got a hug, they pressed in and soaked it up. I didn’t want to leave, but the children had to start their walk back to their ‘homes’, and we left for dinner and a culture training meeting. Tomorrow we will visit 3 or 4 CP. One or two are starting from what is called a ‘green field’.