No one said it was going to be easy...

Here we are, well into hot season, and instead of complaining about how hot it is...I will complain about something else. :)

Last post, I shared about how we started out a literacy class and that there were lots of men coming out. Unfortunately, that eagerness died out quite quickly. Last week, when we went, no one was interested in learning and as the sun beat down on us, I thought "well, this is kind of a waste of our time". However, I was not the only one to think this. One of the men came up to me and said, "all we want is money". I responded, "we are here to give you teaching and knowledge, we are not here to give you money." He was not interested. We were wasting his time.

Though part of me wants to tear out my hair in frustration, part of me knows that this is not MY work, and hence I need not be upset. I truly believe that God is in control of all things and that HE is working. I was encouraged at the end of the morning when we had a chance to debrief and we (Rog, myself, and our friends we are working with in this village) decided to continue visiting people's homes and looking for the people that DO want to change. The people that DO want knowledge and teaching and to bring their community to a place of sustainable development.

So I leave you with some more encouraging tidbits. This village has had some visits by Red Cross and it looks like SOME people ARE willing to work and change things in their community! Red Cross had come by and told them to clean up their community, and in exchange, that they would give them all soap...that was enough to get these women and children working!

Ladies are sweeping and gathering garbage and putting it into buckets and pails 

The garbage is getting transported (very common to carry things on your head here!) about 300 meters away to a garbage area

A bunch of children using a Red Cross given wheel barrow to dump the garbage in the allotted area

This was another initiative by Red Cross. They urged the community to gather rocks and sand and dig a hole and they would help to put up outhouses for them. These ladies were busy at work. It was encouraging to see them working hard, despite the heat.

Just a picture of a cute kid that I wanted to share

 For those of you praying for us, please pray that we would be patient and that we would have wisdom to know how to help these people and to show them how much God loves them. It can be so frustrating trying to help people who only want handouts and the easy way out. Unfortunately, in this country that is saturated with NGO's, I am afraid we foreigners have created this beast. Something I learned in one of the development courses I took here is that money is NOT the solution to poverty. However, it is so much quicker to give someone a fish instead of taking the time to teach them how to fish. May we have the patience to teach the people to fish and fight the urge to stick the fish on the hook for them.