This morning, DWC Team Leader Rob Plowright received a message of thanks from Lindewe, one of the many people the ASK Wellness Team were able to serve during their time in Swaziland. Here is what was written:
HI ROB,
ROB I was so happy to meet a hard working team like your team . They were really so good to me and my ladies. and we wish to see them again. ROB, I really dream of good things for that kitchen though sometimes I have challenges, but for my community I'm sure of helping them fully, and I always think the beginning of it that we worked so hard for it with the DWC volunteers so I always say it must not fall on my hands. So ROB you must always remember that hard working people in that kitchen.
ROB, oh our garden is so good we water it every day now is green growing very well , but the water is finish now in the tank. We have not yet started to cook for the children because of the water. The kids are back, I'm so happy about that I'm taking care of them. Please tell the DWC Volunteers about that kitchen, how it works. so that they must know that their money was not thrown away. We wish you to help us again.
The ladies are greeting you too. I WILL send a picture for the garden to see how good it is.
BYE ROB WE MISS YOUR GOOD HEART, YOUR PATIENCE.
Lindewe
SOS Children's Village
Swaziland 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
August 2011: Swaziland Outreach Day 4
Friday
Today I joined the other Developing World Connections teams at our building site. They have laid hundreds of bricks and built very quickly a two room child care center. Meanwhile, the other team created a garden from scratch. We purchased hundreds of seedlings and planted them. I really needed a day of hard labor and so I joined the construction team for the afternoon to haul huge bricks and pick-axe and shovel hard clay. The sun beating down at around 33 degrees (ps....this is their winter) ... I cannot imagine their summer. We know now that we must pack lunches for the community volunteers and our amazing driver Muzi. We also bring extra to give away to those who need it.
Kira Gosselin
DWC Participant
ASK Wellness
Swaziland 2011
Today I joined the other Developing World Connections teams at our building site. They have laid hundreds of bricks and built very quickly a two room child care center. Meanwhile, the other team created a garden from scratch. We purchased hundreds of seedlings and planted them. I really needed a day of hard labor and so I joined the construction team for the afternoon to haul huge bricks and pick-axe and shovel hard clay. The sun beating down at around 33 degrees (ps....this is their winter) ... I cannot imagine their summer. We know now that we must pack lunches for the community volunteers and our amazing driver Muzi. We also bring extra to give away to those who need it.
Kira Gosselin
DWC Participant
ASK Wellness
Swaziland 2011
August 2011: Swaziland Outreach Day 3
Thursday
We returned to the community in the morning and replanted an existing garden at the child care center. Then we built 2 new gardens and seeded them with the help of about 16 children. They could not wait for me to begin playing with them. It was very challenging to play with 50 children under the age of 16 and as young as 2 without being able to communicate. Fortunately I had my new friend Kaza with me.
I met Kaza at SOS Childrens' Villages whom we are partnered with. He has taken very good care of me and the team. Translating to the children the games I was teaching them. The best part came at the end when the children saw I was drained from trying to keep them entertained for 2.5 hours and they began teaching me Swazi games....and some language. What fun we had! There are literally zero toys. The children make toy cars out of scrap wire and beer cans. So games are all they have and they have many. All of the games include singing and dancing. The talent in these wee people blew my mind.
Kira Gosselin
DWC Participant
ASK Wellness
Swaziland 2011
We returned to the community in the morning and replanted an existing garden at the child care center. Then we built 2 new gardens and seeded them with the help of about 16 children. They could not wait for me to begin playing with them. It was very challenging to play with 50 children under the age of 16 and as young as 2 without being able to communicate. Fortunately I had my new friend Kaza with me.
I met Kaza at SOS Childrens' Villages whom we are partnered with. He has taken very good care of me and the team. Translating to the children the games I was teaching them. The best part came at the end when the children saw I was drained from trying to keep them entertained for 2.5 hours and they began teaching me Swazi games....and some language. What fun we had! There are literally zero toys. The children make toy cars out of scrap wire and beer cans. So games are all they have and they have many. All of the games include singing and dancing. The talent in these wee people blew my mind.
Kira Gosselin
DWC Participant
ASK Wellness
Swaziland 2011
August 2011: Swaziland Outreach Day 2
Wednesday
We identified how we were going to help these families, and the next day we planted a huge garden for a family and built them a cold frame for seeding. We brought up all the materials and purchased 444 small vegetable plants. This garden will be the only source of income for this family of seven. Both parents have passed away so the responsibility now rests on the two brothers, one of which is only 22.
The conditions the children face in this community are daunting: wearing the same clothes daily and playing with toys they have made out of garbage. One little girl, maybe at the age of five, was playing with friends, and I realized that the crotch of her pants was completely blown out and her private parts were completely exposed. It seemed as though all the children were sick. The two meals a day they receive come from the community centre we were working out of. The first meal is at noon, and it is a thin cornmeal porridge. There is no fruit or sugar to sweeten this. It is literally gruel. The second meal is around 2:30, and it consists of white rice and a kind of stew that is changes as food becomes available.
DWC Participant
ASK Wellness
Swaziland, August 2011
August 2011: Swaziland Outreach
Tuesday
Our first day of Outreach in Swazi was nothing less than mind blowing. We went into a small rural community that is just outside the limits of Mbabane. This is one of 5 communities that SOS are working with. The village rests on the side of a mountain and the weather changes quickly and dramatically. I never thought I would have regretted not packing mittens and toque for Africa but I did.
We met our community outreach contact Jahbu and she took us to 4 families that she works with. As we travelled to each house the conditions became worse. The poverty that resides in some parts of Swaziland is unbelievable. The families we met all had lost the parent or parents. So the family was left to struggle on their own. The level of desperation changed with each household. The most common issue for all of them is hunger. There is simply is not enough food. There is little money and 80 percent of Swaziland is unemployed. I wont lie. When we got back to our hostel I cried for quite awhile as I realized how much I have and how much we take for granted every day. Simple things like toilet paper, soap, food.....heat.
Kira Gosselin
DWC Participant
ASK Wellness
Swaziland 2011
Our first day of Outreach in Swazi was nothing less than mind blowing. We went into a small rural community that is just outside the limits of Mbabane. This is one of 5 communities that SOS are working with. The village rests on the side of a mountain and the weather changes quickly and dramatically. I never thought I would have regretted not packing mittens and toque for Africa but I did.
We met our community outreach contact Jahbu and she took us to 4 families that she works with. As we travelled to each house the conditions became worse. The poverty that resides in some parts of Swaziland is unbelievable. The families we met all had lost the parent or parents. So the family was left to struggle on their own. The level of desperation changed with each household. The most common issue for all of them is hunger. There is simply is not enough food. There is little money and 80 percent of Swaziland is unemployed. I wont lie. When we got back to our hostel I cried for quite awhile as I realized how much I have and how much we take for granted every day. Simple things like toilet paper, soap, food.....heat.
Kira Gosselin
DWC Participant
ASK Wellness
Swaziland 2011
Thursday, September 1, 2011
August 31: Team Leader's Final Thoughts...
It has been another amazing trip to Swaziland, sharing the experience with 16 new friends! I can’t help but remember a story from one of last year’s participants, which sums up our trip this year too:
A young boy is frantically throwing stranded starfish into the ocean, before they are killed by the sun. A skeptical old man walks by and says, “You’re wasting your time, as you’ll never save them all. In the end your efforts won’t make a difference.” The boy thought for a moment, then picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea. He then turned around and said to the man, “It made a difference to that one!”
Our group’s efforts have not solved the desperate conditions for the Swazi people, who are so warm proud, and welcoming! We have made a difference for some! We have dug and planted three large gardens, we have introduced cold frames so that the poor do not have to buy expensive seedlings. We have introduced composting, and have left four constructed boxes with instructional information, so that they don’t have to buy fertilizer. We have provided propane for the next year so that one preschool can provide two meals a day, every school day! Currently, the Mothers cook the meals in the open on a wood burning fire pit, so can’t cook if it rains. We have provided hoses to each of the gardens, so that water doesn’t have to be transported by hand. We have left a huge amount of personally donated items, such as school supplies, clothing, frisbees, skipping ropes, soccer uniforms and balls. Individuals bought a rain barrel, the materials for the compost boxes, paid for a young rural girl to enroll in an accounting program, and taken a very ill family for critical medical attention.
Most importantly we have constructed a preschool classroom. This group was amazing, as only the foundations were up when we arrived. Now there are walls, a roof, plastered interior walls, a white board for the teacher, plus a mural that we signed and painted – linking Swaziland (Execution Rock) and Canada (an inukshuk). In the next few days they will have the windows and doors in place. It will make a difference for next and future year’s students.
There have been challenges and obstacles, but this group overcame them all.
As I personally didn’t know any of the ASK group, before we left Canada I would like to thank them for including me in the group, which enabled me to return to Swaziland again this year. I hope that like last year’s group, they will join me again on future projects to Swaziland…….I will be returning again next July, when once again “we can do what we can do!”
Rob Plowright
DWC Team Leader
Swaziland 2011
A young boy is frantically throwing stranded starfish into the ocean, before they are killed by the sun. A skeptical old man walks by and says, “You’re wasting your time, as you’ll never save them all. In the end your efforts won’t make a difference.” The boy thought for a moment, then picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea. He then turned around and said to the man, “It made a difference to that one!”
Our group’s efforts have not solved the desperate conditions for the Swazi people, who are so warm proud, and welcoming! We have made a difference for some! We have dug and planted three large gardens, we have introduced cold frames so that the poor do not have to buy expensive seedlings. We have introduced composting, and have left four constructed boxes with instructional information, so that they don’t have to buy fertilizer. We have provided propane for the next year so that one preschool can provide two meals a day, every school day! Currently, the Mothers cook the meals in the open on a wood burning fire pit, so can’t cook if it rains. We have provided hoses to each of the gardens, so that water doesn’t have to be transported by hand. We have left a huge amount of personally donated items, such as school supplies, clothing, frisbees, skipping ropes, soccer uniforms and balls. Individuals bought a rain barrel, the materials for the compost boxes, paid for a young rural girl to enroll in an accounting program, and taken a very ill family for critical medical attention.
Most importantly we have constructed a preschool classroom. This group was amazing, as only the foundations were up when we arrived. Now there are walls, a roof, plastered interior walls, a white board for the teacher, plus a mural that we signed and painted – linking Swaziland (Execution Rock) and Canada (an inukshuk). In the next few days they will have the windows and doors in place. It will make a difference for next and future year’s students.
There have been challenges and obstacles, but this group overcame them all.
As I personally didn’t know any of the ASK group, before we left Canada I would like to thank them for including me in the group, which enabled me to return to Swaziland again this year. I hope that like last year’s group, they will join me again on future projects to Swaziland…….I will be returning again next July, when once again “we can do what we can do!”
Rob Plowright
DWC Team Leader
Swaziland 2011
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