Transformation

For the last three years, Tabitha House lacked leadership and both the number of women attending and the physical status of the building had declined sharply.  As you can see from this picture, the place had become a dumping ground.  Our numbers were growing but we were quickly running out of room to seat everyone with all the junk in the back.  And we never knew from week to week what might appear in the room to clutter it even further.  John Arnold called the pastor of Sector 30 and told him it was discouraging to arrive and find the room in such a mess.  That was a call to action!  Last Friday the women got together and we cleaned out the room.

I want the women to know that I'm a partner with them and want to work along side of them.  But everytime I would pick up a shovel or a broom, one would be there to take it from me.  Finally I convinced them to let me work with them.  We were shoveling piles of Shea nuts into bags.  After about 15 minutes of shoveling I thought I was going to pass out!  But they are not even breaking a sweat.  After 2 hours of working in over 100 degrees I had to call it quits while they were still going strong.  When I left, the room looked like this:

As we were working today, the pastor came with a team to fix the window grates and door.  I noticed he was working on some kind of equipment, but didn't have any idea what it was.  He finished with it about 10 minutes before we dismissed.  He tapped my shoulder, had me come over to the piece of equipment and turned it on.  It is an air conditioner he had rigged up!!  I actually could've kissed the man!  We are in the 100's now with the hot season to come and truthfully I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to handle it. Betty told me that these things are a huge honor.  Working there is a huge honor for me. 

We had a new baby today:

Her mom came in, spread out the piece of cloth and laid the baby on the concrete floor - no crib, no padding, no mattress. I'm sure this is how she sleeps at home, but it's probably a dirt floor.  Pretty humbling, isn't it?

The paper beads we are making require a page from a magazine to be marked every 2 centimeters across the top, and for the bottom, 1 centimeter and then 2 centimeters for the remainder of the bottom of the page.  The first mark for the 1 centimeter at the bottom of the page becomes one of the ends of a triangle, and continues across the page.  Today, two of the women were watching me mark the pages and ask if they could try.  Remember that they can't read or write.  So I had them mark the 2 centimeters across the top, and then the bottom as we pointed out each centimeter on the ruler and counted them out loud.  I'm not sure that they had ever seen or used a ruler before.  They were so intent and excited on what they were doing.  After awhile they wanted to try cutting the triangles.  Using scissors is very difficult for them, because they have rarely used them before.  But before long they were cutting away.  It was a moment of triumph for both of them - something we would take totally for granted.

One other thing you might find interesting is that the homes that these women live in do not have running water.  They have a large barrel that is bolted on a frame with four wheels and a handle for pushing.  They push these large barrels to a watering place and then have to push it back home.  I would guess it's half a mile to the watering place and back.  And when they are pushing these large barrels filled with water, they usually have a baby tied on their back.  It is mind-boggling how hard the people here have to work just to survive one day to the next!