Monday - 1st day of work

Today we went to the Land of HOPE... This is the land that Back2Back is developing for future use as they work with the local village... HOPE is an acronym that stands for Healthcare, Opportunities for spiritual growth, Provision of basic needs, Educational opportunities... Here is a picture from the rocks that are overlooking the Oasis House...

The Land of Hope is right next to the Kisayhip Village...  Kisayhip literally translates to "Living under the tree"...  Which I take to mean, "Refuge" or "Shelter"...  We got to walk over to that village and meet some of the people who live there...  Well, we had been hanging out with the kids all morning, so we got a chance to see how they live...

The conditions in Kisayhip are pretty primitive.  Here is a picture of one man getting water from their "well"...  Yes, that is a tire around the top of the well...  What you can't see is the sewage coming out of the village in a manner that could best be described as "upstream"...  There is great need here, on several fronts...  Not to say that we (B2B) have all the answers, but it is to say that what is going on and what will be going on at the Land of HOPE will be incredibly encouraging to these people...

One of the most vivid pictures of the day involved kids taking care of other kids...  A few of the kids were in charge of taking care of the smaller children...  We saw 7 & 8 year olds hauling around infants on their backs for hours...  It's a pretty sad picture considering that kids should be allowed to be kids, but that's just a way of life for these villagers...

One of the chores the kids have is gathering brush for fires...  As soon as we got to the property we saw some kids bringing sticks down the road, and it continued to be an intermittent sight throughout the day...  They carry so much stuff on their heads here!  I guess it makes sense, but it seems a little precarious when you're carrying wood!

One of the things that we are so excited about is the block machine...  In order to secure the property there needs to be a wall around the perimeter...  But it's such a large area that it would be unbelievably expensive to buy all those blocks...  So the wise decision is to have a block machine made...  This not only allows cheaper blocks, but it also allows B2B to control the quality of the blocks being made...  This will eventually enable B2B to provide training and employment to some of the men in the village so that they will have a sustainable means of provision down the road...

Before we left the Land of HOPE Brian handed out some gifts to the kids who were with us throughout the day...  It was a really tender time...  Brian is so kind and compassionate...  He took time to kneel down with each individual child, to look that child in the eye, to communicate worth and value to every one...  

The rest of the day involved us sitting in a lot of traffic and trying to get from point A to point B...  We had a delicious dinner and a great chance to unwind and reflect upon the day...  Tomorrow is back to the Land of HOPE to (hopefully) make the very first blocks for the property!  But, we are cautiously optimistic...  We're learning that's a way of life around here...