David and Goliath

We thought we had finished clearing out the garden yesterday and pulling weeds, but we had only just begun our task. Today, we found out we had to clear out more of the field and pull out the weeds around the garden as well. We're clearing out a whole field and we've been chopping down trees with machetes and slashing grass every morning. After lunch we take some time to relax and then we meet with the community.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays we meet with the Gogos (the group of women who work in the field with us), on Wednesdays with meet with the junior youth kids that are from ages 5-13, and on Fridays we meet with the senior youth that are ages 14-mid 20s.

For the junior youth this week we planned a drama about David and Goliath. We played games with them and sang some songs. We didn't really know what to expect, besides maybe chaos because we heard there were up to 96 kids that came every week. When the first group came we went outside to meet them expecting them to be shy and planning on putting a lot of effort into getting them to feel comfortable with us, but we were completely blown away when they rushed toward us and gave us all the biggest hugs and told us their names and asked us for ours. All the kids were so friendly and they were so eager to be shown affection. At one point a young boy who only spoke Zulu clung on to my side and wouldn't let go. I just held him there and tried speaking some Zulu words, but the most I could do was smile and put my arm around him as he clung to my side. He stayed close to me the rest of the afternoon and wouldn't let me go when it was time for us to leave. When I finally made it clear that I had to leave I smiled at him and held his hand. He smiled back and kept holding my hand as I slipped away and he even held my finger for a while before I got in the bus and left.

It was so hard to leave them, I just wanted to spend all day giving them hugs and high fives. One of the games we played is called David and Goliath. The kids were Davids and they had to line up on one side of the soccer field. We were the Goliaths and we stood in the middle of the field. The point was for the kids to get across the Goliaths and to reach the other side of the soccer field. We cut our group in half and told each other to go easy on them because we didn't want all of them to get out easily, but when we said go we experienced possibly the scariest moment of our lives. In a matter of seconds there were about 50 kids charging towards us, screaming and moving so fast that we were overwhelmed and couldn't stop them from slipping past us. It was hilarious how much we failed at catching them and on the next round we had to start picking up kids and dragging them out, but even then it was hard to catch them because they just had so much energy.

Meeting with the Gogos has been fun because we work with them every day out in the field. We've gotten to know them more and we got to hear their stories and share our stories with them. They're women of all ages, but they're all so joyful. Today we made a list of their joys and struggles and it made me so happy to hear them say that Walk in the Light is their joy because it has given them hope and something to live for. A lot of people in Haniville have come to Jesus through Walk in the Light because it's a place where they can find love and hope. It's a place where they can find a purpose for their lives and where we can have some fun and worship God. I'm so happy to be a part of it and it's even better to think that, when I leave, Walk in the Light will still be there and there will be other volunteers to help. Walk in the Light also empowers the community to help themselves and to carry on the work themselves instead of just relying on outside help.

The days are going by so fast and I want to enjoy it all as much as possible before it's time to say goodbye. Even though I've only been here 2 weeks and I'll only be here for 2 more weeks, I know Haniville is a place and a community of people that I'll never forget.