We left the house early because it is the first day of the school term and traffic is a killer. So we pulled out at 6:40 headed for the Hope Alive! country office where the training of the mentors and staff would happen. I tried to get pictures of the traffic and all the students walking but they really didn’t show what was happening. This truck full of police officers shows some of the crowds!
The view from the staff room on the second floor was beautiful. So green with beautiful clouds and lots of people hidden behind the green. Catharine took her rightful place as executive director and we all did some work until the 9:00 teaching time arrived.
Catharine gets gifts from some of the students. One was this fine rooster who proudly oversees his flock. Florence is the full time house lady for the office. One of her jobs is to care for them. She is quite popular when they smell her food.
I love teaching with Bible open on the wall so I can ask questions, point to words, make emphasis, and get people into God’s word directly. Pauline, financial secretary, is in the green to my left. She is full of life and laughter. She won a Master Card Foundation full ride scholarship to Arizona State University, so you see how bright folk are here. The issue now is getting all her papers from the embassy for her visa. They just take longer sometimes.
We took tea which is pretty serious snacking with lots of stories and fun.
As I was finishing up my teaching I heard a weed eater going so I took my tea and found this fellow. He is “slashing,†cutting grass. It is usually done with a machete, but he is doing the up to date method. I wondered how long it would take him to do that whole area. I asked if he slashed the yard at the country office. No, they said. Someone else had that job though he had to leave a couple of months ago.
As tea finished, I heard James and Catharine talking earnestly about something. They went downstairs, so I followed them. It turned out to be Martin, the former grass slasher. He was dabbing at his right eye and clearly in a lot of pain. As I listened, I heard that his eye had been seriously injured. Surgery had not helped at all. He needed more treatment but had no money at all. It was very likely he would lose his eye, he thought. I heard him say, “I have no where to go except to my friends at Hope Alive!†We heard more of his story and then gathered around him to pray. James (far right) took him upstairs to see what could be done. What a helpless place to be.