RR Mission - Day 5 (July 11th)

Today was cold and overcast. Our last day at Lomngeletjane was the kind of day that on one hand was mixed with too many people to do what needed to be done but on the other hand there was too much work to do and still finish early enough so we could kick back and relax. We ended up working until 4:00. The main task, which unfortunately got left for the last day, was to build three removable partitions for the wall between two classrooms. The walls weren’t finished between two of the classrooms so that if the community or society (church congregation) needed some place to meet they could use the two classrooms. We were to build wooden panels to separate the two classr ooms. That would be challenge enough considering the floors aren’t especially even and neither were the openings. However, we were using donated used plywood. Each piece was a little bit different. So the task which was challenging enough to start with was even more of a challenge. The community members finished up the fencing around the gates while we were working on the panels and then they waited for us to finish our work. We were very surprised when they had organized a little goodbye for us including speeches (of course) and a meal. The most touching part was the gifts of food parcels which several of the children who are attending the school brought us to thank us for the work and their almost completed new classrooms. This past week we have been given avocados, sweet potatoes, onions, carrots, lemons, oranges, apples, broccoli and more avocados. These are all thank you gifts from various people in the co mmunity and the church. It is very overwhelming to receive these gifts.

Friday night Anthony and Steve baked a chocolate cake. They figured out how to estimate the ingredients that were in metric measurements. The cake had just finished baking when we lost power (again. We also lost power for several hours on Thursday evening.) The cake was absolutely delicious and a very big treat espec ially for Siphiwe and I. We both gave it two thumbs up.

The following are a few pics of the day’s highlights:
1) Notice the cows are on the OUTSIDE of the fence – not the inside! YEABO!
2) The wooden partitions being constructed.
3) The thank you just before we left.
4) The infamous, delicious chocolate cake.