Day 7

Today we started by going to the Chipulukusu Clinic in Mapalo. It serves about 150 people a day and most of which have malaria, TB, sickle cell anemia, diabetes, or HIV. There were two small buildings that serve the Mapalo community. They have a total of five nurses on staff, and a doctor that comes every Tuesday. Mrs. Blystra interviewed John, a part of the staff there, and found out a lot about the clinic. He told us that it was a children's clinic that day, and so there was a lot of kids and moms with their babies waiting outside of the two buildings. When we left there, we went to visit Belita and her younger sister Beatrice. We sponsor Belita and brought presents for both of them, which included clothes, underwear, and a doll. They showed us their house, and we sat down and talked with them. Mom talked with their pastor, who lives right next door as we found out. Their aunt, Josephine, was out making a living for them. Their uncle isn't home very much, and he has some issues. We then went over to Pastor Nickson's house, who lives right next door. We talked and goofed around, and then left. We then went to Pastor Chris's church for Love's Kitchen, a feeding program for kids. I helped serve the kids, who got a whole lot of nshima and soy meat. It was a lot of fun getting to see these kids who were very vulnerable, sick, and/or orphaned get a meal. I learned that for some of these kids, this is all they eat. The feeding program occurs three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. After most of the kids were served, we headed to Pastor David's church for their feeding program. Mom helped serve those kids, who got nshima, a piece of sausage, and rabe (a veggie). The kids looked really happy to get their meal. When that was over, we went to lunch at Kaps. When Martha and Agness picked us up, we went to an Indian run store to buy socks for the sponsored kids. That took a while and then we headed to the Masala market. It was like a huge square with wooden stalls and a dirt/sand ground and it was really crowded. Martha told us that people are scared of rain more than they are cars. Thought that was a little strange, but oh well. So we walked around, but a lot of the vendors were packing up or had already left. I was really interested in the fabric, so that's mainly all we looked at. I found two really cool prints that I bought for a good price. We saw a lot of caterpillars, dried fish, live chickens which get bought and then butchered, eggs, second-hand clothes, and a lot of beans as well. It was a lot different from what I am used to and the smells weren't that great either. When we left, we went back to Kaps. We had dinner and I tried something new (which will remain a secret). Overall, it was an excellent day.