Saturday 21st October (Part 3)
The highlight of our day was when we slipped away from the conference while at Subbi village and visited the house (House 76) which we funded and helped build as part of a team from our church last year. When we arrived we received a nice warm greeting from Mama Millie, she was very welcoming and happy for us to visit. When I told here that we were the people that built the house she became ecstatically excited. This was the the best most enjoyable experience one could imagine, just talking with Mama Millie and playing with the eight boys, Francis 13, ……… Mark 2. We spent about one hour playing with the boys. They are just like children in Australia, wanting attention and fun, all with different personalities. It turned out the the soccer ball and pump we bought was the ideal gift to give, being eight boys.
After a while we thought we had best let them get ready for a service that we were all going to go up to the school, but as we were about to leave, Mama Millie announced that they had prepared lunch for us. We thought we would be best not to refuse as they wanted to show appreciation for our building the house and the fact that they had gone out of their way. This lunch was so much better than what we would have had as part of the conference – in my diary I wrote it was the best meal we had had so far, much better than the hotel trying to do western food. It was nice to experience some local food, but more it was great to enjoy a meal with House 76.
After 40 minutes more we left them to get ready and decided to rejoin the conference group. It was an amazing experience to visit the family living in the house we built. Knowing that eight boys and one widow were now destined for a completely different future then they we going to have had we not built the house for them. After visiting we were present at a dedication ceremony for the village, where many children performed, spoke and sang for us. Seeing them do this was a great time to reflect that the children of House 76 were going to turn out like these other children, as apposed to a life of hardship!
The rest of the day was good, but we were outside and it was hot and I could not really pay too much attention after visiting House 76. Here is a picture of our good friend Jackson, trying to keep out of the sun as best he could.
