So I slept much better last night! Probably because I was still really tired from the night before. We had steamed bread with cheese for breakfast and it was to die for! I’ve never really tried putting cheese on my toast before but it’s definitely going to be my new thing. Today was food parcel day. It’s actually painful for me to write this right now because of how sore my arms are right now. In simple terms today was an amazing arm work out. The truck came and we had to unload it into the church. What we did was formed a zigzag line from the truck to the spot where we wanted to set the food. At first it was like no big deal because we were tossing 4 small bags of sugar wrapped together, then samp, beans, corn flour stuff, vegetable oil, frozen chicken and flour. At first it was like no big deal but after a while it was a work out because there were 250 food parcels to be delivered so 250 of each thing inside of the food parcel. Kevin Winge was there with a woman taking tones of pictures and he grossed me out by telling me that the chicken was going to be all bloody when it started to thaw, which is what it was doing on the truck, so I was like guys I really don’t want to touch it if it’s all bloody and what not. People were fine with that but I saw the chicken after it was mostly unloaded and no such issue like Kevin freaked me out about was occurring. The place was crowded with people who were waiting for their food and also with those who hoped that they were on the list to get food. At the end of the day I saw people yelling at the Reverend because they thought their name was on the list but it wasn’t. It didn’t help that about 7 food parcels were specified for orphans and were going to be delivered to them. This means that the people who were upset they weren’t on the list thought that the food for the orphans was left over’s and they wanted it. A lot of our group got really upset because the Reverend announced how a short break was going to be taken so we could eat lunch. I was excited to eat since it was 8 hours after I had eaten breakfast, but others were really upset because all of these people who may not have eaten in days were now being publicly told we were going to go eat in the other room.
A lot of people were crying on and off and all sorts of different things were stirring up different emotions. What was hardest for me was that the Thahbange was one of the families receiving food parcels. All of the schools you have to pay for to go to and its about 150Rand a month. I was really upset because it would just make so much more sense if schools were public and free because then families would have that 150Rand a month for food and cloths. I haven’t really had time to ask anyone yet but I believe, as do others, that the schools used to be free.
After this we had the option of hanging with the kids in the afterschool Rainbow program again or sit somewhere and journal. I decided to hang with the kids because I had such a great time yesterday. I went back to the 2nd and 3rd graders only this time I was Shane. Again I spent the day keeping Thahbange on topic and today I was helping Alutho with her math homework while making sure Lutho was doing her measurements correctly. I kind of was really upset when we got to dinner because I was informed that everyone who choose not to work with the kids got to deliver food parcels and shared a really deep moment with someone they delivered food to. I still had a great time with my kids and again the teacher told me thank you so much, while the kids all said see you tomorrow Lindsay. Dinner was fantastic as usual and then we got back home in time to watch Muvhango. We had a conversation about what we thought about orphanages or about people in the community who take in many kids. It’s an early night though because arms are just super sore.
