A Little Heart

Thanks to so many giving people that I am lucky to know in the States some pretty awesome things have been able to happen while I've been living in Metz.
My Uncle Hansford, who lives in Gueydan, gave me a little bit of money to do something for my village, and with the help of my high school English teacher, Cohen, I was able to successfully support The Women's Literacy Group of Metz with new school supplies! This is a group of women that comes together under the mango trees in MmaLetsoalo's yard three afternoons a week. They are learning to read and write in their mother tongue, Sotho.
I spent one lovely afternoon with their teacher, Maggy, at her house, hanging out with her family, and going through all the supplies I was able to buy.
Here's Maggy with some of her grandchildren and some of the supplies that were purchased.
And here's the amazing traditional meal we ate together after we had our meeting. At one point, Maggy looked at her daughter and said, "I am eating with my friend Mmapula and it is so nice for my heart."

I told Maggy that people at home wanted to help me support projects in Metz. Her literacy class has done so much for the ladies and we wanted to do a little something to help her be able to teach them just a little bit better. Each student was given a plastic folder with a new notebook, pens, Gueydan Museum pencils, a sharpener, an eraser, and a pencil bag to keep everything organized. A whiteboard with new markers, a filing system, and two books for Math and Writing were given to the teacher.
Some of the money was also used to buy World and Africa maps for the Kodumela office and all 7 of the drop in centers.
Rejoice, June, and I all drove to all the centers to hang them up and give the cookers and kids little lessons in geography. I can't tell you how awesome it was to see kids really interested... and how cool it is to sit in the office and watch people try to find places in the world, have discussions about locations on the maps, and ask me questions about different countries and continents. HUGE!

SO many people are touched by the generosity. It's pretty neat when you think about how much we're all working together.