Monday, November 08, 2010

Road Trip - Western Province

A first report on Shadreck and Andrew's road trip (see previous blog).

Shadreck and Andrew travelled to Western Province first. This is where "Westreach" wants to place most of its graduates from George Benson Christian College. We do not have many churches in Western yet. During the civil war in Angola next door it was dangerous for strangers to travel in many rural areas of Western Province..

Rattly pickups are typical of Western taxis and this sandy road could be any Western trail.
This man is Fleming Kaango, a GBCC graduate who has worked hard to build the church in Sichili District. (Fleming also has a sister and brother in our sponsorship program.)
Travelling in the west is more challenging than it is in the North. Even bicycles have problems with sand and swamp. Below, a local ferry.

Kanyimba church meets here (see photo below). Andrew in the red shirt is greeting Peter, a church leader who said Allen Avery baptized him decades ago.
Kids in the bush are keen to go to school and make tremendous sacrifices to do so.
Often school is too far for kids to walk each day, so they live in mud huts near the classrooms.
This small boy in grade two looks after himself and two younger brothers hiding in the hut.
These kids live without supervision, doing all their own cooking and laundry.

Girls live in unofficial dormitories as well.

Sichili church saved enough money to put a tin roof on their building. Western province is
**HOT** -- so open-sided buildings are better at welcoming breezes.



Fikoloma, a George Benson Christian college graduate (and one of my former students), built this house for himself right next to the church building --to guard the roof against midnight thieves.

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