In lieu of exchanging Christmas and Hanukkah presents this year, Doug and I along with each of our families agreed to use the money we would have spent on each other to support local families in need in Swaziland. I want to express sincere thanks to our families for their generous Christmaskuh donations. We were humbled by your generosity and thoughtfulness and will be updating the blog accordingly, as we spend your donations. We are trying to offer a small token of support to people we've come to know over the past few months, so be patient, because it might take us a little while to spend it all! We received roughly 4,200 Emalangeni...Thank you for the following presents your donations already purchased:
1) Baby clothing and newborn necessities for our siSwati teacher, Pertunia, who is due to have a daughter at the end of January. She is also a patient of Doug's at the Baylor Clinic.
2) Baby clothing and newborn necessities for one of our guards, Gusa, who's girlfriend is due in March. Doug is actively recruiting her to become a patient at the Baylor Clinic.
3) 40 kilograms of food for a local grandmother who takes care of all of her grandchildren because she has lost all of her children to AIDS. She receives 200 Emalangeni a month in government assistance, but this amounts to only $30. We purchased a liter of cooking oil and then 10 kilogram bags of beans, maize meal, rice, and sugar for their family.
In our families' names, for Christmaskuh, Doug and I have paid the school fees for our cleaning ladies' daughter for the 2010 school year.
Our next confirmed project will take place at the end of the month as we'll be sponsoring a 'Chicken Day' for 200 children...Stay tuned.
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Take #2-guess I hadn't signed and I'd written this whole long comment, so here goes again... Hi, another great narrative and pic entry-I hope you'll publish these some day as a memoire-you are quite a writer. I feel as though I'm on the trip with you and Jim was very impressed with the "spread" at the buffet table. While you are romping around in the sun and sand,we're bracing for 10-12" of the white stuff. The Jewel shelves were empty when I went to do our weekly shopping tonight-there had been a "run" on the merchandise today as people were "laying in their supplies" for the storm. I'm looking forward to curling up with a good book and watching the snow pile up.I've noted your book recommendations and wondered if you'd read The Shack or The Invisible Wall-2 I've just enjoyed. I also loved hearing about how you spent your Holiday $ and would like you to invoice me,thru Paypal like you did your mother, so I could send a little more maybe for Chicken Day or whatever you want to use it on. Let's talk...Lots of love,Judy
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