Over this last week we have experienced many things which in
our contemporary Western contexts are unfamiliar- the need to collect water
from a local river…the sheer physical effort of walking up hill and down dale,
in high temperatures, through fields of maize, to get to the next
village…carrying a large bundle of fruit in a cloth on your back…carrying 20+
litres of water on your head…such things are everyday things here.
What will never cease to amaze me is the resilience of the
amazing caring women, who whatever the weather, visit the orphaned, the
widowed, the vulnerable… and put their own fragile selves and situations after
the needs of those they serve. Sometimes in doing so, they are misunderstood or
simply not supported and find themselves torn between their families and those
for whom they care.
In a society where so many children grow up without positive
male role models we have been so privileged to have met some of the exemplary male
care-workers and Hands staff who steadfastly serve the poor. Some have themselves
been in child-headed households…or have experienced great personal loss but
have then chosen to follow the tough call, of looking after their neighbours so
that others will know that they are loved.
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