When Tim became a Hip Hop Star

So yesterday Tim won his first Hip Hop dance contest! Probably because as the only white guy he drew a fair lot of attention ... but he drew in the cheers as well! It was a hip-hop fun time at the Lake yesterday. MICC (Mwanza International Community Church) young adults hosted a huge "Beach Party" for all the kids off the street and the drug addicts from around town. They cooked all morning and the crowd at 2pm devoured the feast most happily! There was rice, pilau, beef, beans, cabbage and watermelon ... a real (nutritious) feast! There must have been two hundred young people who turned up; it was great!

Tim and Zakayo

Amisadai on watermelon duty and Louisa on plate duty

Louisa snuck in to get some food!



Congrats following the Hip Hop Dance!

After the food, there was hip hop music and dancing. Godwin (a young hip-hop star) shared his story of how after being stabbed and given no hope to live, God saved and changed his life. But he didn't just speak ... he rapped his story! Incredible guy, incredible story with an incredible gift. The whole event was a great opportunity to sit down with these boys, chat a little with them and show them the love of God. One little guy was only six years old, two years younger than Louisa, yet living on the streets. I sat with Peter, a young guy of 13 who really wants to go to school. We pass these boys all the time on the street and have met them at a few events and it was wonderful to again have the opportunity to meet more of them "personally" and we look forward to doing more with them. 


Godwin sharing his story



I clearly need help on the Hip Hop look! My sunglasses would have helped!

Earlier this week Tim and I found ourselves miles and miles away from the girls' school as pick-up time loomed! We had gone to visit the pastor of the Nyakato church for a chat at 9am about agricultural projects. (A short aside here ... this Nyakato church is the one where we were a few weeks ago and met the young shoemakers ... see the link here! They kindly made Louisa some flip flops when they heard it was her birthday. After that day, we had rather a shoe saga going on with difficulty finding school shoes for the girls and then shoes getting nicked after two weeks ... so difficulty finding shoes again ... you get the idea! Anyway, we then thought to ask these guys to make some school shoes for Louisa which they did. They did such a good job - beautifully handmade black shoes. We were so impressed! But unfortunately they were two sizes too big! So the saga continued!)

Anyway, back to my story ... We visited a shamba (farming plot) with Pastor Swai, which has been bought by the church and is available for us to use as a demonstration farm for the agricultural project. We also chatted with a local guy there about his shamba who very kindly sent us on our way with harvested watermelons. 

Pastor Swai and Rachel with the watermelons

Proposed shamba site for the project 

But then we ended up going far north down a dirt road to the same village we had visited for the Health Seminar and SODIS Shake (Kayenze) to meet with another pastor and some guys there interested in working with us. It was a fantastic opportunity to meet a great group of very interested and keen guys and see what they are already doing there. After an impromptu meeting in the church, we walked out to the pastor's shamba. They were farming rice, sugar cane, cabbage, tomatoes, chili peppers .... But then as I am anxiously checking the time, Mama was just starting to prepare lunch for us all! There was nothing to do but wait! Thankfully, our kind friend by the international school was able and very happy to pick up our girls and take them to her house to wait for us. Meanwhile we enjoyed the generous rice and chicken meal made especially for us. And we were once again sent on our way, this time with a sackful of cassava and bag of lemons. Once again overwhelmed by generosity. We are really looking forward to starting this agricultural project with five local university graduates and these local pastors which will demonstrate and teach better farming practices in this area.

Walking out to the shamba

Good cabbage specimens

Checking out the sugarcane and chili peppers

A generous meal prepared

Our other excitement of the week was a trip to the dentist! The best part was we only had to drive 10 minutes to get there and not 10 hours!! There are some advantages to living in a city. And it was so nice to know that our very own Dr Holley (from Tadley Dental Care on Newchurch Road and East Church in Basingstoke), had been there just last year and worked with the dentists. Hope Dentist in Mwnza works with the dental charity Bridge2Aid so it's good to know that the small fortune we spent on Louisa's extractions and Amisadai's baby molar filling will go to a very good cause!