Carrots and Potatoes

I've visited Huruma Centre three times this week. Huruma is the orphanage operated by the Iringa Diocese and it is run by a small dedicated staff led by Mama Chilewa. She's amazing.

There are partners from Germany who provide most of the buildings, friends from the Saint Paul Area Synod who provide gifts of school uniforms, and many of the visiting congregations (like ours) stop out to play with the children and offer gifts. Many of us bring t-shirts, toys, crayons, soccer balls.

Shepherd of the Valley members provide scholarship support to twelve students who have reached the age of secondary school. Most of these attend local government day schools and sleep at the orphanage. However, in recent years the government has more strictly enforced the age limits for those housed at the center, and some of our older students have had to find places to live outside the center.

I was back at Huruma Tuesday to take photos of the secondary students. Mama Chilewa gathered them in her office for introductions and a short lecture on appreciating this gift of education and showing their appreciation by studying hard.

Pastor Julie Rogness was with me on this visit--she's staffing the Bega Kwa Bega office for now, and is pastor at Christ Lutheran in Lake Elmo. She also brought a friend of hers from Lulanzi, her own congregation's partner. Sedro (not sure of spelling) is the treasurer of that congregation, had heard about Huruma but had never visited.

One of the fun conversational bits was when I asked these students, 'what are the most helpful gifts that visitors can bring?' and 'what things don't you need us to bring anymore?' They were very shy at first about answering, but then started to make a list: bring dictionaries, science books, math books, school bags, uniforms, exercise books, and black leather school shoes. At this point Mama broke in to say, 'don't say it just to impress her' and they all laughed. For the younger children they suggested jump ropes, and always soccer balls, pumps and needles.

Mama rounded out the list by saying food was always welcome (we bought a large bag of maize this time) and by observing that the kids get lots of t-shirts but that shorts, pants, and skirts are also welcome.

After a little prompting (they wouldn't want to be rude, of course), they did admit that the centre has plenty of frisbees, bubbles, and crayons and they don't really need any more for awhile.

Throughout this whole discussion, Julie's friend Sedro was listening intently. Then he said that he was going back to his home in Lulanzi and would bring potatoes and carrots for the children. Mama was so happy, the children cheered, and it was one of those great moments when you realize that even people who need a partner to build a church building still have some resources of their own and they are willing to share them.

So today we went to the centre again, with large bags of carrots and potatoes filling the back of the Land Rover. What a thrill. What an example of God's love. Asante sana, people of Lulanzi.