Kodumela Day One ~ A Shock To The System


Looking smart in our Choko T-shirts, we set off for Kodumela quietly wondering what we would find when we got there.

Left to right back row: Graham Chapman, Estelle Browne, Rex Browne, Andrew Petit, Harry Butcher.

Left to right middle row: Anjie Devine, Hilary Handley, Liz Butcher, Anne Powell, James Butler.

Left to right front row: Dot Chapman, Bev Butler, Val Bolt, Sue Jeffs, Annette Humphrey, Lynne Stone.




What we found was a welcoming committee of project staff, local dignitaries and officials. They sang for us, the traditional way of expressing a welcome which happened almost everywhere we went, then there were speeches and prayers before setting off for our first school visit at Mamokaile.

Our next port of call was a creche where Choko have provided not only equipment for the children to use but a cooker so that food can be cooked indoors when it is not fine enough to do it outside. Porridge and bean stew are on the menu every day for the local orphans.


Our last visit of the day before heading back to Rissington Inn was a co-operative of women who have a successful beadwork business. They make intricate, colourful jewellery, belts, pot or jug covers etc. Once again we were greeted with song and made welcome.

The women started with World Vision funding, and Choko help with selling, and are now financially independent. They have widened their interest to offer fresh scones at affordable prices twice daily and have also set up an orphan feeding station next to their workshop.

Between them, these hard-working women also try to nurture and manage a garden. Unfortunately the area has seen so little rain in recent months that their crop has failed. They do have a water holding tank, self-made and sunk into the ground and supposed to work by gravity, but of course with no rain there is precious little water for them to use.

They had baked a batch of scones especially for us which made a very welcome afternoon tea!

 

By the end of the day we were exhausted ~ physically, mentally and emotionally.The peace and comfort of Rissington will never feel so good again.

Until fairly recently, the orphans relied on their own efforts or the goodness of neighbours for food then, as the creches were established and became successful the women running them fed the orphans once a day. Now, with growing success they are able to feed them twice a day.


The welcome at Mamokaile began with a spectacular, but unexpected, drum majorette guard of honour to escort us from our cars to the platform where we sat and enjoyed a programme of speeches and performances by each year group in the school. There was hula-hooping, reading, reciting, tribal dancing and choral verse.

We were also able to see some of the work sent by Cholsey School displayed in a class room.