not so silent

Hands Family Center almost finished  For many of the Mercy Air team much of Tuesday was spent shopping for, organising and packing food parcels to be loaded onto the vehicles for the following day journey. Some of us were at the shop at 7 in the morning, alongside long queues of seniors waiting to collect their pension.   Local staff taking the role call organizing the day  We traveled in the baaki with 40 food boxes to Hands at Work mission centre, just the other side of White River. We met some of the ‘Hands’ team, who also attend the same church and cell as us. It was great to catch up after 7 weeks! Angie form Hands and me self working together, partnership is vital  Part of their outreach is to support poor communities in rural areas, and they have 5 centres in South Africa and more across Africa. The task of the day was to travel with Angie (my ‘Hands’ guide and partner for the day) to Somerset, about 1.5 hours North (70km) of the Mercy Ai...

Another day, a different direction, but with the same partner: Hands at Work. I took the VW Transporter to Hands base and was met by Dan, a friend from our church in White River. He is the sort of guy you want to put on tap, so you could possibly steal some of his enthusiasm. After exchanging pleasantries he said: ‘Nigel, this food is a game changer for us’.   As an English Premier League football supporter and sufferer, you hear this sort of statement a lot, along with ‘majestic’; ‘biggest game of the season’ and ‘it’s the one we have all been waiting for’. Nine times out of 10, hype never lives up to the statement or overblown language. So, to be truthful I was a bit sceptical of ‘game changer’ language from my friend. So I asked, what do you mean? He explained that this food means children will eat. The school is closed therefore there is no morning meal (usually provided by the school). There is no paid work for the Gogos (Grannies), and therefore no money...