Laurie Frey Talks about Zambia

Guest Blog:  by Laurie Frey.

Here is a story from the Africa trip:  I have two from this day, so stay tuned for part 2.

It was Friday August 9^th.  I had been told we were going to visit Sonshine Kid’s Club Ministry and it was on a trash dump.   That was hard for me to comprehend, until I saw it.  The community is literally surrounded by a giant dump.  Trash is strewn everywhere.  Despite that, we were greeted by hugs, and warm handshakes by both children and adults and led into a church with a dirt floor and walls held together my mismatched boards letting in light from outside.   About 30 kids greeted us while singing loud and proud about God’s love for them.  Many recited Bible verses for us.  Their huge smiles covered up their dirty faces and clothes with holes in them.  Only a few wore shoes. 

Moving outside, we were joined by many more children from the community.  They just kept coming and coming.  Our AVOH mission team led them in joyful songs many with little dance steps and hand motions.  A few of the kids joined in, but some just stood there as if they just didn’t have the energy to wave their arms and jump up and down.  We had been to many places so far on the trip, but this was, by far, the place filled with the most lonely, sad eyes.   “What is wrong?” I thought.  “Where is all the joy?”  I soon learned that this is what hunger and malnourishment and extreme poverty look like.  Straight faces.  Few smiles.  Lethargic.

When the singing was over, our mission tem helped them make little parachutes out of cloth, yarn and clothespins.  After making their parachutes, many just stood there looking lost.  They did not know you could throw them up in the air and watch them float down, or fly them like a mini kite.  Not knowing what else to do, I figured this was a time to make a complete idiot of myself.  I grabbed a parachute and started to spin around while shouting, “wooooooo!”  Pretty soon I had about 20 kids following my lead.  Was that some giggles I heard?  “One….Two …..THREE!!!”  I threw a parachute up in the air.  Now about 40 kids were following with their joyful giggles. For a moment, the fact that they were running past a giant trash dump didn’t seem to matter.  I held the parachute and ran while many more sets of bare feet chased me through the dusty rocky terrain.  Contagious giggles.  Now I was laughing at their laughter.  More white teeth showing against their brown skin.  A totally unplanned game of follow the leader.  Some ran up on mounds of dirt, some kept spinning in circles and some continued to throw theirs up in the air to watch it float down.  JOY…at least for a few minutes, these children could forget about the poverty they lived in and truly be kids. 

Trash dump day (story #2)

The morning we got to the Sonshine Kid’s Club I happened to have 12 little girl dresses that my friend Billie Mae, here in Edwardsville, had sewn out of pillowcases.  I could have given away 100.  I was giving them to random girls and was down to one dress.  Hanna, one of our high school students on the trip ran over and asked if I had any dresses left, because one little girl in her group did not have a shirt on.  She brought her over.  She looked like she was 4 or 5 years old.  Her pants had most likely been on her for weeks.  She desperately needed a bath.   She may or may not have living parents .  Many kids here are cared for by older siblings.  I slid the dress over her head and it fit perfectly.  She looked beautiful.  A little smile crept across her face as Hanna carried her back to the group for singing and crafts.  One dress that would have been gone just seconds later now fit perfectly on a little girl and made her day.  I’d say that was a God thing.