Gusu/Jidi Mobile Medical

A short term team from California of nearly 40 people are being escorted around Malawi by the amazing Sam Kawale of E-3 Worldwide this week.  Their first stop was to do a mobile medical clinic out at Gusu/Jidi villages.  Since it had not even been three weeks since the last mobile medical the crowd was not very big.  But still, needs were met, seeds were planted, and hopefully everyone was blessed by the event.  

Baby J getting introduced by Nevson to some of the secondary school girls from Jidi village.

The medical staff busy at work!

This team was making sure that ALL needs were met, physical and spiritual!

Prayers and counseling!

The team did eye exams and handed out eye glasses to those in need!  Very cool!

The dentist was a big hit with the kids.  They all received toothbrushes and were taught how to use them!  

They were so proud of their new toothbrushes!

Everyone loves drinking from the running water faucet.  What a treat to remember that just a short while ago these same people had never seen running water from a pipe before!  

There are 8 different villages donating 10,000 bricks each to build their own secondary school and more teacher housing for the Gusu/Jidi school.  They are very excited to see their new school start to be built!

Some of the crowd waiting to be seen by the team

Here is the new addition to the multipurpose building.  This is a goat pen.  E-3 is raising goats!  Rainbow will probably start raising goats when we return in April.  

The multipurpose building from the goat pen.

The front of the multipurpose building.  Note the big permaculture gardens and the solar panels on the roof.  The aquaponics pond is in the back.

Back up at the school baby J feels like he's just one of the kids!

Weekends at Rainbow!

Weekends here at Rainbow have gotten to be so much fun!  I decided to snap a few pics to show some of the events that go on on a typical Rainbow weekend in Malawi!  

I have been teaching the older girls to cook on Sunday afternoons.  They read the recipe from the book and I watch as they put it all together. Up until now they had only learned to cook certain traditional Malawian foods (which are amazing) but they didn't know how to read a recipe, measure ingredients, etc.  So far we've learned many cake, cookie, bread, and breakfast recipes.  

This week the girls learned to cook pancakes.  They had never seen or heard of a pancake before. 

Eating their new foods is the best part!  Especially when it is eaten with syrup!

One of our friends, Levi, an ABC grad and former Mingoli member has started coming to Rainbow to teach singing/choir lessons to the kids.  This Saturday was his first lesson.  And while he has a lot to teach I think he is up for the challenge.  Our goal would be to create a cd of the Rainbow kids! 

A few of AJ and SM's best friends ended up playing dress-up and Pretty Pretty Princess on Sunday afternoon.  They also had a tea party of cakes, fruit, and raw potatoes from the fields (long story).  

SM, Toto (Towerra), Ida, Piri

Meanwhile, while dress-up was going on inside- Jeremy and CJ were playing football outside with the boys.  They love football. 

Time for makeup!

Even baby J got "forced" into dress-up

Piri and baby J

Fun weekend at Rainbow!

Maize

Over the past few weeks everyone at Rainbow has been working to get the maize into the silos so that it will keep through the year.  This is the maize that was grown from the Rainbow fields and it will feed the children and staff for the entire year.  The ladies of Rainbow church have been hired to help with getting the maize from the floor of the shed (where it has been taken off the cob already) into the silos (a couple are seen behind the ladies).  The maize has to first be sifted to get any trash and debris out of the maize.  It is then placed in 50kg bags and taken to where it will be transferred into the silos.  The ladies are happy to have the opportunity to work and help Rainbow.  As people from the church and community have need they will be able to partake in the maize crop as well.  We have been blessed with an excellent crop this year.  Praise God!

Ranbom pic thrown in of Jeremy with his BB gun shooting some wild dogs away from the property.  We have explained to Nasson and Martin that Lucas and Jeremy are from the "Red-neck tribe" in America.  You can take the boy out of Alabama but you can't take the Alabama out of the boy!

There are hundreds of kg's of maize bags and countless Rainbow kids all piled into the Ipsum to take the maize to one of the silos on the other side of the complex.  Jeremy let a different kid ride in his lap and "drive" during each trip.  

The Rainbow Community Church ladies helping with the maize