ARRIVED- Blankets & Sweaters!!!!!!!
The week before last I was summoned to the home of an elderly woman who was gravely ill. I found her, like so many in Mbayi without beds or even a mattress, on the earthen floor covered only by a chitenge ( a piece of cloth usually tied around the waist and worn as a skirt ), shivering, unable to walk, so weak that even her head hung loosely, arms dangled. Needless to say, we rushed her to Chambishi clinic where she was immediately admitted and put on a quinine drip for malaria. Oh - how I was yearning for those blankets on a container somewhere between Canada and their destination here in Musenga. So it is with great joy and tears of gratitude that I'm reporting to you - they are here and already warming bodies, it breaks my heart to say, so accustomed to enduring the cold. Can you imagine sleeping on the ground in a hut, not properly shielded from temperatures that can dip as low as 5 degrees celsius in the evenings, without even 1 blanket? - I can't!!!!!! Well Ester and so many others won't have to worry about that any longer because people in Canada cared enough to share and sent blankets and even nice warm hats.
Perhaps you remember the cry of 11 seniors last year for sweaters. Well that cry was heard, action was taken, and I'm distributing way more than 11 (some jackets too!)!
Humungous thanks to Sarah, Vera, Celine, Susan, Brenda and all those who assisted you in making this desire into a reality. God bless you!!!!!