We Tied!

Yesterday was an overwhelming day. We started out the day at City Harvest Church where Pastor Edward was leading a business training course for the churchs micro-finance loan program. Our business students help with the presentation. I was very impressed with our students (David, JD, Laura, Amber, Amanda, and Ryan) sharing what they have learned at the Baylor Buisness school. So parents don't fear, it seems they do pay attention in class.

After the training they had a small market set up downstairs. This market was run by their women's groups from the slums that live with AIDS. These women are shunned by they community and cannot sell their goods because word gets around that they have AIDS and people do not want to buy from them. So for them to have a market day was a big deal.

Then we jumped onto the bus and headed to Kibira, the second largest slum in the world. 1.8 million people all reside in this very small area. For so many students on our team this experience really hit them hard. Poverty on this level is something that we Americans cannot understand. There was a mix of sadness and hope that seemed to radiate out of this place. We walked for about 10 mins and it seemed like 10hours down into the slum. We went into a building that was a school. The school was apart of City Harvest Ministries. They sang for us and showed us around their place. Then they took us to the soccer field. This was another long walk through the slum. Kids were everywhere and when they would see us they would yell "how are you" "how are you". They were laughing and playing and seem so unaware of the fact that they live in a large toilet. You see the slums don't have many bathrooms. So people use plastic bags and then throw them into the sreets. The streets are made of mud and when it rains the entire place turns into a huge mess.

The soccer field was up a hill just right outside of the slum. This was such a relief to walk up the hill and feel an escape from the slum. I can see why the kids like to go there and get a breath of fresh air.

I have to go for now but I will tell you more about our soccer match later. We did tie so that was exciting! Today we head to Simba village for the first time. Everyone is excited.

Hope that you all have a wonderful day at church. We miss you all very much.

cheers, ben

ps i didnt have a chance to spell check so please understand if there are typos and misspelled words :)
pss this message was brought to you in part by Anna Hering!