Our place is the new hang-out for the neighborhood boys.  They come to play, to help in the garden, to see our monkey, to borrow a soccer ball, and to ask us to come watch them play soccer or going swimming with them. 

It's been a joy to get to know more of the kids from our area.  Now we walk down the street and see all familiar faces among the kids.  We are looking forward to having our library (coming soon) and playground (to be built in February) available to our community. 

 In every  group that comes to volunteer with us invariably there are a few who leave clothes behind.  At first we were a little perplexed at what to do with these adult clothes and shoes that were piling up, but we now have a great solution.

There is a widow in our village that has five children to provide for.  She is a hard worker, but still struggles to make it.  The pastors and leaders of our community said she could use our help.  So, we decided to give her the clothes.  She takes them around the the village to sell.  Since most people in our area buy used clothing and since there is no seller up as far as we live, she has done quite well with this micro-business.  After the last batch of clothes she sold, she came and gave us the money to keep.  She wanted to wait until the bean harvest -- when people have money again -- to buy more clothes to sell. 

Well, the bean harvest is coming in (though it's a  sad one this year)  and  we were able to  provide a another round of clothes to sell, without the widow needing to buy more.  So if you've ever left clothes or shoes behind, now you know where it goes...