I want to tell you about the spoon you see in the boys hand. As we were getting ready to pass out boxes the head master asked someone to get water to wash hands. I asked if they needed us to get washing stands for them and he said that would be helpful. Then Salima said “no, there is a spoon in each box so their hands will not touch their food. The headmaster raised an eyebrow and said “Really? We will be teaching something new”! And because we have a good relationship with him I said “Yes, today they learn how to be civilized”. He laughed and laughed and said that was a good thing. About half (especially the little ones) have never used a utensil and had to be shown how to use the spoon. I’m not saying this with any kind of mean spirit, but in our village most people don’t use or have utensils. And that is a very real cause of the spread of many diseases when hand washing isn’t available or the hand washing is just well water poured over the hands. This doesn’t kill the germs. So there was more thought behind “the spoons” than teaching them to be civilized! (But we will be gifting them with wash stands and sanitizer that can be put in the water for them! Especially by the latrines).
I know I have followers on The Mandate Uganda FB page and some on Instagram and here so you will see some stories more than once. Some stories that are more personal I post here. I am thrilled to say that my post on FB on feeding the children reached 3450 people this week and over 300 clicks to http://www.themandate.com so we pray that out of those there were some donations made so that we can keep up the work God has for us here!