Magome Day 3

,



Day 3 in Magome was a day for travel. We first traveled to Lutangilo - the secondary boarding school to where many of the Salem sponsored students attend class and live. The road to Lutangilo was incredible. We went over many mountains and through many valleys. The road quality varied from rocky and wide to rutted and barely wide enough for our bus. But, Peter, our excellent driver was able to handle it all. Even an old wooden bridge as seen in the picture to the right. Just so no one worries, we all walked across the bridge and then Peter drove the bus across by himself.
When we got to Lutangilo (above), we had a short ceremony with all the students, then met all of the Salem sponsored students as a group. We presented all the sponsored students with a Salem/Magome sweatshirt, a calculator, and a new notebook. They were all very greatful for the support of their sponsors as well as the gifts we brought. We then went out to the school's courtyard and took a group photo and individual pictures of each student. So, sponsors, don't forget get to harass the Grand Pooh-bah (Jack) for a picture of your student when we return (maybe give him a week, we have a lot of pictures). To everyone else: There are plenty of spaces still available for new students at Lutangilo and students wanting to attend at Magome. Talk to Jack or Judy or Kay or anyone else who went on the trip if you are interested in sponsoring a student.

After we met with the students, we took a short tour of the school and saw a classroom and the girls and boys dormitories (those who visited last time - the boys have a new dorm!). We finished with a visit to the headmaster's office. There we gave him some more notebooks and a variety of other school supplies - pencils, pens, colored pencils, markers, calculators, etc.. He was also very greatful for this donation.

After Lutangilo, we headed out, back across the treacherous bridge toward the Magome congregation's preaching point, called Ikelamo. The Magome congregation is spread out over a large area and the only mode of transportation for everyone is walking. Therefore, to allow more people to attend church on Sunday they have set up a preaching point where an evangelist runs the Sunday service. Both the main church and the preaching point have an evangelist. I believe the pastor visits the preaching point about once a month to perform the Sunday service, leaving the main church under the charge of that evangelist.

When we arrived at Ikelamo, we were again greated with much singing and dancing. We eventually made our way up to the church building at the preaching point where there was a small ceremony to welcome us. We then gave our gifts out as well. Just like before, w gave sweatshirts and t-shirts to the church elders, beanie babies and hand made dolls to the children, baseball hats to the adults and baby hats and blankets and two quilts to the evangelist for distribution as she saw fit. We then said goodbye and made our way back to Magome.
In Magome, J.R. and Dave and some of the Magome men continued their installation of the solar lights. Before dinner, some of the town's children came to the pastor's front yard to "play". For them, playing was singing and dancing. Sandy, Lori, and others joined in the playing and fun was had by all.

After dinner, we went up to the cook shack to thank the many cooking women for all of their hard work to serve us such wonderful meals. While we were there, we were given a brief instruction in basket weaving by the cook ladies. A basket that is about 6 inches across and 4 inches deep takes one woman about one day to weave. To show us how it was done, the ladies team wove a basket about 1 inch across and 1 inch deep in about an hour - Amazing! Sandy tried to weave some magic toward the end and the ladies were very patient teachers. Below is a picture of one of the expert weavers at work.