March 2024 Lusito Update
Most days the Lusito shop is running at full capacity! What a blessing this fantastic facility is to our work here at Project Canaan.
Days quickly become weeks and weeks turn into a month before I even realize it. The old saying rings true with me, where does the time go!
Alec from Third Lens continues to live with us and he has very quickly become our fourth son. Ross continues to work and train down at the Lusito shop and I have started something new this month.
As well, we continue to enjoy Sunday church services at Liberty church in Manzini, along with what has become a Sunday tradition of lunch with Alec and the Koopmans. We are one big extended family.
End of month luncheons (see photo above) continue to be a big hit with our staff, providing an informal and relaxed atmosphere to talk with them and get to know them better. We are learning about their interests outside of work, about their families and the various challenges they encounter living in a developing country. What we would see as poverty in North America would be considered great wealth here in Eswatini. I’ve often found myself thinking the last few months how utterly blessed I was growing up with two parents having full time and secure jobs.
Many of the people who work here only see their families once a month because they live on-site, as the distance is too great to travel home every day or even every weekend. The majority of people here do not own a vehicle as it’s not financially feasible and they rely on public transportation. However most still have to walk sometimes ten or more km to get to the various bus stops. It does leave me wondering why I was so lucky/blessed to be born where I was and not somewhere else.
The Lusito shop has been extremely busy this last month and it seems that every day when I go down there I see a full shop with a variety of projects on the go. The finishing touches are being completed on and around the new building, with the latest being the metal grates over the trench drains leading into the shop. The welding shop did an amazing job of custom building all the grates to perfection, allowing rain water to drain away outside of the building instead of leaking in on the floors. This is also a great safety feature for the staff so no one twists or breaks an ankle with a misstep.
This month I started helping on Tues mornings in the kindergarten class. It is definitely a lively and loving crew of about 30 students all wanting me to see their work and push them on the swings at recess time. I might even have been seen kicking around the soccer ball with some of the rowdier boys, much to their delight. Monthly I am also taking pictures and videos for submission to the Heart for Africa office in Atlanta corresponding with the various monthly add campaigns they run. This is such a great opportunity to interact with the various age groups and get to know them a little more, and it’s definitely helping me start to remember who is who. Not an easy task when there are over 400 children on campus, but I’m getting there.