One Meal A Day

Today we had the opportunity to go back to the DEC and do our first womens empowerment conference. We were blessed with approximately 70 women to talk with them about nutrition, germs, hygiene and Carla talked about how each of them are so very precious. Carla prepared a wonderful message and I believe she really touched each of them...

The really exciting and cool part of today was we were blessed with the opportunity to be a part of the Inaugural midday meal program. We got to serve all of the women a meal consisting of rice, a cucumber and onion dish (I'm sure there is a fancy Indian name for this, but I'm lost for words right now...and no one around to ask), and a glass of water. They were served on brand new aluminum plates and cups....no silverware because we eat with our hands here....it's quite fun! (It's quite a technique, too) This midday meal program is the first meal program at this specific school and will provide at least one healthy meal to each of the children each day.....this may be the only meal they get all day long....providing nutrition and vitamins. (We have all sorts of new ideas for our partners back in Nebraska) It was really an incredible experience to be able to serve the children and women....so humbling to know we were able to serve our Indian brothers and sisters with a gift we so take for granted each and every meal.

Here are some pics....



1. Suzie helping the kids unwrap all of the new plates and cups....they were so excited. A part of me thinks they may not have even realized what they were unwrapping, but a part of me believes they realize more than we do how important and special it was today.



2. Carla loading up the first meals to be distributed to the women and children!



3. One of the cutest kids ever....everyone else on the team of course has their favorites, but I thought this boy was so adorable...




4. This girl danced for us in the opening welcome ceremony and I thought she was beautiful then...she has a glow to her. Every time I saw her yesterday, she caught my eye....I'm not sure why. Then, today, when Suzie and I were walking around to all of the classrooms, she was playing Hangman with the children in one of the rooms. I thought this picture really displays her heart, her class, her beauty, and her glow.....she was so proud to be teaching those children.



5. This was the classroom Suzie and I got to spend some time in today....now, these kids, were so darn cute. They were all 4 and 5 (miss you Gaber) and they sang us so many songs. They were brilliant....they new their math tables, body parts, and lots of other things that, I'm not going to lie, I couldn't really pick up because I couldn't understand, but their songs were so long and I was amazed at their knowledge. It was so fun to see their pride and hope for the future! Suzie and I only had about 10 minutes, so we taught them the Itsy Bitsy Spider....they picked up on it pretty quick, but the teacher said they would have it down in a week....I have no doubts!

Hope all is well in America....please keep us in your prayers as well as all of our Indian brothers and sisters! Thank you for your continued support.