Children and their toys

What do you do when you don't have any toys? Well of course, you make your own! I love watching these kids play with their homemade toys.

Homemade soccer ball

How simple, but you see it everywhere!

Many homemade cars and trucks,
with steering

The family below sells bricks on the side of the road not far from Amatongas. Now when we drive up they come runnng down the hill wanting their picture taken. The pictures below were actually taken by one of the kids after I had given them my camera.

Buying Goats

I haven't been carrying my camera around enough, so many opportunities for great photos are lost. Seems like things happen every day and "I wish I would have had my camera" comes out of my mouth again. However, since I remembered to bring my camera yesterday afternoon when we went to buy goats, I thought I would post them below. We are starting to purchase some animals as part of our Sustainable Support Projects. Projects we hope will support the school for years to come. Also, we wanted to buy the goats locally to help the people of Amatongas.

The Sunset

 Amazingly, as much as I say Amatongas is a small village, it really is quite large, 36,000 people. We got a better understanding of just how large when we traveled to look at the goats. Thanks to our rugged Land Cruiser, we made it through some tough trails and then walked up a hill to visit a family.


The Family

I am sure the money we used to purchase two goats can feed this family for a few months. Also, looking around I saw no water. I am sure the women spend a better part of the day carrying water, perhaps for hours.

The Goats

The House on the Hill

 They laughed at me when I kept taking pictures. The pictures don't do it justice. The sunset was incredible, truly Africa.

The Sunset 2

The Trail

"Team Amatongas" getting ready for La. Marathon

http://www.thelouisianamarathon.com/

Thanks to Craig Sweeney, the race director, "Mission Amatongas" is a Charity Partner for the Louisiana Marathon in Baton Rouge, La. January 15, 2012. Join "Team Amatongas" and help us sponsor more boarding students next year. Just click on "Mission Amatongas" when registering. Please help us spread the word about our new mission in Mozambique, one of the poorest countries in Africa, by sending this to people you know who might be interested.

We are trying to sponsor as many orphans in the area as we can manage next year. Amatongas is the home of many orphans due to diseases and years of war, many live together in very small houses built by charities in the past. We have also found many orphanages in the area caring for younger children, but as they get a little older their needs change.

Please contact us if you would like to help with our Mission and especially our "Charity Partnership" with the La. Marathon.

Bathroom Donation

We are extremely excited to begin work on repairing the student bathrooms. Thanks to a generous donation in the memory of the mother and father of Br. Noel Lemmon, SC, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Louis Lemmon, Sr., we have already begun repairing the roof and windows. In the next few weeks the plumber will begin installing 8 new toilets, 8 urinals and new plumbing for showers and sinks. The bathrooms are used by our boarders every day and we hope to have 50 boarders next year. A dream we hope to make a reality.
Ametur Cor Jesu


New "real" urinals and plumbing will go here



"Real" toilets will replace these

 

We hope to tile the floor as well

 

Old Septic Tank roof caved in

 

New lighting, new ceiling and new windows will be installed



Computer Story

You won't want to pass up reading this incredible story from the Baton Rouge, La. newspaper. It brings up so many different feelings I'm not sure where to start. As many of you know, we are trying to start our own computer lab here in Amatongas next year. First thing on the list now is security. My prayers go out to all of you at SJA (St. Joseph's Academy) and to those who, for reasons we will never know, stole the donated computers.

http://theadvocate.com/utility/homepagestories/484065-98/computer-lab-2.0