Where the motorcycles go...

Hello everyone! Amanda here. It feels like a whole bunch has happened in the past 2 days so I’ll sum it up as best I can. We have been at Leve-toi and witnessing Mama Julianne’s incredible heart for the children with disabilities in the neighbourhood. We have been able to get dirty and work hard as well as sing and play with the kids...a good mix in my opinion. They want to build a bathroom for the kids so we helped to get that started. We didn’t get to any cement but have done heaps of digging and moving dirt.
Today everyone was doing pretty good on the health front and the whole team was able to come. It has been almost a week since all of us have been ready for action. Unfortunatly, I can’t say the same about yesterday. Josh stayed back due to stomach issuses and in the words of Jacob « Today was going really well, until I hit Aurore in the face with a pick axe» ...gasp I know... but please don’t freak out she is doing just fine now. She was moving buckets of dirt and moved a little too close to avoid a kid when Jacob was using the pick axe. She has a nice cut right above her eyebrow and was out of commission for the rest of the day but was still in pretty good spirits all things considered. This drama occurred in the afternoon.
Our morning was full of fun times with the kids. We performed a skit about Moses and the plagues where Jean-Baptiste made the most excellent Pharaoh. We also sang songs with them (yes Pharaoh Pharaoh with all the actions...it was a hit) and made a craft. The rest of the team entertained the group while Emily, Aurore and I made paper frogs with groups of kids. It was really cool when we went back today and some of them waved their frogs out of the classroom windows as we arrived.
In the evening we were splitting up supplies and preparing when we heard some music and drumming coming from the street. It was getting louder and sounded like a parade. We all got uber excited and literally ran downstairs and outside. So excited. When we got to the street we asked someone what the parade was for a group of Kimbangists (sp?) the cult that we heard about in Kasungulu. Apperently it is kinda like their Christmas... What a bust...we were pretty disapointed.
Today we arrived at Leve-toi to see that a whole bunch of work was completed while we were gone and we spent the majority of the morning clearing all the dirt that they had dug up. For a while I went with Jean-Baptiste to load some wheel barrows with sand. Before the morning classes were over we did face painting with the kids. They wanted a whole range of things from flowers to guitars and from butterflies to fire-breathing dragons. Alysha, Emily and I became spontanious artists. With the afternoon class we didn’t have quite as much time as we thought we would so we taught them some songs and attempted a game. We have learned that games with instructions don’t really go well so it was a little awkward but we fixed it with bubbles. There are a whole bunch of really great kids and I liked just being able to give them a little love and attention, something they don’t always get.
Before leaving we went to visit Fred, a friend of Jean-Baptiste. Fred is blind and is currently working on all kinds of stories in braile for blind people or «young blinds» as he calls them. He is a supper cool guy and is really busy with all the work he his doing for the blind community of Kinshasa. It was so interesting to hear about how his life changed for the better when he became blind and all the work he is doing.
Now that we have finished our 3 day visit at Leve-toi we can safely say that 3 people on a motorbike is not as dangerous as one might think. They provided an exciting new mode of transportation for us and helped us draw closer as a team...literally.

Thanks so much for all of your prayers and encouragement!