Today, my father, Solo, Herbert and I visited Aduonya, a very small village about an hour drive from Nsoatre.
Most trees along the road were burned down, so everything was black, but every now and then there was a little oasis of green.
In rain season this is all rain forest and has a beautiful green colour!
Normally, Solo would inform the community before taking us there, because the people in the village like to know, so they can prepare something. This time, however, we decided to go unannounced, because we really wanted to see their every day life.
Of course, as soon as we arrived, the whole village quickly gathered on the central point outside the clinic.
This clinic was built by the Heart for Children Foundation not soo long ago, also a school building for the primary school was built next to the existing building, which has no walls.
The plan is to built another building with 6 classrooms, so the primary can be in the new building and Junior High can be in the building built before. The old building will then be taken away to make a playground.
There is no Junior High in Aduonya yet, and the teens have walked for hours every day to go to school in Nsoatre. Just a few months ago Solo and Regina and their families decided to take the teens from Aduonya in their house, so they live close to school. The girls now live with Regina’s mother, while the boys live with Solo’s mother.
When we were in Aduonya, the people really wanted to hear about the plans for the future, so we were asked for a meeting.
My father, with Solo translating, then explained that building a Junior High is on our priority list, but we have to wait for funds, so we could only say we will build a school, but not when.
The locals thanked us for everything the foundation has done for them in the past years, they are very grateful. Only a few years ago, nobody had ever done anything for Aduonya and the people were extremely poor and very sad. Then, my parents came there for the first time and asked what they could do for the village. Their answer was: «a school for our children».
Quickly, my parents and the foundation managed to find the funds for both a school and a water pump, and later also a clinic, so now Aduonya has all that and the people of the village are very happy.
We could also see now that roads in the area are improving, so also the government has started to pay attention to this area. The people are now also starting to build better houses and have a much better life.
I was able to hand out some blankets and baby sweaters to the youngest babies, there were only about 5 or 6 babies below the age of 6 months.
Then we walked around in the village, talking to some of the locals and one of them even showed me his house.
This is a bathroom
I was amazed to see this woman with the child on her back, and yet carrying this very heavy bowl of water (it was filled to the top!)
The village is all still very poor, also compared to bigger villages like Nsoatre, where we live.
When we left, some men gave us a rooster as a gift, alive ofcourse!
The rooster had to sit in the back of the car…. I wonder who was more afraid, the rooster or I???
The rooster story continues….