Banta

We are now up country in Banta, which most of you would probably consider the bush! It is truly amazing here and I can't even begin to describe it to you. So I will try to tell you through pictures.

This is a picture of the village, Ngalala, which is a predominantly Muslim community. Most houses are made out of mud and a thatched roof. Whenever we enter the village, in seconds everyone knows we are there and all the children come running!

This is morning devotions before school starts. Most of these children come from Muslim homes and so the fact that their parents allow them to go to a Christian school is truly a miricle. There are about 330 children in a one room school! And although you would think that there is no way that children can really learn in that environment, they do and they are so eager to learn! COTN also has a feeding program, so each day the children receive a meal of rice and either cassava leaf (the local staple) or ground nut(peanut) stew and a cup of milk.

Walking Chairs

Each day the children bring the chairs from the school to the head teachers house. As you can see it is quite a funny sight!

The School

This is another branch of the feeding program where mothers can bring their malnurished babies and go through a four month program where they learn how to make a porridge out of local foods(cassava, fish, ground nut, rice) that has the proper nutrients these babies need. Many mothers do not nurse their babies long enough, consequently the babies are not getting the nutrients they need to grow properly so part of this program also teaches mothers how to nurse and then the correct way to ween the babies at the proper time.

These are the cutest neighbors you could ever have! We have adopted David and Jennifer as our new children since we've left our other 87 children in Freetown! I hope my bag is big enough!