The London marathon is now only a few weeks away, which means less training so my body can recover and more bowls of pasta so I’ve got lots of energy! You can see how its going at http://virginmoneygiving.com/jonisbell
I thought you might like to hear a story from my last trip to Uganda. As you can imagine it’s quite a bit hotter than it is in the UK! This means it’s important to drink lots of water to stay hydrated. We can’t drink the well water because our stomachs aren’t used to it – we drink bottled water instead.
We had got to about the middle of our time in Manafwa and had amassed quite a collection of empty water bottles on our bus. One of the local children spotted our bottles and really wanted one. The children are so lovely it’s hard to say ‘no’. So we caved in and gave him a bottle. It wasn’t long before there were lots of kids who wanted bottles too! Word gets out fast!
To us it was just a plastic water bottle, that we’d throw away! But they were all incredibly excited! It meant they could take their own water to school! In the villages, in Manafwa, there are no taps. You have to walk maybe 3 miles to get to the nearest well. That means in many cases the children will spend the whole day at school without anything to drink (or eat) in really hot temperatures. I’m sure you can imagine that makes it quite hard to stay awake, never mind learn!
The day after the water bottle episode I was walking up a dirt track in the area that we were working in and spotted a group of children we’d given bottles to. I went over to say hello and as I got closer I was horrified to see they were filling their bottles with dirty water from a ditch in the track!
As I’ve mentioned in my previous post this year we are taking teaching resources for schools and starting the process of drilling wells. Both of these will help the children get better education and help break the poverty cycle. I’d be incredibly grateful for your support and I know the children in Manfwa would too!
If you’d like to, you can donate at http://virginmoneygiving.com/jonisbell
Thanks,
Jon
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