Walking4Water

Our campsite wasn’t going to be that great already. And then it turned out the only wood we could find was dead pricker bushes. Ouch, anyone?
Then a local woman and her 3 year old daughter came to see if there was anything they could do for us. We said we were okay, but then she insisted we at least come and camp outside of her house. We followed her back and met her husband and they graciously allowed us to camp in their front yard. The next morning we were able to hang out with them some more. They are such a great family. Although very proud of their country and heritage, they still struggle with poverty. Right now the husband is not working because there are no jobs. He is trying to raise some chickens, but it is hard work and also takes some marketing/advertising to sell them properly as well - all of which is difficult when you have basically no start up funds. In my opinion, this family was a great example of a growing family that could really thrive given the opportunity for or right tools/ investment for success. It’s not that they are incapable, unmotivated, or in this case, even uneducated. It’s just that there are so few options. We were really blessed to meet them and be with them and hope to stay in touch.

Another great example of someone we met along the same lines was a man named July. We sat down to have a Coke in his restaurant, which was a simple structure,
just a few tables, kitchen burners, and cooler of drinks. He came over to sit and talk with us. He is 34 years old and has all of the makings to be very successful, he owns some properties, worked to get his commercial drivers license (a very hard and expensive process here) and from the conversation we were having, sounded like he had a lot of great business ideas about how to generate revenue locally, for himself, but also in a way that would also open up jobs for other people in the area.
But his problem was that he needed money to get it all going. Although he had his license, he didn’t have a truck. Although he had buildings that he envisioned making a strip-mall type structure, he had no way of getting the buildings fixed up. 

It was great to meet people with ideas and ambition; local people with successful ideas and entrepreneurship skills such as these would definitely help their communities to succeed economically. But what is the next step?