HELPING HANDS



Every ward and branche in our church spends a
morning doing community service together.  Our
ward in Lubumbashi walked downtown to a large
hospital and cleaned the maternity ward and the
outside courtyard.  We had a huge turnout with about
70 people helping out.




These women are "trimming" with the help of their machettes.



How would you like to weed with a short hoe like
Lysette's?  For some reason they all have short
handles.



This is the maternity ward.  Most of the women in our ward
had their babies here.  Our ward is probably the most affluent
in the city.




Inside the maternity ward.  There are 20 beds along one wall
and 20 beds across the room on the other wall.  Each bed comes
with a plastic matress.  The patient brings their own bedding.  The
white metal bassinets are for the new babies.  The families bring
the food and take care of the women when they are patients here.




This is the broom of choice.  You can buy long
handled brooms but all the women use these short
whisk brooms to sweep the ground.  When we
walk in the monings we see many women out sweeping
the bare dirt ground.  It looks like a backbreaker to me.  



This is my broom of choice - the only long handled
one.  The problem was that with every stroke the head
would fall off the handle.  I think I see why the women
like the whisk brooms.  The face mask and the gloves
were given to all of us by the doctors to protect of from this hazmet
area.  Many hypodermic needles were found in the
courtyard and the dust was horrendous.