Mending and interpreting “
Clean”!
Soon after we got settled in our apartment, I offered to do some mending for the boys who are resident here-- the ones that we call “our boys”. After a couple of weeks, I extended the offer to “l' enfants de rue”, the boys who come into our base in the evening to have a safe place to sleep. I have had plenty of takers! Most frequent are worn thin and torn britches bottoms or knees, and split seams on well worn shirts or shorts. Since I have discovered that my sewing machine does a good job of vibrating any sand and grit out of boys clothes, (and then grumbles and growls about having itin the bobbin box) I told the boys that they need to wash the clothes first and bring them to me clean.
'
'Clean” is a relative term! I was a little angry when I got garments that I thought were obviously NOT clean-- at least to my standards. (See the picture Julie took of me with this evening's collection.) When I gave myself time to cool off at their effrontery, and listened to them, I realized that they HAD complied with my request. They
HAD washed the offending garment!! "Kulu...san-fe", they said, pointing to the hill behind us. They had washed them the only way they knew, by hand, without soap in any available water.. Up on the hill, in the stream always a little muddy from the torrential rains we get almost daily in this rainy season, they had diligently washed their ragged garment, probably pounding and kneading it on a stone to try to remove the stubborn dirt, then laying it out to dry on a rock in the afternoon sun. Pants are often still damp at waistband and pockets, and the sand that is on them is “clean sand” picked up from the concrete wall or stone that was their drying rack. They may have had to wear those pants down the hill because they had nothing else!
(Father God, forgive me for my impatience and lack of understanding. I am humbled by these children and their situation that I know so little about. Help me to be more diligent about finding ways to love them, and show them YOUR care and concern. I can certainly wash a shirt or pair of pants for these ones that have no one to care for them. I can give them a gramma's caring. Help me Lord to do it well. For your sake and theirs.)
We have anywhere from 4 to 14 street boys most evenings, but once or twice there have been more. They are let into the base at dusk and come to the Dining hall for a simple meal. Always it is rice, sometimes there is a sauce, sometimes just 'fat rice', seasoned with a bouillon cube and vegetable oil. They listen to a Bible Story, translated from French into Bambara for them, and claim one of dozen or so tattered foam pieces that are stacked in the corner of this all-purpose-room for them to use as sleeping mats. One little regular can't be more than 7 or 8, and is sweet spirited and cheerful, despite his meager possessions and the difficult circumstances he lives in daily. He, like the others, has learned our names quicker than we learned his, and calls out to me when he sees me. “Mimi, Mimi!!”
In the 3 months that we have been here, I have seen a significant deterioration in those 'beds'. In early May they looked a little ragged, but there were recognizable cloth covers on most of them, and they were a fairly uniform single-bed size. Now what remains are mostly bare, spongy foam pads in a variety of sizes and shapes. Most of the bright cloths that used to cover them have been torn and worn to tatters. Each morning any wet mattresses are laid out in the hot sun to dry-- good for drying them out, but terribly hard on fabric and foam. Bits of the foam are often visible on the floor in the morning, remnants that have been plucked off of the mats by restless fingers in the night. Sometimes, when I have come downstairs early enough in the morning, I have seen why the covers are in such rough shape. Small openings get bigger when boys crawl inside the mattress cover to try to keep warm if they are chilly!! (It hasn't gotten below 70*F that I know of, but that is chilly if you are used to 90 and 100+ temperatures. And remember, these are just homeless boys who are used to adapting and using whatever is at hand.)
Ray and I have been brainstorming about how we can replace or upgrade mattresses. The least expensive single bed sponge mattresses are about $40 USD each. Perhaps I can make new covers for the mats that we have, or maybe we can make 3 mats out of 1 double bed sized foam, and then make coverings for them. You can see that it will be a continuing challenge! The wet, the sun and the chilly boys will continue to do them damage. . We will need to get some new 'something' as soon as budget allows, but as donations are down over the summer that is one of the things that will have to wait.
Many of the pants and shirts that I have been mending would have made it to my rag bag long before this. I look at them and wonder if I can make an acceptable patch that will extend their life for on of these boys. When I take a little laundry soap and scrub them the water in my bucket gets muddy, but they still are stained and rough looking to my eyes. When I endeavor to scrub them (I have a bucket and laundry soap) the water in my bucket gets muddy, but they still come off the clothes line looking dirty and rough to my eyes. How much we have gotten used to having!!
The boys are thankful and their beaming smiles are ample reward for me. Lord , bless this interaction for your purpose, and glory.. Such a little impact, but what is available at this point.
Be blessed and count your many blessings as you make an intentional effort to be a blessing to others today. Mim in Mali.
:
Mending and interpreting “Clean”!
Soon after we got settled in our apartment, I offered to do some mending for the boys who are resident here-- the ones that we call “our boys”. After a couple of weeks, I extended the offer to “l' enfants de rue”, the boys who come into our base in the evening to have a safe place to sleep. I have had plenty of takers! Most frequent are worn thin and torn britches bottoms or knees, and split seams on well worn shirts or shorts. Since I have discovered that my sewing machine does a good job of vibrating any sand and grit out of boys clothes, (and then grumbles and growls about having itin the bobbin box) I told the boys that they need to wash the clothes first and bring them to me clean.
''Clean” is a relative term! I was a little angry when I got garments that I thought were obviously NOT clean-- at least to my standards. (See the picture Julie took of me with this evening's collection.) When I gave myself time to cool off at their effrontery, and listened to them, I realized that they HAD complied with my request. They HAD washed the offending garment!! "Kulu...san-fe", they said, pointing to the hill behind us. They had washed them the only way they knew, by hand, without soap in any available water.. Up on the hill, in the stream always a little muddy from the torrential rains we get almost daily in this rainy season, they had diligently washed their ragged garment, probably pounding and kneading it on a stone to try to remove the stubborn dirt, then laying it out to dry on a rock in the afternoon sun. Pants are often still damp at waistband and pockets, and the sand that is on them is “clean sand” picked up from the concrete wall or stone that was their drying rack. They may have had to wear those pants down the hill because they had nothing else!
(Father God, forgive me for my impatience and lack of understanding. I am humbled by these children and their situation that I know so little about. Help me to be more diligent about finding ways to love them, and show them YOUR care and concern. I can certainly wash a shirt or pair of pants for these ones that have no one to care for them. I can give them a gramma's caring. Help me Lord to do it well. For your sake and theirs.)
We have anywhere from 4 to 14 street boys most evenings, but once or twice there have been more. They are let into the base at dusk and come to the Dining hall for a simple meal. Always it is rice, sometimes there is a sauce, sometimes just 'fat rice', seasoned with a bouillon cube and vegetable oil. They listen to a Bible Story, translated from French into Bambara for them, and claim one of dozen or so tattered foam pieces that are stacked in the corner of this all-purpose-room for them to use as sleeping mats. One little regular can't be more than 7 or 8, and is sweet spirited and cheerful, despite his meager possessions and the difficult circumstances he lives in daily. He, like the others, has learned our names quicker than we learned his, and calls out to me when he sees me. “Mimi, Mimi!!”
In the 3 months that we have been here, I have seen a significant deterioration in those 'beds'. In early May they looked a little ragged, but there were recognizable cloth covers on most of them, and they were a fairly uniform single-bed size. Now what remains are mostly bare, spongy foam pads in a variety of sizes and shapes. Most of the bright cloths that used to cover them have been torn and worn to tatters. Each morning any wet mattresses are laid out in the hot sun to dry-- good for drying them out, but terribly hard on fabric and foam. Bits of the foam are often visible on the floor in the morning, remnants that have been plucked off of the mats by restless fingers in the night. Sometimes, when I have come downstairs early enough in the morning, I have seen why the covers are in such rough shape. Small openings get bigger when boys crawl inside the mattress cover to try to keep warm if they are chilly!! (It hasn't gotten below 70*F that I know of, but that is chilly if you are used to 90 and 100+ temperatures. And remember, these are just homeless boys who are used to adapting and using whatever is at hand.)
Ray and I have been brainstorming about how we can replace or upgrade mattresses. The least expensive single bed sponge mattresses are about $40 USD each. Perhaps I can make new covers for the mats that we have, or maybe we can make 3 mats out of 1 double bed sized foam, and then make coverings for them. You can see that it will be a continuing challenge! The wet, the sun and the chilly boys will continue to do them damage. . We will need to get some new 'something' as soon as budget allows, but as donations are down over the summer that is one of the things that will have to wait.
Many of the pants and shirts that I have been mending would have made it to my rag bag long before this. I look at them and wonder if I can make an acceptable patch that will extend their life for on of these boys. When I take a little laundry soap and scrub them the water in my bucket gets muddy, but they still are stained and rough looking to my eyes. When I endeavor to scrub them (I have a bucket and laundry soap) the water in my bucket gets muddy, but they still come off the clothes line looking dirty and rough to my eyes. How much we have gotten used to having!!
The boys are thankful and their beaming smiles are ample reward for me. Lord , bless this interaction for your purpose, and glory.. Such a little impact, but what is available at this point.
Be blessed and count your many blessings as you make an intentional effort to be a blessing to others today. Mim in Mali.:
