October Newsletter - Kelly in the UK

Kelly's Newsletter
Weald Word
Volume 1, Issue 2
31 October 2007

SLUM SURVIVOR 2007
Every day, over 1 billion people have to survive in the growing slums in many of the world's cities. The basics of life can be very hard to come by. Houses are built from scraps of timber, plastic and cardboard. Toilets may be non-existent or shared by hundreds of people. Piped water is a luxury that people in slums can't afford. This is reality for over a billion people on our planet. Imagine if it was your reality.
The above words is how the introduction to Slum Survivor appears on their website. Slum Survivor encourages young people to live in slums for 24-48 hours to raise awareness about slum life around the world. Another part of the event is getting people to sponsor you to raise as much money as possible to send to Soul Action. Sevenoaks is a very affluent area in England and most people wouldn't think twice about what life in a slum would be like. In all fairness, our slums were pretty posh, as we had access to toilets, running water and gas stoves. It all started on Friday, 26th October at 5:00PM on The Vine with the delivery of about 26 pallets and a large supply of cardboard. The kids unloaded the truck and got to building rather quickly. The entire slum, which consisted of three dwellings, was assembled in about two hours. The Vine is part of the cricket pitch in the centre of town and is the local hangout for teenagers. Most of their time is spent in drunken stupor or engaging in fights. On Friday, however, they engaged in conversation with the slum dwellers and the kids heard about poverty around the world and how God's people need to help. All day Saturday was spent giving passers by tours of the slum and answering questions about the purpose of the slum. As the kids reflected on Monday night at the prayer group, one of the boys said, "That was absolutely the worst time of my life, I have never been so cold or hungry." My reply was, "Now you know how some people feel their whole lives, so you got out of this weekend what was intended, and that was the point." The kids agreed that it was a great experience and want to do it again next year. The weekend was a success and as more people learn about what the kids did, more donations come in.

TEA AND TOAST, COFFEE AND MUFFINS
On Tuesday mornings, I am part of a new social gathering called Tea and Toast. It is a two hour long gathering in the church where mums and toddlers come to eat toast, drink tea and play. I have been doing this for about 6 weeks now and I know which children belong to which mother. I am slowly becoming part of their group now that I am invited to sit and chat with them. This group is about 10-15 mums and their kids and it seems to be working very well and everyone likes coming.
On Wednesday monrings, we have a social gathering called Muffin Morning. This is a small group of about 4 or 5 older women of the congregation who meet to have coffee and homemade muffins. Last week we had the pleasure of viewing one of the women's wedding pictures in the church 60 years ago. It was wonderful! Even though the point of the morning is to socialize, the women have taken it upon themselves to teach me how to knit. I only know how to do a knit stitch, as I have only had two days instruction, but I will get better with time.

THURSDAY CLUB IS FULL OF FUN
Thursday Club is a program I run on Thursday evenings from 6:00 to 7:15 for kids aged 7-11. It is located at our church hall and is a place for children to come and have fun in a Christian environment. Last week the children of Weald celebrated half term with one week off of school. This the equivalent of a break at conference time in the States. We have done many fun things at Thursday Club in the first half of the school term and we have many more things planned for the rest of the term. So far, we have had a cooking night, craft night, movie night, game night and a special swimming night. On cooking night, we made one of my all-time favorite children's desserts: Worms and Dirt! There are many items of food that are available in America, but unavailable in England, so I had to alter the entire recipe. I got what I thought was the same items and they seemed to work just as well. I did have some help from children who had lived in the States before moving to England, so we got it figured out in the end. On craft night, we made Water World posters for a poster making competition. The kids had to draw up a poster that included all uses of water that they could think of. We brainstormed uses of water and talked about people who live in places without access to clean water. The children seemed distraught by the thought of kids like them not having the means to bathe, flush a toilet, or even drink water. We happened to go swimming a few weeks later and got to talking about water usage again. I was pleased to see that the talk wasn't a one night activity, but will be an ongoing learning experience for them. Upcoming events for Thursday Club include: game night playing tin can alley, cooking night with Mrs. Johnson, another swimming adventure, holiday craft night, and as an end of term celebration, a Christmas party.

HARVEST FOR THE HUNGRY
Harvest for the Hungry is a project developed by an organization called Euroaid. It is a project where you fill a box with certain items and they are shipped to various countries that Euroaid supports. if you don't want to make up a box, you can donate 10 GBP pounds to cover the cost of the contents in the box. It is done near the harvest time because there seem to be a lot of people that have food and little though of those that don't. St. George's Church participates in this program and has done so for several years. This year the children at Weald School and the members of St. George's had enough food donations to make up 42 boxes. The church also received enough money to make up an additional 41 boxes. Since we have a congregation of about 180 people, most of whom are children, this is a great number of boxes. Items in the box include: 1 bag of plain flour, 2 bags of pasta, 1 bag of sugar, 2 bags of long rice, 2 tins of tomatoes, 2 tins of fruit, 4 tins of tuna, 3 packets of biscuits, 2 packs of spaghetti, and a fun pack of sweets. This year Euroaid sent a total number of 5600 boxes to Eastern Europe for delivery to those in need.

INTRODUCING THE NEXT JAMIE OLIVER
I am settling into life here on the farm and learning lots of new things. The main thing you need to know when living on a farm is how to make great food. Knowing how to make everything from main dishes to desserts is a must. Even though my parents are great cooks, this is not something that I was blessed with. I am learning how to make wonderful British things like Toad in the Hole, Shepherd's Pie and my latest is Simon's famous chocolate coconut cake. Simon is the grandson of my host parents, Fred and Helen. He is ten years old and has a knack for cooking. He deems himself as the next Jamie Oliver. One morning during a break from school, Simon came over to help grandma bake some things for a bake sale at church. He made four different cakes that morning, but he showed me step by step how to make a chocolate cake. He could be the next great chef on television, as he dictates everything he is doing. From creaming the butter and sugar to adding the coconut and spreading it in the pan, you know every step. While discussing what a wonderful cook he was, he said to me, "Kelly, when your family sees the pictures of me baking my cake, they will want to hire me to cook an entire meal for them." That would be an expensive hire. Well done, Simon!