Building the Climbing Wall

This week we have been working hard to get the AIDS Orphans Camp ready to go. The camp is focused on providing OVCs (That’s NGO-speak for Orphans and Vulnerable Children) (NGO means “Non Governmental Organization, i.e. private non-profit aid groups) (Yes, we are learning a whole new set of acronyms)

The basic idea behind the camp is to provide a place where OVC kids can come and spend a week in a safe and nurturing environment, and let them have a little fun. The C4L camp (called Orchard Camp, because it is physically located in an orchard) is modeled on one started in Zimbabwe by the Salvation Army. Heather has been planning and organizing the camp for the last year, including training a whole bunch of youth leaders and counselors. The kids-to-counselor ratio is about 5 to 2, which is pretty good. The kids and counselors will be living in tents (big old ex-army tents, about 5 meters per side, and there are all sorts of programs planned for them like arts and crafts, sports, the climbing wall, and even dance.

It’s a really exciting time to be here, and even before the camp starts there is talk about expanding it to Swaziland and Mozambique. It’s a great idea, especially as way of helping AIDS orphans and a very interesting extension of “Christian Camping” that we and so many of our friends participated in when we were growing up. If anyone wants to get involved in setting up and/or running camps in 2006, send us an email at wielerfamily-at-gmail.com (of course, replace the “-at-” with @) (I do this so I don’t get spam) and I will put you in touch with the folks from C4L Canada.

On a personal note, you will see from the pictures some of the structures we are working on. I (John) have now become a high-wire artist, drilling and hammering at great heights (Over 5 meters!). Charlene has been busy with the painting crew, working especially hard on the “ampitheater”, which is now a lovely peach and terracotta color. This week we also bought a washing machine, its an LG brand, and around here they only hook up to cold water. We need to do some work on our bathroom (where the washing machine will be), because we have no water supply for the washing machine, no drain for the washing machine and no power at all in the bathroom. We had the plumber look at it, and he says, “No problem, unless there are rocks under the bathtub”, which is apparently something he has run into in the past.