Erchi.......

last saturday we spent the afternoon in a gypsy town called erchi which is about 30-45 min drive from here, but what a difference in terms of life and wealth..... the one family we visited literally lived in a shed.... the only heat they had was from a fire fed stove in their house and their axe was broken.... it was so sad to see...due to the smoke from the stove both little kids had bad asthma, we brought clothes food and sang and prayed for them. we also brought balloons and candy and once the local kids saw us driving in they all ran out to greet us and it was really nice just to be able to bring smiles to their faces, but still it hurt to see the conditions they lived in. the girl on the left came running up to us but as she got nearner i went out give her a balloon and suddenly she became completely terrified and it totally broke my heart because you could tell she had been abused either that or my looks just freaked her out, but she wouldnt let me or any of us with in 10 feet of her, we eventually gave the balloon to another kid to give to her and then she kinda gave us a smile, no kid deserves to be in that kind of life and it just opens your eyes to how we take for granted being brought up in such loving homes.

OM travels to this house, the family below,.... each month to bring them food and clothes and we bought them a new axe to go out next time they visit. hopefully this summer a short term team will come out and we will be able to build this family a larger place and something that will be able to keep them warm and dry in the winter. the picture below that is of the local firewood delivery service... horse drawn carriage a interesting site to see. cars would pass by completely loaded down with wood and we even drove by two guys with a 10 foot log balanced on their bike trudging through the snow, you could tell what the number one priority was in the town..... just to stay warm.