Kmͻ̌jajlo is hard at work!

It’s hard to believe another month is past.  February was a month of hard work with a little fun thrown in the middle.  Kmͻ̌jajlo is growing into its new name, everyone in the Fish Town office calls the project and staff by that name now. 

After the orientation at the end of January, the first big task in the project was to form all the women into neighbor women groups.  When you consider the number of communities and the distances (including many walking distances!), this is a large task!  Then, you consider that the expectations of the community members are often very different than what we are coming to do.  The staff have risen to the challenge and are doing great. At the community level orientation I often hear them emphasizing – “there is no money business here”  and at the end, when asked if they want to join a group, all the women have stayed to take part.  We continue to pray that they will really see the value in the knowledge and peer support that the care groups will offer.   We expect to be finished by the end of March, our targeted date.  Pray that all goes well so this will happen and we can start care group meetings in April!

Last week Joni was here in Fish Town and came out to photograph this process.  These are some of the pictures she took – thank you Joni, awesome pictures capturing what is happening with Kmͻ̌jajlo!

Care Group Promoter explaining the program

Taking down the information for the neighbor women

Another community meeting to introduce the program

Love the quote behind the ladies!

Diagramming care groups

Earlier in February we had a staff retreat in Harper, Maryland – the next county over, right on the coast.  It was a good time for the Fish Town staff to learn and relax together. Two highlights for me - the singing and dancing before the sessions and trying to teach a few of the staff how to swim during the beach time. Below are some pictures from the event…

Singing and dancing during the sessions

Around Harper

Fish Town staff picture

Kmͻ̌jajlo staff picture