Impact Day in Qwa Qwa -- February 23

Monday morning, my shoes are still a little wet. But with the help of the oven, the warming drawer in the oven, and the hair dryer, they are dry enough to wear. But as a constant reminder of my ZIP ride, there is a scorch mark on one shoe.

It was really warm on Sunday, but during the night it kept getting colder and colder. The chalet we are in is not sealed very well, and not insulated at all, When the wind blows, you can feel it blowing inside the house. The curtains and drapes move as the wind blows into the house. We woke up and it was 53 degrees in the house. It was 53 degrees outside the house as well. What a change from yesterday.

After breakfast, we head to Qwa Qwa for Leadership Summit day, IMPACT. Qwa Qwa is a town about an hour from Thrive. It is a very poor city, with over 1.8 million people, over 75% of them unemployed. Jennifer arranged to have the school year kick off for Leadership Summit at a church in Qwa Qwa. She had invited 20 middle schools to each send 20 of their best learners to IMPACT. We could feel the excitement as the learners and principals gathered together. The schools provided transportation and allowed the learners to come to IMPACT instead of attending their regular classes. A better way of writing that would be to say the schools encouraged the learners to come to IMPACT. One school reported that after a year of Leadership Summit arrived, their learner pregnancy rate dropped 67%. What an impact Leadership Summit is making! And the schools realize what is happening and are very supportive of Leadership Summit.

At IMPACT, there were 17 coaches (these are the Basotho young adults who teach the Leadership Summit classes) along with 267 7-9th graders. Jennifer provided a great honor to me by asking me to speak at this Leadership Summit Kickoff. The theme for this year’s IMPACT days is Integrity. She wanted the learners to think about how their actions affect, not only their lives, but the lives of those around them. This was a first for me, speaking with an interpreter. It wasn’t as difficult as I imagined it would be. The audience was great. After speaking about doing what you say and saying what you do, a key part of Integrity, the learners divided into groups and discussed how they would show Integrity in their lives. They formulated responses to the questions given to them in the message. They gave responses that dealt with their daily lives. One said that he would not take the drugs that his parents offer him. Another said she would no longer sleep with her boyfriend. Can you picture any American youth saying that to a room of 300? I, we, were really impressed.