From the moment we finished our last blog, the skies opened
and we witnessed a South African thunderstorm, which was amazingly
powerful.
This morning, we joined with everyone else for Fellowship
Friday, which is an opportunity for visitors and staff alike to share
experiences and news. We are currently
sharing the hub with a large group from Canada, who have arrived at the hub
after a week in Zimbabwe and they told us all about their experiences.
It was also a time to celebrate George Snyman’s
birthday. While singing the South
African version of Happy Birthday, people lined up to give him a hug: and with
around 50 people, it took some time but was a real celebration. Following cake and chatting with other guests
and members, it was time to set out for Mafambisa.
We had visited Mafambisa on Monday. It was lovely to be back and to take part in
two home visits. Stacy and Christine
visited Go-go Alice*, she is a widow who looks after seven grandchildren, all
of whom go to the Care Point. She has
not been well, so one of the children has not been able to go to the care point
as they have been looking after her. She
was very welcoming and showed us her garden, the house she is building, and we
talked about her role within the household.
She grows maize and takes some back to her Mother in Mozambique she can
also feed her family for around nine months of the year. The community around her will share whatever
they have with their neighbours in need and when we were there, her neighbours
were dropping of vegetables as they know she is unwell.
Simon and Laura went on a home visit to see a child that
wasn’t well. When we arrived the mother wasn’t there because she was working,
and her daughter that wasn’t well was feeling better and was back at school. Her
son, however, was in bed because he was ill. He is 28 years old and doesn’t usually
live with the rest of the family but had returned because he was told at the
hospital that he has kidney problems. His mum is looking after him while he is
taking his medication but, because she was at work and his sister who should
have come over to look after him hadn’t, he was home alone in bed. We spent
some time talking with him and made sure that he was ok. We then prayed with
him and left him to rest. Next, we quickly stopped by another home where the
government were building them a new home to make space for the family of four
who currently reside in a small shack that is exposed to the elements. Finally
we stopped by a third home because two of the children had not been to the care
point in over two weeks and we wanted to find out why, and to check that everyone
was ok. We found that the daughter, who is seventeen, is currently unwell and
pregnant. She still seemed high spirited but, hearing her story, it sounds as
if the father is not going to be able to support them and so her mother is
going to be supporting her. The mother, however, had recently lost her job and
so she is looking for work and asked for us to pray that she could find work to
help support her family. She shared how she is going to struggle to find work
as she is originally from Zimbabwe and so has no official documentation to work
in South Africa. The reason the other child had not been to the care point was
because he had been spending his time going around the community to help people
do jobs to earn some extra money to help his family while his mum isn’t working.
Whilst he is only young, he is not attending school as the school has started
to suspend students that do not have official documentation. He was told how he
could still come to the care point to eat and to collect some food for his
sister in a container. It was then really good to see him joining in and
playing with other children at the care point later on.
When the children arrived after school, it was the usual fun
and games, with football being the favourite of the day. Having helped to prepare the food before the
home visits, the Care Workers had cooked a meal of pap, beans and cabbage and
then it was our turn to serve it to the children.
We left as the children were leaving and drove to the local
supermarket (Pick ‘n’ Pay) to buy food for the weekend and snacks for the
mini-bus as tomorrow we go to Kruger National Park. On Sunday we are planning a trip to Blyde
River Canyon.
We will blog again on Sunday night and let you know about
our weekend.
*names changed for safeguarding purposes