Today was our first visit into the community of mafambisa. When we arrived we were welcomed by the careworkers who then asked us to do a number of different jobs such as: peeling potatoes, grating carrots, cutting the cabbages and washing up. After that we sat down and introduced ourselves to everyone, played a few games and then read a short story from the bible, where we discussed deeper qualities about ourselves and really connected with the people surrounding us.
Shortly after we went on a home visit, the home I went to was facing many difficult problems, the grandmother Catherine* dealing with mental scars from past events in her home town of Mozambique after experiencing war and losing her daughter who also had two younger children. She was supported by auntie Julia* who didn’t work and was now getting older, also suffering from increasing knee pains. Other people in the home included the niece who also had a child of her own, a visitor from family in Mozambique and lastly the grandfather who wasn’t actually connected to the children, but looked after them like his own.
Members of the family struggled to find work or weren’t allowed to as they didn’t have the correct South African documents as they originated from Mozambique. This meant money only could be made from the grandfather which unfortunately is still not enough to take care of the family
The one grandchild, Scarlett, lost her mother when living in Mozambique from extreme illness, which led to their migration to South Africa. She wasn’t able to attend her mother’s funeral as family could not afford to pay taxi fare. Scarlett now has many unanswered questions about her mother and is easily irritated and angered because of this. She used to attend the care point, but has not visited for a long amount of time and the careworkers believe it is because of these reasons.
The auntie then began to sing as we all prayed for the requests that the family members had asked for. As we left, the careworker Virginia explained that it was an abusive household that didn’t make much effort for the children to come to the care point. She went on to say their home visits will be more frequent in order to encourage the broken family to get involved.
Skye
Today we went to gogo Jennifer’s* house where she and her two grandchildren were. As we got to the house we saw that they were unpicking ground nuts beneath the tree next to a huge pile of seeds ready for cooking. Rose (the care worker with us) started asking why her grand daughter had not been attending the care point to collect her one meal a day. Gogo said she was doing studying, which concerned Dan, our team leader, as he was unsure as to whether this was the real reason. As general chat passed, we started asking questions to understand gogos story; such as how she got here and how long she had been in this community. She told us she had moved from Johannesburg, as she saw a cheap land for sale and had been there since 2007. Her children now live in Johannesburg and are the only provider besides the care point for food, clothes, money etc. We helped pick the nuts for her and eventually said our goodbyes and left. On the way back to the care point we thought about how hard life must be for gogo and the situation she is in. As we got back we were met by lots of children waiting for the food we had helped to prepare. The children ate their food and once they had finished played, made handshakes and introduced themselves. One child showed me his workbooks from school and his brilliant drawing of a lion he had drawn previously. Another drew a picture of me eating pap which was very good. We then said goodbyes and even after only knowing these people for a few hours it felt we had already created a special bond between us. I think we all as a team will take a lot away for life back at home.
Tom
*Names changed
