The Best Is Yet to Come, Pt. 2

Sanibonani!

It is now week nine of the semester; just a little past the halfway point of my time here. I'll be here just short of four months, which has seemed short in some ways, yet seemed so long in others!

Last Thursday (a week ago) we started at our service sites; 43 of us (that's all of us apart from the nursing students as they're on a different track) have been serving at four different sites: Walk in the Light, RivLife, Itemba, and Etimbeni (I may have spelled that last one wrong, hah). My group is at RivLife--short for "River of Life"--and there are 16 of us, who have been split into four groups of four. We are on a sort of rotation with what we're doing, which is nice as I enjoy change and having to stay on my toes.

On Thursday my team of four was at a creche (preschool) all day, which was quite the day! There are about 35 kids that go there every day, who are so full of energy, which is still an understatement. They climb all over you, hang on you, play with your hair, run around, sometimes fight each other, fight over you, and much, much more. They are great to be around though and we enjoyed our day at the creche, which was spent hanging out with them and loving on them. Sounds easy, but it's very exhausting.

On Friday we did home visits, which entailed going along with two social workers and a community caretaker and visiting many that live in the community that RivLife finds itself a part of. The social workers visit the residents, see what their problems are, and do whatever they can to help them. We visited a man with AIDS who doesn't have his medication due to the fact that his family pick it up for him and then sell it as drugs. I have never seen someone so weak and without hope; it definitely broke me. Another young woman was unable to get her ID card as her mother had passed away and her death certificate had not been signed; without proof of her mother's death, the government wouldn't let her get her ID (she needed her mother's consent). We also visited a "gogo", an old woman who was in a wheelchair and only had one leg. What amazed us about this woman, however, was the love she had for her children and grandchildren. She had a joy about her that you would not expect to see; she kept proclaiming how faithful and good God is. If this isn't an encouragement, I have no idea what is. After home visits we spent the rest of the day at the Drop-in Center, which is where all the older kids come and hang out after school. It's technically the same place as the creche, but they get a hot meal and all hang out together.

Kaitlyn petting a dolphin as a part of a dolphin show at uShaka Marine World

On Saturday we went to uShaka Marine World, which is like Sea World but with a bunch of water rides (maybe Sea World itself is like that; I haven't been in years so I can't remember). Me and many others watched a dolphin show, in which our friend Kaitlyn got to pet and kiss a dolphin (she'd won a dance-off to win that place) and our other friend Sarah got to feed one! When the show wasn't going on the camera would pan the crowd and focus on all the crazy people dancing or the presumed couples, telling them they had to kiss. Kaitlyn and our friend Luke ended up on the kiss cam though they're not even dating! It was pretty funny. They didn't kiss, though Chetan (also in our group) pretended to kiss him and the whole crowd applauded. The dolphin show as a whole was my highlight. I spent the rest of the day in the water park, which was tons of fun. Africa's tallest water slide is there, finding itself at 13 meters high (sorry, they use the metric system here). I went down it, and lemme tell ya--it was quite the bumpy ride! We also made human trains down some of the other water slides (the worker allowed us to do it, though it technically wasn't allowed) and a random stranger got caught in the middle of one of them. It was pretty funny.

That night my biology class (or former class, I should say) went to our professor's house for dinner. We had warthog, which was quite delicious! I'd say it tasted like pork, though maybe it tasted more like chicken... maybe both?! Either way it was delicious!

On Sunday we did a thing called "Talking Drums", which is best explained as elementary school music class all over again. We got to play drums, maracas  and other instruments for over an hour--it was a blast! Despite the fact that we all had much homework to do, we had a lot of fun.

On Monday my team did manual labor, spending the day in the blazing sun plowing and planting chili plants. The guy in charge said we'd done more than any other group from APU had ever done--booyah! It was actually one of my favorite days; I felt awesome once we were done. So therapeutic, yard work is! That night me and several others went to a jazz concert which ended up being a traveling high school group from Boston, Mass. They were pretty good!

Me with a bunch of kids at the creche

On Tuesday we had home visits again, the hardest of which was another man with AIDS who has no one supporting him (there are many stigmas here against those with AIDS; they end up being outcasted) and hardly ever has food to take his medication with. We'd brought him some food, which he was very grateful for. We asked to pray for him, which he agreed to, but before that he sang us a part of a gospel song. Again, it moved us in such a deep way.

On Wednesday we spent the day with the gogos (old women), who make fabric products (curtains, skirts, etc.) and sell them to make a living. Stigmas are also present here against older women, so by working and making a living they are coming against those stigmas. The woman we mainly spent time with was Nombula (I think that's her name; it means "the rain" as it was raining when she was born), who runs a creche to keep children safe from abuse when their parents or caretakers are gone at work and also makes food to feed those in the community. We call her the Mother Theresa of South Africa. She made us Zulu bread (which is amazing, but even better freshly cooked!) and "fat cooks", which is Zulu bread fried in balls in oil (kinda like rolls). We were so blessed by her and I loved hearing all about her life. Can't wait to go visit her again, and hopefully help her out with her garden! (She asked if we could help her with it next time we visited.)

Sfundo and I

Yesterday was a public holiday so all of the service sites were closed. Because of this, we had our Community Engagement class again, which entailed a lot of reflecting on the time spent at our service sites thus far.  Today we spent the morning at an HIV support group, a group of women that meet weekly to not only support each other but to rise above their circumstances and to live a life of joy and hope. We asked them questions about themselves, the support group, and so on while they asked us questions about ourselves. We learned a lot from them, such as the fact that stigmas cause much of the abandonment and isolation of those who are HIV positive. Many of them don't tell their families they are HIV positive for fear of this. Their strength amazed us though. We spent the rest of our time their playing with the kids, singing, and dancing; they'd even made us Zulu bread and soup for lunch! Today was undoubtedly a great day. It truly has been a blessing to be serving at RivLife and engaging with the community during the short time we've been there. I can't wait for the latter half of our service segment! (We're already six out of 12 days in... isn't that crazy?!)

That's about it for now. In case you haven't heard, the deadline to send me mail has long passed since it won't get to me in time. We leave Pietermaritzburg for good (I can't believe it...I feel like we just got here!) in a little over two weeks, and international mail takes 2-4 weeks to arrive.

Thanks for following my adventures and praying for and supporting my team and I! I count each one of you as tremendous blessings in my life. :)

Take care,

Gary