Monday July 6th
Camp and de-worming at Joy HBC
The day opened with ‘Africa-Time’. We were supposed to leave early – around 8:30am at the latest. Pretty much we were ready to leave, and Busie and Jackie were ready to take us (Jackie was to be our guide for the day), but the bread hadn’t turned up! We had calculated 7 loaves per child, rounded up, and so we needed 80 loaves of bread (10 trays) to service the 511 kids that we had. We also had some quite spicy chips in 4 flavour – beef, tomato and another couple – that were to go to the children along with bread with peanut butter, juice (reconstituted OJ) and, of course, the deworming tablet. It is funny – in Australia it would be a worming tablet, just like a pipped prune is one that has had the pip removed, not put back in. Jackie laughed when we said this, like we were putting worms back into the kids!
We took a trip up to a different direction, to the hills to our south rather than north towards Bushbuckridge. We were going to a centre called Joy, where there are 511 registered OVC’s (orphaned and vulnerable children). As soon as we were under way we noticed just how much the difference was as we moved through these communities. Still the same smiling kids, and lots of them, but the place was remarkably affluent compared to the poor communities.
We wound our way around the hillside, until we came past the CLA-CLA, pronounced like it sounds, child care centre. The real spelling is HLA-HLA. The actual HBC office was about 500metres up the road, but it wasn’t appropriate for dealing with 500 kids in one place, so back down the hill we went to cla-cla.
The place itself was built 4 or 5 years ago, and it resembled a high school auditorium – huge! It had a vinyl floor which was still in reasonable repair, but it had wooden doors with rusty nails pointing dangerously north. We got rid of all the dangerous bits, and started setting up.
Debrief session:
We just allowed the new guys and the people at the camp to debrief today.
Leyton was first and he indicated that they just prepared lunch and dinner. They made a rice stew for lunch and pap with chicken for the dinner. They were cutting vegetables, potatoes for 40 people. Rachelle and Pragcidence were at the camp as well during the day.
They were able to have a couple of breaks to play soccer, and that was a bit of a break out of the routine of preparing food
Jared: they visited Weston’s huge workshop, where he makes all the wooden furniture for the new cottages – cupboards, and cabinetwork. The work was repetitive, but it had to be done.
Pat: Apart from the help in the kitchen, they were able to play a few games of table tennis, and that was great. The grounds were also very lush and maintained, which made an incredible contrast with the situation at Cork / Belfast where we were before.
Well done to the three, to be separate from the group and to just serve the camp, where it was reported by Weston in Friday’s Hands get-together that 20 children were saved. Doing camp work like this is really a ‘pure’ service, it is not an extraordinary experience, but it helps the gospel simply and effectively. Thanks to the three.
Lynley (Lou) “Cool” She found the coolest thing of the day was when Ina did the talk about the STD’s with the 12+ age kids (which would have been around 20% of the group that were around long enough to stay for the sessions which were last on the program). To see the eyes of the older boys really concentrating hard on what Ina was saying was amazing, where in Australia it would be a topic that you wouldn’t be seen dead concentrating on. That there wasn’t a peep out of them gave Loo hope that they would take those lessons on board and that they would express their love for each other correctly (that was the basis of the talk – that we are to love others like Jesus loved others, but appropriately, in a way that did not spread disease.)
Lou made friends with a group of kids, a part of which were a family group – 3 girls and a boy. Oldest was around 17 – similar to her age, and her command of English was incredible – Lou found that she could just talk normally and be understood. This girl was talking to her about conditions at home – and that home was missing the middle generation and that her grandma was looking after 25 children in the one home – just an astonishing thing to consider
Emily: Her word was ‘Heaps of fun’. The activities were just fantastic to be a part of, particularly wth kids that had such joy in just plain activities with very plain props. (We did have the soccer balls and skipping ropes and they were lots of fun, but not for the group activities that the girls organised). One thing was that they asked for her shirt, and her cardigan or money, or even just a present (Tamara), and that was something that definitely didn’t happen in Australia! Asking around the group, it didn’t happen so much, and through our time it is probably sunglasses that aroused the most interest regarding free acquisition – particularly for Sharni.
Chantall (Till) The main thing that struck Till was the fact of kids looking after kids. Many of us commented that we saw one girl who was just around 5 or 6, but who had her little brother who was just 1-2 to look after. Without complaining, this little girl continued to lovingly look after her sibling. She tried to participate in the games, but in the hokey-pokey, for instance, she just couldn’t move with her little brother in tow. She made the comment about how in Oz this would have been a massive drag and a point of carry-on for a child, but that this child took it all, no complaining, and just enjoyed the day as best as she could. Our discussion then turned to the fact that this is really an African custom that is fantastic, and not at all unique to this girl. Kids have to look after kids, ultimately because very often adults don’t have the time to do it. Kids have to almost look after themselves.
Till also managed to make a child cry by relieving the girl of her brother for a few minutes so she could participate in “Jarna Says” which was a total laugh from start to finish, along with head shoulders knees and toes.
Jarna: ‘hectic’. What hit home to Jarna was the fact of kids over such a massive range 5-17 – interacting positively together with such joy in their faces, whereas in Sydney they tendency is to separate into smaller common interest groups.
It was inspirational seeing them play without toys of any kid, just playing games, and looking up to someone who just wasn’t like them at all – very white and only English, and still having such joy
Tamara: the thing that stuck with Tamara was speaking with a young girl in conversation, and discovering that it was the girl’s birthday tomorrow. To encourage conversation, Tamara asked if she was having a party for her birthday, to which it was replied no, almost as if it was a foreign concept (Jackie, who was in our session, said that this is correct – that birthdays are not considered special in any way. Enquiring further, Tamara asked if her parents had anything for the birthday to celebrate. The girl calmly, almost without outward sadness, that her parents were both dead, and that a 14 year old girl could talk about this so easily struck home to Mara just the sadness of African life. The other thing was the willingness of all of the kids for body contact and as they were saying goodbye. Hugs became a huge group hug, which became 15 hands all tickling her on the ground in the centre. Everyone was just so happy, it was a great thing to see.
Tim: We left Australia thinking that we were going to be ministering to the people in Africa, but it turns out that they are the ones ministering to us. What a great privilege it is to be able to serve in this way, and in some way he is envious of Steve going over for an extended stay next year. The feeling of community that they share is something that we just don’t have in Australia, and it is as though they have something that we don’t have, that it is us who are the poorer ones.
Jackie: She verified that birthdays are just not things to be considered, and that children are just considered for most of Africa as useless, even nameless, until they hit several years old and it looks as though they are going to make it.
She commented about the worming program (that she had put together with Big Dave from Canada) and how the last program worked OK, but it was more something that was done TO the kids as an activity, giving them things, and that somehow this year has been different, that it has been something that our group has managed to do WITH the children instead, that we had become a part of their lives, sharing our lives with them, becoming a part of their group for a little while. It was beautiful, or incredible (we can’t remember the word !)
Tomorrow we have a morning visit to the ACTS aids clinic, a world-class ARV treatment and AIDS diagnosis centre that is just down the road from the Hands Village. We then move onto Cork
We had a lovely time then with the US team, who have all come from the Texas area, except for one lady (I think Lauren) from Kansas. They mixed with us for dinner and afterwards with a crazy game of spoons.
Keith’s Diary
Wednesday 2/7
Leyton, Clinton, Ina, Vicki, Sharon and I at Cork. The guys finished off a swing set built the previous 2 days by Geoff, Steve and Jared. Then, under direction of simon, we built a climbing frame. Were able to attaché ropes for climbing on one side and to be completed Friday. All the while kids would come around and watch.
Ina, Vicki and Sharon went out on home visits and were particularly touched by the plight of Carolyn – a blind refugee from Mozambique who are not interesting to the local community as far as care is concerned. Her accommodation was more of a tent than a building – plastic sheeted tucked to a wooden fram. Her bed was a collection of rags and her food we would classify as incredible filthy.
Children were fed this day. We did a puppet presentation using Australian animals on the subject of environmental awareness.
Thursday 3/7
Back to Cork for a day in the sun finishing off the climbing frame. The kids climbed on the ropes while we installed the climbing frame. The kids climbed on the ropes while we installed wooden post rails and risers on the other side. I was interrupted by the sound of a crying little one and looked around to find her all alone on the ropes. She’d got up but couldn’t get down!
I picked her off the ropes and gave her a hug and a pat. She snuggled right in and threw an arm around my head for a big hug. All of a sudden things got misty.
I crouched own changing a drill bit, and little fingers found their way in to my hair, followed by lots of suppressed giggling. A medical emergency too Simon off-site for about an hour, and the diagnoses was a hypoglycaemic diabetic attack. “medication” was prescribed and obtained and life went on.
Ina and Sharon and Vicki went back to Carolyn’s which really moved Ina. No food was available for the children that day (approx 50 kids) Simon when out and bought 15 loaves of bread and margarine which Ina paid for out of her own pocket and motivated. Some of the bread also went to the workers and in particular for Carolyn.
The other team had a ‘no food for the children’ situation also. They drove the bus around the corner out of sight and ate lunch; but had bad feelings about it after; which led to a time of discussion and soul-searching that evening. (children had left when the bus left; the day lost momentum and finished early).
Sharon’s Diary
If I had to describe today in one word it would be rewarding. We came over here to bless these people, but they are actually blessing us.
More soon . . . .