The BEAUTIFUL sounds of South African drumming!
What can I say…
South Africa stole my heart. For more than 10 years, Africa (as a whole) has been calling out to me from deep within my soul. From the first time I heard and watched African dancers, I've had a desire to go there, anywhere in Africa, and immerse myself in the culture. And what a beautiful culture it is. I have never met people with a more rich identity. Their culture runs deeper than what they wear or the foods they eat. They have a culture of joy amongst strife, laughter amongst hardship and a true understanding of the differences between need, want and blessings.
We flew into Johannesburg, South Africa, and made our way out to a smaller area called White River. We joined with an established ministry in White River called Ten Thousand Homes, which focuses on building houses for orphaned children, community feedings for the hungry and creating "home" through relationships and love.
South Africa has the highest amount of HIV/AIDS infections in the world, with over 5.6 million infected. Due to stigma and ignorance to the disease, many people do not seek out treatment, which happens to be free from the government. This means a significant portion of the population dies at a fairly young age, leaving children orphaned. When this happens, children begin raising children and as a result, South Africa has over 70,000 child-headed homes. A child headed home is defined as a home where none of the inhabitants are over 18 years of age.
The responsibility to care for the family falls upon the oldest child, who are children themselves. They will stop going to school to find some kind of work or way to provide for the younger children. Sometimes, a grandma, or "gogo" in the area will take on overseeing the children of an orphaned family. This means, she may take on the cost of the food (the government provides a small per-child subsidy, which can actually cause people to take kids on for the wrong reasons, as with any foster type situation)but they do not live with the children, nor do they interact with them everyday. They don't help with homework or getting the kids to school. The children are responsible to raise themselves, except for an occasional check in from a gogo.
Home Building
Ten Thousand Homes aims to help these orphans by providing a home that is safe, and that doesn't leave them vulnerable to the elements, theft and illness. It costs approximately $3-5000 US (depending on the exchange rate) to build a very basic home made of cinder block, a tin roof, a few windows and doors. Electricity is dependent upon the family's situation. Most of the homes the kids are living in prior to being provided a home by 10K Homes are made of mud and sticks with random pieces of board or tin(photo below). They are in constant fear of their house eroding with the rain or being robbed due to poor security measures.
While we were there, we were able to assist in putting the finishing touches (paint, windows & doors) on the house built to replace the one pictured above. We also got to participate in the celebration for the new home, where in 10K Homes prays over the home and puts on a special dedication party to truly make the children feel the love of God poured out onto their lives through the gift of a home. It really was such a special ministry to be a part of. Below is Lucky, a South African who works for 10K Homes helping to give back to the children of his nation.
Community Feedings
In addition to the building and gifting of homes, 10K Homes also puts on a twice weekly community feeding for the orphans and poor children in the area. They have a feeding in a community called Mbonisweni on Wednesdays and in Dwaleni on Thursdays. Community volunteers at each location (teenaged orphans themselves and a group of dedicated women, respectively) commit each week to shopping for, preparing and distributing the food as well as cleaning up afterward. Before the food is handed out, they have a small Bible teaching where they are able to bless the kids with tiny gifts like stickers or pencils. It's easy to see what a huge blessing these feedings are for the community and how the children are learning what "family" means even though they have no parents leading their home. Every week, the food supplied by 10K Homes feeds between 100-300+ children at each feeding.
Hair Play!
One of my favorite things to do at the feedings (other than handing out food!) was to take my hair down. The kids are fascinated with hair that is unlike their unique hair and they just had so much fun playing with it and braiding it! And for those of you who know me well, you know I love it when kids play with my hair! It was such a fun time. They would swarm around me and I'd have 10 hands in my hair at once, pulling it in all kinds of directions, resulting in all types of interesting hair-dos! It truly brought me so much joy.
Brother
Each feeding there were different kids that would latch onto you, kids that would just feel or sense something in you and gravitate to you. They would come sit next to you, snuggle up in your nooks, and just pull themselves close. They would grab your arm and wrap it around themselves, pulling it tighter every so often. It was incredible. You could really tell which children were lacking any type of adult comfort or contact. It was heartbreaking and at the same time, just such an honor to be that for them, even for the short few hours each week. As time went on, and the kids realized we were staying for a while, the same child would seek you out (and you, them). I saw this little boy at the Mbonisweni feeding one week and I just couldn't get enough of him. His name translates to Brother and he is 4 years old.
In the same way you could tell which kids were lacking adult contact, you could also see quite clearly which kids were actually starving and taking care of themselves. Brother (and his sister) we consistently dirty, in dirty too small and weather inappropriate clothing, their feet, clothes and nails were filthy and they always had runny noses (a lot of the kids were constantly sick). When I first approached Brother, he was wearing this bright orange sweater in the blazing heat with some pants that were a good 4 inches too short, and he just stole my heart. He was cautious with me at first, but I had him by the end of the day. All they want to know is that you're there to love them, not hurt them, and then they don't want to let you go...and I didn't want to let go of Brother.
My favorite thing that happened was on last week, I showed up a bit late and all the kids were already gathered inside getting situated for their Bible lesson. I looked around hoping he was there, as it would be the last time I'd see him and I had printed a picture of him I wanted him to have. When I finally found him, he was sitting in front of me and he smiled at me and waved me over to him. It was a wiggle to get to where he was, so I waved him toward me instead. He just looked at me, smiled this precious little smile and waved me back to him, patted the stool next to him and just kept smiling at me. How could I resist! I got my wiggle worm on and made my way to him. I think this meant so much to me because in the previous weeks, though we'd begun to seek each other out, he was always very stoic, very straight faced, rarely smiling. So, to see him light up when he saw me and smile at me and invite me into his space (quite adamantly too!)it just really moved me.
House Stays
We also had the amazing opportunity to live with one of the community members! We were all hoping to stay in orphan-led homes, but only some of us did. The home I stayed in was not led by orphans, but was home to two. Myself and my teammate Hilary stayed at Rachel's house with her husband Arnold(the only adult male I saw in the entire community) and their two adopted kids, Simphiwe, 18 and Tembelihle, 8. I believe the girls were abandoned by their father, and they explained to us that their mother (Rachel's niece) died 5 years ago from illness. At that time, Rachel and Arnold took the kids in and they both work long hours but still barely make ends meet to care for the kids. Simphiwe is one of the volunteers at the feedings and Tembelihle comes to the feedings. As Rachel says, anything helps.
They are such wonderful people. They do not have running water in their home, so they catch rain water and keep it in buckets. They heat the water pot by pot to do the dishes and to bathe. They do not have a bathroom, so they bathe in a small basin and they have a long drop out house. A long drop is a hole dug about 30 feet deep, with some sort of fixture above it, either a toilet seat, a wooden box or simply the hole in the earth. When the hole becomes filled with sewage, they cover it and dig a new one nearby. This is a very common style of waste disposal in many third world and developing nations. They work so hard for what they have and it was both endearing and heartbreaking to see how embarrassed Rachel was to offer us the bathroom she had and the lack of a larger basin for washing. They are such beautiful and humble people. These are people who have what they need and not much more and yet, they have SO much joy. They have a love for God and a faith in Him that is astounding. They are able to recognize every single blessing they receive and they praise God for each one. The most powerful thing I gained from my time with Rachel was a confirmation and deeper understanding of what James 2:5 says, "Hasn't God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith?" Yes, He certainly has.
Kruger Park
We decided to give ourselves a little break and explore Kruger Park for a day. Our team of 12 split up into 3 cars of 4 each and zoomed around the park from 6 am to 6 pm looking for any and all wild animals we could find. Cumulatively, we saw just about everything, but in my car we saw rhinos, hippos, zebras, elephants, giraffes, impalas, a cheetah and more! It was absolutely incredible!! To see animals in the wild is just breathtaking!
At one point, we were just driving down the road and Diane glanced to her left and then we all glanced to our left and there was the most gigantic elephant walking right alongside our car. I'm not kidding, it was only about a few yard sticks away and it was HUGE. Every other elephant we saw that day looked tiny compared to this one. Unreal. At another point, a cheetah started walking in the middle of the road in front of our car! A cheetah in the wild is such a sight to see! Wow. I could go on and on... but I'll let you just watch the video. Marisa put together clips from everyones sightings, so this is a mixture of what the team saw as a whole. Amazing.
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