Familiar Yet New

           Sawubona (hello), sorry for the long time in between posts. I can hardly believe how the time is flying during my time here; it has been five weeks now though it feels as if I have just arrived. I know I have promised you a post about the food in South Africa and a post about the squatter's camp. I have not forgotten about these but am not yet prepared to write them. They will come though !! For now a little about my last two weeks and my thoughts about always getting to know more. 

          On the weekend I was very happy to be able to visit two friends in Pietermaritzburg, a town forty minutes from Richmond. I had a fun and relaxing time catching up and hanging out with these two and some of their friends. On Saturday we attended the Royal show which is an annual agricultural show. There were many many shops and I picked up a few things to bring home to my family and we stuck around into the evening to listen to the live bands that were featured that night. On Sunday we went to listen to a well-known pastor preach at a soccer stadium. Angus Buchan is a South African farmer whose life was completely changed around when he became a Christian. I’ve heard lots about this man, read two biographies on him, and watched the movie “Faith Like Potatoes,” which is based on his life, more than a few times. If you have never watched the movie I highly suggest you put it on your to do list. It was really powerful to hear this man of God preach to a great number of people, lots of families and friends, many of whom, like us, where comfortable sitting in the sun, on the grass of the soccer field. For me this was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I am so grateful to have been able to do. Our sovereign God definitely knew that I needed this sermon to refresh my soul as well.

Last week I spent much of my time at the Crèche filling in for staff and just being an extra hand there. I would head there in the morning and leave sometime after lunch I would head up to the hospice for the afternoon. At the crèche I might teach some mornings, help the other teachers with their teaching, or help make lunch for the fifty something children. One morning this week I was in the kitchen by myself and managed, with some help from the teachers, to make the food by myself. Though my techniques of cooking are different than what the staff are used to we enjoy laughing at these differences and sometimes have fun combining our ways to make the food.

Right now I try to go up to the hospice every day, to take all the patients’ blood pressure and pulse, as the hospice machine is broken. There is also a recently new stroke patient at the hospice who I am working with through physiotherapy to try to regain movement and function to his left limbs. I met this man twice before he had his stroke about three weeks ago, he enjoys telling me stories while I help him with his physiotherapy, and we have already seen improvement in the week and a half he has been at the hospice.

I usually walking to and from the crèche and hospice from home and enjoy it as the weather right now is perfect for it as it is not too hot. From my home it is six blocks one way to the crèche and two blocks the other way to the Hospice. Those paths, especially to the hospice, have become very familiar to me. I walked them four years ago, two years ago, and so now I know them very well. Though this is my third time in the past four years in Richmond, and though things like the paths, the people, and the shops are familiar to me, they are not the same.  Things change over time, which I am glad of, it makes life interesting and challenging. It also leaves me getting to know people, places, and things that I previously have known all over again because they have in a sense become new to me through the changes over the years.

Take relationships for example. I am so happy to have friends here in South Africa who I know before coming here by myself. I am comfortable, at ease, and feel at home with them because I know them and now I find that there is so much more to know about them as two years has created a lot of new things for both of us. I guess in all of our life this is true in relationships. I do this with my family when I talk to them on skype, I am constantly learning new things about their lives and about them. In our relationship with God this is also true. We can know God yet every day we can learn more and more about him. I have never before thought of knowing people or things to be a constant process that goes throughout a lifetime. It’s interesting to think that in the future I will know so much more about things, people, and God just by searching for the new things in every area of life. 

God blessing be with you all.

Laina

Work, Relationships, and God !!

This past week I kept busy mostly at the hospice and helping the staff with different things. One day we went to a local farm to pick up some vegetable that they donate each week. The type of veggie’s varies from week to week but we take whatever we can get as there is always someone who will use it. This day we got lots of cabbages, and some peppers, beans, and tomatoes which were brought to use at the hospice and crèche. The extras were given to the staff at the hospice and then we brought some packages of food to the squatter’s camp (I will write an article in the future about the squatters camp).

At other times I was able to help with some office work and organization which is always something that needs to be remembered. On Friday I interviewed three staff members in order to write articles for EWF’s upcoming newsletter. I spend the morning doing the interviews and most of the afternoon formally writing the pieces. I am used to writing a lot for school, and have not done near as much writing since I finished school four weeks ago, so I actually enjoyed doing this quite a bit.

I spent Saturday, my day off, with Ntsiki, the house keeper at Ebukhosini Guest House where I stay who is also a Community Service Worker, and Miriam, a new friend of mine. Unfortunately it was a rainy and very cold day and so we spent a lot of it curled up warm inside with our little heater on and talking. In the afternoon it was still really cold but the rain had stopped to we went into town to pick up some groceries and so that Mariam could get her hair done. We had lots of fun together and were able to make the most of a dreary day. The entire weekend was very cold so Ntsiki and I could more often than not be found with a cup of tea in our hands. We drink mostly Rooibos tea which is filled with antioxidants and is free of caffeine.  

               

            I have really been blessed in this past week to get to know many of the staff better. When we are not so busy we will often spend time talking and I have gotten to know more about many of the staff personally as well as learn things about South Africa. Yesterday I learned more about Lobola, which is similar to a bride price or dowry, and which is still followed in South African culture. The person I was speaking to is preparing to get married and her family and the man have just settled what amount the Lobola will be and now he must save to pay that price to the family before marrying her. Though some are changing to a more modern payment of just cash there is still often Lobola amounts that are paid by cattle which is a sign of wealth in South Africa. African’s have a love for food and eat many interesting things that Canadians do not eat, though I have been able to eat some new things I am hoping this time to try more of their traditional foods. Maybe my next post will be about the food that is typically eaten.

                

            There has been a couple times this week that I have had nothing to do for a couple hours. God has lead me to use these times to spend hours in his word or in prayer for EWF, the work being done here, and for the staff and patients. I consider sitting in the backyard of the hospice and praying over it a blessing to be able to do and I hope that you also would be blessed by adding your prayers to mine.

          

              Please keep me and all the staff at EWF in your prayers. I know for the staff it can be very hard work and often the rewards of their work are not seen. This can be discouraging so pray that they might remember that they are doing their work for God and that he blesses those who honor him. Since it is getting colder here some of the staff are also suffering from colds or other illnesses which makes it harder for them to have the energy needed for work and then also their families at the end of the day. Please pray for one staff in particular whose mother past away this week and is not the head of her household and the main breadwinner for her and her siblings. Praise God for recovering patients who are being sent home and getting stronger every day. Also for the blessed relationships among the staff and who have opened their arms to me and made me feel at home. God is at work here, and though there are always challenges to work through for us humans, Gods plan will be done and I trust in that. 

Créche

               Crèche is a word used to describe a gathering of foundlings (In this case infants or children) in one place to be cared for my one or more adults. It is thought of to be a day care or nursery for those who can’t care for themselves. Too often In SA infants and children are left in the care of non-trustworthy people or children barely older than themselves in order for the parent(s) to go to their job or look for a job. The Crèche supplies responsible adults to care for children who are about two years old, and are out of nappies (diapers), to children of five years who are then able to attend government schools. The Crèche is set up with supplies to teach preschool basics such as counting, sound, letters, naming, shapes, colors, days of the week, months of the year, and the starting of learning to speak English. It also provides the children with some health care and a hot lunch every day of the week. Most importantly the children are taught how to pray before starting the day of school/events, before they eat their meal, and bible stories are read and taught to them! The four women who work at the Crèche every day of the week are very dedicated to teaching the children, caring for them in the best possible way they can, and playing and loving on them during the day.

                The children who come to the Crèche are all from homes who cannot afford a nanny or do not have extended family to care for them while their parent(s) are working. The current Crèche is filled to its limits and therefore has had to turn away parent wanting their children to attend. There is not only a need for a bigger building for the Crèche but also for new Crèches established in other villages around Richmond. Emmanuel’s Wish Foundation is in the process of doing exactly this for the town of Richmond and surrounding areas through the financial support of a great many people.     

I want you to picture for me a room, roughly one hundred square feet, filled with forty-four children. They have lots of energy, are busy eating their snacks, and will not stand still long enough for either me or the Crèche workers to count how many children have come to preschool/daycare today. This is what a typical morning at the Crèche looks like but today we had some visitors come which made the morning slightly different than normal. The children were very excited to see the visitors, eagerly went outside to greet them, and joined in singing with one of the women when she prompted them to. Things soon changed though as the four workers from the local clinic came inside, set up their equipment, and we started having the children roll up their sleeves and line up for a needle. Once the crowd of children realized what was going on the excited faces turned blank, some tears started rolling, and soon enough we had a group of upset and worried children, some were bawling, and others just trying not to.

With children this young it is hard to explain the necessity of the shot and once one child starts to cry the reaction quickly spreads. Once a few had received the shot it was harder for us to reassure the remaining children and though there were some very brave little people we had to hold many still, while they cried and squirmed, in order to properly give them the shot. Thankfully after the shot most of the children were not upset and the tears where quickly dried up.  

In SA (Or it might just be Richmond, I’m not really sure) the clinic workers identify children who have been given this shot my putting marker on their middle and pinkie fingers on the left hand. So a few children who already had their fingers marked were identified and not given the shot. There are no record books or immunization sheets just a mark on two fingers. The Crèche staff and I had a good laugh when a little boy, who had been pretty brave during his shot, could not stand the marker on his fingers and was quite upset and crying about it. We tried very hard to distract him but he just kept staring at his hand and then looking at us and getting teary eyed. I ended up holding and cuddling him for a while until he left to go home.

Tanya, the South African Manager for Emmanuel’s Wish Foundation, picks up and drops off the children each morning and afternoon in a five seat jeep. This afternoon when we were bringing them home we had 18 children plus three adults in the jeep. Thankfully the first stop to let some of the children off is only about 10 minutes away and then there is a little more room for the rest of the drive. The plan for the Crèche’s is to keep one locally in Richmond for those who live relatively close and then build more in the surrounding communities so that the children can be brought by their parent/caregivers instead of being picked up and dropped off every day.

  I was given the opportunity this week to teach the older group of children (four and five years old) as one of the teachers was not able to come to work. This was a challenge for me as we had to work through the language barrier, there were 25 of them and only one of me, and I have never done anything like this before. It was a very exciting experience though and I hope I will be able to do it again during my time with them. Next time I teach I think I will be more comfortable as I am learning a little bit more Zulu every day and the kids are now familiar with me and respect me as one of the staff. Also I am now accustomed with the staff’s pattern of teaching and the day’s events at the Crèche and can keep a similar schedule when I am teaching the classroom.

Overall the Crèche is a wonderful project for this community and its need and benefit is undoubtedly seen. As prayers and reading of the bible has recently been eliminated from public schools this is also an ideal way to teach the word of God to children who might otherwise go through life never being told the stories of the bible or that God loves them. Bible stories, life lessons, prayers, and songs can stay with children for a long time. I believe it is important for children even this young to hear about the love of God and to be given the opportunity to learn what the bible is about. Please pray for the continuation of the staff to be dedicated to teaching the children both in education and in the knowledge of God and for the future plans of Emmanuel’s Wish Foundation as they look to create more projects such as this.

uNkulunkulu busisa nina (God Bless You)

Laina Kiezebrink

First four days

Praise God I am safe in Richmond! After two changes in my flight plans, only hours before I was set to leave Canada, I was thankful that all three flights went well. My first flight to New York had been delayed for three hours making my second flight impossible to catch so I was shifted to an earlier flight, and later to an even earlier one, giving me more time to get to my next flight on time. This change meant traveling in NY from the LaGuardia airport to JFK airport. It was a neat experience seeing some of NY, though they drive quite unsafe and I found myself holding my breath at times hoping we would not hit the car or person beside the bus. Being able to watch NY from the window was very enjoyable and the forty-five minute drive flew by. Though the next two flights were very long, and I was extremely sore from sitting, they went smoothly and I had no complications along the way.

After a day and a half traveling with strangers it was very nice to be picked up at the airport in Durban by familiar friends and we enjoyed some time in Durban before heading to Richmond. By the time we got to Ebukhosini Guest House I was completely exhausted after having very minimal sleep for two days. Around 8pm after unpacking and calling home I went to bed and while I woke during the night I slept in till 10am and felt amazingly better! I was awoken in the morning by the familiar cry of the Hadeda Ibis otherwise known as the Har-Dee-Dar bird, named for the sound it makes which cannot be missed as it is a very loud bird. It was  10 and church started at 11, I wasn't sure how long it would take to walk there but I was ambitious and got there in time, enjoyed a lovely African church service and spend the rest of my day settling in at the guest house.

In the past four days a striking experience for me was the love of a community I find myself in. Many of the staff of EWF or people of Richmond that I have met in the past have been so welcoming to me and eager to help me feel at home. I have only communicated with a few of these people in the two years since I have been away from Richmond and others I have just met this week.  I feel like there is a bond, a connection between us that causes us to pick up right where we left off two years ago and maintain a friendship or quickly come to know each other and form a friendship though we have only met just a few days ago. I believe this connection to be two things

One if a mutual bond we have in Christ. Being in a strange church felt welcoming and I love to hear the house keeper at Ebukhosini in the room adjacent to mine singing songs and hymns in a mixture of English and Zulu. The other bond I have identified is an identical goal that many of us are working towards. Those who work or volunteer in various positions for Emmanuel’s Wish Foundation are all working towards spreading the love of God, being the hands and feet of Jesus, and helping the people of Richmond to thrive were they are in their lives and in their health. I am surrounded by these people every day and count it a privilege to be working alongside them.

Today was a holiday in South Africa so we all got the day off. For me this is not as exciting as I do not have much to do other than the work with EWF. Despite this I have made myself busy with some things including writing a lot, both on the blog and to family and friends, prepping food for the week when I need to bring lunches with me, and trying to learn some Zulu though this last one is hard not knowing if I am pronouncing the words right. Tomorrow the workers at the hospice will have many questions from me about Zulu words so that I can get it straight! Take care for now.

Ngiyabonga (Thank you)

Laina