Hello
from Welkom!
I
have been here one week today, and it has been so good to be back! We
left our house around 6:30am, and we landed at Johannesburg on Friday night
around 10pm South Africa time. So for 36ish hours (I was too tired to
figure out how many) we went from home to Chicago, to Detroit, to Amsterdam, to
Johannesburg and got all of maybe 15 minutes of sleep! Which was actually
nice, because when I did sleep I slept very well and it made the jet lag almost
non-existent for me. We stayed at a hotel connected to the airport Friday night
then Brian and Lois picked us up along with a team from Iowa and we made it to
the Village at lunch time on Saturday.
I've
kept pretty busy this last week, but here are a few of the things we've been up
to here at the Village. So this may be a bit long... :)
Sunday
we walked to church with the mamas and the kids. The church sings some
songs in English and some in Sesotho and the pastor preaches in English while
having a Sesotho interpreter. In the afternoon Brian drove us around
Welkom and Thabong. Thabong is a township, I think the largest in the
Welkom area. During apartheid, the different people of groups of South
Africa had to live in their designated area. Welkom wasn't designated to
anyone, so if anyone wanted to work here they had to have a permit and then
they had separate townships for them to live in. While that isn't
required today, there still is some of that separation, and illegals also live
in the townships.
Monday
we started working on getting all the school supplies. First we had to
organize the backpacks and have the kids pick out theirs for the new school
year. Their school year starts in January and goes almost year round.
After that, we got out the school supplies and sorted piles for each kid of
pencils, erasers, rulers, and everything else you need for school. Every
supply must have the child’s name, every pencil, pen, book… Then their books
must be covered, some with just plastic and others with brown paper and
plastic. We covered the books they had but most of the covering had to be done
after their first day of school when they came home with the rest of their
books. Over 20 of the kids are going to school, so there are maybe 300 some
books to cover? Thankfully there were several of us working on them and the
older kids did their own. They also got uniforms ready and Mom and Susie
did mending. In the evening the kids put on a small show to say goodbye
to Mom.
Tuesday
we did the weekly non-perishable grocery supplies that are kept on
property. Then we started on organizing the clothing storage room.
Bob and Susie took Mom and I to the airport, so the team did most of
that.
Wednesday
was the first day of school! In the morning Jackie and I went into town to do
some of the mini bulk grocery shopping for the mamas while the team ladies did
a Mama pampering day. We got back for homework, aka, book covering!
Thursday
we did the rest of the grocery shopping for the mamas. Then the pool that
was the kids’ Christmas present was delivered. That was interesting
because it was too big to go through the gate, so everything had to be done by
hand and it was inside of another pool. It’s fiberglass, I think 10
meters long and I’m not sure how deep on the deep end. But
with enough help we got it unloaded, turned on its side, turned around, and
moved into the hole without anything or anyone breaking! After that it was back
to homework and book covering.
Friday
we deep cleaned the hope center, which is where we do homework and most Village
gatherings. There isn't much homework so in the afternoon they have the
Village Bible study. Friday evening is movie night for the kids.
Last night Brian set it up outside and everyone watched Overcomer
together. They really enjoyed it!
The
goal is to have homework done by 5pm. Since Becky and Kyle have gone
home, the staff that is here has a lot more to do and we’ve all been keeping
busy. When we’re not working on a project I try to spend time doing
something with the kids. The Wi-Fi has been a bit iffy, so I'm not able
to post pictures right now, but I will try again later. That is a quick summary
of my first week here!
