"Bites of Unknown Origin"

It’s late Wednesday night, and even the frogs and birds have gone to bed.  Our days are full, so “blogging” doesn’t happen as often as I had intended.  I thought I’d talk a bit about my job tonight, to give you a glimpse into our days.

Our schedules are still fairly unpredictable, since we are still not living at the “home base” intended for us.  This means that each day has a fair bit of commuting, as Dan and I both work off the main GGA site.  Dan leaves here at about 7:15am to catch a ride to Nansindlela (our future home) to pick up a car and drive the rest of the way to the pre-school site.  He’s doing a good job of driving on the “wrong” side of the road, something I haven’t tried yet.  On the way he often picks up several children.  He is done at the preschool be about 12:30, and drives back to Nansindlela to try to catch a ride back to GGA.  This often takes an hour or two!  The car he uses must stay at Nansindlela because the other couple who is already living there must have a vehicle on site in case of emergencies.  Dan’s afternoon is then spent with administrative tasks pertaining to the preschool.

 I am currently working about 5 hours per day, so that I can devote some time to home schooling the girls.  However, I am also dependent on transportation to Nansindlela, and never know if that will be first thing in the morning, or perhaps later in the day.  So, I simply drag the kids to work with me if Dan’s not around, and they do their school work in the board room of the small office building where I work.

Earlier this week, I spent my working hours phoning suppliers to locate school uniforms for about 50 of the community children who are privately sponsored.  They live in the surrounding valleys, and their families receive a food parcel monthly, as well as paid school fees and uniforms.  In South Africa, no child can attend school without a uniform.  This seems crazy to me, because this simply promotes illiteracy among the very poorest families who cannot afford uniforms.  Providing uniforms (which GGA does for over 1000 children!) means going out to the valley communities and trying to determine the ages and sizes (clothing and shoes) of all the children of school age.  To make matters even more complicated, each school has different uniforms, so many suppliers must be contacted to find which company sells which uniforms.  Over the next weeks, we will be going out to over a dozen schools to distribute the uniforms, try them on the children, and try to exchange the ones that don’t actually fit…and we all know how fast kids outgrow their clothes!

For me, this was a crash course in the South African ways of getting things done (or not!).  Very few people actually have voice mail, and most people have very thick accents, so reaching the right person is a comedy of misunderstandings and call-backs which require endless patience!

Today I began my main job of fundraising for ongoing and future initiatives of GGA.  I am supposed to go through lists of South African Corporations, determine how to contact their head offices, and try to speak to their “social development” rep.  All companies in SA are mandated to set aside funding for social development, poverty reduction, and HIV/AIDS intervention.  My job will be to put together funding proposals that outline the needs of GGA, in order to request corporate sponsorship.  Each company seems to have it’s own criteria, and most are already dedicated to other projects, so this is not as easy as it sounds.

This past weekend, Dan and I worked with the kids here at GGA.  Dan supervised the older kids, and I was with the babies and toddlers.  It was a bit of a grueling weekend for both of us, as the kids demand all of your time and attention!  For me, it was a bit like being stuck in the church nursery for 6 hours in 35 degree heat!  Many of the little ones are somewhat ill (we are not told the medical details of the kids here), so let’s just say that there’s a fair bit of diarrhea and medication involved as well!  Bet you all wish you were here!  Jessica was a big help, and single-handedly bathed 3 babies in a row, as well as spent hours carrying and cuddling the little ones.  She’ll be an amazing babysitter by the time we get home!  It’s hard work, but so rewarding when the kids melt into our snuggles.  Although they cannot bond exclusively to one person, they really do get a lot of love here.  Little Amanda (in one of the previous pictures) took her first steps this weekend at the age of 2 and a half, with an enormous grin on her face!

I am recovering from my first “bites of unknown origin”.  I woke up several mornings ago with seven bites on my ankle, and knew quite quickly that they were not mosquito bites.  They have been quite painful, and involved the swelling of my whole lower leg, but I am on the mend and thankful that no infection set in.  We think they are spider bites, so I made Dan crawl around our room with a flashlight to look for suspicious creatures.  He claims that none were found, so I try not to think about what might be lurking! 

I’d better get some sleep…our love to you all!

Cathy