Hi friends. I (Dan) am long overdue for a blog.  Our lives have been full, and taking the time to write is a much needed break from the busyness.  I'm also just feeling better today (Wednesday) after having spent the last 3 days struggling with stomach problems.  Nothing that kept me in bed; just enough to drain me of energy beyond what I needed to stay vigilant for the nearest bathroom!    Anyway, below are three joys that I (and we) experienced recently...

 

Tonight's supper!  Fortunately, I recovered from my stomach problems just in time for a special dinner here at GGA this evening:  Mama Tara prepared a special meal of Indian food for the volunteers.  Tara is our head cook, and a woman with the gift of hospitality (like my mom!).  She came to live & work at GGA a few years ago after her husband passed away.  Normally Tara's energy is consumed by preparing three meals a day for 100+ people, and the meals are by necessity quite simple, to keeps costs to a minimum. 

 

But tonight each volunteer contributed 20 Rand (less than $4 CDN) and we were treated to a feast of savoury rices, roti, samosas, butternut squash and various meat curries including seafood.  Plus cheesecake for dessert!  Too bad Cathy & Jessica both seem to be catching whatever I am recovering from...but at least I could finish their plates for them!

 

My birthday!  Who would have dreamed that I would celebrate my 37th birthday in Africa?!?  My family prepared a delicious birthday supper, then presented me with a basketful of thoughtful (and tasty!) gifts.  My mind does seem to be on food today...!

 

In the evening we invited some of the volunteers over for card games and frivolity; we had some good laughs together, and I wish we could have recorded the German birthday song that I was treated to!  The next morning I enjoyed hearing from many friends & family who remembered my birthday.

 

My work!  For most of the first month, I've been too shell-shocked to appreciate how good I have it in my role as preschool administrator.  Most days, I still feel dazed by the "foreign-ness" of my surroundings and my tasks (I imagine that the look in my eyes must be a bit like that of the large frog who bumped into Cathy in our bathroom last night). 

 

But the privilege I have to work where I do is clear.  Guests to GGA are often toured around our school, because the good things that are happening there are obvious.  My job is administrative, but that still means that most of my time is taken up with driving people around, serving lunch, collecting garbage, cleaning toilets, and sorting out problems.  In other words, I get plenty of opportunity to interact with people and to try to build a sense of team among the staff and volunteers, which is what I love most.  Currently Jessica joins me to help at the preschool 2-3 mornings a week, and Micayla comes once or twice.

 

I am also becoming involved in helping to support a smaller preschool in "Number Nine", a village about 12 minutes away from our preschool, down a steep, winding road that hugs the hillside of one of the most beautiful valleys I've ever seen.  I get to drive that road (dodging the goats, dogs, and crazy taxi-van drivers) at least 3 times a week, so that's a highlight!  The #9 preschool currently has about a dozen kids attending, but will have more once they get better facilities.   This week the community councillor and the local induna (like a chief's aide) chose some land for us, so we now have hope to build them a much needed new school later this year.

 

On the weekend my tasks for the Outreach Centre are always different.  Last weekend I varnished furniture (with Jessica and Micayla's help!) and I did about 9 hours of driving, shuttling local women to workshops on the coast.  The driving itself was not much fun...the freeways were busy, the days were hot, and the car has no air conditioning or radio.  But I did enjoy connecting with new people.  I introduced one of the women to a computer...she is about my age, and has seen computers, of course, but has never been able to touch one! 

 

By the way, please continue to pray for us.  As Cathy explained in the last blog, we face our share of challenges here.  These have not abated since we last wrote, and a special volunteer meeting has been scheduled for tomorrow night, as rumblings have reached the ears of some of the leaders here. 

 

Also, we are still eagerly awaiting the completion of our accommodations at the Outreach Centre (farm).  We have been told that may be able to move tomorrow, although we cannot hold our collective breath, as we've heard that before.  But we are basically packed and ready to go, since our current accommodations are already spoken for.  So they need us to move out soon, something that we are looking forward to (except Micayla, who is resigned to the fact).

 

OK, that's all for now....good night!

 

Dan

Just finished reading...

Last week I (Dan) finished reading Brian McLaren's The Last Word, and the Word After That.  It's his third philosophical quasi-novel in the trilogy that began with A New Kind of Christian.  Anyway, I'm a fan of McLaren, as the other books of his that I've read have had an impact on Cathy and me, and on several of our good friends.  When the The Last Word came out a year ago, we snapped it up, but for some strange reason I never got around to reading it.  When we packed out suitcases for South Africa, this was one of the few books that we made room for.  Now I can see that God, in his wisdom, was saving this book for me to read here, where the questions it raises are the same questions that I am confronted with each day:

• how does a nation as rich in resources, culture, and heritage as South Africa also have some of the highest rates of murder, rape, and HIV/AIDS infection in the world?  
• how did a largely Christian population of whites establish and vigorously defend a system of apartheid that denied basic human rights to the majority of the population?
• does the Christianity that we are taught and follow in North America have some of the same elements?
• how do I re-examine my beliefs, to instead follow a Christianity that is truly more Christ-like?
• how do I change the way that I live and work as a result?

Anyway, I don't agree with everything in the book(s), but I do highly recommend it if you are willing to think outside the box, and are interested in Christian church philosophy. 

 

Dan

Helping hands

I haven't posted the blog that I wrote yesterday morning, but I have to write a few words about our amazing day yesterday!  We did our regular work during the day, and then mid afternoon, we were invited to join Heather for a trip into a Valley community that she has been in contact with for about 7 years now.  They know and love her, and as we drove into the Valley, dozens of children waved and shouted and jumped up and down.

Heather had asked me to gather some medical supplies from the hospice at GGA, since she had recently detected an outbreak of ringworm on the heads of some of the children.  After we had stopped the combie and been warmly greeted by mobs of children and toothless Gogos, Heather showed me how to identify the fungus on the little black curly heads, and I went to work with gloves and a jar of ointment.  Jessica was an excellent assistant, and also quickly learned to diagnose the children and bring them to me.  While I treated between 25 and 30 kids, Heather sang Zulu songs with the whole gang and did lots of hugging.  She had  brought a couple of bags of rice, and a 8x10 photo of one of the families that had been taken by someone on a previous visit.  The photo brought much laughter and pointing, as I'm sure they had never seen themselves on a photograph before. 

The children in the Valleys are shy and sweet, and were very curious about Jessica and Micayla.  They cannot believe it when we tell them that Jess is 12 years old, because she's so tall.  They speak very limited English in the rural areas, but most can ask "What is your name?" and "How old are you?"  They don't hesitate to ask mine and Dan's ages either, and don't believe that we are...well the age we are!  This is probably because most of the Zulu women in their late thirties are already grandmothers, and look the part!

We also had a photographer from Norway with us, who documented the whole trip on film.  He is working his way across Africa to write articles and document different pockets of African culture.  We will try to post some pictures of the past few weeks this Friday when we make our weekly pilgrimage to the mall to access a high speed connection.

I couldn't believe what a rush I got out of this experience!  It really confirmed the dream I have of working as a medical professional in areas where simple treatments can make such huge differences.  I guess that means it's back to school when I get home!

Cathy

Happy Valentine's Day!!

It's a bright and sunny day!  We've exchanged our "home made" valentines cards, and heart-shaped pancakes are on the menu for lunch (a Valentine's tradition in our family!).  I'll be making them without a recipe, and without the right ingredients, but tradition must prevail!  We want to take this opportunity to send our love to all of you, and to remind you to truly appreciate one another.  This year we can relate to the cliché that states, "We may not have much, but we have each other!".  And somehow, "each other" becomes more precious without the trappings of all the "stuff".

 

We had a GREAT weekend away in Durban this past weekend!  God provided us with hot, sunny weather, and we spent most of the two days in our bathing suits.  We stayed at another "Backpacker" facility across from the beach, and alternated between the relaxing by the pool, and playing at the beach.  On Saturday evening we were treated to a "full on South African Braii" (BBQ) with all the trimmings!  This consists of several types of meat (all quite recognizable!) BBQ'd on an open grill, along with 8-10 side dishes and salads.  It was the best meal we've eaten since our arrival...especially since we were able to eat it on the deck and watch the sun set over the ocean!  We even watched some dolphins playing far out in the water!

 

 On Sunday, we did the typically "touristy" thing and spent the day at "uShaka Sea World".  It is a large aquarium in Durban with the usual dolphin and seal shows, shark feeding, and other sea-creature viewing, but it is also attached to a huge water park with miles of slides and tube rides and pools.  It was another strange "first world" experience within our "third world" life here in SA.  The park was an interesting blend of people groups, with about 75% East Indian, 20% Caucasian, and only about 5% black people (see Bernie...I can do Math!).  This is apparently typical in Durban, with its huge Indian population of over 1 million.  It also paints an accurate picture of who can afford such a luxury.  It was a blessing to have our host, Rob, from the Backpacker drive us into Durban, and then all the way back to GGA (for a 'small' fee!).  Durban is notorious for its crime, so we were happy to tag along with someone who knew where they were going. 

 

It's always a bit deflating coming back to GGA after a weekend away, and the rain that greeted us here on Sunday evening didn't help.  We had another spectacular lightening storm, and buckets of rain.  On Monday morning it was back to school work for the kids, and volunteer work for Dan and me.

 

Over the weeks of writing this blog, we've often struggled with the question of how much to describe about the "politics" of GGA and our frustrations here.  I know that some of that has come through in our journaling, but we've deliberately chosen to be somewhat positive in our reporting since it's virtually impossible to describe some of the challenges.  Last week was a very difficult one for us.  In spite of the many positives of GGA (the children, the good outreach work done in the valleys, the staff that mean well etc.), there are underlying issues here that make us wonder whether we can be effective in this environment.  We have been warned about the classic climate of disorganization and chaos that seems to be prevalent in NGO's (Non-governmental Organizations), particularly ones in developing countries.  It seems to be very difficult for volunteers from Western countries to accept and adapt to this atmosphere.  The constant temptation is to try to change or fix these systemic problems, and the frustration comes from the realization that this task is impossible. 

 

There are two young couples here that we have connected with somewhat closely, and both are considering leaving GGA.  One of the couples (from Holland), is already living out at "the Farm" where we will hopefully someday move.  They are on their own out there, and have fears about the poor security.  They also have no running water and absolutely NO toilet facilities in their accommodations, so day to day life if a struggle.  They have felt that in the 6 weeks of their stay at GGA, no efforts have been made to provide them with even the most basic comforts, and they are frustrated with the empty promises.  The other couple (from Germany) lives here at GGA and although they are both highly educated Music Therapists, and the needs among the children are great, they are not being given the freedom or respect they deserve.  Both couples are checking out other organizations in the area, and are contemplating a move.  This would be a blow to us, since most of the other volunteers are very young and in a different stage of life. 

 

Our challenge this week is to continue to sort through our thoughts and feelings.  We must be careful not to let the issues of others become our issues.  We continue to believe that we are at GGA for a reason, but continue to find it hard to find a balance between humbly accepting that our roles here are to serve within the current circumstances, or whether we are meant to challenge the system.  It's easy to say that we must follow the example of Christ, but the fact is that He did both of those things...sometimes humbly accepted, and sometimes challenged.  We too have had to do both of those things in our month here.  Please pray that we will have the grace to accept what we cannot change, the courage to change what we can, and the wisdom to know the difference!

 

Cathy

Slowly growing gills!

It's late Thursday afternoon, and I have Josh Groban playing to drown out the sounds of children and pouring rain.  Both of those are lovely sounds...in moderation!  We have been told that this year "rainy season" has been unusually wet and cool.  We usually have one hot day, and then 2 or 3 wet ones.  Getting laundry to dry is still a challenge, and it's amazing the sense of accomplishment that comes from getting just one load washed AND dried!

 

I just arrived "home" from "work" at the "office" (all words in quotes should not be interpreted with a typical North American mindset), and transportation continues to be interesting.  I am at the mercy of whoever might be travelling back and forth, so I often ride in the back of a truck or squished into a combie with dozens of children or Gogos who also need transport.  The rain and fog make the roads even more perilous, as do herds of cows and deep ruts.  I usually just pray I'll come out alive.  It still bothers me to have our kids ride that way, but seatbelts (and seats!) are a very rare luxury.  However, there just isn't the congestion on the roads here that there is in Calgary, and I haven't seen evidence of any accidents yet.

 

I'm beginning to get used to my job of being the "Administrative Assistant to the Manager of Outreach Initiatives".  This is a title I've made up for myself...like it?  It really means that I'm suppose to try to organize some of the outreach side of this very chaotic organization.  I'm quite sure now that this is an impossible task, much like shovelling the driveway when it's still snowing (thanks for that great analogy, Deb!), but it seems that even my very limited computer knowledge will be able to help in putting some systems into place for the future.  I do a lot of writing and editing funding proposals, creating spread sheets for budgets, and organizing paper files into some useable system.  I also make the occasional trip into the valleys for various reasons, like taking pictures for some funding proposal I'm working on, or just to help in some outreach endeavour.  I enjoy the Zulu people I work with each day, since they provide the inspiration to tackle my daily tasks. 

 

A significant degree of racism is still operational here...more so than we expected.  This racism goes both ways, since the blacks (that's the term used here) are suspicious of the whites, and the whites still have a sense of superiority.  There is also an attitude of entitlement among the blacks, since they feel that the whites now owe them for the years of Apartheid.  This is remarkably similar to the issues in Canada with Native Canadians.  And judging by that situation, there are no quick fixes and attitudes take generations to change.  Here at GGA all of this plays out in subtleties, but is certainly present.  For example, it is common practise here to have the white people ride in the front of a vehicle, and the black people climb into the back.  Dan and I refuse to go along with this, especially if the black individual is older.  The jobs in SA in general are still very divided along racial lines.  Black people almost always hold low-paying jobs doing manual labour or domestic work, or sometimes working in grocery stores or fast food restaurants  I could be wrong, but I think that it's possibly more difficult to "help" blacks in South Africa than in other African countries because they have been taught not to trust, and our white skin doesn't mark us as foreigners, but as white South Africans.

 

Luckily the kids here at GGA don't really see skin color like the adults do.  They are openly curious and affectionate.  They often ask when we will be leaving though, and this shows that they want to be cautious in bonding with us to protect themselves from hurt when we leave.  They are growing up in a curious mixture of Zulu and Western culture, and are sadly used to the transience of their caregivers.  There is permanent Zulu staff here, but they are less involved in the lives of the children than we had imagined before we came.  The Gogos and Aunties clean, cook, and do laundry, but it's the volunteers that play and interact with the kids.  Since the volunteers are limited in disciplinary techniques, we are supposed to take the kids to the Gogos for a "hiding" when they're bad.  The schools here also use corporal punishment, and even the teenagers don't hesitate to whack the younger kids if they misbehave.  In general, Zulu kids in the Valleys are very well behaved and respectful, but the GGA kids know that the volunteers cannot punish them in the ways they're used to, so it's hard to get them to listen and respect.  It's a bit of a vicious circle:  the kids learn to love and respect the volunteers just in time for them to leave, and then find it even more difficult to trust new volunteers coming in.

 

Well, It's one month ago today that we left Canadian soil.  In one way it seems like a lifetime ago, and in other ways the month has flown by.  I think we're all through the worst of the adjustment phase, and are finding new "normals".  We are still in our "temporary" lodgings, where the toilet is in the front entrance, and the ants seem to eat more of our food than we do, but we're strangely content.  Tomorrow we're heading off for a weekend away at a different part of the coast.  The change of scenery will be nice, and it will be great to sleep past 5:30am!

 

Cathy

On the Farm...

In spite of the fact that it's a "working weekend" for us, we are having a good one!  Two weeks ago I described our weekend duties at GGA to be gruelling because we were working at the main site doing childcare.  Since then, it's been decided that we will do weekend duty out at Nansindlela, which is known as "the farm" and is where we will hopefully eventually be living (more about that later).  This is a working farm, with hundreds of chickens, 4 cows, and miscellaneous dogs and cats.  There are also some agricultural projects going on here, and the fruit and vegetables grown here will hopefully someday supply the kids at GGA.  In addition to "farm stuff", there is a small office building which houses the Outreach staff offices, a board room, some warehouse space (where some nice big rats live!), and a large room where the life skills and crafts training projects happen.  Several hundred meters from the farm buildings is the "accommodation block" where renovations are going on to make it livable for us and the future volunteers who will work in the outreach projects.  Eventually there will be accommodations for about 15 people, and a large communal kitchen, laundry, and recreation area.  This probably will not happen while we are still here, but the hope is that our "cottage" will be completed in the next few weeks.

The main hold-up is the new septic tank.  It needs to be dry to plaster the insides (and believe me, we want that puppy well sealed!), but the huge amounts of rain we've had have turned the septic pit into more of a swimming pool.  So, we're waiting for 3 dry, hot days in a row.  We're on day 2, and Dan managed to siphon most of the water out, so maybe the rain will hold and progress will be made.  As we've indicated previously, everything moves at a VERY slow pace here, and the construction workers can often be seen sleeping under a tree! 

We are being called the "pioneers" of this secondary site of GGA, and that's not without its challenges!  However, it's much quieter here than at GGA, and our accommodations will hopefully be a little nicer.  We'll see!  Micayla loves it back at GGA with all the kids and something going on every minute.  When we're here, she's a little bored.  Jessica however, loves the peace and quiet of the farm, and LOVES the animals!  Last week 400 baby chicks arrived, so the girls love to sit and cuddle them.  They're only a few days old, and still under warming lights.  There's also a baby calf just over 2 weeks old.  Jess has made friends with the sweet calf, and sits with it for hours.  This afternoon we had a bit of excitement...Jess was feeling sorry for the calf because it's kept in a small room apart from its mom until after milking time in the afternoons.  It was hot in the room, so she made a little halter out of an old rope, and proceeded to take the calf "out for some fresh air"!  The minute it smelled freedom, the calf ran out of the milking shed and made for the hills.  It called for its mommy, who answered loudly, and then it bolted towards the field where she's kept.  Jess ran after the calf and tried hard to catch it.  When that failed, she came running into the office in a panic, and the whole family went to round up the calf!  Yes, imagine 4 city slickers running around a farm after a cow.  Dan and I were thinking of how we're going to explain "losing" the calf on our first weekend of being trusted with the farm!  There is one Zulu farm hand that hangs around most days, and luckily he heard the commotion and promptly caught the calf for us.  Poor Jess was mortified!

In some ways, this week has been a frustrating one.  We see so much disorganization in GGA, and very little structure.  We are told that just over 3 years ago, there were only 3 or 4 volunteers at GGA and no real staff.  Today there are about 35 volunteers, and over a dozen staff and management.  It has grown too big too fast, and the framework is simply not there.  Communication is a problem, and because the volunteer staff are very transient, many projects are started and not followed through on.  The result of this is frustration among the volunteers, who feel that they are not being appreciated or used in their areas of expertise.  We have social workers, nurses, teachers, and other professionals, who simply baby-sit day in and day out.  The GGA children also suffer from this chaos, and are often disrespectful and poorly behaved.  They have very little respect for property or possessions, even though they have so little.  They would really benefit from more structure, and less of a "pack mentality".  Dan and I are thankful that we are working in the Outreach part of GGA.  These areas (the preschool, food parcels, fundraising, agricultural projects) are fairly new, and because they're at a different location, we can have more influence in these new initiatives. 

We are still in the process of trying to figure out whether we can have any influence in the larger scheme of things, or whether we just have to accept the way things are here.  Hopefully we can find that balance.

On the more positive side, we are starting to form some relationships with some of the "more mature" volunteers here.  Most of the volunteers are very young, but there are 3 couples (one from the UK, one from Germany, and one from Holland) who we have connected with more closely.  Last night we had them over to our kitchen to play "Dutch Blitz".  Some wine and some popcorn and a lot of laughs made for a great evening!

I'd better go...it's milking time and I'm off to take some pictures of the kids learning to milk a cow.  Our love to everyone!

Cathy
D

Food Drop

My day today started at 5:30am, because Jessica and I were invited to join Tom on a "food drop" to a remote area about 2 hours drive from GGA.  These food drops are done monthly to numerous communities in the area.  A food package consisting of rice, mealy meal (kind of a gluey white starch), beans, tins of fish, oil, soap, and few other staples is put together and given to family units that have been identified as particularly unable to provide for themselves.  Since GGA focuses on orphaned children, these "families" often consist of a Gogo (granny) with 5-10 dependent grandchildren, or perhaps a young woman in her upper teens or early twenties who is caring for several siblings as well as her own baby.  I believe that GGA gives out almost 300 of these food parcels per month in total.  The families are identified by local Zulu social workers and community health workers, so GGA always takes one or two of these workers along on food drops.  They have existing relationships with the families and know their situations, they act as translators and provide safety. 

So, we loaded up the "combie" with supplies and headed out on the road.  The scenery was breathtaking as we climbed higher and higher into the hills and looked down on the valleys below!  About 2 hours into the trip, we stopped at a small town to pick up the community workers who would go with us.  We were the ONLY white people in the village, and stuck out as rather conspicuous!  Jess got many stares, and I'm sure I could have easily sold her for a couple of cows (Hee Hee)!  Jess needed to use the bathroom quite badly, so we asked around where there might be one.  A girl who seemed to speak some English told us to follow, and led Jess and I quite a ways down the road and through the market to sort of an office building (I use the description very loosely!).  On the way, she tried to explain that the water in the whole township had been turned off (we didn't learn if this was temporary, but she seemed to think it was quite normal), but that perhaps one building might have a functioning "loo".  It turned out that there was no water to be found, but after many Zulu explanations, we were allowed to use the unflushed and rather "ripe" toilet in the building.  This begs the question...what facilities do the villagers use?!

We climbed back into the vehicle with one female social worker and one very large, male Zulu Chief.  The food parcels were dropped one by one at locations several kilometers apart. 

 I always knew that there would come a time when I would experience the raw need of this culture, but nothing could have prepared me for the emotions I felt at seeing first hand the poverty in which so many people exist.  In this area, most homes are traditional "rondavels" (round huts) with thatched roofs.  They are small and hot and crowded.  The very poorest live in small square huts made of hand-formed mud bricks, with a corrugated metal roof.  These provide very little protection against the rain, bugs, wild animals, and blazing sun.  How touching to see the shy smiles of the waiting families as we drove up, and then the hands of the Gogos clapped together in the traditional sign of gratitude as we drove away.

To complete the picture, imagine bumpy dirt roads, hundreds of cows and goats roaming freely, donkey-drawn carts, and women walking along the sides of the road with babies strapped to their backs and baskets on their heads.  As Jessica so aptly put it, "Mom, we've arrived in the REAL Africa now!".  I know that we've all seen these scenes in National Geographic and on TV, but it's indescribable to actually experience it.

All I could think of all day was how ridiculously extravagant our lives in North America seem by comparison.  I enjoy my comforts as much as anyone, and am even now missing my house and all its amenities, but until now I have taken our lifestyle for granted, and have even felt sorry for myself at times because we don't have more.  The big challenge is to take these lessons home with me and not lose them in the North American lifestyle once we get back.