Hello everyone, I apologize for taking so long to write. So much has happened recently. It is hard to believe that it has been two months since my last post!
I am still living with my colleague and friend, Sis Pumla and her son Monde’ in Kayamandi. I am making real progress with Xhosa, so people tell me, and I have a great tutor from the community who walks me through Kayamandi and coaches me as I speak to my neighbours. It is definitely a challenge.
I had the privilege visiting Pumla’s family in the Eastern Cape at the beginning of May. After a 12 hour bus ride, 5 blocks walking with our luggage in a grocery cart, 2 make-shift combie taxi rides and another 20 min walk on dirt roads, we arrived at the Qualinge family home. Over the next seven days I was given a new family in South Africa. I made Mnqushu, (traditional African dish) over the fire and help to make Umqombothi (traditional African beer). I assisted with the slaughtering and cleaning of many chickens and participated in a traditional ceremony that welcomed me as one of the family. I was able to meet the patriarch of the family and three of Sis Pumla’s six siblings along with their children. More than this, I was privileged to be given a very intimate and internal view of family roles, dynamics and traditions within the Xhosa culture.
Below is a quick update on the projects I am working on here at Kuyasa, I will be speaking in more detail about these when I see you all in June.
• 70% of the 36 lesson curriculum for children suffering from PTSD
• 75% of the Standard Procedures for Kuyasa
• Annual All Staff Training Modules
• HR consult and assistance with hiring, creating the application and interview process
• The annual contracts and job descriptions for all full time and part time staff
• Guitar lessons once a week with students
• Worship band, practicing once a week (We recently received funding for a drum set!)
• Art Program, mentoring a young man from the community who is doing a FANTASTIC job creating lesson plans and structuring the program
• Implementation of 12 Sponsorship Program Training Modules to train up sponsorship administrator from 4 different NGOs locally
• IT classes for staff and students
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Welcome to my Home
Hello Everyone
This photo is the walkway to my front door. Follow the link to some photos and a short video of where I stay in Kayamandi. Most of the photos are of the homes and areas just outside my home. I took some other video footage but am having trouble uploading. I will continue to try. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Taking Deep Breaths
Today my heart is bursting. It is a day of having your head out of the window as the car drives on the highway. There is so much to take in and it is hard to breathe.
Living in Kayamandi is more than a special thing, it is has opened up a new stomach in me. There is so much to learn; I am starving. Honestly, I feel like a Kindergartener most days. My heart is breaking for so many things today. For the white people in South Africa, who even now continue to miss and disregarded such an incredible wealth of humanity, strength, love and family sitting right next to them. My heart is breaking for other developed nations, that we disregard the impoverished and the wisdom that God has given to those we call fools or the strength in those we call weak. But more than anything else I am broken today by the potential for real change that is so severely restricted through our own human darkness. There are so many resources, there are so many people, there is so much real potential. We have the raw resources, but fear, power and pride, keep us from connecting to each other. Keep us from relating in a way that recognizes what others have brought as they sit next to us. People, organizations, leaders and governments that cannot partner and insist on their own agenda, loose enormously. We don’t meet on level playing fields; someone’s chair always sits a little higher at the table. This is not about money or education or social group; this is a choice each individual makes. In our hearts we choose how high we will sit. We are focused on what is in our pockets, bequeathing our vast expanse of knowledge, money and expertise, all the time missing the greater possibilities if we simply look over into our neighbours lap. If we take a closer look we will be startled at the kind of wealth those in poverty seem to possess. So much more can be gained if we could see that those we are working with are the most significant players and contributors; that they bringing things of value that money cannot buy. Those that sit lower they also make a choice. Either through submission to social norms or other experiences they expect to sit lower, and they also loose, missing what they have to bring and how using this can enable not simply another program or project, but real transformation of lives, communities and nations.
The HIV/AIDS issue is a great example. Billions have been thrown at this problem in Africa alone. But if you speak with people here they will tell you AIDS is not spreading due to lack of education and awareness. In South Africa the infection rate is 50% and it seems every other day they are speaking about HIV/AIDS in school. Every Youth Program in the nation runs workshops, hands out pamphlets, conducts awareness campaigns. From commercials on TV during the most popular shows, speeches from movie/music celebrities and political figures to conversations with grandma; youth here can tell you more about HIV/AIDS than you have most likely heard from any other source. This is good, of course, it is important, but it is not stopping the spread of the disease. WHY? Why is it that youth can give tell you which 4 out of 9 neighbours that live near them are HIV positive, who may have even watched their own parent(s) die a slow death from this disease and still they engage in risky behaviour that may ultimately result in infection. They have the information, they have seen the effects first hand, they have experienced loss and heartache because of this thing in their own families. Clearly, there is a deeper problem. Could it be that many issues of this kind, issues linked to poverty, are too complex to be solved without pulling up a chair, sitting next to (not above) the leaders of suffering communities and asking “How can we learn?” before asking “How much do you need?”
I will step off the soap box now. Thank you all for being a sounding board and a family for me. You have all asked both of those questions with me and I am grateful. God's Blessings and My Love to you, Heather
Living in Kayamandi is more than a special thing, it is has opened up a new stomach in me. There is so much to learn; I am starving. Honestly, I feel like a Kindergartener most days. My heart is breaking for so many things today. For the white people in South Africa, who even now continue to miss and disregarded such an incredible wealth of humanity, strength, love and family sitting right next to them. My heart is breaking for other developed nations, that we disregard the impoverished and the wisdom that God has given to those we call fools or the strength in those we call weak. But more than anything else I am broken today by the potential for real change that is so severely restricted through our own human darkness. There are so many resources, there are so many people, there is so much real potential. We have the raw resources, but fear, power and pride, keep us from connecting to each other. Keep us from relating in a way that recognizes what others have brought as they sit next to us. People, organizations, leaders and governments that cannot partner and insist on their own agenda, loose enormously. We don’t meet on level playing fields; someone’s chair always sits a little higher at the table. This is not about money or education or social group; this is a choice each individual makes. In our hearts we choose how high we will sit. We are focused on what is in our pockets, bequeathing our vast expanse of knowledge, money and expertise, all the time missing the greater possibilities if we simply look over into our neighbours lap. If we take a closer look we will be startled at the kind of wealth those in poverty seem to possess. So much more can be gained if we could see that those we are working with are the most significant players and contributors; that they bringing things of value that money cannot buy. Those that sit lower they also make a choice. Either through submission to social norms or other experiences they expect to sit lower, and they also loose, missing what they have to bring and how using this can enable not simply another program or project, but real transformation of lives, communities and nations.
The HIV/AIDS issue is a great example. Billions have been thrown at this problem in Africa alone. But if you speak with people here they will tell you AIDS is not spreading due to lack of education and awareness. In South Africa the infection rate is 50% and it seems every other day they are speaking about HIV/AIDS in school. Every Youth Program in the nation runs workshops, hands out pamphlets, conducts awareness campaigns. From commercials on TV during the most popular shows, speeches from movie/music celebrities and political figures to conversations with grandma; youth here can tell you more about HIV/AIDS than you have most likely heard from any other source. This is good, of course, it is important, but it is not stopping the spread of the disease. WHY? Why is it that youth can give tell you which 4 out of 9 neighbours that live near them are HIV positive, who may have even watched their own parent(s) die a slow death from this disease and still they engage in risky behaviour that may ultimately result in infection. They have the information, they have seen the effects first hand, they have experienced loss and heartache because of this thing in their own families. Clearly, there is a deeper problem. Could it be that many issues of this kind, issues linked to poverty, are too complex to be solved without pulling up a chair, sitting next to (not above) the leaders of suffering communities and asking “How can we learn?” before asking “How much do you need?”
I will step off the soap box now. Thank you all for being a sounding board and a family for me. You have all asked both of those questions with me and I am grateful. God's Blessings and My Love to you, Heather
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