From Wilma, Hilda, Dale, Dorothy & Charles

Day Three
Time for church! We attended Church of the Resurrection in Bonteheuwel, with a very friendly congregation, and lots of incense! We drove around the area and visited the home of one of my former parishioners in Mitchells Plain, where a lot of stories and laughter was shared.

Sunday afternoon was spent with Themba Lonzi, staff member of the Institute for Healing of Memories, a moving and profound time.

Sunday night was a sociable dinner with Michael Lapsley, and my sister, niece and nephew, at a local Restaurant. Of course we were the loudest table in the place!

Day Four
Up at the crack of dawn to go to the airport! Slight delay due to a bomb scare at the International terminal, probably related to the presence of the World Economic Forum in Cape Town at the weekend. No problems though, and a quick flight to Port Elizabeth was followed by a very long drive to Queenstown, inland in the Eastern Cape.

A stop off in Grahamstown, university town and previous diocese of the current archbishop, and new home for my oldest friends, now dean of Grahamstown. By the time we arrived (yes it was a long drive in a slow, but brand new van!)
it was dark, so we settled into our home for the week.

Day Five to Day Nine
So here we are for the most exciting part of our transformational journey, hosted at Tshwaranang Resource Center, of the Diocese of Grahamstown for a most amazing week visiting the projects, assisting In various activities, and debriefing, reflecting and praying together each evening. Tears and laughter are the order of the day!

But the group members tell you for themselves! Everyone has been busily writing for the blog, we hope you are as inspired as we are!



Hilda Boulware

Today’s experience in Tshwaranang felt both humbling and empowering. Each person I meet in the homes I visited met a need, both to give and receive the bountiful blessings of God. Prayers with the people, afflicted by disease and extreme poverty, lifted all of us with hope and trust in God’s provision.

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Dale Sorenson

Our first day out in a garden run and used by a Grade School, Wilma and I got right down on our knees in the dirt and pulled out those nasty weeds from around the planted beans. Wasn’t long before this light-skinned Norwegian’s face began to redden. But—freedom for the beans, so worth it. Twenty plus students joined in with hoes (a weekly chore), later delighted to see the pictures we shot of them. African children—so beautiful.

We made a house call out of an AIDS Service Center to the home of a very sick older couple, the woman unable to leave her bed. Mostly, they lamented the inability to get the medical attention they felt they needed, for a variety of reasons. Tore us up.

In contrast, back at the Center, we were treated to a long show of songs and dance by 14 children, as part of an after-school program. Indomitable spirits. One girl such a natural dancer, I wanted to call Julliard or somewhere about her.

Life in So. Africa is such a challenge in the rural areas. The needs are so great, yet the people’s spirit is so open, so with dignity. And The Church is there, involved, serving the people, and with great commitment. Very heartening.

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Dorothy Lee

Lessyton, a rural area near Queenstown, is hilly with blustery winds whipping off the mountains. In the landscape-dotted with few bushes and even less trees live many desperate people in concrete bunkers homes or lean tos made of irregular pieces of scrap metal.

These neat homes shelter many who suffer extreme poverty: lack of money, good health, food, clothing, jobs. There is no heat except that from home made braziers fashioned of a square piece of metal placed on top of a base made from a discarded part of a metal stove or a tire rim. Pieces of wood gathered from the area is burned for heat; a not very sufficient source of heat.

Volunteer caregivers, Nomvuo Mxhosana and Zixolisile Mbenene, demonstrate each case by describing the history and problems and then showing how the patient is bathed, the administration of medication, meals and the care of bed sores.

Each patient and family greeted us with kind hospitality to us, foreign strangers from a distant land. Despite the bleakness of the landscape, home conditions, health problems each patient welcomed us with genuine appreciation and many displayed much humor, despite their dire conditions. There is joy and hope and God’s grace in the desert conditions of this land, for which we rejoice.
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Charles Haig

Tuesday, June 10, 2008 has been one of the most memorable days of my life. I joined caregivers Nomvuyo Mxhosana and Zixolisile Mbenene (Michael) on their rounds in Lessington, a township called Queensland, in the Eastern Cape near East London, South Africa. In the first home the grandmother took care of her 40 year old daughter and her five year old grandson. Her daughter had AIDS and could not walk because of a stroke.

The warmth and hospitality in which we were welcomed was incredibly overwhelming. When we left the only thing they wanted was for us to return. In the second house we visited there were two sisters and because one had AIDS the sister with the better house made the infected sister live in a shack next door with her toddler.

They were only together in the nicer house because we visited. I felt the least optimistic about this woman because she had fully given up on life and did not feel there was any reason for living probably due to the way she was being cared for by her sister who seemed like she was a burden to care for. In the third house we visited a grandmother who had a stroke and was bedridden. Her daughter took care of her and her own toddler. Again we were welcomed with great warmth and hospitality.

The only thing this grandmother wanted was a wheel chair so she could go out into the living room and be with her family. They also wanted us to return next year. This was an amazing day, because for the first time in my life I met people living in some of the most desperate conditions I have seen before but yet they live their lives full of hope and warmth.

But the memory that stood out the most of all this day was spending the day walking through Lessington township with one of the caregivers Zixolisile Mbenene (Michael). He was one of most friendly and happy people I have ever met. We spent our time together with humor while we dealt with such desperation that I was constantly amazed. At one point he told me that, “the lady we had just met who was dying of AIDS was a school friend.”

When I asked him how he could keep such a big smile on his face working in the township, he told me that it keeps him from getting too depressed. I asked him about his family. He lived in a house with six people, including his mother who got a pension. He doesn’t see his daughter because his ex-wife moved away to get a job.

I asked him if he could live on the salary he earns and he told me he did not get paid. The only money was his mother’s pension. That was when I could see the tears in his eyes. When I asked him what he would like to do, he told me he would like to learn about computers and work with computers someday. But he told me that, “will never, never happen.” What can a friend say to that?