Day 14 - Friday 27th July 2018 - Community Prayer

We met on the veranda of the Hub at 8.00 am for briefing before travelling to Mluti for Community Prayer. More than 40 of the Hands team, plus service centre personnel accompanied us for this monthly event which rotated around the care points. Following prayers for a safe journey and members of the communities, observing “African Time” we eventually set off in convoy.

Once in Mluti we joined in worship and praise songs before introductions from the care workers, who are divided into two groups - cooks and a visiting team. The care point has recently increased in size, as a response to demand: it now caters for 50 children and has recruited a number of new care workers.

Carolyn then shared some thoughts with us, firstly focussing on qualities associated with the letters of Mluti.
Multiply
Loving
United with each other as they go out
Teachable, touchable
Image of God for us all

Imitating Christ in serving others.

Kara then prayed for us before Carolyn shared a thought which she based upon 1 Timothy 6. 7,8

7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

Carolyn illustrated with a couple of questions that no one can actually take anything with them when they die and no baby is ever born with any clothing on. Therefore the scripture was correct we come into the world with nothing and we leave with nothing.

Carolyn emphasized the teaching of Jesus, that we should be content with what we have, but also we should take the opportunity that God has given us, not allow our lives to be ruled by earthly possessions. Rather that we should fight the good fight of faith and follow the example of Jesus. 

As community prayer came to an end we organized ourselves into small groups ready to go on holy home visits. We visited a variety of homes between us and spent time talking and praying with the Care Givers. 

Water is a struggle as it is delivered by truck once a fortnight and has to be carried up to the homes and stored in a variety of containers. 

There is little regular work available, however some manage to find some ‘piece work’. Many of the people are refugees from Mozambique and this adds to the complications as they do not have South African papers. 

Having returned from Home visits we had chance for a quick bite to eat before the children turned up from school. 

We spent time skipping, with some very fancy footwork from the children, before it was time for them to eat and us to return to the hub.

With little time to spare we made our way to Kristi and Daytona’s house for our final debrief! Kristi asked each of us to feed back on - “what”; “so what” and “now what”. Each of us recounted the stories that had touched our hearts and Kristi encouraged us to write these down, so that firstly we wouldn’t forget, but mainly so that we could recount these when we got home.

We shared what these stories meant to us and how they had strengthened our faith and also how we would use the experiences that we had had to tell people back home. 

Our time in South Africa is rapidly coming to an end and we went out in the evening for a final meal together as a team with Cat, Daytona and Kristi. And we watched the Lunar Eclipse.

Rosemary and Chris

Day 13 - Thursday 26th July 2018 - Mafambisa

Today was our final day in the community at Mafambisa. It was a chance for us to thank the Care-workers for the work that they do at the care point and in the community, and then to have some final time with the kids playing and celebrating the connections we made with them last week.

When we arrived at Mafambisa we conducted the usual tasks of collecting water and preparing food for the children.




Those of us who visited Linda and her family earlier last week went to see her again to see how the building of their new house was getting on. We were very excited to see that the land had been flattened and the foundation had been set. Whilst we were there, builders which included people from Hands at Work were taking sand up to the foundation from another part of their plot of land as that was the only type of sand that could be used for concrete. We then went back to the community with Linda’s children so they could play and eat with the rest of the children.



Our Care Worker appreciation started with some traditional worship and praise songs, with some words of encouragement led by Rosemary for the group. After e had reminded ourselves of everyone’s names we began our gift to the care workers.

The St. Andrews mobile salon opened for business, giving the care workers massages, moisturising and nail painting accompanied by home made brownies, coke and orange juice. This gave the care workers the opportunity to relax, and emphasised the words of Hands at Work, “we want the care workers to be the hero’s.”

As the children started to arrive we moved our attention from the care workers and onto the children. Hannah had taken the time to blow up a massive ball for the children to play with. Unfortunately the ball didn’t last long as a hole was made rather quickly and despite the attempts to tape the hole up, it still deflated rather quickly. When this happened, we were able to keep them occupied with colouring books, bubbles, singing Shine and Great Great, Brill Brill again and also an energetic game of duck duck goose. Everyone had a fantastic time.

Before we left the care workers handed out some handmade bookmarks which had been made by students at Edward Peake, again these were given by the care workers so they are the heroes.

This evening we took part in Hands bring and share meal, this is where the community at the Hub comes together to share a meal, bringing different elements to share. We contributed pudding, cheese cake and a lemon meringue, again home made. After had a chance to feed back to the community how the visit had affected us and what elements had stood out. Clarrie, Ollie and Hannah fed back for the group talking about the places we had visited and some of the stories that we had heard that had left lasting memories.

The evening finished with a ceilidh, although over here they are more attuned to “barn dance!” Led by Chris. It was a great way to round off what has been a busy but fun day.


AJ and Vicky

Day 12 - Wednesday 25th July 2018 - Pfunani

This morning we had, what could be classed as, a lie-in with breakfast being at 8.00am. Breakfast was much of the same as the day before so it was deliciously cooked. After eating, one of the service team members, Audrey, shared her story of her own involvement with Hands at Work. She revealed she had previously tried to help her community before even becoming part of the Hands-showing her amazing character. Audrey acknowledged how she struggled to juggle the commitment to her own family and also her desire to provide for others, relying on the power of God to help her deal with this struggle. We saw the strength of God through the families members hearts being changed to supporting Audrey and her endeavours to fulfill Gods plan for her. Upon hearing her story, we were re-inspired to continue sharing encouragement with the care workers.

We arrived at Pfunani for the second day and were greeted by the ‘under 5’ care group. We started to help prepare food-Vicky found herself sorting out beans and prepping the butternut squash whilst Clarrie and Meg helped wash up the plates and pots, and all the men attempted to light a fire. 

We didn’t have a very long day within the community today, but we did spend a precious hour re-engaging with the ‘under 5’ group. We noticed that they were a lot more relaxed and comfortable around us, especially seen within Claudia. Yesterday we found her to be in need of attention and occasionally showed moments of aggression, but today she revealed a more calm side of herself. 

Every Wednesday in the Pfunani care-point they have a words of encouragement session, in which the care workers share scriptures, sing songs of praise and pray together-today we got to witness this. We enjoyed getting to know the care workers in this session, something we missed out on yesterday as most of them were absent due to being at a meeting in the local school. Audrey shared a verse from the bible that was to provide encouragement to our group after the events of not being to go to Share yesterday, suggesting it to be in Gods will and that it should only encourage us to fight the frustration we may feel with only Gods blessing, alluding to the idea of never fighting anger with violence. The session also included praise and worship songs, which we all enjoyed. We even found a couple that were familiar to us after hearing them before.

All too soon, we had to leave, to get home in the daylight. We used this time to relax and spend time thinking about all that we have seen and learnt in the past few days. Many of us also took the chance to catch up on sleep! Although we have had an amazing few days in a different environment, we all felt happy to be back at the Hands Village, which is starting to feel like home.

After dinner we reconvened at Daytona and Kristi’s for a long but necessary debrief. We had this chance to off load our experiences and challenges and they helped us once again to understand them. We had any questions that we were left with answered as fully as possible.

Led by AJ we spent the evening baking some delicious treats for tomorrow’s ‘Bring and Share’.
We are all amazed that we have so few days left but are looking forward to making the most our time here.

Hannah and Meg

Day 11 - Tuesday 24th July 2018 - Pfunani

The morning started bright and early at Wits with breakfast arranged for 7:30am, this meant travelling for more 15 minutes from our overnight accommodation to the dining hall and reception, this is mainly across bumpy dirt tracks which seem to send you all over the bus. While travelling to the dining hall we spotted some Impala and Mongeese who ran across in front of us which was a lovely sight to see.

Breakfast consisted of some fresh fruit, yogurt, muesli or a hot option including sweet-chilli bacon and scrambled eggs, all of which was thoroughly enjoyable. We then set off with the intention of returning to the community of Share, where we visited yesterday afternoon. However on our travels we realised that all roads into the community were blocked due to protests over the road surface with locals wanting tarmac roads but the government not paying for them. Due to this we decided that the safest option was to phone the other care point that we planned to visit tomorrow, Pfunani (a well developed care point -‘life centre’- in Welverdine). Audrey, leader of the Hazyview service centre for Hands at Work, made the quick call and found that there was no unrest within the community and therefore it would be safe for us to travel there. This was hard for many of us having said that we would see the care point tomorrow, however we did know that this couldn’t be helped.

We then travelled to Pfunani, where we picked up Audris (a rare male care worker) who brought the keys as well as water barrels. When we arrived at the care point there weren’t any children yet as this was about half past 10 and they usually open up at 11. Although, it wasn’t long before the ‘under 5s’ began arriving. Something that Pfunani has that other communities we have visited haven’t is an ‘Under 5s’ provision. This is very similar to a crèche where the younger children arrive at the life centre around 11 and remain there until their older siblings take them home around 4pm. 

Soon after Patricia (another member of Hands at Work service centre team) arrived, and we had had the chance to play with the younger children we departed for home visits. Rosemary, Vicky and Oliver went with Audrey, while DJ, AJ, Clarrie and Meg went with Patricia and Audris (Chris and Hannah remained at the care point, playing with the under 5s).

Rosemary, Vicky and I visited Gogo Sally and here 2 daughters who lived about a 20 minute walk from the care point (African speed is much slower than what we are used to). The reason that we visited Gogo Sally in particular was because her Granddaughter had recently been to the young leaders programme, run by Hands, at the Somerset care point. Another reason for the visit to Gogo Sally was because of her 22 year old daughter, Penny, who suffers with Epilepsy, this means that Gogo Sally and another of her 5 children, Linda, have to care for her full time. This is a huge strain on Gogo Sally and her daughter as this means that they are unable to do ‘Peace work’ which would allow them to have some form of income. However, despite everything Penny was full of joy and laughter, she was thrilled to see Rosemary and enjoyed time shaking her hand and also insisted that Rosemary prayed for her after singing. She profoundly exclaimed that she had a love for church and God, claiming that since going to church more she is feeling better than before. When we left our visit there were many feelings of love for the family as well as the feeling of joy as she still had such faith and love for Jesus which really put us all to shame.

AJ, DJ, Meg and I went on a holy home visit to go and see a woman named Janita who had strong connections with the care point. She told us that she had 5 children, which meant that there were a lot of names to remember, and that her eldest daughter, Joy (19) had two children of her own. All of her children go to school and enjoy having an education, and she is very happy with where she lives and the community that she feels safe within. She moved to the area about 5 years ago and was given a house by the government after 1 year of living in the community. Her house was relatively small but her plot of land was quite big, which meant that she had started to build another house that was much bigger than the other. She is hoping that, once this house is built, that the girls and her will be able to live in the new house, leaving the older house for her boys. DJ enjoyed a good dance with Janita, only because it was punishment for forgetting her name, and she shared a laugh with all of us. Her faith was very strong and vitally important to her, which showed as she wore a pin badge on her top that represented her as a member of the church community. She asked us to pray for her own strength in finishing her new home, and also that her children succeed at school and in everything that they do. DJ prayed for her, and we all thanked her for allowing us to hear her story. As we travelled back to the care point, we were able to get to know more about Patricia, one of the service centre team members, and Audris, one of the only male care workers currently at Pfunani, who both journeyed with us to the home visit. 

After arriving back from our Holy home visits we were able to spend more time again with the Under 5s. This was great to see how they had already opened up slightly to Hannah and Chris who had spent the morning with them. However we soon learnt due to mattresses and tiredness that there was a chance for a nap for the younger tired children although AJ and DJ also took the opportunity to enjoy a short nap with some of the younger children! After 2:30pm we expected a few more children to arrive as the primary school finishes around this time and they did begin to arrive slowly although it did seem a long time due to the fact that it is a rural community. However they did soon arrive and we managed to get them to play some games with the parachute which was lovely to see as well as enjoying a game of Impala Impala Lion (Duck Duck Goose). We promptly enjoyed some singing and prayer before the food was served, consisting of Pap (a firm favourite with Vicky and Hannah), Cabbage and Chicken feet followed by some quick goodbyes.

We departed from Pfunani at about 4:30pm and travelled back to Wits. As soon as we got back, DJ, AJ, Meg and Chris all decided that they were brave enough to go swimming, whilst the rest of us watched on and laughed. We then quickly got changed and had showers, before travelling to the dining hall about 15 mins away. We shared an amazing meal of chicken, pasta salad, roasted vegetables and green salad, and then a pudding of fruit roulade! We stayed only for dinner, so travelled back to the accommodation centre where we went straight to Audrey’s cabin for our debrief. We all talked about the differences we had noticed between Pfunani and Share, and also something that we saw that challenged us. Audrey told us the stories of some of the children which were very hard to hear, and she also told us more about the nature of the Pfunani and the struggles that this community faces. Alcohol is one of the big issues in the area which means that the streets can become very dangerous, particularly at night. The vulnerabilities that the children face come mainly from their broken and disjointed families, both because the parents had passed away, but because the parents had split up and the father figure was completely absent. This lack of male support means that these families do not have enough money to fee their children, making them vulnerable to disease and malnourishment. The under 5s programme was set up just over a year ago to try and face the problem of serious malnourishment in young children. These children come to the care point earlier than the other children, and are given a simple breakfast of brown porridge, milk and peanut butter to help build up their strength. Finally, Audrey explained that the majority of the families in Pfunani are from Mozambique and therefore do not have any papers, which means that these families cannot access any money or support from the government, making it extremely difficult for them to build a life for their families. This made us all think about our own families and how lucky we are to be surrounded by people who love and care for us, particularly in having a vital father figure at home.

Oliver and Clarrie

Day 10 - Monday 23rd July 2018 - Share and Witz

Greetings from Wits University Field Centre, within Kruger National Park!

For the gentlemen the day began in chapel at 7.00 am with men’s prayers, whilst the rest of us enjoyed a more leisurely breakfast before the Hands Monday Meeting and Prayers for the whole community at 8.00 am. This meeting includes a celebration of birthdays, including Vicky’s upcoming 18th on 6 August! Although a little early, she enjoyed receiving multiple hugs, much clapping and a time of prayer - a special Hands tradition which is carried out with enthusiasm and gusto. We were encouraged to consider the reasons for ‘spiritual dryness’ amongst mission personal, and sang a number of hymns and prayed for the needs of the Hands family, the care points throughout 8 countries and our partner communities in the U.K., USA, Canada and Australia amongst others.

Eventually, soon after 9.30am, we set off for Share, a journey of more than 3 hours which included stops to buy vegetables for the communities we are visiting, and increasingly rugged dirt and sand tracks as we travelled further and further from the Hub. Our minibus was rather full, with our luggage for two nights away; and two Hands volunteers, Audrey and Gugu, accompanying us.

We arrived, with our vegetables, just in time to start preparing the cabbages for lunch, which comprised pap, a bean stew and a vegetable dish based on the cabbage. We were greeted over time by 13 care workers (the care point has 14 in total with more than 60 children registered), ably directed by Promotion their leader; we soon went indoors to share in hilarious introductions, which included forfeits if a tennis ball was dropped, much energetic singing and dancing, and finally a time for prayer.

The younger children soon arrived from school and we became engrossed in a number of games, including bubble blowing, rudimentary French cricket, and much sign language to aid communication. Some of the care workers joined us for the games which was pleasing and encouraging.

I was asked to take Gugu to a taxi point just off one of the main roads. 6 of the care workers joined me for the ride and as soon as they entered the mini bus they all started to sing and dance. They sang loud and with great enthusiasm, they where singing clapping stamping whistling and shouting. We had the windows down and their African rhythm was reverberating around the minibus and I wish I could of kept on driving as I didn’t want the amazing sounds and songs to stop. It was definitely one of my highlights whilst being in Africa. I would choose to drive with the ladies singing than the radio any day. After we had dropped Gugu off we made the return journey back to the care point, I purposely drove slowly to take the singing in as much as I could. On our return Rosemary could hear us long before she could see us, the van was visibly moving with the dancing that was going on.

When we got back the lunch was ready, Clarrie, Meg and Vicky served the lunch starting with the youngest children, who firmly refused the cabbage dish but fortunately Clarrie was able to start to dispense the huge bowl’s contents once the slightly older children got to the front of the queue! Whilst the children where getting their lunch I noticed one of the care workers was emptying the stone sink by using a plate to scoop the water out, she told me it was blocked. Once we got the water out I removed the waste pipe off the bottom to see if that was blocked which it wasn’t, she explained to me where the waste pipe went to which was about 25meters away in the vegetable patch. Me and Chris dug down to find the pipe. Once we found the pipe I found some old fence wire which I used as a improvised drain rod. I pushed the wire up about 2 meters which resulted in a awful goo and stench coming out the pipe followed by good flow of waste water. The care workers where very grateful, this left me thinking how long had it been blocked? A simple task made a difference. If I hadn’t seen her bailing the water out I would never of known, how long would they of struggled with this?

All too soon it was time to say our farewells to the Share community for the day as we needed to journey to the edge of Kruger Park for our accommodation. With the field Centre almost in sight, we spotted two elephants just inside the boundary fence; needless to say Chris completed a swift three-point turn in order that we could take some very close up photographs. Once at the Centre restaurant, as darkness descended well before 6.00 pm, Audrey began our day’s debrief before dinner was served - delicious salads, beetroot, samp and beef curry followed by hot chocolate pudding and custard. We continued our discussions after being extremely well fed; we were deeply moved by the stories of three people associated with the Share care point which prompted us to pray for the troubled individuals before seeking out our accommodation in complete darkness!

In the midst of Kruger we are now enjoying a few games of cards before reaching the 10.00pm curfew and our bunk beds!

DJ and Rosemary

Day 9 - Sunday 22nd July 2018 - Day Off - Kaapsahooop

This morning started by going to church at St George’s Church, which is the Anglican parish church for White River. The curate gave the address and talked about our dependence as a society on social media, how life had become faster as a result. She went on to reflect that we are willing to spend many hours on our phone, doing email, responding to chat, and yet sometimes we cannot find time to spend even 2 minutes with God.

 

 

 

 

Church over and we headed off to Kaapsahoop, which is an ancient mining village at the top of a hill. The Village has many colourful wooden houses, several craft shops and a small market.

Having parked the van we went on a walk to a nearby waterfall, this involved scaling down a steep rocky slope into a wooded valley. Then up another short valley to the bottom of the waterfall. Lots of pictures were taken before we scrabbled back out of the ravine to the Village, where we visited the shops and market, before having pancakes at the pancake house.

 After dinner, we climbed up through the strange rock formations to the radio station at the top of the hill. The view from here was incredible as you could see for miles in every direction. Pictures were taken before we made our way back to the bus and back to the Hub for beans on toast, scrambled egg and sausage.

 After tea we made our way to the Wendy House for a brief session to re-orientate ourselves for the week ahead. We reflected on last week, the children we had met, the houses we had visited, the care workers we had walked along side. Mafambisa, despite Siyathuthuka existing before it, is a fairly immature care point, the care workers are still learning, and the number of care workers is still small. Tomorrow we head north to “Share”, which is a more mature and more established care point with more care workers. “Share” is also a lot more rural and so we are looking forward to a different experience. We spent a few moments in silent prayer as we brought before God those things that had made us happy, those that had made us angry, and those that had upset us in Mafambisa last week.

Vicky and Chris

Day 8 - Saturday 21st July 2018 - Day Off - Kruger

After a week of spending time in the community at Mafambisa with the care workers, children and visiting care givers in their homes and hearing their stories, Saturday gave us the opportunity for some down time which we spent in Kruger National Park.

The day started earlier than usual with a 4:30 start to make our way to the gates of Kruger so that we would be first in the queue and avoid passport hold ups.

We were fortunate to find three of the ‘big five’ (the animals most dangerous to hunt) before 8.30am alone. The first discovery was a group of zebras, in which we were all awed by the sight of seeing them in their natural habitat. The sight of the elephants was truly amazing as we saw them within a herd (a sight we were told was rare) and also in very close proximity where we were at risk of being stampeded upon. Our final sighting of the ‘big five’ was a rhino, we saw both black and white ones and despite being a distance away the size of them was still overwhelming. Sadly we did not get to witness a lion but that was not to put a dampener on the day. 

At midday we decided to take a swim in Skukusa-a pool in the middle of Kruger Park. Despite it being absolutely freezing within the pool we decided to jump in as we really couldn’t turn down the opportunity.

Upon finishing our chilly swim, we continued our journey around the national park but we were unlucky in finding any more animals but it was just as amazing to observe the landscape.

We arrived back to the Hub in darkness as we had left, treating ourselves to a meal of lasagne that we shared with our friends (the long term volunteers of Hands) and played several new games around the table.

By AJ and Meg

Day 7 - Friday 20th July - 'Hands on Deck' + Maintenance

The morning started with many members choosing to get up slightly earlier (around 6:30am) with the hope of seeing a lovely sunrise over the mountains. However, unfortunately the day started with clouds rising alongside the sun which made it slightly less successful although it was lovely to see.

With an earlier start we took the opportunity for an earlier breakfast which we enjoyed on the veranda overlooking the Hands Village. After breakfast we were ushered into ‘The Village’ for a prompt start to the ‘Hands on Deck’ meeting which was to take place at 8am with many members of the Hands team joining us including those living within the Hands Village as well as the service centre team from the community and others involved throughout the 8 countries that Hands at Work work in. This was an opportunity for our team to get to see the continuous work of Hands throughout the 60 communities across Africa. 

Something very useful for our team, was to here about the continuous progress that has been made with the care workers, care givers and children within our partner community, Mafambisa, since the Maranatha workshop which took place within the last week of June. Service Centre volunteers, Gugu and Pinky told us how they really didn’t wish to attend the workshop and were trying to find opportunities to be busy elsewhere. Despite this, they were encouraged through prayer and scripture that they should be a part of the workshop in order to encourage everyone who was attending. They then both went on to explain how beneficial the workshop was for the care givers especially considering the turbulent times within the Mafambisa community within the last year with the move from the Siyathuthuka care point to the new Mafambisa care point. Although, it was also beneficial for the children and care workers who managed to understand and experience the love and joy of the gospel.

Kara and Hannah, more members of the Hands family, then spoke to us all about their trips to Mozambique and Zimbabwe which have taken place within the month. They told us some stories of children that helped to put into perspective what we have been experiencing over the last week. Kara spoke to us about a young boy named George (name changed). He was attending the care point regularly and one afternoon when walking home he was kidnapped. After his family and care workers spent the night searching they found him and saved him. He looked to be about 8 but they soon learnt that he was simply malnourished and actually 11. Faith (name changed), was a 6year old noticed by Hannah and she told us how the first chance she had to meet Faith was the Wednesday. She went missing from the care point and it was discovered by the Sunday that the young girl had died. 

Both of these highlighted the issues that are faced in Mozambique and Zimbabwe related to witchcraft and the stigma surrounding this. This creates a very dangerous society for the children within the care point.

After the meeting concluded, we spent an hour and a half joining the maintenance team to rake up leaves around the Hub. We were provided with a delicious lunch and then met the Communications team to be given some tasks.

Daytona and Celine (members of the communications team) met us in ‘the Village’ where they introduced to us what their roles included, we found out that Celine was very social media based and had large control over the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and many other accounts. She informed us that this role, required a lot of writing and lots of chasing up of pictures to show people connected through the social media networks about the different stories and what is going on within different communities. 

The first task that they set us to complete was a ‘Photo Scavenger Hunt’. This involved running around the Hands Village in order to find different objects and people who we can take photos with and answer questions while reporting back to Daytona and Celine between each photo. The next task was to interview different people within the Hub, this included why they are involved with Hands, how long they have been involved and what their role is at Hands. We were challenged to find 2 Africans to interview and 2 international volunteers who live out in South Africa.

After the communications activities we then had some down time and time to relax and talk about the week that we have had as well as discussing our hopes for Kruger tomorrow. After a lovely meal of burgers and chips we decided to enjoy some more down time and an early night before the early start tomorrow.

By Hannah and Oliver

Day 6 - Thursday 20th July - Mafambisa

The team set off earlier than usual and DJ drove us to Mafambisa, via Shoprite, to buy the all important cabbages and Vetkoeks! We arrived at the care point and immediately checked out the toilet pit to see that it was filled with water. After getting tools out of the minibus, DJ, Chris, Oliver, Farzam, Hannah and Vicky all got stuck in and started to bail the water out using buckets. The water table in Mafambisa is high so the pit had filled up over night. After we had got all the water out we continued dig and pick axe. The soil is very sandy, and with the combination of the water, sand, clay and stone it made a thick gloopy heavy material to dig and get out the hole. We spent 4 hours digging and bailing out water. The pit is 2.4 by 2 meters and 2.5 meters deep. Still half a meter to go. Once the pit is finished it will be lined with bricks, lintels on top, a floor, toilet seat and then walls and a roof. There is a pipe coming out the back to release any smell. The pipe is painted black to heat up in the sun causing the air to rise up it and causing a vacuum in the toilet to draw fresh air in and the smell out. The next time you sit on the toilet just think of the work involved it to making these toilets, I was talking to Betwell, he was telling me they dug a toilet in a local community and it took them 3 holes to get one deep enough due to boulders under the ground.

After doing some washing up, Oliver, AJ and Hannah all went to fetch some water from the Pastors house, because the washing up water was too filthy from the excess water from the toilet pit. 

We then split off into two groups: Hannah, Chris, Oliver and Vicky, and Clarrie, AJ and Meg, to go on Holy Home Visits. Hannah, Chris, Oliver and Vicky all travelled with Gugu, one of the Service Centre team, and went to the house of Patience’s uncle. On the way, they learnt that Gugu had once been a vulnerable child at the care point in Masoyi, before entering college and university and then joining Hands@Work in 2015. When they arrived at the house, they found that it was only the granddaughter of Patience’s uncle who was home, who was in her early teens, because Patience’s uncle and grandmother were in court. Patience had been staying there since her abuse, because both of her parents had been arrested, and her uncle and grandmother had gone to court to try and get custody of the children. There are currently 6 of them living at the house, including the grandmother, the uncle and the granddaughter of the uncle.

Meanwhile, the rest of us travelled to the home of Henry and Harry’s mother but she was unfortunately not in because she was having her hair done! So instead we travelled with Nicho to the home of Anna, who is a care worker at the Mafambisa care point. However, she hadn’t been able to go for over a year because she has had massive problems with her left ankle, that had swollen to four times its normal size. She is now feeling much better and her ankle is almost better, but her main challenge is getting water which, because it’s not rainy season, is very rare. We shared a laugh with her and she told us all about her big family that is spread all across the country, which makes it difficult for her to see many of them regularly. We prayed that she would have a full recovery, and that her children would continue to go to school and see the hope and joy of Christ in everything that they do.

When we returned to the care point, Rosemary had just finished prepping lunch with the Care Workers, and the children started to arrive in from school. Many of the boys immediately went to the toilet pit to get involved in digging, even though they were still in their uniform. Once one school had arrived, we set up the sound system and played ‘Shine’, which they all immediately started to sing and dance to. We also taught them another of our Holiday Club songs, ‘Great Great Brill Brill’, which they absolutely loved and picked up within the first go. After dancing a bit more, we then played some games with the children, including playing frisbee with the boys, drawing pictures in the sand, playing noughts and crosses, and making paper hats with Vicky. We then gathered for prayers and some singing before serving lunch of rice, beetroot, chicken thighs and gravy...which was amazing! We gathered once more after everyone had finished eating, to sing happy birthday to Poppy who turned 15 today, and to end the day with another reprise of ‘Shine’ and ‘Great Great Brill Brill’ before the children departed. As they were leaving, Sophie came and wrote some lovely messages on our arms which made us all feel very loved and blessed.

Chris, Farzam and Nicho quickly went by minibus to the home of Lucy, who we had seen on a previous Holy Home Visit, and invited them to travel back with them so that her 4 children could come and have something to eat. 

We then left Mafambisa, and took a detour to Pick n Pay to buy ingredients for cake making, before arriving back at the ‘Hub’. Many of us had a quick shower as soon as we got back, before sitting down to dinner of Fish and Chips. After dinner we went up to Kristi and Daytona’s house, who are our hosts, and had a debrief accompanied by cookies and brownies! They encouraged us to compare our feelings to the weather and challenged us to explain why we felt the way that we did. They also shared their own moments of joy and moments of unrest which gave us a greater insight into the work that they do. After finishing there we moved back down to ‘The Village’ to chill out before going to bed to prepare for the next day.

DJ and Clarrie

Day 5 - Wednesday 18th July - Mafambisa

Some of us enjoyed a partial sunrise over the distant hills; a positive sign that we could look forward to warmer temperatures and more sun today! 

At 8.00 am we met as a team to study John 14.6 in relation to our experiences to date in the Mafambisa community, whilst others at the Hub joined together for their usual Wednesday morning small groups. Discussions over, we sent out for our third day at Mafambisa.

Today was the beginning of the project to provide new loos for the use of the children; much needed, given the perilous lean and dilapidation of the single present facility! Having gathered an aged wheelbarrow, pick axe, spades and shovels from the pastor’s home just across the busy road from the church, Betwell produced the detailed plans for the new building, and Chris expertly marked out the measured specifications with gathered sticks driven into the hard ground. The first turf was soon cut, and there was only the task of hand-digging a hole 2.0 metres x 2.4 metres x 3.00 metres deep; members of the Cupboard soon started to fill the wheelbarrow with twisted roots, and increasingly heavy, clay soil. Their efforts were supplemented by interventions of the care workers who were pleased to flex their muscles in something different to stirring pap, and cutting up piles of vegetables for the children’s daily hot meal - a talented and most industrious group of ladies who are unintimidated by new challenges! Their techniques put our modest efforts to shame, and all activity was accompanied by much laughter and endless smiles!

The Care Point today became an even busier and vibrant place as the work continued on digging the pit for the new toilets; AJ helped the care workers with the cooking, giving them a bit of a break from their routine. The pastor’s wife, Martha, turned up with one of the other ladies from the church and they spent time working in the vegetable garden. Pastor Buwani also turned up a little later and got stuck straight in helping us to dig the hole. As the children started to arrive, our team started to interact with them, playing games, helping with writing, one of the lads, Toby (name changed) took to drawing in the sand and was very good at it, as we had experienced in previous years. He has also done some great sketches in his school book which he was keen to share. Vicky enjoyed helping some of the older children with their homework, and then made a paper butterfly for one of the girls. Within minutes she had a queue for her handiwork and was even asked to teach another girl how to make them for her siblings at home.

Clarrie spent some time talking with Melody, one of the Hands Service Centre team. She was pleased to discover the diversity of her roles as a volunteer, and impressed by her caring instincts, and sense of privilege in the communities she visits. Melody, humbly felt she was simply responding to necessities within the places she visited and didn’t deserve any praise or merit.

Many of the children arrived early because they were released from school when Mandela Day celebrations had concluded. Each pupil had been given a huge orange: some of the youngsters seemed hesitant about whether they needed peeling before eating - despite the hundreds of orange groves in this region, they obviously rarely had the pleasure of eating the fruits.

Our team had brought with them the holiday club song “Shine” which they started to teach to the children. It wasn’t long until the children were getting the hang of the words and the actions, and it was time to add in the music. It was great to see how the children really took to the song and we plan to teach them another one tomorrow. After song practice was finished a group of the girls searched out Clarrie and danced the dance and sang the song for her without any words or music.

A fun-filled and productive day for us all.

By Rosemary and Chris 

Day 4 - Tuesday 17th July - Ladies prayer, Mafambisa and Holy Home Visits

The day started with Women’s prayer at 8:00am. We started by explaining how we felt through different types of weather, for example many of the women felt “sunny with slight clouds” as in they were happy but had a few niggling problems. We then went on to praise and prayer; personal thanks and group prayer for communities and people in and around the work that Hands does.

We joined with the men for our orientation with Kristi who is our host here at Hands along with her husband Daytona. She talked us through Holy Home Visits which we would be experiencing later today. Holy Home Visits give the Care Workers the opportunity to look behind the curtain on some of the Young people’s lives to understand their vulnerabilities and how they can be supported further.

Kristi then joined us on our trip out to Mafambisa. We arrived earlier than we did yesterday and got stuck into prepping for the children’s dinner; Pap, Potato stew and Cabbage. A local kindly unknowingly provided a dropped beat soundtrack which provided the opportunity for the care workers to relax a little and dance with us as we chopped, peeled, grated and stirred.

After lunch had been prepped ready for the car workers to cook up, we prayed with the team before separating into two teams to embark on our Holy Home Visits. We visited two homes between us, both a fair walk from the centre. 

The first was a Gogo - Granny, we’ll call her Emily, she is the care giver in her home, with the young people all being her grandchildren... nine in total, a further six live just down the road. The house is a room, no bigger than a garage, with a large bed, fridge, freezer and some shelving within it. This is where all the family sleeps at night. Emily talked to us about some of her health problems that have kept her in bed these past days, and we discussed the garden where she grows vegetables to supplement the maize she uses to feed the family. Due to poor construction, the fence around the property doesn’t keep the cows from eating her crops. One thing that struck us about Emily was that she didn’t complain about her lot, she provides how she can for her family without complaint and welcomes the interest, support, love and company she receives from the people who visit her. What made the visit extra special was that we had bonded well with two of her grandchildren the day before and so it was great to be able to have a further insight into their stories.

The second one was a family of six, a grandmother, her daughter and her three sons and one daughter. Their home as well was the size of a garage however they were gifted with enough wood to build a second identical size shed by a neighbour. This building was build completely by the grandmother, who also dug a trench to stop a stream from forming in the middle of their plot of land by herself too. The building, however, was not suitable for anyone to sleep in, therefore all six of the family had to sleep in only the other room. They also had a garden where they grow bananas, sweet potatoes, potatoes and beans. Unfortunately, cows are able to break through their fence and eat the crops that they grow, because of this, the grandmother is in the process of fixing and improving the fence. Hands is also planning on building this family a new, bigger and stronger home as their house at the moment isn’t anywhere near big enough to shelter this family.

When the day was over and we’d eaten a lovely meal of chicken curry, we went up to Kristi’s house for a debrief and cake. During the debrief, Kristi introduced us to an activity where we had to pick out different body parts, for example, eyes and ears, to describe things we had experienced today. Different body parts represented different experiences, like eyes represented something that we had seen today and ears represented what we had heard. Each of us gave two different body parts which consisted of experiences like watching young children encouraging others to approach us and also how we noticed that the role of an adult male figure is almost non-existent for the majority of the children which was something we were disheartened by.