Day 12 - Oshoek Home Visits

Visit 1: Noah and Nick 

Today we visited Luke who is the eldest of the 11 grandchildren who are cared for by his Gogo. When we visited his Gogo was not in as she was at an elderly person group in the town playing a Netball match which she has been practicing for. When we spoke to Luke he told us the story of how is Gogo who is originally from South Africa crossed the border to Swaziland when she who a young woman and that she met her husband in Swaziland, additionally while in Swaziland she had children and settled down. Once the Gogo husband died she made the decision to move back to South Africa to be closer to her growing family. 

The Gogos children live close by and do piece work to make money, which is the main reason that she cares for 11 out of her 14 grandchildren.

Luke had very good English and spoke to us about his love of football and in particular Chelsea F.C. and about his interest in cars, he said ‘I like big cars SUVs like Land Cruiser or Ford Everest or Jeep Wrangler Rubicon or to have a Bakkie (Pickup truck)’. 

We were also informed that Luke used to be the care taker for the house at the service centre at is Oshoek, however he is now just doing some piece work and then coming home to care for the land and their animals.

Luke told us about his struggles with getting South African Papers and how is limited him in being able to do his metrics at the end of grade 12, however, we were delighted to hear that he now has his papers and is planning to go back to School to do his metric and get his certificates and wants to go on to be a electrical engineer.

Luke was also interested to share what he dreams of doing in the future and said that he wanted to visit England to see Chelsea F.C. play and ride the London eye. He said he also dreams of having a wife, children and  a German Shepherd.

During our time with Luke we asked him to show us around is land, with him showing us the fenced off area were he intends to grow vegetables although he explained that he needs water to help the plants grow and that he intends to buy a waterpump to pump the water up from the bottom of his land saying that it will help the plants to grow. 

The area was half dug and we encouraged him to use the chicken manure to fertlise the ground. 

My hope is my encouragement that I gave him to continue to get the ground ready for planting and will be very beneficial to the family.

Before we left, Nick had his picture taken with Luke and assured him I would pray for him and the rest of the family and his plans for his future would come fruition.

Visit 2: Pippa and Oliver

We went with Penelope, Gift (from the hospitality team) and a Care Worker on a visit to see a child headed family. The route was longer than expected as due to the altering terrain, the lower parts were muddy and boggy as they are next to the water source. The family we were visiting was, 24 year old Nancy who was living in a house with her siblings but also her own three children. Unfortunately both of Nancy’s parents had passed away and therefore she was responsible for caring for the other children. 

Nancy was being supported by relatives - aunts/cousins who lived close by however she was unable to get a job as there are not many around. We met with her aunt, Wendy, in the yard and she explained that everyone in the family doing well. Penelope asked about the young men who were around and playing music, Wendy explained that they had finished grade 12 at school however were unable to take their exams because they do not have any South African identity therefore were at home without a job. 

Two of Nancy’s children are attending the care point and were at school when we visited as well as her siblings.  The service centre and the Care Workers check in with Nancy and her family regularly to make sure everything is going well. Towards the end of our home visit we asked for prayer requests from the family:

- Nancy asked for prayer regarding the possibility of employment or potentially getting some form of job soon. 

- Wendy requested that we pray for her home as she believes it is haunted by demons and impacting her sleep (Alice explained that this is probably conflicting beliefs regarding the Gospel as well as their traditional tribal beliefs).