Dad and Mum with Angel, the Community health worker (in orange) and the mother and one of her daughters in the sponsor family. That box is well heavy...
In Mophela, with some of the kids at the second sponsor family house.Monday was spent at my house, catching up with children and meeting my sponsor baby, who gurgled and crawled on cue. (well trained!). I treated M&D to the Spar Experience – a trip to our local shopping mall at Cato Ridge – very Zulu. We had to buy essential food parcel components for our visit to a couple of sponsor families on Tuesday and this is the best place to go.
On Tuesday morning I drove M&D down to Kwa Ximba #9 in my car (the roads were a bit precarious for a hire car, and my car is well-known in the valley). We picked up a community health worker and set off to pay a visit to the family that my parents sponsor through the Child Sponsorship scheme. The road up to their house was fairly torturous, enough to keep Dad concerned in any case, but definitely not the worst roads I’ve been on.
On arrival at the home of the family, we found out that the mother was off in the community garden working and she had to be summoned. Despite the abject poverty in which these people live, they still manage to keep mobile phones working and have a small TV for the kids to watch. Thankfully she was reachable on her cell-phone and rushed back to greet us. Have got some great pictures of M&D sitting outside a wattle-and-daub mud hut, taking in the view over the valley. It’s a totally different world, but very good to come down and discover for themselves how it is to live in these valleys.
The mother was overjoyed to receive an extra food parcel, it will certainly come in handy with Christmas round the corner.
After lunch we headed to another valley to visit the family sponsored by my sister’s church. They lived not far from where I used to hang out with Smilo so I knew the roads well. We picked up another community health worker and headed over the sandy ant-infested fields towards a group of mud huts. There was some confusion as to the whereabouts of the family, but when we produced a photo of the family the penny dropped and the young people led us down to the family abode further down the hill. We had to go on foot and so I had to move my car into the compound, parking in between 2 dilapidated Mercedes, one of which looked like it had been blown apart. Leaving a group of small children to keep an eye on the car (assuring Dad that it would be the same with 4 wheels etc when we returned) we set off across the fields, braving the longish grass and ants, to get to the house. Bravery award of the day goes to Mum, who is terrified of snakes, for even setting off on this brief journey. She didn’t moan at all.
In comparison with the poverty of the family from the morning, these people lived in even more poverty. It took us a little bit of negotiation to work out which children lived there and which were from the neighbouring houses. I managed to communicate with the kids in Zulu, even telling one of the girls she was beautiful ‘Omuhle, wena!’, which produced a huge smile.
There are 6 in the family, all sleeping on the floor of an extremely small rondavel. The mother has found a job locally but returns at the weekend, where there are 7 of them. They had electricity which powered a radio, small stove and a freezer, but there didn’t seem to be any light. The family are in the process of building another small room next to the rondavel. It was fascinating to see the process of building with almost medieval methods.
We handed over the food parcel and also sweets for all the kids around. The amazing thing was seeing these young women put the boxes of food on their heads and carry them from the car down to the house. These were huge boxes full of food, too heavy for us puny English people to carry. This family is due to start receiving food parcels next week and the extra one will be much appreciated.
