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November 7, 2006 Dear Friends, Can you believe that I am back living in South Africa! Life is amazing! I moved to the valley outreach program on Friday morning. There are a total of seven volunteers that live here, 4 guys and three gals. All but one of the volunteers are German and they speak a lot of German to each other, so I am surrounded by a lot of people I can not understand including the local Zulu people that work here in the day time. Hopefully this year I will learn more Zulu than I did last year. One of the volunteers here is an American from Massachusetts; he is with the Peace Corp. So someone understand me! I live in a very small room by myself; we have a communal shower and a toilet out side and a communal kitchen. We need to be real careful with our communal kitchen; the monkeys come in and eat everything. We have a metal grate that we need to pull down every time we leave so they can't get in. On my weekends off I will have an opportunity to go the city to shop for groceries for two weeks, I am much more isolated than I was last year. I am not quite settled in yet, but so excited about some of the possibilities that await me. Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit 4 of the valley preschools that we are involved with. It is an understatement to say the least that most of them do not have much. One school in particular had over 70 children in a cinder block building with a tin roof with rocks holding it down. It had two rooms, rooms no bigger than 8 x 8, no water or electricity. The children were crammed into the rooms, no school supplies at all. I then and there decided that is where the 83 blankets that were donated to Our Journey are going. When the blankets arrive I intend to send each child home with one blanket. I also visited other preschools that were overcrowded and had only minimal supplies. Hopefully Our Journey will help with some additional school supplies for these schools. Tomorrow I am going back to one of the preschools that I visited. There is only one teacher there with 30 children in a very very small room. I will ask her if she would like me to work with her and the children. She is a local Zulu woman, but also speaks some English. I am very excited about the possibilities! Our schedule here is to work 12 days on and two days off, meaning we work every other weekend. On my weekends to work I will be going back to the orphanage to work with my precious babies from last year. Some of you know I have been waiting to be a grandmother for some time now, well I am thrilled to tell you I am about to become one this April. My daughter has had a difficult time carrying a baby to term and has lost four the past two years. We have reason to believe this time she will be successful. They, Ben and Krissy are expecting a baby boy and will call him Connor. Update on Phila, I will have an opportunity to visit him on Nov 28 when we do the monthly food drop in that area. He is still in the hospital awaiting discharge, but again, where will he go???? Please keep this precious child in your prayers. Much love,
November 13, 2006 Another great unusual day, it was cold and rained all weekend and it never let up! everything
is so wet and muddy. My room is real damp, which means my clothes and bedding feel yucky!
This was my weekend to work so I stayed at the orphanage and worked with my babies from last
year, I can hardly call them babies anymore they have grown up so much. The babies loved their presents, quilts from Debbie and Ouida and new baby dolls for the girls and match box cars for the boys. I am attaching a picture of where I live. November 14, 2006 In the valley where I work there is a big primary school next to our preschool. There are over 400 children attending school there, I pass thru their schoolyard every morning to get to the preschool. The children all speak Zulu and no English, being the only white person, they stare at me the whole time and I just smile back at them. Today was different; over a dozen children kept chanting, "My name is Maureen, what is your name? Last Friday in preschool I had my preschool get in a circle and we sang the song " My name is -------- what is your name? When it was my turn I sang and pointed to myself and sang, "My name is Maureen, what is your name?" I did not realize they were copying me literally and kept pointing to them selves and singing that their name was Maureen! so now I have both schools singing that their name is Maureen. I guess you have to be here to see how really funny this is. I definitely need to learn more Zulu. I am enclosing some pictures of my preschoolers brushing their teeth outside school. Also, you will see a picture of a local woman heating hot water for the primary school in a big kettle over an open fire, she was teaching me how to keep the fire going. Daily people scrounge for wood to burn for heat and cooking. The preschool will be closing for six weeks for their summer vacation on December 1st. Not sure what I will be doing during this time, but you can be sure I will be kept busy. I am counting the days until I see Phila, only 14 more days. I promise to give you an update with pictures. November 16, 2006 It has taken only two weeks for the reality of where I live to set in, two robberies have
taken place this past week; the first was my good friend from last year, she is working for
another organization this year and lives nearby. Thankfully, she was out of the house when
it happened, her door was broken down and all her personal stuff taken. Sad to say, the second
was at one of our pre schools. This preschool was the pilot school and the one most established.
So much hard work and love has gone into this project. Again, a door was broken down and
all the children's food for the month had been taken. Four local Zulu
women are teachers there along with the volunteers, the little these women get paid was in
the office in the safe, and the robbers took the safe and money with them. Much love, www.ourjourneyinc.org Friday night Where does we begin, my last week has been an emotional roller coaster. From my friend being robbed twice
in one week, this time she was home in broad day light and held at gunpoint and tied while the rest of
her personal stuff was taken from her. This will remain on my mind for some time. Fortunately she was not
raped and is now back home in Australia with plans to come back in February. Today was an exciting day for me, I had a meeting with the director of outreach, she is a remarkable lady that I am very fortunate to have as a mentor. We sat and talked about my work at the preschool in the valley where I am volunteering, she helped brainstorm with me with some great ideas for the upcoming school year. The school year here ends next week and begins again in January. I am hoping to work along with the local Zulu teacher at the preschool to form a parents group in their valley ... helping them to realize there is hope and there is many things we can do to work together to have a better equipped preschool and a salary for their local Zulu teacher. The vision and mission is to help people become independent of outside help, we all leave some day and they have to be able to move forward on their own. Just writing this today gets me all excited and focused on why I am here. There is HOPE! I am attaching pictures of some other pre schools I have visited and hope to share Our Journey donations with... when the blankets arrive they are already earmarked for families that are in most need at pre schools I visited. I am also making plans to distribute the Sewing Project (Ouida and Debbies Project) children's clothes to needy families that receive Monthly Food Parcels, if they arrive from the states in time I will distribute them during the Christmas Food Drop. Sandra, plans are also being made for the beautiful baby clothes your company , Hanny Productions donated to Our Journey. God is so good!!! Love to all, Maureen Maureen Ahern |