After a long and weary 24 hours of travel, I finally arrive in South Africa. Would you believe at Johannesburg Airport I met a missionary I know from the area where I live in Georgia, what a small world we live in! When I finally arrived in Durban I met up with Monica, a great volunteer from Connecticut, she was my roommate last year at the orphanage. She is staying two months with me on this new project. I am so thankful not to be living by myself. Rosetta, the Director of the Program, picked us up at the airport, being that it was night time she could not take us to the valley, so we stayed the first night at her home in the city.

June 20
Wednesday

We did not get much sleep and were up early eager to begin our new journey. We will be the first volunteers of this new organization and the very first ones to occupy the volunteer accommodation (which is still a work in progress). On the way there Rosetta took us to a store in the city to buy some groceries, while purchasing them she informed us that we had no refrigerator yet, so not to buy anything perishable. She further explained she would do her best to get us one soon. This did not dampen our spirit; we were like two little children going to the candy store, anxious to see our new home for the first time.

The area is surrounded by many small mountains and is absolutely beautiful but at the same time plagued by unbelievable poverty. When we arrived, wonderful Petrus, a South African man I knew from last year who is now working with Rosetta, was busy working on our house with four local hard working Zulu men, scraping walls and painting. He explained he would do his best to get water into the building as soon as possible and it would be a few weeks before he would have a shower and toilet ready for us. Monica and I stayed up most of the night trying to help with the clean up, we decided if we could have one room cleaned and in orderly shape; meaning no tools, wire, trash or rubber hoses we would be happy. Another night of no sleep, but we transformed one room into a warm and cozy bedroom. In time, we would have it all. We are so excited to be part of this grass root organization, and honored to be working with these people.

June 21
Thursday
Everybody is still working non stop to get the volunteer house in order. We are now tired, very dirty and a little bit hungry but still happy as can be. The building we are living in (was at one time a liquor store) belonging to Mildred an older Zulu woman; she lives in a house on the same property. She is amazing, a very strong Christian woman so dedicated to her people. I stand in AWE of her and know I will never be the same after knowing her. She has met with the Chief and has his approval of our presence in the valley. He is aware we will be working with her on many projects. We will probably meet with him sometime next week. But in the meantime, his wife came by to meet us. Many neighbors and children are also stopping by. We are loving the people! Another sleepless night, we are so hyped that we can't seem to sleep.

June 22
Friday
As promised, Petrus has drilled a hole in our concrete house and added a cold water faucet - Yes! We are thrilled, we now have cold water. Then Petrus surprises me with the news that he will take me to the area where Phila is from (quite a distance form here) on Wednesday, we are not sure how we are going to arrange all of this but he is willing to give it a try. Please pray that I can get in touch with the right people that could help facilitate this, I so want to see my precious baby.
Mildred stops by and asks us to accompany her on a home visit to a local family, she is trying to get help for them, a child headed household, an older brother taking care of his three siblings, 10, 11 and 16. After walking up a very steep hill on a very narrow foot path, my heart sinks, again I witness what it means to have nothing at an even deeper level. Every time I think I understand, and I realize I will never fully understand what it means to have nothing. They have very little food and the two youngest do not attend school because they can't pay the school fees. School is not free in South Africa,even if it costs little in this valley, little is too much when you have nothing. In my mind I am thinking what can we do right now. I will pack a box of clothing that was donated to Our Journey and take it to them next week. It is winter in South Africa, so, as you can imagine, they go to bed cold and hungry.
Rosetta came by to meet with all of us to see how we are doing; she is another amazing lady and I am proud that Our Journey is associated with her. She is concerned about how we are handling our living conditions, we reassure her that we know she is doing the best she can and we will help with some of the expenses for labor to help get the toilet/shower finished faster. We do not even have an out house. Can you believe the Zulu men that are working on our house get 45 Rand a day- that is equivalent to $6.50 a day? Another sleepless but great night!

June 23
Saturday
Monica and I are working on the 30 boxes of clothing Our Journey sent, we want to get it delivered to many of the needy families by next week. It is mostly winter clothing, which is needed right now. Sandra, your baby clothes arrived - thank you so much! After doing that for a couple of hours we take a break and use our new precious water to wash our dirty hair in a basin outside. Life is good! After that Mildred asks us if we want to see more of the valley, we spend a wonderful afternoon with her and her granddaughter visiting a dam near by. We get to see Zebras not far from where we live. We tell her we think there must have been cows or something by our bedroom window last night because they made a lot of noise and left big droppings. She says Oh NO, its the BIG rats that have lived in your house for many years while it sat vacated. I gulp, but go on. After our afternoon outing we arrived home to find we no longer have water, there is a leak in the hose and has now it has to be shut off until Petrus comes back on Monday. Oh well, my hair is clean. Please know I am not whining, sharing my story and honored to be here. Knowing it is all part of God's plan for me.
Mildred has invited us to her church tomorrow.

To be continued...

Love,
Maureen

How Can You Help
To contribute to this work, please send a donation to:
Our Journey, Inc.
Fred Mills, CPA, LLC
Route 4, Box 3133
Townsend, Georgia 31331

Check out our website: www.ourjourneyinc.org

 

June 25, 2007
Monday
Church with Mildred on Sunday was great!!! Over 900 people and we were the only white folks. Needless to say the singing was spectacular and the sermon great.

Tuesday
Monica and I are still working and helping with the volunteer house - so much still needs to be done.

Still have rats but plan on treating the house this week. We are without a refrigerator and toilet, but now have running cold water.

It is very cold here and we have having torrential rains - has lasted all day and night. We are hoping to have all the leaks fixed and broken window panes replaced this upcoming week. There is even a possibility of a small portable electric heater.

Wednesday
Petrus, our South African friend was able to take us to Phila's home! We left at 8AM and returned home at 8PM, the weather was unbelievably cold, we actually witnessed snow on the way there - a first for me in South Africa. Phila's home is very far from here and it is considered to be one of the most dangerous areas in KwaZulu-Natal. Hopefully, I am able to send pictures - all depending on if I am able to can get away this weekend and visit an internet cafe in the city.

Again my heart hurts so much when I see how little they have. Run down mud hut, no windows, dirt floor, no electricity, no water and not much food. They build a small fire on the dirt floor inside the hut to keep them warm but, it is so dangerous, no windows so the fumes stay inside the house. . Even saying that I can not explain in words that will do it justice what it felt like to see him again, he looked healthy and happy. His grandmother appears to be taking care of him and giving him his medications. My heart was pumping a mile a minute as he ran to me with open arms whispering "Mama Mauweeen" He no longer understands English but his face said it all! We brought winter jackets and scarves for Phila and his two sisters along with some coloring books and big bag of oranges. I was so pleased to see that all the blankets and sleeping bags that we left at his home last winter were still there. His family was so excited to see us and we were told over and over again in Zulu by his older grandmother how Phila's life had been saved by his white mother, it is truly humbling to hear these words. Phila's grandmother was telling us through an interpreter that she had buried her 34 year old son last week - the grave covered in loose rocks sits somberly beside their home. Her daughter, Phila's Mom also died very young. Life in Africa can be so hard.

Thursday
A night never to be forgotten, very cold winds blowing through our house all night, everything in the house was rattling; the noise level was mind boggling. We stayed up most of the night adding more blankets and listening to what was happening outside. Can you imagine what the neighbors in our valley were feeling like! Our house is structural, most of theirs are not. We had many blankets and were that cold, what were they feeling like?

As I lock the front door tonight. I see three local women gathering tree limbs from our yard and carrying them on their heads to take home for fires tonight; it is still very cold and windy. Again I say, Life in Africa can be so hard. I feel so blessed to be here!

Love,
Maureen