Day 4 - Siyathuthuka

Thursday 

We met at 8am for breakfast with the team together. After this the room had a discussion about their time so far and then we left for the Siyathatuka village. After meeting and greeting the mother of the house we put ourselves to work. Jessica, Claire and Adam started on the vegetables and the others, helped sweep and wash the community centre floor whilst Chris was commanded to 'run man run' by a little girl of no more then 2 years old.

We all gathered in the shade as it was extremely hot and sunny today, Floyd prayed for us and our journeys to people's homes that were to take place this morning. We divided ourselves into 4 groups. One group was to stay behind and cook whilst the others went into the community.  Below are a summary of our stories we heard this morning:

Adam, Alex, Dave, Floyd

When we arrived at the first house nobody was home so we swiftly moved onto the next home. It was a long walk down a very dusty track and it was very hot and sunny. We met the grandmother of the house who was the care giver for 10 children. Whilst there she taught us how to crack peanuts and showed us her garden and the vegetables she was growing there. We complimented her garden and she was thankful for that. Before we left we prayed for her health, as she was poorly and for her family. 

Alice, Jessica, Claire

The first house we visited was a 14 year old girl who lived with her mother, brother, two siblings and the brothers little baby in a tiny one room house. The mother had moved from Mozambique and although has a passport has no South African ID card, this meant that they do not have any access to government funding for their family. The mother had recently started working in a school kitchen for a few hours a day but the oldest brother was still looking for work.

The second house was much larger and belong to Freedom and her family. Her father had died when she was a baby and her mother passed away when she was 6. She now lives with her aunt and uncle and their two children. A couple of months ago she went 'off the rails' and was disrespectful to her aunt, went clubbing, was sneaking out and cutting her clothes short. After the children's camp with Hands she has turned her life around and is now a youth worker at the care point and studying hard at school. She wants to become a lawyer. 

Chris and Nick

We went to the house of 3 boys and their sick mother. One of the brothers had stabbed another brother on his arm and so it was all bandaged up. The mother wasn't there and the boy that stabbed the other had run away. Both boys had been excluded from school for one year. The care worker gave the boys a serious talking to about their behaviour, fighting and the consequences of their actions. Before we left we prayed for their mother and that God would help them to resolve their differences more peacefully. 

Alison, Alice, AJ

When we had finished cooking we also went on a home visit. We went to see Tulua but we were met with her brother instead as she was at school. Her brother and father both work and live in Johannesburg and occasionally come home to see her. Whilst they are away she is cared for by a home care worker as she is only 13 years old. Their house was unsafe and Tulua felt very vulnerable so Hands at Work put a new front door on their house to enable her to feel safer. We prayed for the brothers health and Tulua's grades at school.

 

The afternoon was filled with playing football with several children and washing up the lunch plates. Comparing this care point to the others we had seen it seemed a lot quieter and less organised. The children get out of school later on a Thursday and go home to change before coming to the care point, meaning they arrive a lot later.

On our way home we stopped to get chicken dust (a roadside cooked whole chicken) which everyone loved. We stopped at the shops to get some food ready for our trip to Kruger on Saturday. After dinner we had a debrief with Charissa, Herman and Dan and we chatted about our day. We had a few concerns about the lack of care workers that were at the point today along with the small amount of children, however Dan explained the care point in much more detail. He described the situation in Siyathatuka and how it had been through a difficult patch but gradually building it back up again. The main point we learnt was that the care workers themselves are often in the same situation as the children who come to the care point, and in times of need have to find paid work to support their family. We were very thankful to Dan for explaining the situation and are now looking forward to going back there tomorrow.