Tuesday - Oshoek

 Tuesday

We woke up this morning to a magnificent view and after breakfast we headed to the care point. As soon as we arrived we all got stuck in... Alexander and Alison washed and cleaned the chicken feet (part of today's meal. This was a new experience for the group), whilst the other girls prepared the butternut squash and spinach!  After this it was lunchtime for the children at the local schools so we sat and talked to the children whilst they were on their break.

Next it was wood chopping for the fire. AJ, DJ and Nicholas began to use the hand saw to cut the wood whilst it was balancing on some breeze blocks.... This soon turned into a who could saw the fastest competition - some of the local children were pretty fast..

 It was really awkward trying to balance and cut the wood at the same time so DJ, Chris and Alexander decided to build a log cutting cradle. Pick axes, spades and logs later it was ready to be tested! The care point would now find it much easier to cut the wood needed.
 

 It was now time for our Holy Home Visits something we had been looking forward to as we knew the homes would be different to ones we had seen in other communities and they were also going to be spread all over the beautiful landscape.... Here are the stories that we heard on our travels....

Alice S, Claire and Alexander

When we arrived, we met Caroline who was the Gogo of the small holding. She welcomed us and introduced herself with a lovely smile and an infectious laugh. Following introductions, we found out that she was the sister-in-law of the late Gogo's family who we were visiting. We then made our way to the home of the family and we shared with the Care Workers our love of all our Grandmothers. We were greeted by the aunt, who is recovering from a car accident on the way to her mother's funeral. Living in the house were three of her children who were all at school, her three year old son was living with his father in Mozambique, her two nieces, her youngest sister and a young relative from Swaziland. Whilst her father was alive, he was able support the family as he was South African but worked in Swaziland with the necessary ID. Without him and South African ID, the family members cannot find work in South Africa because of their Swazi heritage and are also not eligible for any government support. Due to this, the Care Point and Hands are essential for their survival and life as they have no money to even buy basic food. Despite this, she still welcomes relatives who are less fortunate than themselves living in Swaziland. The aunt is recovering but the process is longer than she hoped, but she is still actively looking for work. Without ID, this work is often illegal and pays very poorly, making life only a little easier. Although the hardships facing the family were obvious and very difficult, their warmth and gratitude was humbling and we were all able to laugh together and share hugs

Alison, Chris and Adam 

We went with our care worker Isabelle on quite a long walk, almost taking us to the Swaziland border. On the way we spoke about her life and she told us about her five children, letting us know that she also had two grandchildren and that she lived in the village, as we were able to see her house on the way to our holy home visit. We climbed to the top of a hill and entered into a farmstead. Immediately the mother of the house came out and shouted "welcome home", taking us aback and making us feel very welcome. She was the grandmother of the house and so she cared for three children in the absence of their parents. On entering the house she told us that she had something special to show us, we went into the back room where a team of workers were busy packaging mushrooms to be sold. The lady was very excited about this as they'd only just begun to grow mushrooms to trade and she had gained two interviews with supermarkets for business. She next took us to her mushroom growing hut where we had to wash our feet and hands before entering, and we were shown the hanging mushroom bags with a good crop of oyster mushrooms. Next we met her husband who'd just returned from getting packaging for the mushrooms, we were introduced and then chatted about their problem with a lack of water, telling them about our rainy days in England to their amazement. He commented to us that they were very pleased that we'd come to visit. The lady then took us on a tour of her vegetable and herb garden which seemed to be growing well despite the lack of water. To conclude our visit she was keen on taking photos with us and her mushrooms and then offered us some mushrooms to take home and sample. Adam then prayed for their wellbeing and blessing on their home, and we departed with a hug.

After the first home visit we carried on to a second and were greeted by a women with a baby, who explained that she had three children of her own  and that this child was being looked after temporarily. She was intent on showing us her papers for living in the country and clearly this was a thing to be proud of, making us realise the struggle for legality in the working world and the areas so close to a border of another country. She then went on to tell us that she receives a grant for one of her children but as the other two are too young or old they do not qualify. This was the only income to their family and so again we found this a very challenging situation, leading Alison to pray for her and her family's contained wellbeing.

 Jessica and Alice

We began our holy home visit by asking our care worker how far we were going to travel? We were answered with "not very far..." This reminded us of a "Chris Parker" walk as we felt that we were walking for a lot longer than "not very far.... or it's just around the next corner". After walking through maize as tall as us, mud, animal poo and over a precarious bridge we arrived at what looked like a farm. In the farm lived a family of 13 people (only 3 were adults), many chickens, two cows, a dog and a kitten. They had a number of different buildings and a vegetable patch. Our care worker explained that the family were vulnerable because only 1 adult in the house had I.D and therefore was the only person to recieve social benefit of 1000 rand a month (£50). His wife and the other children in the house did not have any South African I.D as they had been stolen by one of the children's mothers probably to sell on the black market. His wife was trying to gain I.D as was married to a South African. In order to gain I.D she needed 200 rand (£10) and to travel to Swaziland to pay the chief as he would then confirm that she was livving in South Africa and married to a South African. The family were struggling to save this money as other priorites. He was contemplating whether to sell land or maize to raise the necessary funds. If she gained this important I.D it would mean that her and all the children would then have the correct I.D which as we have learnt over our time here is important and necessary to gain social benefits, a clinic card and a well paid job. This made us both think about how much 200 rand is to this SOuth African family and yet we probably dont think twice abotu sepnding £10 on lunch or a pair of flip flops! This I.D card could completlety transform their families life.

We then travelled further in land to visit another household however when we arrived the grandmother was not at home due to being unwell and having to go to the clinic. As she did not have any South African I.D she had to travel to Swaziland to attend the clinic. This highlighted the importance of a South African I.D card again. 

DJ, AJ and Nicholas 

Our home visits started with a trip to the local clinic, as we took one of the children who comes to the care point there as he had been feeling unwell since the weekend with exhaustion and had a temperature.  The clinic was around 14km from the care point so we went with one of the care workers, so they could direct us! Once we got there we went into the clinic to sign him in.  There was around 40 people already in the waiting room. We then left the care worker with the child and drove back to the care point to start our home visits.  Our first visit was to  a house which was situated about 1.5 mile away from the care point, very close to the Swaziland border. It was a mud brick house consisting of three rooms and small small out buildings.  We were invited into the house by the head of the house, Grandpa, where we sat in his lounge and found out about his life and who he lives with.  There are 8 children in the house and he looks after as them as there mother and father had passed away.  His happiness to see us was an inspiration to us, he was so overwhelmed that we visited him and his family.  He also told us how his house acts as a church on Sunday's as there current church doesn't have a roof.  He said up to 50 people turn up to worship and praise God.  We can only imagine what the worship would be like! 

Our second visit was not far from the first house and was to household where a lady called  Brenda was looking after 9 children by her self. When we arrived she went into her house and brought out a wooden bench for us to sit on, that's something that always amazes us, they can be old and frail yet they will want us to sit on chairs whilst they sit on the hard dusty floor.  Her English was limited so Papa V helped to translate for us.  She has been living in this house for a year as she married her now husband, four of the children within the household were from her previous marriage, four of the children were from her husbands previous marriage and then they had a baby together.  She told us how her husband works in Johannesburg as a taxi driver and tries to send money home. He only comes back to Oshoek when he has taxi full so this can be very rare. He has no where to live in Johannesburg so he sleeps in his taxi.  She told us how she struggles to look after the children especially as she says some of their behaviour is bad which she finds overwhelming. We had great respect for her and how she looks after all of the children herself with limited income, she asked us to pray for her and we encouraged her strength and courage.

As we all arrived back at the care point we sat and shared our stories with each other before eating our lunch. On these trips to the care points we take food with us for everyone to share, so basically we eat the same as the children, but usually just before the children so that we can then help serve. So this was our first taste of chicken feet served with pap, chicken gravy, spinach and butternut squash. Most agreed that it wasn't as bad as we feared, but it did make us realise just how fortunate we are, and must always be thankful to God for all his gifts to us.

The children tucked in excitedly to their meal, but alas it was time for us to leave as the journey was long and through the mountains.