Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Our Gardeners
Our gardeners are wonderful. They keep our grounds in pristine order and make this a beautiful, beautiful, place to live. Besides that I really love these guys. They pick branches and things when I need to decorate for some event. They laugh and tease me. They carry groceries up the stairs for me and they just help whenever I need them. They work 5 days a week so I see them all the time.
The other day my doorbell rang and Timbani had some news to share. He was a father. I insisted on seeing the new baby so a week later I took the two home from work so he could show his new baby. I was startled when he had me pull over to the side of the road in a non-residential area. He said his wife would bring the baby to me to see. We waited and finally we could see her walking down the hill carrying a pink bundle. Mother was shy and the baby was beautiful, clean and irresistible. I couldn't figure out for a while why she had walked to me. I wouldn't let her walk home so we all piled in the car and they directed me to where they live. This is a terrible part of the city. It is congested with people, the slums, dangerous for me to go into, and quite a sight. There were many twists and turns and I couldn't possibly have made it there alone nor could I make it home alone. It was like going in a maze. She had walked about 4 miles to show off her baby. After hugging and kissing that beautiful baby goodbye and giving my gift to mother and baby, Freedom rode back with me to a place where I could go home alone. He told me that they didn't want me to go into that neighborhood. They knew I would get lost and I know they were afraid for my safety.
I felt badly that she walked, but then,I guess I have to remember that they always walk as they don't have cars and transportation is expensive. I hope my generous gifts will compensate for that walk. I loved holding that baby.
These boys are amazing. They are both 23 years old. They are cousins and are from Zimbabwe. They are sooooo blessed to have work.They each support their families in Zimbabwe.....15 to 20 members each. Every 2 weeks, one of them takes money to both families. He will leave Friday night after work and drive 15-18 hours in a crowded combi (van that holds up to 20 people) and delivers most of their paycheck. Then they spend Saturday with family and then drive back on Sunday and go to work on Monday. Then 2 weeks later the other cousin or gardener goes on the combi with a big bag of mealie meal. Remember, people in Zimbabwe are starving and can't get food. This bag looks like a big bag of fertilizer. They have 2 meals a day of this ground up corn mixed in water (looks like Cream of Wheat). That bag will serve all of them for one month. These boys never complain that everything they make goes to the family. They feel it is their duty as sons. You can see they are happy, great guys. They are blessed to have work....really blessed. I am blessed to know them.
The other day my doorbell rang and Timbani had some news to share. He was a father. I insisted on seeing the new baby so a week later I took the two home from work so he could show his new baby. I was startled when he had me pull over to the side of the road in a non-residential area. He said his wife would bring the baby to me to see. We waited and finally we could see her walking down the hill carrying a pink bundle. Mother was shy and the baby was beautiful, clean and irresistible. I couldn't figure out for a while why she had walked to me. I wouldn't let her walk home so we all piled in the car and they directed me to where they live. This is a terrible part of the city. It is congested with people, the slums, dangerous for me to go into, and quite a sight. There were many twists and turns and I couldn't possibly have made it there alone nor could I make it home alone. It was like going in a maze. She had walked about 4 miles to show off her baby. After hugging and kissing that beautiful baby goodbye and giving my gift to mother and baby, Freedom rode back with me to a place where I could go home alone. He told me that they didn't want me to go into that neighborhood. They knew I would get lost and I know they were afraid for my safety.
I felt badly that she walked, but then,I guess I have to remember that they always walk as they don't have cars and transportation is expensive. I hope my generous gifts will compensate for that walk. I loved holding that baby.
These boys are amazing. They are both 23 years old. They are cousins and are from Zimbabwe. They are sooooo blessed to have work.They each support their families in Zimbabwe.....15 to 20 members each. Every 2 weeks, one of them takes money to both families. He will leave Friday night after work and drive 15-18 hours in a crowded combi (van that holds up to 20 people) and delivers most of their paycheck. Then they spend Saturday with family and then drive back on Sunday and go to work on Monday. Then 2 weeks later the other cousin or gardener goes on the combi with a big bag of mealie meal. Remember, people in Zimbabwe are starving and can't get food. This bag looks like a big bag of fertilizer. They have 2 meals a day of this ground up corn mixed in water (looks like Cream of Wheat). That bag will serve all of them for one month. These boys never complain that everything they make goes to the family. They feel it is their duty as sons. You can see they are happy, great guys. They are blessed to have work....really blessed. I am blessed to know them.
Katha Day Care Center
Going to the Katha Day Care Center is a life changing experience. This is a refuge for children from infancy to 6 years of age where these children come from 7 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon. They walk from long distances for short little legs and they come because here they are loved and cared for. These are aids orphans who are in foster care at night and on the week-end. They are taken care of by "Grannies" who receive a pittance to have them sleep in their homes. They often have nothing to eat in these homes as poverty is so severe. The norm is to come Monday morning with ailments that come from not eating anything. The day I visited, there were 75 orphans there and 58 are HIV positive. Many will not live to See their 6th birthday.
These are the cutest, most beautiful children you have ever seen. They are polite, really somewhat reserved and curious. But when you smile and sing to them they express joy in small smiles and a little sparkle in their eyes.
This Center is a miracle in their little lives. The women who work there (mostly for nothing but food in return) LOVE these children. They cuddle and laugh and clean and change them and feed them. Another miracle in their lives from this is that they have 2 meals a day and an insulated place to be....a place of protection from predators, from weather and it is just a happy place. They always are touching each other and holding hands and putting their arms around each other.
We took toys and blankets and hygiene kits from the Humanitarian Warehouse. They patiently stood in line as they came to get toys to play with....but they didn't know how to throw the balls, or run the cars on the floor. We had to teach them and then they came alive. Actually, we were also teaching the teachers how to use the stuff.
They had as much fun as the children racing cars, throwing balls, rolling balls, and actually playing with 2 very large cranes that some wonderful person had constructed and sent. The children could sit on those and manipulate it and they will be treasures for a very long time. Sister O'Frieo and I (the stake president's wife) have arranged to do some workshops out there for the teachers to help them know how to help children
They are sooo excited. They just hugged us when we told them we would come and teach them some games and how to act out stores, etc. We both have been teachers so I know we can help. Actually, any Primary teacher could help immensely. The director is going to arrange to have the teachers from some other similar daycares in the neighborhood come and learn too. We will start in August. I must say though, they do know how to teach the children to sing!!!!
The director is am amazing woman. She is in her 50's and really loves these children....She has been serving for 20 years. The place is spotless, inside and out. It is located out of Joburg about 30 minutes so there is some property around it.
She has gardens for fresh vegetables that are tended precisely. My favorite is the room with all the herbs. She goes out into the veld and gathers these herbs....brings them back and pounds into powder as needed. Each shelf is labeled according to the ailment. For example: heart problems, indigestion problems, open wounds, sore throat, skin rashes, for immune system etc. Everyday, these children drink a concoction she has brewed and it is remarkable how healthy they are in spite of their problems. She comes from a line of African doctors (sangomas) who have treated the people in their villages for years and she was taught by her mother and grandmother. I don't know what good it does, but I think it does something, if nothing more than show tremendous love, but she pointed out that their weren't any coughs (except me) and no runny noses. That is amazing in the cold winter. She said that every Monday morning when they come back they all have diarrhea from not eating or from eating things to harsh for little ones, and she says by Wednesday she has them in order and keeps them that way until the week-end and then they start all over again. She is happy and loving and amazing. I think of Mother Teresa when I see her.
There is a choice when we see places like this. You can go home and cry and fret and worry and wonder or you can be thankful that for a few hours each day these precious children are looked after by angels on earth. They have food. a roof and loving arms around them. I know Heavenly Father is aware of these children and loves them and is grateful to anyone who makes their life a little easier. I went home a little more humble again.
These are the cutest, most beautiful children you have ever seen. They are polite, really somewhat reserved and curious. But when you smile and sing to them they express joy in small smiles and a little sparkle in their eyes.
This Center is a miracle in their little lives. The women who work there (mostly for nothing but food in return) LOVE these children. They cuddle and laugh and clean and change them and feed them. Another miracle in their lives from this is that they have 2 meals a day and an insulated place to be....a place of protection from predators, from weather and it is just a happy place. They always are touching each other and holding hands and putting their arms around each other.
We took toys and blankets and hygiene kits from the Humanitarian Warehouse. They patiently stood in line as they came to get toys to play with....but they didn't know how to throw the balls, or run the cars on the floor. We had to teach them and then they came alive. Actually, we were also teaching the teachers how to use the stuff.
They had as much fun as the children racing cars, throwing balls, rolling balls, and actually playing with 2 very large cranes that some wonderful person had constructed and sent. The children could sit on those and manipulate it and they will be treasures for a very long time. Sister O'Frieo and I (the stake president's wife) have arranged to do some workshops out there for the teachers to help them know how to help children
They are sooo excited. They just hugged us when we told them we would come and teach them some games and how to act out stores, etc. We both have been teachers so I know we can help. Actually, any Primary teacher could help immensely. The director is going to arrange to have the teachers from some other similar daycares in the neighborhood come and learn too. We will start in August. I must say though, they do know how to teach the children to sing!!!!
The director is am amazing woman. She is in her 50's and really loves these children....She has been serving for 20 years. The place is spotless, inside and out. It is located out of Joburg about 30 minutes so there is some property around it.
She has gardens for fresh vegetables that are tended precisely. My favorite is the room with all the herbs. She goes out into the veld and gathers these herbs....brings them back and pounds into powder as needed. Each shelf is labeled according to the ailment. For example: heart problems, indigestion problems, open wounds, sore throat, skin rashes, for immune system etc. Everyday, these children drink a concoction she has brewed and it is remarkable how healthy they are in spite of their problems. She comes from a line of African doctors (sangomas) who have treated the people in their villages for years and she was taught by her mother and grandmother. I don't know what good it does, but I think it does something, if nothing more than show tremendous love, but she pointed out that their weren't any coughs (except me) and no runny noses. That is amazing in the cold winter. She said that every Monday morning when they come back they all have diarrhea from not eating or from eating things to harsh for little ones, and she says by Wednesday she has them in order and keeps them that way until the week-end and then they start all over again. She is happy and loving and amazing. I think of Mother Teresa when I see her.
There is a choice when we see places like this. You can go home and cry and fret and worry and wonder or you can be thankful that for a few hours each day these precious children are looked after by angels on earth. They have food. a roof and loving arms around them. I know Heavenly Father is aware of these children and loves them and is grateful to anyone who makes their life a little easier. I went home a little more humble again.
The Missionary Suitcase
Harriet is a beautiful Congolese woman who has moved with family from the Congo to Johannesburg. After they joined the church they were disowned by most of their family. Unemployment in Congo is 90% and here it is only 40% so they were hoping to better provide for their 4 children plus about 4 extended family member who live with them She is a beautiful seamstress and she helps support her family by sewing gorgeous African clothes. She is RS President in on of the wards. A while ago she came to me and asked if I could help her with Visiting Teaching. Their %'s are very low and she wanted to have her sisters understand the need to watch over each other. We talked for a long time and she reiterated what I already knew the problems were. Nobody has cars so they have to walk. The distances are long. Women often are very busy just helping ether families survive. They don't really have the vision of reaching out to sisters other than their own families. Because many are new converts it is a new concept to even serve others. I suggested she have a meeting ( VT Conference) to teach why and how. She loved the idea so I gathered materials to help. I went to her very humble home to teach and help her.
Her home is one of the nicest in the ward with carpet pads for carpet, a very old and used couch and one chair in a tiny living room A table for the family to eat on was a board on some kind of supported wood. It was spotless as all African homes are that I have been in. Her darling girls danced around me with beautiful hair with extensions and beads and bows that the Mother had spent hours styling. One is 8 and the other 3 years old. and she has 2 sons ages 11 and 15.
She took me into her tiny sewing room which did have 2 sewing machines and an ironing board made from a board she had padded and it rested on a cardboard box. We talked about VT and used the ironing board as a table. This was also her 15 year old son's bedroom and there was a tiny cot for him to sleep on. Right next to his bed wedged between his bed and her sewing machine was a very large suitcase. Harriet saw me look at the suitcase . She said, " Sister Parmley, that is my son's missionary suitcase." All he wanted for Christmas was a missionary suitcase and that is it. Isn't it beautiful?" We had to search hard to find it." When my little girls come in here and play with the zippers on the case, he gets very upset and tells them this will be his only missionary suitcase and they should not touch it. He is 15. As he turns over in his bed for the next 4 years, he will have the suitcase in his face to remind him of his desire to serve the Lord. As I was in that humble home, I felt the Spirit whisper AGAIN how privileged I am to rub shoulders with such righteous, humble women such as my friend, who are striving to serve the best way they can and mostly are devoted to having the Spirit in their homes so their children will grow up in the Gospel. I will never be the same as I am constantly touched by these remarkable people.
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Her home is one of the nicest in the ward with carpet pads for carpet, a very old and used couch and one chair in a tiny living room A table for the family to eat on was a board on some kind of supported wood. It was spotless as all African homes are that I have been in. Her darling girls danced around me with beautiful hair with extensions and beads and bows that the Mother had spent hours styling. One is 8 and the other 3 years old. and she has 2 sons ages 11 and 15.
She took me into her tiny sewing room which did have 2 sewing machines and an ironing board made from a board she had padded and it rested on a cardboard box. We talked about VT and used the ironing board as a table. This was also her 15 year old son's bedroom and there was a tiny cot for him to sleep on. Right next to his bed wedged between his bed and her sewing machine was a very large suitcase. Harriet saw me look at the suitcase . She said, " Sister Parmley, that is my son's missionary suitcase." All he wanted for Christmas was a missionary suitcase and that is it. Isn't it beautiful?" We had to search hard to find it." When my little girls come in here and play with the zippers on the case, he gets very upset and tells them this will be his only missionary suitcase and they should not touch it. He is 15. As he turns over in his bed for the next 4 years, he will have the suitcase in his face to remind him of his desire to serve the Lord. As I was in that humble home, I felt the Spirit whisper AGAIN how privileged I am to rub shoulders with such righteous, humble women such as my friend, who are striving to serve the best way they can and mostly are devoted to having the Spirit in their homes so their children will grow up in the Gospel. I will never be the same as I am constantly touched by these remarkable people.
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