Greetings from South Africa

Greetings from South Africa. Time to let you all know that we arrived safe and sound at 5:35 a.m. on Sunday morning after 22 hours of flying. We rendezvous’d with Joann in Dubai as planned – everything went smoothly.

After picking up luggage (all was present and accounted for), cell phone, and automobile, we headed for The Aark Guest Lodge where will would stay the next 6 nights. We arrived in time to shower, change clothes, and head to Maranatha for their 10:00 a.m. church service. After a 3 hour service made up of lots of singing and dancing, and about 45 min. taken up with the offering – this was a time of singing and dancing as the congregants expressed their joy in giving because they HAVE something to give. A couple short meetings after church and we were on our way back to The Aark, dinner, and an early night as we were all running out of steam. To bed at 6:30.

After a nice 12 hour sleep we were up ready for Monday. Today we met Mpho and Mondo at the mill where they purchase the mealie meal (the staple of most diets for the poor South Africans). The mill manager gave us a tour of the operation where we observed trucks of maize (white corn) being unloaded, and then run through several processes where it is converted to products ranging from a very fine flour, to something more coarse (pap – pronounced “pop”) which is what Etelang Pele purchases for distribution to the poorest families. We picked up sugar and tea and these food parcels were left for distribution at Maranatha, Klipkop, and Boiketlong (Maranatha’s two daughter churches).

After this we arrived at Klipkop, where we were met with singing and dancing by the ladies and children of the crèche, some holding signs of welcome. I’ve sent a couple photos in a following email. We then went to Evaton Noord (a crèche STM built in 2006) to meet the principal Florah Maleong and give her and Mpho and Mondo a chance to talk about how they could best collaborate.

Florah’s crèche is always a favorite visit – the kids are very engaged, love to sing for us and recite memorized scripture passages. They demonstrated knowledge of their body parts, the alphabet, colors. (I can’t imagine our kids at age 4 or 5 doing this.) We then stopped at a church built by a man Mike Betha would like to consider as a builder if we proceed with the center at Boiketlong (and/or if we need to build crèche classrooms at Klipkop), and another drop-in center/crèche on the way back to Klipkop. Another long day … lunch skipped … so we were definitely ready for dinner. As is usually the case here, everything takes longer than you think it will or should. As we say “TIA” … This is Africa. To bed by 9:30.

Tuesday – another beautiful sunny day. This morning Wendell, Mike, Mpho, and Mondo will meet with the Mayor of Sebokeng while Glenda, Joann and I sort through the children’s clothing to divide it into 3 separate donation bags. We decided that the best way to deal with the clothing is to give it to Etelang Pele and let them be in charge of distributing it to the most needy families. Doing it personally is very difficult logistically as folks need to have knowledge of the clothing and then need to come to a location where they can get it. Very difficult to pull off. Whereas Etelang Pele makes home visits so they are in a much better position to make sure the clothes are handed out in the most efficient way.

That’s about it … now you know almost as much as we do =)