Reconnect with Southern Transvaal Synod - Soweto

October 17, 2009

Off in the van to with Joe Taiwe to Soweto and connect with Efraim Opelt and membersof the Monderame of the Southern Trans Vaal Synod (STVS). Met at Emdeni Childrens Home which sits on 43 acres in Soweto. Emdemni is owned by URCSA/STVS and at present houses 40 + children, and is operated by the Abraham Kreil delegation a DRC related NGO which operated sites throughout the area. Shared our observations on Rustenburg and reviewed the history of the incomplete partnership following our 2003 trip. Seemed to be OK with things and had made progress in organizing the Synod, with the part-time administrator. Shared the CAP-CAMP scheduled in July, 2010 involving teenagers from SA, Belgium and Burundi. Should really try to have representation from FRC/Albany Synod. Also shared plans for phasing out inpatient services at Emdemni, to provide more services through drop in and emergency units. Have skill training, computer center which would remain available. Hosted us to a sumptuous lunch a bri.

Following lunch, off to tour Soweto in the rain. Soweto is a city of nearly one million, and we'd retained a guide. With the weather proved to be a "drive-by" but did get to see Nelson Mandella's house and Wandi's place, the cafe where the ANC planned most of it's adventures.

Pictures above of SSTV representatives and Joe Taiwe, Wales and guide at Wandi's place

Joe Doolittle

Kwa Thema - Thembalethu - reconnection -

Friday, October 16th we bid farewell to Rustenburg, Tapologo and Rain Hill Farm; beautiful places and people, and headed off to re-connect with Rev Joe Taiwe, at Kwa Thema East, SE of Johannesburg. A two and a half hour drive; praise to Stacey! Joe had hosted me in 2003. We connected with Joe and Albina a member of his congregation and a nurse, at the Stable Inn in Springs, where we were staying, and headed off to visit Thembalethu (Hope in Zulu) a home based care program Joe and Albina had started two years ago with financial help from a partner DRC church. The program shares space with a Child and Family counseling program in nearby Daggafontein; an the counseling program also has office space and time a Kwa Thema East. Through Albina's help the congregation with HIV is afforded nurse care coordination and access to phrasing and pharmacy services. Quite a program. We met the Home base care team, about 12 with 4 paid staff and 8 volunteers. Impressive and functioning. Picture at left.

Regrouped at the Stable Inn and hosted Joe and his wife Winnie, for dinner. WInnie is a high school social studies teacher, in Potchefstrom about 100Km SE of Jo'burg and commutes weekly. Daniel their youngest (15) is in school there. Joe also serves part time as Administrator for the So. Transvaal Synod, with offices in Soweto, so can visit mid-week. It was good to get caught up, and was encouraged by all that Joe was connecting with on the HIV/AIDS front an don Synod operations. Winnie has a wonderful, winning smile and a catching laugh, that found its way into Stacey's sermon on Sunday. More about that subsequently.

Joe Doolittle

Tapologo Reprise -2

To give you an idea of the main campus at Tapologo a collection of adobe buildings set on a dry plain ; on the top left is the inpatient unit of Tapologo, some 30 beds, planned in a green-environmental way. They made the bricks from mud, dung and straw, in a manner used by earlier natives, which since they don't use the techniques anymore, they had to re-learn. Also cooled and heated by a tower/underground ventilation system that uses ground temperatures and natural circulation to heat and cool. The floors are mosaics of African designs, in broken tile (leftover-free), which is attractive and practical. The environment is clean, and refreshing, peaceful. Was gratified to see the progress in anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) being used. With one patient I met, an 18 year old, was admitted very sick, placed on ARVs,and fed well. He had improved and was being discharged to outpatient care. He previously would have been dead.

The top-left picture is of Carol Delamarter, one of our members, and Frieda and Bella two new friends and members of the Karlien Park URCSA; in an area on the Tapologo campus, which will be a staff garden for rest-breaks. Stacey Midge preached there on 10/11/09. When they heard about our visit to Tapologo, they wanted to come along and work with us, which they did; on both the first day's orientation and three latter days of visits and work.

We were also joined on the first day by two elders from the Thlabane URCSA Reformed Church where Kent Busman preached. On Wednesday night we gathered for a debrief and planning session which will be reported separately. We cleared the area, relocated some concrete benches and made a highlight of a drainage dish by paving it with River washed pebbles. Modest in some respects, yet tangible work in any event. A small piece of FRC/Schenectady at Tapologo. More in a subsequent post.

Much good cheer
Joe

Tapologo Reprise

Dear Friends: Being technically challenged, this is my first entry, and we're home already! "Tapologo Bound" was a trip of connection and contrasts. On the connection front we've begun to participate and encourage in improved connections between black and colored congregations and white congregations in Rustenburg, SA. With some front-end work by one of our members Karen Hamm, and Efraim Oppelt, the South African liaison for URCSA with North America we've helped form a bridge between three reformed churches, as well as, a community based Hospice launched by the Roman Catholic Diocese. We've worked to begin to a common focus to improve care and concern for those with HIV and AIDS. Subsequent to Rustenburg, we re-established connections with friends in Kwa Thema a Township outside Johannesburg, and friends in leadership of the Southern Transvaal Synod.

Above is a picture of Tapologo's founder Bishop Kevin Dowling with Rev. Ken Busman and I. Kent traveled with a companion group of 6 from Capital District Hospice. We were together for 3 days at Tapologo before they left for another Hospice on the South Coast. Kent is the Minister for Youth of the Albany Synod and Director of Fowler Camp and Conference Center.

On the right is a view of the Township near the Freedom Park temporary settlement or squatter’s camp. We are waking,making rounds with HIV-AIDS care givers who are visiting homebound patients, some in the last stages of AIDs, some successfully on or beginning ARV drug therapy. It was hot, dusty, the buildings were less than humble; in stark contrast to suburbs or cities in the US.

On the top left is the inpatient unit of Tapologo, some 30 beds, planned in a green-environmental way. They made the bricks from mud, dung and straw, in a manner used by earlier natives, which since they don't use the techniques anymore, they had to re-learn. Also cooled and heated by a tower/underground ventilation system that uses ground temperatures and natural circulation to heat and cool. The floors are mosaics of African designs, in broken tile (leftover), which is attractive and practical. The environment is clean, and refreshing, peaceful. Was gratified to see the progress in anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) being used. With one patient I met, an 18 year old, was admitted very sick, placed on ARVs,and fed well. He had improved and was being discharged to outpatient care. He previously would have been dead.

More in a subsequent post.

Much good cheer,

Joe Dolittle

Videos

Apparently, before my cameras were stolen, I did manage to transfer the first couple of days worth of videos to my computer. You can see unedited footage of me driving on the left (while taping...ooh, safe!), wandering around Tapologo, and shining lights at animal butts on my youtube site.

Home

The most memorable part of my journey home, I am sad to say, is that my camera and video camera were stolen out of my carry-on bag in Johannesburg. I keep looking for them as if they will suddenly appear...but they are definitely gone. Since I don't really buy souvenirs, all personal record of this trip is pretty much erased. I'm sure I'll get over it, but right now it feels like I'm going home with nothing of substance to say, "Hey, I was there!" and that's just kind of depressing.

On the upside, I'm pretty sure I don't have typhoid.

So, after 30-some hours of travel, I am home. So far the jet lag is minimal, but we'll see as the day goes on. Although I don't have pics, I'll keep back-posting from the rest of the trip, and try to fill in with the rest of the group's photos as they get them uploaded.

South African Children singing in Zulu

Please see todays uploaded You Tube video at teamrb25 of street children singing in Zulu at the Freedom Charter Memorial. I was told they are saying, "this is my song and I love what I am singing".

Leaving South Africa

We are gathered around a table outside of the guesthouse where we've been staying in Capetown, waiting for our cab to arrive to take us to the airport. These are my last moments in South Africa, and I am simultaneously very ready to go home, and very sad to leave. I fall a little in love with most of the places I visit, and although this has been a hard place in many ways, I have so enjoyed getting to know the people that I know I will miss it when I leave.

Capetown has been an entirely different experience from Rustenburg. More on that later, but this is more like a vacation spot, and I think being here has made me more ready to leave (which I suppose is weird, since it's absurdly beautiful here and there are a million things to do). Rustenburg was harder to leave; I made real friends there. But thanks to the joys of the internet, we'll stay in touch, and hopefully I'll be able to come back at some point.

The cab is here; we are off to the airport. Tomorrow at noon, we'll be home.

Intro to Tapologo - Monday, Oct. 12

Today we finally got to Tapologo Hospice, the primary destination of the trip and the place we've heard so much about. It looks like an oasis opening at the end of the dusty red road; everything is much greener here than in the surrounding countryside. The buildings are the same red as the ground, which we discovered is because they are built with materials made from the soil, mixed with either straw to make bricks, or dung to make a sort of cement. They use an impressive combination of high-tech sustainable, green architecture and ancient building methods, and they are forever discovering and correcting the pitfalls of their various attempts.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Henry, who is the patriarch of the family that owns Rainhill, but also works at Tapologo. He's pretty much a font of information about South African history and politics, the native flora and fauna of the region, and all things gardening. He took us around his Tapologo garden project, which provides fresh produce to the patients. I imagine this is not the easiest place to garden, but he seems to produce an abundance, and it's all completely organic. Henry and Martin, the buildings and grounds person, took us through the facilities, including their brand new administrative building. Then Hilda, the head of nursing, took us through the in-patient hospice. It felt a bit intrusive to walk through the wards, but it was important to see the work they do there.

In the afternoon we went out for our first introduction to Freedom Park, a settlement just a bit outside of Rustenburg that has sprung up because of the platinum mines. Part of the settlement is RDP housing - government-approved, permanent housing that is owned by the residents - while the part across the railroad tracks is an illegal, supposedly temporary squatter camp (where some of the residents have lived for years). Many of the people who live here are immigrants from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and other countries who have come for the income potential from the mines. Something like eleven languages are spoken here, and people live in housing ranging from tiny corrugated tin shacks to two-story houses that wouldn't be terribly out of place in middle-class Schenectady. We were introduced to some of the staff that do home care and run the HIV/AIDS and TB programs.

This was our last evening with the Hospice group before they split off for Durban, so we spent the evening having a traditional braai (BBQ) back at Rainhill. This is not a great country for vegetarians, by the way. The food tends to be meat, meat, more meat, and pap - a corn meal substance that is prepared a gazillion different ways, and generally served with - you guessed it - meat.

Church Mania - Sunday, Oct. 11

It was officially Church Day here, and it seemed like it would be simple enough to get groups of us to three different churches for services at 8, 9, and 10am - but that was when we had three working vehicles at our disposal. Yes, we woke up this morning to find that the van had a flat tire. Apparently I hit one of the ever-present potholes a bit too hard, and bent the tire rim. So, Joe and a small delegation went with Efraim to speak briefly to the DRC church at 8am (that would be the white congregation), then Karen brought another group of us to the 9am URCSA service in the colored church at Karlien Park where I was preaching, and then left immediately to bring yet another group to the 10am service at the black URCSA church nearby, where Kent preached. Yep, the churches are very distinctly divided, even though the black and colored denominations have merged into URCSA.

I can't speak for the other church services, but ours was good but odd. They spoke entirely in Afrikaans except when I was preaching - including when they were talking about us. Everyone I met in the congregation could speak English (granted, some better than others), and I didn't need a translator. When they laugh at my jokes, I know they've understood. Many of the hymns were familiar, and even when the liturgy was in Afrikaans, the service is so similar to ours that I could generally tell what was happening. I was half glad to see the service as it usually is, and half puzzled that a little more effort wasn't put into helping us feel welcome. But this congregation has been through some rough times, and is now without a minister because they are still paying living and medical expenses for the retired minister who founded their church, so I should probably cut them some slack.

After the various services were over, we met with representatives from both URCSA congregations for lunch and casual conversation about their history of working together (or not, as the case may be). The black church minister, Francois, has quite the job: he oversees nine congregations with 5,000 members. Yowza. Good thing he has a consistory of over 100 people to help him out. Uniformed consistory members, even - at church, they wear black pants and white shirts with white URCSA-emblazoned ties. I am just imagining what would happen if we asked the consistory members at First Reformed to wear uniforms....or the ministers, for that matter.

Saturday, Oct. 10 (back-posting again)

This was supposed to be our easy day to recover from travel. So, of course I was wide awake at about 6am. But no matter what time you wake up, it seems like breakfast is already ready to go at Rainhill. Nothing fancy: bread, cereal, yogurt, fruit, and a variety of spreads, most notably Marmite and Beefy Bovril. Avoid.

Once everyone was up and about, we headed to an open-air market for some craft shopping. Picture this: you pull into a parking lot, where young men are frantically waving you into a parking place, and others are insisting that you buy belts and sunglasses from them. You get someone to watch your vehicle for you (this may seem obvious, but you pay them when you get back, not up front). Then you head into the market, where suddenly there is a cacaphony of people shouting at you to come into their stand and look at their goods. Oddly, these "artisans" all seem to be selling the same things - which might explain their need to shout, cajole, and even grab you as you pass by. My inner New Yorker did not respond well to these sales tactics, and I ended up telling several of them that I'd come into their stand only if they stopped talking to me entirely. When one finally listened, I made my only purchase of the trip. I suspect this makes me a bad tourist.

We had planned to go on an evening game tour through Pilanesburg National Park, and to get there, we went through Sun City, this massive casino and hotel complex. I was not fond of Las Vegas, and this wasn't really much better. One small observation: nearly all the visitors were white; nearly all the workers were black or colored. On a side note, the word "colored" doesn't sit well with me, but that is what they call one particular racial group here, which seems to be some conglomeration of Indians, Asians, and mixed-race people. Apartheid may have ended, but the racial divisions are still pretty distinct.

Anyway, then we got in the safari truck and took off on our game ride. I hadn't realized it would be entirely in the dark, and it was pretty weird riding around with lights flashing into the bushes to find the animals. We saw elephants, rhinos, a giraffe, coyotes, and a ton of impala and wildebeests. They were cool to see and I guess that's a part of Africa no one wants to miss, but driving around spotlighting animals was a bit odd.

Friday, Oct. 9 (Back-posting from my journal)

We arrived in Joburg as the sun set, and got through customs and baggage claim without incident. My normal travel pace had to be slowed considerably; groups just take longer to maneuver than one or two people! We met up with the Hospice group and Efraim, who had agreed to help us find our way around (if he knew how much he'd be doing that, he may have been less eager for the job).

If you rent a car in SA, prepare to check the boxes for theft and damage waivers. They're a good idea anyway, but if you pass on either of them, the company will hold 40K+ rands on your card - which might indicate something about the likelihood of theft/damage in this country. The rental agent and I haggled a bit, and I shamelessly flirted my way to a discounted rate. Of course, he thinks he's stowing away in my luggage tomorrow. Then we embarked upon my adventure in South African driving.

The van is basically a reverse image of the car I drive at home: wheel on the right, gear shift on the left, even the signal and wipers are reversed, causing no end of amusement for my (nervous) passengers. As third vehicle in the caravan, we had quite the entertaining time trying to keep up with our wild man of a guide. Except that he's not actually a wild man; that's just the way they drive here. And a couple of days in, I was driving that way too.

More than the driving, I was overwhelmed by the ubiquitous "helpers" swarming the airport and most parking lots. They give directions, tell you where and how to park, and try to haul baggage. I chased one persistent one away - and was glad I had later, when it turned out that one of the Hospice group members was robbed by the person helping her with her backpack. I know it's part of the culture, and the people who will watch your car for you can be helpful, but most of the time they are more nuisance than assistance.

In disappointing news, it was dark as we drove to Rustenburg, so we saw nothing, and we ate our first South African meal at MacDonalds, since we weren't sure anything else would be open that late at night. Not exactly what I had imagined.

But then we arrived at Rainhill Farm, which I think now qualifies as one of my favorite places on earth. We still couldn't see much, but we were greeted very hospitably by the dogs and the extended family who live there, who showed us to modest but cozy rooms, and the on-site pub, ready to welcome us with South African beverages as we decompressed from our travels. If anyone sees Appleteiser (basically just an apple-flavored soda) in the States, grab a pack for Alden - he has lived on the stuff! We had a good time getting acquainted with a few of the locals and with each other, since we were coming from two separate groups. Then off to bed to recover from the hours and hours of plane rides and the swollen ankles that came with them.

Moving On

I'm writing from the Johannesburg airport while we wait for our flight to Capetown. As usual, not much time. This morning I preached at the Kwa Thema URCSA church, where they gave us a warm welcome and the best meal we've had in South Africa. That is a computer-savvy bunch of teenagers they have there; they took down my information so we could become Facebook friends and I could join their FB group to work toward a youth exchange program. People keep asking when I'm coming back. "Not as soon as I'd like" seems to be the right answer.

I feel like I've forgotten to write most of the really important things on the blog due to lack of time. I've got them jotted down in the journal, though, so hopefully we can keep this blog up when we get back and tell the stories along with the pictures (and maybe get Joe, Carol, and Alden's words up here, too).

Well, we're off to Capetown for a couple of days of site-seeing and our final meeting of the trip. We'll be in touch on Wednesday on our way back through Jo'burg if not before.

By the Light of the Moon and Three Floodlights

By the Light of the Moon and Three Floodlights

I am sitting here in my charming little room beside a bedside table with a night lamp trying to piece together a Safari outing I was a part of today. I have to be honest that a portion of the title of this blog is from a collection of children’s books stored in a case over my sons’ bed in the bed and breakfast that we are staying at. As I was gazing around trying to put my thoughts and feelings together about the Safari, a book, By the Light of the Moon written by Keith Faulkner jumped out at me. I read the short story, laughed and it gave me the starting point I was looking for. In short the story is about a witch, ghost and skeleton that get ready and then go out to scare the villagers and then the villagers all wide awake scare out the three because they’ve had more than they can take.
No, the Safari was not an opportunity to go out and scare animals but I think we did. Tonight’s activity was a chance for entertainment and education. Earlier in the afternoon we were all on for today’s agenda to go to a local bizarre and do some shopping and then travel on to Sun City. Sun City, which I prefer to call Sin City, is a huge Casino about an hour outside of Rustenburg, South Africa. The place had the bookings of a Disney World Day. The trappings include a water Safari world, Dance Shows and gambling, eateries, condominiums, show acts and so on and even bookings for a nighttime Safari into the local National Preserve for wildlife. Local posters are even promoting an upcoming Patti LaBelle show. This is probably very common in many Casinos’, as I have heard they are full of entertainment but I’ve never visited a Casino and after tonight don’t care if I ever enter another again.
Why do I sound so anti-Casino? Well to begin with my son said what I was thinking and that was, “hey dad are you noticing that everyone that works here seems to be black?” Yes I did notice that. He and I have noticed that almost every low level service job cleaning up behind what people appears to be done exclusively by black people. In the McDonald’s we visited, all black. In the Casino, all food service and Casino service people we saw were all black. There may be some brown skinned people but there were no white people seen to be working. The white people, and many very robust and probably hinging on a future diagnosis of diabetes, were emptying their pockets of their Rands (South African currency) drinking beer and eating food and playing games and yes buying tickets for rides and shows like I was. It was disconcerting to note the apparent delegation of service jobs to black people but some white people were heard bragging about how they were filing in to “Sin City” tonight to enjoy a musical extravaganza of the history of black music and culture in South Africa from the 1940’s to the 1990’s. I wasn’t sure but got a sense they were trying to come to terms with their feelings about having imposed apartheid and for them to feel this was some kind of achievement somehow for the Black folk. I say black folk because as I have begun to learn, the colored people (people not black anymore but with black ancestry) have lived by different rules during the oppressive culture of apartheid.
So at the “Sin City” ticket counter I voluntarily purchased 2 tickets for my son and me to go with others in my group on a night time Safari whereby we would be driven into the National Park from the Casino grounds which border the park and drive around looking for animals to be caught in a spotlight for viewing. Earlier in the day the question was asked, “Why at night?” The response was that it is easier to see them and they sort of get stunned and don’t run away. Some joking occurred about how in the past people deer hunted like this. The lights stun the animal and then their shot. This was the first reason why I began to feel perplexed about this whole plan for an outing. I really didn’t feel comfortable at all about buying these tickets which would have equaled a Disney entrance fee but didn’t feel like I could stand disappointing my son and making him miss a Safari.
My son was so looking forward to seeing lions, elephants, rhino’s and giraffe. I wanted so much for his and my dream to come true but suddenly found myself caught, as s many parents do, between making something possible and doing something that is not what God intended for people to do which was be good stewards to the creation we have been given. I also began to struggle within my heart and head with how this was measuring up to being socially responsible and being just. I mean, here I could have bought a food parcel for a family for 1 month with just my ticket if I didn’t go. But what would this be saying to my son and affect my relationship with the other people I was with that I love and care about. Would I look like a sore person and somehow become separated from them? I worried, would I be seen as the person that people would have to “be careful around” because I was on some kind of moral high horse? I worried about these things but I will worry more in the future about the cost of not doing the right thing and asking to not go out on the Safari.
Going out on that Safari cost more than just money, it cost me sense of value of living in harmony with creation. I will think often about the animals disturbed during drinking and eating. Actually it was wonderful to hear the elephant eat and to hear the crackle of the branches in it’s’ mouth. It was also just wonderful to sit and hear the call of the crickets and other wildlife when we got to sit for a few minutes with no lights, no motors, just the light of the moon and the song of the night.

Update from Wales

I am so excited to be sharing some videos with all of you showing some of the happenings here in South Africa. I believe Stacy has posted a link and you should be able to see. It takes some time to upload a video and we've been limited a bit by our ability to access the internet so it's been a little late in coming. I have many more videos and will try to upload them soon. If by chance you can't get the link, you can go to You Tube and type teamrb25 in the search bar. Please feel free to post comments! It will be great to see whose visiting and to have a more direct way to communicate about what we are doing.
South African's are among some of the most beautiful and kind people and have been very hospitable. I hope those of you dreaming about coming will be able toake a committment in the future! The weather is great, the wildlife sparse and the food (this is a meat based culture) for me has been horrible. God Bless Stacy who today found a vegetarian restaurant and bought lunch!!!! Thanks so much Stacy, I needed some nourishment!

Peace, Wales

Last Day in Rustenburg

Well, I am grubby, but I thought I'd drop by and leave a post. Tomorrow we head to Johannesburg for the weekend and I'm not sure whether we'll have internet again before we get to Capetown.

Check out Wales and Alden's Youtube page, where you can see some of their videos from the trip.

Today we cleared a piece of land at Tapologo and started putting in a rest garden for the staff. I am covered in red dirt and white dust from the rocks. I didn't really expect to be spending my time here landscaping, but so goes volunteering: you show up and do what they ask you to do.

Tomorrow morning we head for J'burg. Hopefully I can find my way to the Stable Inn, where we'll be staying for the weekend. Driving directions are interesting here, in part because they don't have street signs. The streets have names, but people rarely use them because, well, there are no signs, so the names don't really help. They give directions by the number of "stops and robots" you go through (and often by landmarks like "the big hill"), and they seem to like to tell me to "go down the highway" but not in which direction. I'm sure it works for those who live here, but it's fairly confusing for outsiders. In J'burg we'll be meeting with people from the So. Transvaal Synod, preaching at a church there, and visiting Soweto. I'll keep you updated as possible.

Tonight, we'll have a little farewell shindig with the new friends we've made in Rustenburg. Special thanks to the Hartleys (the family who owns the B&B and seems also to be involved in everything else in the city) for repeatedly saving our lives with tire repairs, directions, guided tours, laundry, coffee in the morning, drinks at night, food at all hours, and generally interrupting their lives to cater to our general helplessness.

It's Wednesday, right?

Well, I tried to upload a drivers-view video of our daily trek into Tapologo, but the internet hates me and it didn't work, so you'll have to settle for more words.

Sometimes it's still a little surreal that we are in Africa. I was driving down the road this morning - on the left - feeling perfectly normal, when I suddenly realized that I'm on a different continent. I'm getting rather used to things here, and it's going to be odd to leave on Friday and move on to a new part of the country.

We spent the morning today at Freedom Park, hearing from the home visit workers and checking out the AIDS clinic. Now we're at Tapologo, where those who are not blogging are doing actual work, planting a garden. Tonight we'll be meeting with representatives from the DRC (i.e., the white church) and the URCSA (the black and colored churches) to talk about potential strategies for partnering. The racial dynamics here are deeply ingrained and pretty difficult for me to fully understand; difficult to even hear, really. Casual comments keep disrupting my New York PC-ness, and it's easier to jump to the snap judgment than take the time to hear what's behind them.

A brief story from yesterday... We were visiting a home in the settlement where one of the three children, a 7-year old girl, was severely disabled: unable to speak, walk, or control the movements of her head or limbs. My guess is cerebral palsy, but there isn't sufficient medical care for these people to get a diagnosis - not that it would do them much good to have one anyway. The home care workers mentioned that the mother had been about to take her child to the church for prayers when we stopped by. I had been feeling fairly stupid and useless all day, but prayer seemed like the one thing that I could offer, and so I did. I went to lay hands on the child, and much to my surprise, the mother hoisted her into my arms, and I knelt on the floor next to her two sisters and prayed for the family. In the scheme of things, the whole incident is probably pretty insignificant, but it was a truly amazing thing to be entrusted with this child, even for just a moment. And it isn't much, but maybe a stranger's prayers brought a little glimmer of hope in the midst of some very difficult lives.

Freedom Park

We spent today making home visits with the childcare workers at Freedom Park. Some of us went into the illegal squatter settlement, while others were in the "official" part of the village, which has permanent housing and slightly better conditions. We visited a few homes, talking with the children and parents about their needs (insofar as it is possible to talk with people across a significant language barrier with minimal translation). The poverty and illness is astounding. I still feel like I'm trying to grasp all the factors involved in the situation here...and I suppose I still will be when I return. The staff at Tapologo has been a great help to us as we struggle to understand the political and social climate here.

I had hoped to post pictures and videos as we went along, but so far the internet access has been quite spotty. Right now I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Phokeng, where I have fifteen minutes to do everything. So, I'm off yet again. Tomorrow we'll be working in the preschool at Freedom Park for part of the day. Then some of us will remain to work with women coming into the AIDS clinic there, while others will go to work in the garden project at Tapologo. Hopefully I'll get more online time to update you tomorrow.

PS - Carol desperately wants the Yankees scores if anyone cares to post them in the comments!

We made it!

We really did get here at the approximate time planned, but other things have not been quite as anticipated - like the availability of internet access. So, I apologize for the delay in posting, and also the probable brevity of this post. Our online time is very limited!

We arrived safely on Friday after a LONG flight, picked up our rental van, and embarked upon the adventure in driving to Rustenburg on the left side of the road. We've been staying at the Rainhill B&B, which is a really lovely place. Saturday was "jet lag day," with very little in the way of planned activity. We visited an open market and took a wildlife ride, which I'll tell you more about later, and drove the van through many potholes, one of which bent a rim and caused us a flat tire that has plagued us until this afternoon. Sunday was "church day," which involved dashing around to various churches in Rustenburg and participating in their services. I preached at an URCSA congregation where the service was entirely in Afrikaans with the exception of my sermon.

Today was our first visit to Tapologo. Again, more later - but for now, I'll just say that it is an amazing, humbling, and inspiring place. So many services are offered there, within an overarching philosophy of hope, healing, and compassion for the whole person. We also dropped by Freedom Park - a squatter settlement with an impressive clinic and home health care system - and Ledig, where Tapologo runs a large garden project.

Tomorrow it's back to Freedom Park, where some of us will work with child care and others will make home visits. Tonight we are having a farewell dinner with the Hospice part of our group, who are off to Durban in the early morning.

We're safe, we're well, and we hope you all are too!

3 Days!

The more I read about the country I'm about to visit, the more I realize how little I know about it. I'm trying to familiarize myself with some basic geography and cultural knowledge, but we're getting down to the wire here. I have a feeling I will be relying heavily on our hosts and guides, as well as on my traveling companions who have been to South Africa before.

Since I can no longer travel without the advice of the Lonely Planet, I offer to you their Interactive map of South Africa, and travel information. This is not their most helpful online travel guide, but it's something. Mostly it warns me of ATM schemes. Good to know.

If any of you who are local have a suitcase you'd be willing to never see again, I am looking for a piece of luggage to carry gifts, that can be left there (we can have two checked bags on the way to Johannesburg, but only one on our flight to Capetown).

A week from tomorrow

Eight days and quickly counting. As a group, we're putting the final details on our itinerary and getting the last-minute call out for donations of funds for school fees, uniforms, and food, children's vitamins, and child-sized blankets to deliver to the orphanage. Individually, we're starting to think about the joy of packing (at least, that's as far as I've gotten...I have a running list of things I need to bring, but nothing actually in a suitcase), and taking care of details like holding the mail and paying the bills. I am alternately really excited and nauseated with anxiety about this trip, but it's mostly just the preparations that are making me nervous. Once I get on the plane, I'll be golden.

Today's task: shopping for necessary items like iodine tablets, small packets of laundry soap, and various first aid supplies.

Donations

You may notice that I've added a section in the sidebar called "Donate Now." While this seems pretty self-explanatory, I thought I should be a bit clearer about where the money is going.

We are collecting money for school uniforms, school fees, and food parcels for children in households headed by a grandparent or child because the parents have died of AIDS.

The costs are as follows:

- School uniform for two seasons: $84.50

- School fees pre-school per month: $6.50

- School fees school age per quarter: $58.50

- Food parcels for 3-person household per month: $71.50

The trip is almost entirely financed by the participants out of their own pockets, which is a significant expense in both money and time to represent the church and do the work of serving Tapologo. In order to reduce the financial strain on participants, we are also asking people to share in our ground transportation expenses (van rental and gas). Please consider how you might support this work.

You can also help by:

- Continuing to buy African candles from the Faith Bookshop at First Reformed Church

- Collecting unopened children's vitamins and dropping them off in the box in Assembly Hall.

- Knitting or sewing child-sized blankets to be delivered to Tapologo.

- Committing to the next trip to South Africa, tentatively planned for May 2010.

Countdown

We leave in eleven days!

I started this blog so we'll have a place to post pictures and stories while we're traveling, and keep an online record of our trip together. In the meantime, we'll post some background information on how this trip came about and what we plan to do while we're there.

The basic itinerary:

We depart on Oct. 8 and arrive on the 9th in Johannesburg, and travel to Rustenburg, which will be our base for most of the trip. We'll spend the first couple of days recovering from our jet lag and visiting our Uniting Reformed Church connections in the area, including participating in worship on Sunday (I'll be preaching - exciting and a little nerve-wracking, since it will be with a translator, which I've only done once before). Oct. 11-15 will be spent volunteering at Tapologo Hospice with their clinics, orphanage, and community garden. We will then travel to Johannesburg and Pretoria to connect with friends in the So. Transvaal Synod, who some of our members met on the last trip to South Africa in 2003. Some of our group will return to the U.S. on the 18th, while others go to Capetown for a couple of days before we return on Oct. 22.

So, that's the plan. 11 days and counting! Anyone have helpful packing suggestions?