40 Days of Prayer

February 20th:
We start off our Wednesdays with small group, as always. Then began our day of sessions with Lynn to talk about why we do what we do and how we do it. We had a session in the morning before breaking to go to the Chapel to kick off the 40 Days of Prayer. If you haven't already seen the information on my facebook page or on the Hands website, you can go here to see what it's all about. Praying together here always strikes me because it is always such a contrast from back home. The 40 Days of Prayer is a way to refocus and re-prioritize our energies for the upcoming year. Volunteers often go home for the holidays, if able, so these 40 days are a good reminder of what we have all been blessed with, and why we are here in the first place. After we finished praying for Rimos, you can read his story here, it was time for our lunch break. In the afternoon, we began another session with Lynn. This time we got to display our abilities to interpret how Hands does what it does, with a touch of artistic ability, which I will admit was lacking in my effort. We even got to present our work, it was like being in college all over again... For dinner, most of our intake (6 out of 8) plus a few others staying here in the Village, all made dinner together. We had salad, spaghetti with our choice of sauces, and garlic bread. I generally haven't eaten big meals since I've been here, but it was really nice to share a meal with everyone. Then we went up to the Waspe's house to have a debrief session of our time so far. It happened to be a stormy night here, so naturally the power went out. Half of our intake braved the rain and ran down to the Village. I would have, but I had my camera and my journal with me, so I opted to wait. Especially since I've already had to dry out my backpack and all of its contents once already. Storms last much longer here in South Africa, so as it continued to pour with no sign of letting up, Cat came to get us and drive us down to the Village. Which was great, but when we got to the Village we found out that Sophie and Chris had walked up with umbrellas to get us, so they were just getting soaked in the rain. I really don't think they minded though. Everyone came back and watched the storm on the porch, with our cameras and camcorders of course! Russell, who is like an energizer bunny, went running in the rain storm just for fun. We all sat and talked and enjoyed each others company until the storm was over.

February 21st:
Thursdays are our easy day. We don't have any early morning sessions, so most of the volunteers sleep in while they can. I still wake up roughly the same time everyday without my alarm clock. I woke up at 4, but stayed in bed until 6, catching up on email and a few other things. Later than morning, around 10, we loaded ourselves back into the venture and went off to Bushbuckridge, to the community of Nhluvuko. I'm fairly sure I spelled that correctly, but everyone here just calls it Share. We met with the Care Workers there before being split into groups to do home visits, and of course we made it back in time to play with the kids before it was meal time. Leyton and I went with Melody, Constance, and three other Care Workers. Melody was great. She is very patient with us, answering all our questions and helping us with our Xitsonga. I'm a little better at Siswati than I am at Xitsonga, but learning both languages is definitely outside my normal realm of vocabulary. I will hopefully find some time later to write posts that are a little more specific about the families I have visited here.

When we got back to the Village, it was the second Foodapalooza! This time it was pizza night, and it was a huge success! I think Ashley said we had twice as many people last this time than we did the last time. It's really fun, because the foods we eat are normal for those of use from westernized countries, but are new to most of the people here in Africa. We also had ice cream sundaes for dessert. After dinner it was 'guys night' and 'ladies craft night.' The ladies have been working on stuff for Morgan and Tommy's wedding up at the Waspe's house. I know some of the people were working on table runners last night, which led to some interesting conversation because at least two of the guys here had no idea what a table runner was. The guys watched "The Guardian", which they did admit after the fact wasn't necessarily the most manly movie. I stayed to watch that just because I hadn't seen it before. Alicia and Mariah were around throughout the movie too. It's interesting watching movies with such a diverse group of people, especially Africans - because their opinion of nudity or suggestive scenes is markedly conservative compared to the western world. You probably wouldn't even realize how little you react to a suggestive scene until you're sitting next to someone who has a drastically different reaction. By the time the movie was over, it was after 10, so everyone almost immediately went to bed. Mostly people go to bed early, and wake up early. Some of us earlier than others... I stayed up late just to see if I could sleep in any later, but it didn't work. I was actually up a little earlier than normal, at 5:18, so no go.

Today, most of our intake is staying here in the Village to help Herman with some maintenance work. I think I heard a rumor that it involves digging and or moving bricks... but I'm sure it will be an adventure regardless. Some of the intake will be heading into Nelspruit to take care of things, in terms of visas or phones, etc. And I am very excited because tomorrow we are going to Kruger Park!!! I'm definitely taking my camera, so look for pictures very soon!

I'll also try to post an update soon about income and cost of living for the people in the community here, so you have a better idea of the odds these families are facing as we go through the 40 Days of Prayer. Thanks for taking time to read about the work we're doing here, and as always, thanks for praying!