Community Stay Prep

Normally Thursday mornings are time for us to relax because they are no meetings, but since our Community Stays begin tomorrow, we had an 8am session with Dan this morning. As a group, we read through the book of James. Dan encouraged us to reread it again individually, considering the passages not only from our perspective but from the perspective of the children we will be staying with. Dan needed to get going to Bushbuckridge for the day, so we were released to continue studying James or prepare for our stays.

Later in the morning, we were being taken grocery shopping with Jen for our weekends. Melissa and I waited for the second round, so while the first group was shopping, I took some time to go sit in my favorite spot here at the Village. It's nice because it's out of the way, and it's quiet. Not to mention, the view is pretty amazing!

 When I came back down, I cleaned up some stuff in my room first. In this case, my room looks worse than it did before I started because I was going through stuff to throw away, but ended up writing in one of my journals instead. Then I had time to reheat leftovers and inhale my lunch before it was our turn to head out to the grocery store.

Generally, we do our shopping at Pick n Pay, but for this trip we went to ShopRite. Our community stay will begin Friday afternoon and last until Monday morning. We are all in pairs and are taking enough food to share with the family we are staying with.

Here is our shopping list of what each pair needed to buy:
5kg Mealie meal (corn meal)
2kg rice
1 bag apples
1 cabbage
1 bag carrots
1 bag tomatoes
1 sm bag sugar
1 sm bag salt
1 sm bottle of oil
tea and/or coffee
small packets of creamer
2 5L bottles of water (we picked up 3)
toilet paper
2 cans of pilchards in tomato sauce
2 oxtail soup mix
1 6pk of eggs
1 sm peanut butter
2kg of mixed chicken portions

Other personal items to pick up, if needed:
flash light (or torches as they are called here in South Africa)
balls, crayons, paper, etc
wash clothes and soap
lollipops
cereal bars
bug spray
sunscreen

So when we got back to the Village, our main room looked like this: (and this isn't even all of the groceries!)

Here is the pile of groceries for Mel and I, minus was had been put in the refrigerator or freezer.

Now we have a little more down time until Dan gets back from Bushbuckridge. Then we'll find out more about the families we are all staying with. Later, we are having dinner 'upstairs' at the Ladies house, hosted by Cat. And depending on how long that lasts, we might go to spend the evening at the Farm with Bentley. Everyone wants to see us, it's almost like they are afraid we won't come back...

A few things for you all to keep in mind:
-I don't know what family I am staying with yet, but consider that we have met children as young as 7 who have already buried both of their parents and have to serve as the head of household role.
-It is Africa, but even when it is warm during the day it can still become very cold at night. Some families don't even have a mattress or blanket to stay warm.
-We will be bucket bathing during our home stays, which sounds very bizarre to most westernized cultures, but it is not uncommon here in Africa. People don't know any different.
-Some households do not even have utensils to stir what little food they have to cook.

As we prepare ourselves to go into community, pray that we would all have open hearts and minds, that we would listen intently to the any stories the children are willing to share, that we will be gracious despite any uncomfortable situations we may face, that we would be beautiful feet, and that we can bring some joy into the lives of our families, even if only for a weekend. Also pray for us as we learn more about ourselves and each other. That these experiences would bring us closer together and unite us in the work that lies ahead of us. Consider how different the lives of the children here are from our lives at home. Consider how that impacts your response to passages you read in the Bible.

Don't hesitate to ask any questions you might have. I won't get them until Monday, but within reason, I should be able to answer anything you could ask. Thank you for reading, and thank you for praying!