The Hands at Work HUB is located outside of White River, Mpumalanga in South Africa. It's a small international pocket here in South Africa. Living here are various people from different African Countries, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Australia, a lot of Canadians, and me - the token American.
Life here is simple, but no one seems to mind too much. Long term volunteers and staff have houses "upstairs" but the rest of us live in community with basic dormitory style rooms. Here is a picture of my half of the room. There isn't a whole lot, but when you're living here, you realize you don't need a whole lot.
And here is a picture of the kitchen, where we make all of our meals, as demonstrated by Dave(UK) and Leyton(AUS)
This is a view of the Village, looking up the front steps.
And if you turn around, you get to look at this. And no, it never gets old!
So those are just a few pictures to capture Village life. If you have facebook, there are more pictures on my profile. The internet here is not as fast as at home, so while I would love to upload millions of pictures for you, that is just not realistic. I'll do my best to post more photos as I take them though!
February 14th:
We spent the morning at the Lowveld Botanical Garden. What an experience! We had a morning theology session with George and some quiet time to have a look around the gardens. There was no question that we were in South Africa because we were quite literally in a jungle. There are also absolutely amazing water falls. You definitely have a sense of how insignificant you are when you're watching the water crash down the rocks with such speed and force. I've traveled around the United States quite a bit and have had the privilege of seeing some amazing views, but this was definitely one of my favorites!
We went back to the Village to eat a late lunch and then attend a tea so we could get to know more of the current people here at the Village. After that we were invited to dinner at the Waspe's house, and we stayed there for another impromptu session with George. Finally we came back to the main Village to work on a skit about our experience so far. We ended up recording a time lapse video instead, but it was great fun.
February 15th:
We spent the morning in the Village. First, we had a session with the whole group, called Digging Deeper, where we showed them our video and then heard a speech George gave while traveling in Canada. It's nice to hear the message that is being presented to the people who aren't here to experience things first hand. It just helps the whole group keep everything in perspective about why we are here, what we are trying to accomplish, and how different people are doing their best to make that happen.
Then we had a lovely session with Carolyn that was all about health here at Hands. All the lovely African things you might imagine... we talked about Malaria, Typhoid, HIV, TB, frogs, snakes, scorpions... but it is really not nearly as bad as you might believe. Life is pretty much normal here. We have access to safe drinking water, so it's all good.
That afternoon we went back to Siyathuthuka with Cat. We had time to do some more home visits, and play with the kids. My Siswati needs some remedial help, but I've got some time to learn some more. We got back to the Village in time to relax and clean up before going to dinner with Lynn and Jamie. They got us our first African pizza! Jamie just returned to South Africa after spending a few weeks at home in Canada, so it was great to get to know her a bit! We had lots of great conversation, and it was just a great evening where we got to unwind after everything we've experienced this week!
Today we are off to the Mac Mac pools, which are supposed to be amazing waterfalls where we can swim. And Dave Bentley is teaching us how to braai, which is basically South African barbeque, so it should be amazing! Hopefully your weekends are relaxing, and thanks for praying!
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