APRIL 2008
German team building the 14th school in Driftsand
The leader from the German just got married recently and asked all his guest to donate money to build the school instead of gifts. It cost about $100000 Canadian to build the outer structure of a school.
The mission house was full of noise, excitement and no place for privacy this past month because we had a short-term German team come to build a preschool for 3 weeks. Many lives were changed through their experiences in
We had a Julie Day to celebrate her cooking for us all the time.
Farewell dinner for Sarah! (Paul, Glory, Sarah and Angie)
(Paul, Jeff, Glory, Sarah, Julie, Priscilla, Mrs. Ohm, Joy, Angie and Pastor Ohm)
The single girls from the German team took me out on a picnic to thank me for helping them out.
Sarah, my roommate for 7 months will be leaving at the end of this month. It’s sad to see her go because we had built a really good relationship with one another. She will be greatly missed. Once Sarah leaves, I will be the only person who speaks English as their first language here. I will also have a new roommate named Joy. She is from
The youth selling used clothes to fund raise for a youth camp.
They raised $1000 rand selling clothes for 2 days.
Cynthia teaching the kids correspondence counting
Anele teaching kids correspondence counting
Alett from the Brackenfell Baptist church came to visit one of the schools.
On the first Saturday of April I had my staff training and taught them about correspondence counting. Out of 14 schools only 1 school didn’t show up. That’s pretty amazing! I am also starting to visit each teacher at their houses after they finish their work so that I can start building better relationships with them.
Nonele's sisters (Nonele is in the red shirt)
The first teacher I went to visit is Nonele. She is 25 and lives with her boyfriend. Her house is a two room shack near the school. She shares this shack with 3 of her other sisters and husbands and 1 brother. All together there are 4 men, 4 women and 2 babies living in one shack. When I went to their house it was very clean and simple. All the neighbours and even the rest of the teachers came along with me to visit her. They only had one bench and I was the privileged one to sit on it and the rest of the guest just stood in a circle. There were many awkward times, but they just truly appreciated me visiting them.
Monica and her neice
The second teacher I went to visit lives in Tambokei. Monica is a mom of twins that are ages 17 and are in grade 9. She is also taking care of her niece (who calls her mom) because her brother and mother had just died recently.
Thelma and her husband
The next teacher I went to visit is Thelma. She lives right next door to the school because her husband is the pastor of the church. She is a hard worker and is not appreciated enough. She is a very sad person because she had a young baby that just died last year. She is also having conflicts with the principle of the school because she is hardly there to support her. She only gets paid $200 rand each month ($30 Canadian dollars each month). She cried a lot when she tried to explain to me her situation. I tired to encourage her and pray for her.
Buysiwa and her two youngest children
In front of Buysiwa's house
This is Buysiwa, she is the principle of Bulelanie. She has two children and and four older children from a previous marriage. She is always laughing, but always asking me for me to give her things. Today she complained about her house and how it leaks and that there are many drafts in her house.
Cynthia's room
In front of Cynthia's home.
Cynthia is another teacher from Bululaine. She has one child who lives in Joberg with her grandparents. She has a two room house and that she shares with her boyfriend.
Barbara's family (Barbara is the last one on the right)
Barbara is a mother of 5 children and about 5 grandchildren. After work she does after school care at her house. She takes about 7 kids from the school and bring them home.
Sindsiwa and her son
Sindsiwa lives in a two room shack. She has one child and is married. She is the cook at Bulelani
I have discovered that most of these women are not married and that they live with their boyfriends. They all have children, but rarely marry the dads.
If they are not married the first born child usually is taken away from them and lives with the grandparents. It is strange for them to see me almost 40 years old and not married without children.
This month I had an amazing experience about giving money without expecting anything back. One of the locals asked me to loan them $2000 rand due to family problems back home. I then asked Pastor Ohm what the policy is about loaning money to locals. He advised me not to loan any money out to locals because from his past experiences they all have turned sour. They usually can’t pay you back and then your relationship with them gets estranged. He recommended that if you want to give money to a local, you must give it away without any strings attached (don’t expect it back, give it willingly). I then thought about it and decided not to give out a loan and to give $500 rand as a gift because I was saving so much money from my new car needing less gas. I then found out somebody was willing to buy my old car for $21000 rand and I was only expecting $20000 for it. I then decided to give another $500 rand when my car sells because in my mind I got an extra $1000 rand from my car. A week later the German team gave me $1000 rand for my ministry. God is so good because when you give freely from your heart he blesses you. God sure loves a cheerful giver!
Update on my computer and car:
Even though my computer is under a year old I had to replace the memory and motherboard already (thank goodness I still have warranty on it). I think my car will be sold by the end of this month for $21000 rand, but the person hasn’t paid for it yet. Hopefully they will pay for it at the end of this month.
By the way the African Leadership Website is now running. Please look it up at: www.africanleadership.info
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