Highlights of orientation.

19th May - 8th June

Ok because I am so behind on my blog and really have so much to tell you but not enough time to tell you in detail. So  I thought I would share with you my highlights. To get a picture of what I have been up to. So every international volunteer whether they are staying Africa for 3 or 6 months or a year, have to complete a 4-5 week orientation period, learning all the above information, going into the communities and seeing what it is like, meeting children so it becomes real, that we fully understand why we are serving others and supporting others to care for those children. Then after this period we are put into a position that is usually part of the RST’s in South Africa or somewhere else.

The first week we spent time having lessons on aspects of Hands at work and then going into the communities and walking around with care workers and seeing what home based care looks like first hand. The first few days we met kids that impacted me and broke my heart in different ways. First day we met a 5 year old who was looking after an 18 month old. Yes you heard me right, this isn’t the usual situation they live with 6 other siblings in this one bedroom stick and mud hut. But everyone was at school and the one in charge an 18 year old was off collecting some food for their dinner.     

So imagine my reaction a 5 year old and an 18 month old alone together. That’s the age of children I look after in Australia and the youngest had wet through the cloth nappy and hadn’t been changed, and probably didn’t have any clothes to change into. It made me so sad, I just wanted so badly to change this child’s clothes so they were nice and clean and comfortable. But I couldn’t so I just cuddled this baby!

The next day we met two families that had no father figure and the men of the houses we practically children still; the 1^st one was 19 and he looked after 7 of his younger sibling, and the second house there was a 15 year old. And it hit me that these boys are called to be men and head of the households at such a young age and they are robbed of their childhood and innocence.

Wed and Thurs we got to have sessions with George who is the CEO and founder of Hands at work. He is so inspirational and passionate, wed we got to sit under a tree in one of the communities and share our testimonies and hear from George about his story and how hands at work was birthed and it was beautiful just to spend the morning  hearing about God so at work in everyone’s lives, its exciting, gets my blood pumping.

The highlight of my week though was the end of the week we went on home visits with care workers in smaller groups, and all week I had been struggling with not know what to say or do while visiting people. But these visits were really special I got to go with one of the long term volunteers and we met 3 children that were living together no parents and got to share a beautiful moment of sitting and talking and listening and sharing a bible verse each that God had laid on our hearts. It was beautiful.

The beginning of the next week I got a chance to work with the maintenance team, Ashley and I got to spend the morning with some inspiring siSwati speaking Africans. We laughed, sung and used all of our energy to chop down weeds (Trees) with big machetes I worked so hard that bruised my hand, I think I was more concerned about dropping it that I held onto it so hard that I had bruises on my thumb and pointer finger knuckles. Honestly I don’t know if we helped or slowed them down but it was fun all the same.  

 

The second week once we got into the communities I was still struggling a bit with the whole, home visits what do I say or do? What if I say something wrong but then we did some stuff with a long term hands volunteer and had such wisdom about home visits and explained that you have to ask God to give us grace when we go into some situations, to be able to react as Jesus would. And to just take in everything and be, we also talked about the power of being a great listener. And the most precious moments happened;

We went to a community that was about 1 and half hour drive, and while doing some home visits, we met a grandmother (go-go) that was labelled as having a mental disease, seemed to be dementia. Anyway as we were sitting and talking to her brother, she came over and stood next to one of the care workers pushed her face towards her and just stared her down, then she went to the next care worker and did the same thing then said something we asked what she had said, “the care workers said we was making up her own words.” Then she came to Nanci and I she shook our hands and then stood in front of me still holding my hands she looked me straight in the eat and said, “Abapabaloo” and so I said it back and a slight smile broke out on her face. She said it again but this time she was more animated and as she said to me she begun dancing and doing a shimmy. I was like what the heck, so I replied and danced back and her smile grew bigger, she looked back at Nanci and said Abapabaloo, and Nanci tried to reply but she couldn’t quite get her mouth around the word. The Go-Go stared back at her with a frown. Then looked back at me and I said it to her and she begun to laugh, she grabbed both of my hands and we shared this moment of totally insanity of dancing and singing Abapabaloo. But it was as if we were the only 2 people in the world and for once someone had communicated to her on her level instead of putting her down, dismissing her and looking down on her. And it was a real turning point to me God was saying it’s not about you, just be who I have created you to be. and a start of really understanding a saying that hands uses a lot; "to be before we do."
And the words Love the Lord your God with all you heart, mind, soul and strength and love you neighbour as yourself became real. This is a glimpse of what that looked like for me, to put away any hindrances and to love without measure.