Musings from Graceland

SECOND FULL DAY IN SWAZILAND, 2010 TRIP

September 22, 2010
10:00 a.m.
Bheveni Carepoint

Arrived at carepoint with Musa [one of the AIM Discipleship Team members] as our driver. We had left the Tum's [George Hotel] after Jim and I walked down the main street for a few minutes.

Jim and Musa swapped stories [during the drive]. Jim told army stories and Musa told us his life story.




Upon arrival, the teacher at the carepoint creche [preschool], Ncebile, told us that she had a cough and a headache and did not feel well. Some of us women on the B-Team prayed for her and Kelly gave her some Excedrin.


[There is a preschooler here named] Nkhosingiphile. [Her name means] "Jesus gave me a child."


This little girl is very outgoing, very bright, very much a leader, and yes, bossy! She has no parents but lives with her grandmother. She is 6 years old.

September 22
6:00 p.m.

WOW! What a day!!! Again, very, very busy but very, very good.

This morning, while Mike, Danielle, Erica, and Kelly did the story-time and songs wtih the children, we made two home visits.




The first was the to the home of the child who is sponsored by Larry and Elizabeth Bergeron. She is a very sweet little girl. She had been very, very quiet and serious up to and through the visit but afterwards, at the carepoint, she was very friendly and loved the golden, stretch, head band the Bergerons had [sent] to her.




At the home, which was a traditional homestead, we visited with the gogo [grandmother], great-gogo, and auntie. Musa and Zodwa accompanied us. During the visit we introduced ourselves, gave gifts (food and household items for the family and the packet from the Bergerons), showed a scripture verse (Romans 8:28), and prayed for the family. They asked that we pray for the children to be educated and the family to prosper. One interesting note was that they brought out very nice, upholstered, dining chairs for Musa and Jim while, as is the Swazi custom, all of us women took off our shoes and sat on mats. We also gave lollipops for the other children who lived there. They weren't present, but five in total reside there.



The 2nd home visit we made was to [the home of a boy that Katherine Kirshberger sponsors]. The carepoint teacher, Ncebile, and Zodwa took us. Where as we walked to the 1st homestead, we had to drive to the 2nd one. Jim estimates that it was approximately 2 miles away [from the carepoint]. The teacher lives near [this homestead] so she walks with her children and other children to the carepoint every day.



At this carepoint were both traditional houses plus one more modern one made out of gray, unpainted, cinder blocks. This was the house that the boy stays in with his mother, father, and a sister. We met all of these plus and auntie today. The mother had been down at the river washing clothes when first arrived. As at the 1st homestead, Anna, Zodwa, and I sat on mats while the father and Jim sat on benches as well as did Ncebile (the teacher) and the mother. We also introduced ourselves, Jim shared a scripture [from I John], we gave gifts, and we prayed. The father asked us to pray for him [to get] a job and what is strange is that I knew he was asking for prayer for a job before it was even translated for us.




After the visits, we went back to the carepoint where the preschool children were finishing up a craft --- hand puppets.




We then gave them gifts --- bandanas, jump ropes, necklaces, stuffed animals, and cars.



I will continue this day's telling in another post.