Home, where is Home?

Well I guess I should write, I haven't for a couple months and the last time I blogged, I was saying farewell to Gateway Christian School. And now I am home and have been for 3 weeks already, eish!! Where has the time gone? But home I ask , where is home? Some say "Home is where the Heart is". Some people like my family would say my home is a small farm town in rural South Western Ontario, Canada. Yes, my small rural farm town is my physical home where I was born, attended local public schools, played on an community baseball team summer after summer for much of my childhood, and attended the same Mennonite Church since an infant, but now I have two homes, Canada and South Africa.

South Africa, a country known as a Rainbow Nation of people and cultures, with 12 official languages, extreme diversity of wealth and poverty and unbelievable breath taking scenery all wrapped up in one. I will miss this new home of mine. The people, my friends, how blessed was I to call them my friends. Friends who stuck by me during the hard tough times, but also for the fun times of parties and adventures. Yes, I was blessed to have experienced many amazing adventures, whether it was accompanying the school classes on day trips such as watching the children having fun feeding animals at Crafty Duck or hiking through the Drakensburg Mountains with church friends or maybe it was the night I spent at my friends home in a rural township and becoming a celeb.

Like I have mentioned above, South Africa is a very diverse country of wealth and poverty. Actually South Africa, is the wealthiest country in the continent of Africa, with the gold mines in Jo'burg, diamond mines in Kimberley and the other natural resources they are able to export. But the wealth live right next door to the poverish, literally. Informal settlements built up in many empty lots owned by the government right beside normal wealthy neighbourhoods, just so they can live a little closer to a job, to put food on their families plates and clothes on their backs. These situations opened up my eyes of how blessed I am of my home, and my up bringing. But I won't forget how much some people struggle for the basic things we take for granted.

I know I have ready missed my housemother Lucille, where I stayed, her bubbly personality, the twinkle of her eyes when she smiles, her warm big hugs and our conversations. Yes, our numerous conversations about work, family & friends back home and there, church news and yes God. I was also privillaged to have wonderful conversations with her daughter Lyndall whom I saw a few times during the year. She is very sweet and I will miss her and our few our conversations too! I know I never wrote much about my home situation, or the young girls I lived with. The girls, Lucille and I were always in and out all the time and sometimes I rarely saw them, except at breakfast and maybe the dinner hour when we would be making our own meals. So I will miss that physical house I called home, it was a very nice home and through my bedroom window I could get a glimpse of the rolling green hills that surrounded the city of Pietermartizburg.

Another of my physical places I would call my home would diffidently have to be Project Gateway. PG was a great place to work, even though at times I got bored and frustrated with lack of keeping busy, but I got to know my co-workers and they became my family, an unforgettable family of friendship and support! I won't forget these special people for they welcomed me in with open arms and created a home for me. A home where I learned so much about who I am and what I want to accomplish in life, but also gave me many gifts and a confidence to not quit, thanks Lorne, I miss you and your spunkiness. Some of my unforgettable times while working at PG, is their Friday morning chapel services; the songs, oh the songs, the awesome Zulu worship songs I can't forget, I won't forget or at least I will try not to forget them. One of my favourites is "Akekho ofana noJesu", which means Theres no one like Jesus.

"Akekho ofana noJesu,
Akekho ofana naye,
Akekho ofana noJesu,
Akekho ofana naye

Ahamba, hamba lutho, lutho
Afuna, funa lutho, lutho
Ajika, jika lutho, lutho
Akekho ofana naye."

Yes, I will miss you Peitermaritzburg, SA, my home; your rolling green hills, your people, my people. The beautiful all year blooming flowers, the fenced yards, the kombi taxis and their crazy drivers, market stands along the streets selling used clothing to sweets, smokes, dvds/cds, fruits, hot soft meelies (corn on the cob), and chicken kabobs cooking on the hot braai to the phone tables where you could use their phones for a cheaper cost instead of your own cell phone (no I did not use them, but they were everywhere). The 30 min walk to my MCC reps James & Joan, they were a great couple and I feel very blessed to have had them as part of my South African Journey. But lastly, I have already missed the sound of that darn tinkling bell of the ice cream men who walked the streets of PMB in hopes that someone was in need of a cold treat on an hot South African day.

Yes, South Africa I officially declared that you became a home to me for 11 months and you will always be a home to me for now and forever. And how I miss you!

My last goodbye hug with Lucille, infront of our home.

My fellow SwaLeSa 2009/2010 SALTers and I with our country Reps James & Joan.

One last dinner at their home in PMB, dressed in cultural outfits.

One of my last South African sunrises, Kruger National Park.

Salakahle (Goodbye/Stay Well) Gateway Christian School (GCS)

Well back on June 9th I finally said my sad goodbye to the children and staff at GCS. About every Wednesday and Thursday of the past 10 months you would find me in the school. These days were always my favourite days and I won’t forget my time there nor the staff who became a family to me.

The last week of school was a fun week with lots of activities. June 3 was pyjama and Hot Chocolate Day, and the staff and children dressed in their pyjama’s and bought a cup of hot chocolate. Late in the morning three university students came down from Jo’burg with a program called Hooked on Books and dramatized short excerpts from some children’s books that the children have been reading. It was quite fun watching these short skits and even better when they asked for some student participation and the students were dressed in some silly costumes and everybody loved it.

Friday June 4, I gave a farewell assembly for the students and staff. I had put together a short picture slide show of pictures I had taken throughout the year. But before I showed them those pictures I wanted to share a bit about where I am from. Our beautiful country of Canada I call Home! The children oohed and ahhed over the pictures and especially when the picture of my home taken in the middle of January with a huge bank of snow in front. These children have barely seen snow or even touched it. After this slide show of pictures of home, I had another surprise installed for the school. My little choir!
Every Thursday, for the past couple months the students have been participating in various clubs lead by the teaching staff for an hour at the end of the day. These clubs have been teaching Zulu dancing, art, drama, reading, soccer, singing, etc. So Mrs. Msimang, one of the grade 1 teachers has been leading the singing club and invited me to join her club one afternoon, so I came. Before I knew it I was standing at the front of the group of children teaching them 2 new songs. As I stood there teaching them it made me reflect back to my music teachers Mrs. Clark, Mr. Rowbotham, and of course Lucy, from my church back home. Never had I anticipated becoming a choir conductor here and had no experience leading one, but it was quite fun and always at the end of the hour I was filled with such joy and bliss that I hadn’t felt at work back home.

So my choir came up and the first song we sang was called “In the Bulb There is a Flower”. A song I was taught many many years ago at church. The children struggled with this one, and I struggled teaching it too, especially without a piano! I started the song by singing the first verse and then the children joined me back at the beginning and we sang though all three verses. The second song we sang, which everybody should be familiar with, is from the movie “The Sound of Music”, not sure of the title, but the song that teaches the names of the music notes (Doh, a deer a female deer ,etc), and it wouldn’t be complete without the hand note symbols (thanks Mrs. Clark)! The response us choir received from the students and staff was amazing and I was very proud of this little choir who were from grades ranging from grade 1 to grade 3.

And finally the picture slide show of my year spent with them. The kids, oh my goodness just loved it! I had included three songs sung by a South African artist, but by the middle of the second song you couldn’t hear the music, the kids just went through the roof with excitement and especially when they saw the Durban Soccer stadium picture, all you could hear were the 1/2 dozen or so vuvuzelas. Since it was a Friday, a lot of the children were dressed in soccer shirts and handful of vuvuzelas were brought to school in support of the up coming FIFA World Cup. Eish! They are loud! It was awesome seeing the kids getting so excited to see their faces or their friends faces up on the screen, they LOVE getting their picture taken.

The following week, the teachers had organized a Mini FIFA World Cup Day to celebrate the up coming event. And so each class representing a country dressed in country shirts, paraded in a short opening ceremony, performed the diskie dance and yes finally played small soccer matches against each other. Besides watching the games you could purchase sweets, have your finger nails painted, get a tattoo, purchase cold drinks, and food at the market tables that the classes had set up for a fundraiser event. It was a fun day had by all!

So Wednesday June 9th, finally came and I sadly said goodbye to the students and staff. Things I will miss will be the grade 5 teacher, Browne telling me full house each time I came by for his class attendance, or Melvin’s and Browne’s sense of humor, Thobile’s singing, Sharon’s comments of “Your mom will not make you out when she sees you!”, Kerry’s big jar of sweets and the very large roll of plastic book covering (you better not mail me the empty roll Kerry!), Beverly’s big heart for teaching her students to give to others less fortunate, Malanie’s Grade R class, Connie’s singing club, and Juli for her all her morning rides on the way into work. I won’t forget all the class outings, to the airport and train station with Mafiki’s grade 1 class, Butterflies for Africa with Cheryl’s grade 2 class, Crafty Duck with Malanie’s grade R’s and of course uShaka Wet n’ Wild day with 300+ students and staff, such fun and memorable days. The birthday parties for Rachel’s and Beverly’s daughters, and the other fun times I had with Kerry’s, Juli’s and Ps Sinatra’s families on various occasions outside of school. The night I stayed over with my dear friend Nokuthula (school’s receptionist) in her township and I became an instant celeb amongst her friends and neighbours! I will miss you GCS staff!

But lastly I will never forget Marge Bennett, a very dear lady who calls me her Canadian Daughter. She was so loving, caring and supportive to me and the first thing she always asked when I came into her office every Wednesday morning was how am I and how is my family back home doing? I will miss you lots, but like you have said “this is not goodbye”.

Thank you GCS staff for such an amazing year. A year of fun, laughs, tears, hugs, prayers, fellowship and mostly importantly an instant family of love and support. God bless you all!

Some random pictures

Oslo Beach (Indian Ocean), at sunrise June 6

Oslo Beach

FIFA Kick off day, Project Gateway Staff showing support for Bafana Bafana

My church home group I've been meeting with Tuesday evenings from chruch. Went to Umgeni Nature Reserve.

Burr, is it Winter yet? And FIFA 2010

Well my answer is yes, winter must be here, and it is freezing in the mornings, well not 0 degrees C yet, but getting closer and closer. Last week on my way into school, I would gaze over at Juli’s vehicle outside temperature gage in her dash and the temps read anywhere from 7 degrees to the coldest of 5 degrees. Burr, now I say it’s getting a little nippier!

Well it’s no longer May, but June now, can you believe it? Six weeks I’ll be in Akron and seven with my family, Yipee! Well maybe I shouldn’t get too excited yet; I still have lots of goodbyes yet to say in the next few weeks! I have already said goodbye to the school teachers since the school has now started their winter break. Their winter break is five weeks this year instead of the normal three due to the FIFA World Cup.

Yes the world is here somewhere, and all of you I am sure are getting lots of tv coverage reports of the Cup. Me I’m not too excited about it, actually its sorta making me feel a little blue. I’m not a real big sport fan, yes I’ll watch a bit of hockey here and there, but never gotten too serious into all the teams, games and the stats, so why would soccer be any different? PMB doesn’t play host to any of these big games, and the closest stadium venue is Durban.

The rest of my fellow SALTer’s and James & Joan all have tickets to see at least one game, but me on the other hand I do not. Am I disappointed? A little bit yes, but life moves on. There are other fun things to do and see before I leave. The people here have been getting excited for months, and since about the start of the 100 day count down, President Jacob Zuma, declared that every Friday would be Football Friday and people were to purchase a yellow and green Bafana Bafana shirt to show support of their South African team. Besides the sea of yellow and green shirts on Fridays, and especially the last few days, people have been blowing their Vuvuzela’s, attaching South African flags to their vehicles, and learning the Diskee (not sure of the spelling) dance. I have had the pleasure of watching the grade 5 students perform at school a couple times.

So why all this big hype? I guess it’s exciting for this country and something new. What I have been pondering over the past year about FIFA, what’s going to happen once it’s over and the all the soccer fans from around the world go home? There is going to be an influx of revenue flowing into the economy for this period, having created job creation in preparing the cities with new and better roads, updating and touching up stadiums, and businesses hiring extra staff to handle the extra customers. Hotels, and accommodations will be or already filled and tourist attractions will be steadily busy with these world soccer fans traveling across the country taking in other fun activities. All this is great, but what about afterwards when everyone goes home? How long will these jobs last for the citizens here; which has enabled them to put a roof over their family’s head and food on the table. I am afraid that it will end on a sour note and lots families will go back to struggling for the basic necessities.

Another concern that has been addressed at school is creating awareness of human trafficking. This is already a problem here in SA, and many children and adults have been snatched from their homes and force to work in sweatshops and factories, or in domestic homes, never seeing their love ones again. There is great fear of this activity during this period of the FIFA World Cup and last week the grades 5, 6, and 7 students watched a very serious video about the scariness and about being careful during this time of when the world comes to South Africa.

I just want to conclude that I wish all the world teams the best of luck in winning the FIFA Cup. All of you will probably see more TV coverage than I, even though I am living here. The TV in my home is not connected to any channels, but today businesses are closing early to allow the people to watch the opening ceremonies and the first kick off between South Africa and Mexico.

Signing off and Mach Gut….

Go Bafana Bafana Go!!

May Highlights

June 10th



Well I thought I should share about my May highlights, actually May was pretty busy with lots of fun and exciting things so I will try and make it brief, but no promises. May, has come and gone and it is well into June already with only 3 weeks of work left. Wow!! Time is flying when you’re having fun. Hehe!!!

So to start off with my first highlight which would probably have to be my friend Siphokazi’s wedding which was May 1st. My dear friend Sipho, was transformed into a beautiful bride, walked down the aisle and said I do to her dashing and charming husband. After the wedding ceremony and meal they quickly dashed off to their new home up in the Mpumalanga province. I hope someday I will see her again, she has been a great caring friend to me and I have long since missed her at work.

My next highlight would have to the following day after the wedding, where my friends Becky, Cath, Liesel and I wondered around Pietermaritzburg Botanical Garden and walked through the avenue of trees and rang the bell. It was a fun afternoon, but I didn’t find the Pietermaritzburg Rose, I had thought was there.

Next would be the parade of various little café’s I visited with staff at PG around the city of PMB. My favourite would have to be Rosehurst which Mrs. Bennett treated me to a goodbye lunch. The place was very pretty with various small shops and the café out the back in the rose garden. I am certain that my uGogo would have enjoyed a good cup of tea and a short little roam around the rose garden.

One of the Becky’s titles here is a PMB official tour guide. So we finally took a couple hours one afternoon to park the car and wonder down the old streets of downtown PMB. I haven’t had the best opportunity to take snap shots of the downtown yet since I am usually by myself and don’t want to take my camera out and become a target to get mugged. So I snapped away and she spoke of the old buildings and statues, wondering into buildings that are rich with aging architecture and history that are catching fire and burning down. Stopped and took a picture of the largest red brick building in the southern hemisphere (city hall, which also contains a large organ), and of course can’t miss taking Ghandi’s picture. It was great fun afternoon, thanks Becky!

My next highlight would certainly have to be spending a nice evening over at my friends Liesel’s place where the next day we visited the African Bird of Prey Sanctuary just outside of PMB. It is a very nice bird sanctuary where another friend of mine and I watched a bird show and afterwards roamed around the various cages of birds, vultures, owls, eagles and hawks. After getting home from the exciting morning I had a brief break to relax and then headed out over to Becky’s place for an evening braai.

My last highlight would have to be getting transformed into a Zulu woman on the streets of PMB. I was out with one of the Zulu teachers from school in search for a Zulu skirt to bring home. I finally found a vendor set up on the sidewalk with her table displayed in traditional Zulu skirts, hats, and jewellery. Before I knew it was wearing a skirt, a hat, a necklace, bracelet, and ankle bracelets and the African people were stopping and leaving a friendly comment. All I could do was just smile and enjoy the moment.



Well anyways it is getting late and I must get to bed.



Signing off and Mach Gut….

What does the Crystal Ball say about my Future?

May 17, 2010

Well I have officially been living in SA for nine months already! I can hardly believe that! Sometimes I think back to when my fellow SwaLeSa SALTer’s and I arrived those 9 months ago and how excited we all were to finally step foot on African soil, South African soil, that is! It has been a good 9 months, many good memories of adventures, laughs, tears, hugs, near death experiences (flying bricks!, I must be a brick magnet, lol), friendships, sad goodbyes and the list could go on.

As I sit here pondering what to write thinking that I had lots of ideas on my walk home from the MCC SwaLeSa office today, and yet I draw to a bit of a blank. Actually those thoughts I want to blog about, but for a later blog entry. I want to blog, I want to write something, something interesting, something thought provoking, something with passion and charisma or something inspirational. Hmm, what to write, what to write!!!

So here I go, I think I’ll write about my unknown future; my future that only God knows “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, “plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11.” One of my goals this past year was to figure out my future; to figure out what am I good at? And what do I want to do when I get home? I don’t want to work the rest of my days working behind a Tim Horton’s counter asking, how may I help you and what size of coffee and how do you take it? Regular? Double double? Triple triple? No, I need something better, sorry Tim Horton’s fellow co-workers and coffee friends; making and serving coffee isn’t my life career!

When I came out here to SA I thought I would be working in an office behind a desk doing various admin office tasks. Well I guess I do work behind various desks! My days at the MCC SwaLeSa office I’ve been working on writing up journal entries and reconciling bank statements, and putting together MCC SwaLeSa’s liabrary, so a bit of office work. My days at Project Gateway with the DMPR (Donor Marketing Public Relation) department I have found some admin work, and also at Gateway Christian school also some admin work, but all together not what I had expected. This has caused me some frustration at times. I would like to say I have enjoyed working here, so please don’t think from what I’ve written that I haven’t, it just been a challenging year working at three different locations every week! A number of years ago I was enrolled in a business program and I thought that my future was in business; business of some sort like Inventory Management! And then my country reps offered me this SALT Admin Assistant position and I felt that yes God is reaffirming this career avenue I had so long ago started. But the last number of months, actually I don’t know how long, I have been giving this a second thought.

Then one day at school I sat in for Melanie (Grade R teacher) for a few minutes, holding up a story book and turning the pages as the students listened to the story of Jonah and the Whale from a CD player. Afterwards I asked the children a few questions about the bible story. Melanie returned and as I wandered back to Mrs. Bennett’s office I came to a different understanding of my unknown future! I excitably shared this with Mrs. Bennett, how enjoyable and fulfilling those few minutes with the Grade R’s was. The next thing I knew, Mrs. Bennett and Melanie arranged an opportunity for me to spend a good hour once a week in her class. You must be thinking how can spending those few minutes make such an impact? Well it isn’t just that one experience; I’ve had other brief moments of interaction with the students. And I’ve also had someone else here whispering into my ear I should go into teaching. So now I’ve been analyzing my purpose here in SA, and my future back home. I am a little unsure about being a teacher, but possibly an Educational Assistant (EA)?!?! Maybe God brought me here to show me that business isn’t my future plan, but maybe working with and helping children learn is!

So where do I go from here? What is my next step? My sister Kristine, kindly had her college mail me a Niagara College program course book and I’ve read through the Educational Assistant program and I ask myself, can I do this? Am I capable of achieving this career? This is where I get stuck!! So, I will end here for today with these pondering questions that only God knows the answer to. And so I ask all of you to pray for me as I decide this career option.

Signing off and Mach Gut ….

April Showers Bring May Flowers

May 1st, 2010

Well April showers bring May flowers, is the saying back home at this time of year. But I here in SA I haven’t heard the saying yet! Well the seasons have been changing, but not into Spring like back home but it’s now into Fall and very soon Winter. I have to admit I do miss the warm mornings from summer, but not the hot humid days and now it’s back to dressing into layers again. Mornings and evenings are nippy, but gradually the day warms up and layer by layer you are forced to peel off your layers, until evening when it becomes nippy again. I am unsure about the winter months and how cold it will get. Homes do not have central heat or furnaces nor are the house structures insulated, but some homes you may find fire places! I have been told that in some areas of SA, you can find snow during the winter. It almost seems wrong to say that it snows in Africa! My friend Juli, who teaches grade 3 at Gateway Christian School, has family who lives in Underberg and they experience snow there, but Juli has never seen the snow actually fall!

During the month of April I went to Port Elizabeth and Cape Town as you already have read, but I also had some other busy fun weekends too! A week after my return home (April 17th) was Project Gateway’s first Car Boot Sale. You might be wondering, what is a car boot sale? Well back home we have garage sales, but here they don’t have those but have car boot sales. Those wondering what a car boot is, well it’s what we call the car trunk back home! So we posted posters advertising this fundraiser event and people called and booked a spot in the car park; they came and set up tables of their goods for sale or arranged the boot of their car with their goods, hence what a true boot sale is! Selling goods from your car boot! We had all types of goods being sold, from a lawn mower to cupcakes, to homemade jewellery and clothes, to yummy Indian Samosas to used books, to Tupperware to everything and anything we had it! Since I work with the DMPR (Donor Marketing Public Relations) 2 days a week I helped in planning and creating some of the posters, as well as helped to calculate out the car boot stands and put together an information stand for Project Gateway. It was a great day and the weather co-operated beautifully!

Besides a Car boot sale that weekend Felicia and Andrew were spending some time at the Alty’s so between Friday night and Saturday afternoon and evening I spent time with them. Sunday that weekend, one of the guys from my NCF home group had our home group and I over to his home for a wonderful braai. It was a great weekend but I was tired by Sunday afternoon I and finally crashed for awhile before 6pm church. Monday the following day, which is my MCC day, where I am always busy writing up journal entries, reconciling bank statements against receipts and trying to get their MCC books into a working library. Andrew and Felicia reappeared back from the Kombi rank, a little bit later after I arrived to James & Joan’s for work. I soon learned that the Durban taxi’s and public transport were on strike and they couldn’t return back to their city! What else is new! Strikes seem to be a norm here with the municipalities’, if it’s not a garbage worker strike it’s something else!

My MCC library work consists of inputting the ISBN number off books into a computer program and if the computer program doesn’t know the dewy decimal number, then researching and deciding the book’s dewy decimal classification numbers myself. Next it’s inputting the dewy data into a computer program, printing off labels and labelling the books; this has taken me forever!! I am still not quite done, but slowly getting there. I have discovered some interesting books that maybe in the next short while before leaving I’ll get better chance of flipping through them.

Over the last long while at school, I’ve been helping Kerry in the Library with covering new books with plastic covering to protect and help to keep them nicer longer. When I’m not covering books, I’m going around with the attendance clip board, printing off soccer pictures for teachers, and typing up worship songs. But for the last little while for about an hour on Thursdays, I have been spending time in one of the grade R classes, reading to the children, singing songs, teaching them a game or just wandering around the classroom helping them with their work activities. I find the grade R learners really sweet, but sometimes find it challenging since their English isn’t very good yet and it’s sometimes challenging to communicate with them.

The following weekend (April 22-24) was also quite busy, but fun. I spent three nights in a row watching three different movies in three different theatres (Thursday – Skin, Friday –Date Night, and Saturday –Kick Ass). Friday I tagged along to uShaka Marine Water Park in Durban with the school (tones of fun sliding down the slides with the kids), stayed the night in Durban and so I ended up spending two fun half days with Felicia and Andrew, and then finally home again Saturday night after catching the movie Kiss Ass, with some friends from England & Belgium. Saturday after returning home I finally learned about my Grandma’s failing health, but I didn’t realize she was going that quickly until the Monday.

The last week of April while my family was planning and attending the funeral arrangements for my uGogo was very hard. I so wanted to be there, even though I told my family before I left home I would not be coming back if she passes. But you never realize how hard it is to be away when someone passes and you can’t be there. Your mind and spirit are home, but your body isn’t. I had wonderful support from my friends at work that I know it will be hard saying goodbye in a couple months since they have been here for me during the hard difficult times! I officially have eight more weeks of work left and eleven more weeks left here in South Africa, and twelve more weeks until I see my family!!

Signing off and Mach Gut….