Homestays in Mbonisweni and Dangers along the Way

For four days, our team was able to live with families within the community of Mbonisweni, one of the communities where we were helping out with the orphan feedings. Our team split up in groups of two and really became part of the African lifestyle. Evelyne and I were placed in the household of Gratitude, a 19-year old girl who had lost her parents and is now running the family of 7 together with her grandma. Our time with them was wonderful and even though communication was not always easy (since the family only spoke broken English), we learned how to communicate non-verbally and how to fit in to the family's everyday life.

We got up in the mornings to take a bucket-shower (people are considered dirty if they don't), helped out with the housework throughout the day, learned how to make pap (African maize meal that is frequently used instead of rice) and participated in the community life. The grandfather, who was only at the house for half of the time because he has two wives and two households, and Evelyne and I had long conversations about God, life in Europe vs. Africa and politics. We realized that our short stay with the family actually made a great impact on the family: by choosing to stay at their house, we, as white people coming from a different part of the world, brought public honor to the family.

After the home stays, our time in White River had come to an end. Before we left the Ten Thousand Homes ministry, we decided to leave the families we stayed with and also the children at the orphan feedings with pictures that we took of them during our time here. How wonderful to see their eyes light up by finding their picture on the wall! The importance of a picture within these communities is amazing because to them a portrait of themselves means "I am somebody. I am seen and not overlooked." However, once again, our team realized that we did not only bring something to the community but most of all, we learned from them. Our motto has become "seek to understand before you seek to be understood."


Even though we all have been so blessed by our time here in White River, there have also been downsides and dangers. One day at the base, we found a snake in the girls' room - a Green Mamba! The locals told us that, if it had bitten us, we would have probably had time to scream before we had died...
Another time, robbers came to the base at night and stole all of our toiletries out of the bathroom building - including jewelry and medications. However, up to that point Kristina and I had needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of every single night... just this particular night, we did not wake up and thus did not end up accidentally running into the robbers!
Once again, we are aware that God is with us and has kept us protected all this time. This realization is not for us to start feeling invincible and make naive decisions - but only to realize how much we depend on God and how much we are to worship and praise him.

Please keep us in our prayers as we leave Ten Thousand Homes now and are about to start our ministry in Capetown with Community Transformations (http://www.followthereids.com/about/community-transformations/).