Sometimes it feels that the only thing different is the colour of our skin….

It amazes me time after time how open and friendly the South African people (and especially the Zulu people) are. Comparing my place in the group now and 1,5 months ago, makes me realize that I really am part of the Mother of Peace community. They have taken me in and accepted me without any judgement or conditions. ‘Come as you are’ seems to be the motto and it doesn’t matter if you are white, black, Asian or purple. I can already see that the other volunteers are welcomed as open as I was and can only wish for them the same great experience. I sometimes look at my skin and am surprised that is hasn’t turned black yet, as I feel such a good connection with Zulus
I also realized how much I learned in the last 8 weeks. I know almost everybody’s name (a big task here ), can explain about the Zulu culture and the part HIV/AIDS plays here, I can differ between the cries of the children and know which ones are fake or real and I learned that people in SA or Norway or Holland or wherever don’t differ that much from each other. Besides some cultural differences we all have the same needs and values. We all need food and love to survive, sleep and health to stay fit, play and fun to develop and education to get a step further in life.

Saturday the 9th was such a good example of how nice the volunteers, the kids, the house moms and the other locals are working and partying together. We organised a party night for the whole of MOP, to celebrate birthdays, play games and dance! It was unbelievable to see how excited everybody was! We even danced on the table…(without consuming a drop of alcohol). Last week we also took the house moms out to go bowling. None of them had ever done that before and you should just see them throwing the balls on the lane… After bowling we went in the bumper cars (bots auto’s) and called it a night.

I am not sure if you heard about it, but there is a mayor strike going on in SA at the moment. All the people working for the government want a 12% increase in salary and only getting 6,5%. So they decide to strike, including the doctors at public hospitals, the teachers, the public transport, everything that has a slight link to government. That means that our kids have not gone to school for the last 2 weeks. Going to a public hospital is not an option, people are blocked at the entrance and some even die on the doorsteps. Private hospitals still operate but are only affordable for white people. The same counts for private schools, although also they have to shut down because they receive threats from the strikers. Doctors that do want to work have to go to their job in normal clothes, otherwise risking the fact of being murdered on their way to work… Lets just hope coming Thursdays negotiations will end it.

Besides all this us volunteers still enjoy our weekends! We went one weekend to a Zulu village, where we learned more about how Zulus lived before. We also danced with them and got some marriage proposals on the go! Normally a Zulu man pays 11 cows to his future-wife’s-dad, but the salesperson in me made sure my father will at least receive 14 cows !

Last weekend we went on a Safari to Hluhluwe (pronounce SloeSloeie). It was really nice to see the rhinos, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, buffalos, zebras, worthags (kind of pigs) and elephants in real life! It was less nice to stand up at 5.00 o’clock in the morning and seeing Impalas (antelopes) in every bush we passed Most animals were close to the car and sometimes we saw a mom dad and little baby giraffe, zebra or rhino passing by. So cute!

We rented our own car and it was an interesting experience to drive on the left side of the road… It all went well, but some hilarious situation did occur: entering the parking lot on the wrong side, doubting were to enter the highway and trying to find the gearshift on your right hand site. Besides these difficulties our car had an anti-hijack button, which means it stops driving within 3 minutes after starting the car if you don’t turn off the button. This button is hided away somewhere in the car and hence really easy to forget… A lot of times we were almost about to push the car (thinking the battery went dead) but then realizing it must have been this hijack button that made the car suddenly stop. Eventually we got home save and sound.

The coming week my major focus will be to get everything organised for the Open Day at MOP the 26th of June. Companies from the community will come and see what we do. The aim is to create awareness about MOP and to evaluate funding possibilities. Besides that we will start teaching the children ourselves, to compensate for the education they are missing due to the strike. There is an outing to the circus and the beach and there are new challenges literally arriving every week. Last week a 9 months old baby was brought in and taken care of by us volunteers for 2 days, before going to a house mom. We were all mothers for a day and this child has probably been hugged 24 hours a day! But he needed it, he was all weak and sick and tired and was in so much pain he couldn’t sleep. He was very tiny for his age and had no strength to cry. Luckily he got a bit stronger the last days when he lived with a house mom and other children, but eventually we had to bring him to hospital. He wasn't able to keep food in and got to week to stay at MOP. According to the doctors his condition is improving, but it is a difficult situation. Let’s just hope he recovers and will be with MOP again soon!

Last but not least I would like to give you an overview of what I have spend and what I will spend the sponsored money on:
Books for the homework room: the kids are reading much more now and are improving their English
Outing with the house mom: this really reloaded their battery and gave them energy to take care of the kids. Besides that it was good for group building
School sports uniforms for the kids: keeps them warm in the cold mornings and makes sure they have some decent clothing for school
A computer for the volunteers and the kids: the volunteers can use the computer for fundraising activities, making flyers and personal use. We can start teaching the children to work on a computer, so they have an advantage when they go to high school and can use the Internet as an information source

Thanks to your generous donations there is even money left to be used on other important things.

Pictures:Partynight
Bowlingtechnique 1&2,
Bowling succes&failure,
the bumper cars and a group picture
Zuluvillage
Safari: Sunrise, the volunteers and the animals (sometimes hard to seperate)
Beach
Me and our 9 months old baby before hospital
Random jump picture that I like
Quote of wisdom

Take care,
MJ

Add reaction

Name *:
E-mail *:	(will not be visible)
Content *:
Anti spam *:	Type the code on the left in the box below