A car at last!

For 1 year, 6 months, 2 weeks and several days...I lived in South Africa without a car. Now, in Chicago that would have been no big deal. I lived on the north side, walking distance away from the EL and just a hop, skip and a jump away from the Metra. But South Africa...well that's a different story altogether. You see, we (the other missionaries and myself) live 2 kilometers outside of a tiny town on a mango farm. Our school and homes are set on a sloping property, densely forested with monkeys running around. We have 18 children on the property and sometimes more on weekends. For all that time we lasted with only one vehicle. For nearly two years, we crammed into one vehicle to go places, had to borrow other cars and generally didn't go many places. I never was able to leave the premise over night and if Sarah was gone with her car, I would be stuck on the farm for days.

Then I got kids. That made needing a car even MORE necessary. Grocery shopping, church, doctors visits...NOT possible with only one car. Unfortunately, taking n the kids stretched my very meager budget to the limit, leaving me with nothing extra to save for our future car. Oftentimes I wasn't sure where are food money would come from. Want to face anxiety? Try grocery shopping for 3 ravenous boys when you have no money! Anywho...after months and months of praying, a very, very generous man gave us the money to buy our car. I went immediately to every dealership I could find and we found the perfect little economical vehicle. Our car is a Honda Jazz (not found in America) and the kids name it Jazmin...hilarious!

Nowadays we're rolling around town doing all the errands we need! Our extra car has helped not just myself, but also the other missionaries who need to use the car for day to day errands as it's much better on gas. Hooray for our donor and Hooray for God answering our prayers!

Passing the grade

Did you know that in South Africa, a passing grade is a 40%? I was shocked to hear this. According to the people I've spoken to, the government has lowered the school standards in order to have more students graduating from high school. Even with these standards, there are still schools that have a 0% pass rate in the province of Limpopo. As in many things, the education system in South Africa seems to suffer from huge disparities. Some schools, especially in the highly populated areas of Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban have the best education you could ask for. Others, specifically the public schools in rural areas, have 80 students to a classroom and very poor education.

At Pfunanane Academy, we often get children from these rural schools. We have children entering grade 5 or 6, unable to read or count. The majority of these students are very eager to learn, but have not had the instruction needed to grow. At Pfunanane, we try to keep the teacher/student ratio under 25 students to a teacher. Many classes are much less than that. This helps us to really work with our kids, especially those who transferred in and are struggling to keep up. We've raised our expectations and our students have showed us that they can not just pass school, but excel in it.

My grade 6 students are eager to learn and really fun to have in class. They never want to miss school and even come when they're sick. One day this term, I was sick and stayed home. I sent down homework for them to do, but even so my entire class came up to visit me at break time. They asked me to please come down and teach them. Precious!

This term we've focused on gaining more of a passion for learning and striving for excellence. This class studied so hard, with the brightest students tutoring the slower learners. They set a goal of a 70% class average, and in many subjects, they did better than that. This term coming up, they've set goals to tutor younger grades and to raise the class average. I'm so proud of their accomplishments!

Growing into his name...

At 7 years old, Happy is the youngest child in the children's home. When he first came to the home, Happy suffered from depression and cried daily to go home. He was scared to be away from the home he always knew and struggled to interact with others, especially adults. As we don't know exactly who Happy's mother is, we're not sure if he's an orphan or not. We do know, however, that his family does not want the burden of taking care of a child living with HIV.

Most children, when hurt or sad, run instinctively to an adult for hugs and comfort. Happy, however, will sit alone and cry silently, not wanting to draw attention to himself. This weekend, Happy fell into one of his sad spells. I found him by the fountain outside, with tears silently streaming down his face. It's so hard to see this little boy (who is the size of a 4 or 5 year old) sitting all by himself looking so hopeless. All the children in the home crave hugs and affection. When I give Happy a hug, he doesn't react. As the children were going to bed the other night, Happy mentioned to the other kids that I hugged him and he didn't know why. I asked the kids if he didn't like hugs and they said, "Oh no. He likes hugs, he just doesn't understand them."

My first 7 weeks here, Happy didn't talk to me at all. After a month, he began to smile at me, but if he caught my eye, he would quickly look away. Now, he's beginning to read with me and even said a few words to me. Although he still suffers from bouts of depression, Happy is interacting more every day. The latest group that came has a hilarious video of him dancing to Michael Jackson...I wish I had this video to post on here!

I'm a strong believer that God has a purpose for our names. Although my name means peace, I often struggled with peace, especially as a child. I now feel that God has given me the gift of peace in many very difficult situations. I hope that Happy too, would be given the grace of happiness in hard circumstances and that his life would be a testimony to what God can accomplish when we give our lives to him!

On my way...

So, I went to Walgreens today to get my Visa pictures. The first one turned out perfectly nice, but the lady just remembered that you cannot wear glasses in some Visa photos. The second picture wasn't a taker because I smiled. Apparently that's not allowed either...I mean who wants a happy traveler? The next picture my bangs were hanging just over my eyebrows. Well, those consulate people need to see both eyebrows...they may reject it if you have only one! Finally, I took a squinty, unsmiling picture with my hair shoved to the side...success! "Please come back in 45 minutes to pick up your photos". Sheesh. I left.

This is a little taste of what's I'm going to experience in South Africa. Seemingly simple endeavors will take ages and what seems like straightforward procedures will be fraught with rules that leave you scratching your head!

It's only 7 weeks left until I head to Modjadjiskloof, South Africa and I have so much to get done before then. Finish my Visa application, continue to raise support, start planning for the school year...not to mention prepare for Christmas, say goodbye to friends and family and finish work.

For those of you who aren't familiar with why or how I'm heading across the world, let me give you a little recap. (I hope to make this interesting so please, if you were thinking of navigating to Facebook, Etsy, CNN...give me a shot!)


Sometime in late 2007 I got a call from my dad saying "I have a bunch of frequent flyer miles that are about to expire. Pick anywhere in the world you want to go and I'll send you." Hoorah!!!

I'd always wanted to go to South Africa and decided to contact some acquaintances there to see if I could visit them! In early 2008 I flew into the Cape Town airport. It really was a lesson in everything you shouldn't do when traveling. So, for those of you thinking of traveling to Africa, here's a few tips.

1. Check the weather. Sweaters in 90 degree weather are brutal.


2. Have someone explain the rental car before driving off. And the rules of the rode. And get a trusty map. Smoke pouring out of your engine may seem like a funny story now...not so much at the time.


3. When people don't understand your American accent, don't try to imitate a South African accent. It only makes things worse.


4. Don't trust a hotel just because the pictures on the website look nice. You may (hypothetically of course) find yourself hiding in the bathroom because an all out brawl started in the front office. In that case, don't run outside when they start shooting. Your frugal ways have you staying in a hotel surrounded by a squatter camp and a lion park. Again, hypothetical story...

All joking aside, my trip was a great one. I loved Cape Town and it's wild beauty. The people in the country were so friendly and warm. I went up north to Limpopo Province to visit my friend Sarah Haver and the school she worked at called Pfunanane. This, school, which teaches children grades R (kindergarten to me) through 7th grade is a wonderful Christian school that reaches out to the poor and orphaned children of the community with quality education. I spent a few days at the school and admired the unity of the teachers and the energy of the kids. The problems that these kids had to face were dire: hunger, AIDS, violence. Yet, they seemed so happy to be in school and with teachers who loved them!

I left the country not thinking that I would go back again. I was wrong.

Earlier this year I sensed a restlessness inside me. I kept thinking and thinking of Africa. The funny thing was, I really didn't consider going to live there. I mean, leave my friends, church, family, job, security, Chicago weather (wait...I could leave that) and home? No thank you. But...I really couldn't shake this feeling that I may go there someday.

I began to pray that if God really wanted me to go to South Africa, that he be very, very clear. Everywhere, I went I ran into South Africans. When I say everywhere here are a few samples: on a plane to Ireland, in a kitchen supply store, at work, in a college ministry event...seriously everywhere! I wrote them off as mere coincidences, I didn't want to be superstitious. But as I met with friends about the subject, talked with mentors and pastors, read scripture and finally ended up talking with Sarah in South Africa, everything pointed to one place...and I couldn't ignore it anymore.

On January 7th I hop on a plane to Johannesburg. I will be working as a teacher at Pfunanane Academy and mentoring children after school. I will, in time, be developing a program to train lay leaders in health education. I will be following God into the unknown!

Honestly, it feels that my life has taken a free fall, with very little certain. I've spend many years carefully planning and creating a comfortable life for myself. Now I'm not sure where I'll live, what my class will be like, if people will receive me in the community nor if I'll be able to build up the wonderful sense of fellowship that I have here in the States. But, holding tightly to the knowledge that my God loves me and has the best in mind, I head out. I'm on my way....