it's been a while since i posted on e-holiness, of which i am truely sorry, however we are trying to seatle into our new life in south africa, the post i have written captures a day in our life and i hope that this will challenge you.
whilst much of our time has been taken up by the need to get the children and volunteer accommodation sorted for our first visitors and patients, we have spent time out in the community, below we have tried to put together some of our thoughts and feelings about a day that we spent working at the thembacare facility in Grabouw, and the needs and issues that raised, this will basically make up our prayer request and as you read through it please could you pray for each of the situations we raise.
The day starts at the thembacare facility in grabouw, this centre is run by thembalitsha and provides in-patient care for those infected with either HIV, AIDS or TB, we have seven beds to care for these desperately ill people, along with TB and HIV counselling rooms, where people can come to be tested for their HIV status, as well as an open plan room for our community caregivers to work out of, these ladies visit and follow up the patients who have been through the centre, where they ensure that the person is taking their ARV(anitrectovirals drugs which boost the immune system) and are able to cope at home with their disease, and it’s with those caregivers we will spend most of today.
we start with prayer at 8am, by this time the Caregivers (CG) have sent their families off for the day and walked from their home, some from good distances, before going back out to work with those less fortunate than themselves. as a background some of the CG are HIV+ themselves and have been through thembacare before getting back on the road to recovery and being offered a job with us. the patients they visit live in the same communities as these workers, we feel this the best way for thembacare to offer support to those they are helping as the CG already have relationship with those they are serving.
the CG’s then take the patient files and work out their ‘beat’ for the morning before coming back in the afternoon to write up their notes, today my wife maz is the driver for two of the CG’s and starts off collecting a man suffering from TB from a local farm to take down to the local Town Hall, where it’s ‘disability signing on day’, the guy, who used to live under one of the bridges in town before committing a crime which meant that he would be arrested and given a roof over his head and food in his belly, has spent the last three months trying to get some disability allowance, but even with the help given by thembacare this has still not come through, he can’t work and lives a life of poverty. ‘disability day’ only happens once a month, a couple of guys from the local government, which is located in caledon, situated about 25 miles east of Grabouw, have arrived to receive the applications and once we arrive to drop this man off there are hundreds of people ahead of him in the queue.
we left the man, who will spend the next 8 hours in the queue and head back to thembacare to pick up a patient who needs to visit the doctor to have further drugs prescribed, by this time the sun is full in the sky and the temperature is rising, the day hospital also has a mass of people, none are given set times for a visit, they just seen the next available doctor and wait in lines which extend out of the building into the blistering sun, remember these people are sick with AIDS, the system seems crass and crude and to be told that ‘this is africa’ is just a lame excuse as so many of it's citizens live life as we do in the first world!.
next we are off to complete our first visit and to our surprise it’s to a little girls home who we came to know in 2006, on entering her home, a 6ft square tin shack built on top of a craggy outcrop with no electric or running water, we have had to stop the car some way away from the home as the rabbit warren of other dwellings sitting one on top of another make it impossible to drive anywhere near and the amount of rubbish and other such stuffs (let your imagination flow and you still won’t even come to a thought or scene as bad) overwhelm and appals you. Our senses are then hit not by the bareness of the home but of the complete darkness in which these people, and thousands like them who make up this little community, live, once our eyes become accustomed to the lack of light we are greeted with smiles and a sense of hope that we can’t describe, these people live with so little but are so happy and pleased to welcome us into their home. a simple timber structure makes up a bed which the mother and child sleep, there are no pictures on the cardboard walls only scraps of newspaper which insulate against the harsh winds and cold in the winter and the scorching sun in the summer, the smell that hits you is one of decay and a strong sense of paraffin, which provides fuel for the cooker, a two ring burner, which this family are fortunate to have, others around cook over an open fire, in shacks with no ventilation, other than the holes in the walls where the tin and cardboard fail to meet.
the little girl, who was admitted to thembacare with TB of the pancreas, has now run outside and is happily playing with a couple of stones in the sand which surrounds her home, she has nothing to play with and little hope of attending a pre-school life is hard but she seems oblivious to her poverty, however our minds are full of thoughts about the wine we had with our amazing 4 course meal which we ate last night at the restaurant which sits just, literally ‘just’ over the back side of the hill on which this community is built, it can’t be more than 300 yards away but the distance could be hundreds of years or thousands of miles in our mind and for these people!
as the day progressed i went to work with his football project, which has around 60 children on the books, these children come from homes as poor as the ones we have just described, however he was disappointed that only around 30 children turned up for the session, which not only delivers football skills but also life skills linked to the session along with a biblical application, we later found out that many of the children were missing due to the fact that it was the day that they needed to be tested for and treated for TB, it’s very hard to come to terms with the fact that many of the children we are working with, even if they look health, running around and even attending soccer schools, are living with TB.
towards to end of the day it was time to pick up the man waiting for his disability allowance and to our dismay we found out that not only had he not managed to see one of the two local government guys to chat through and put in his application, but when he asked when they were likely to be back for him to join another queue he was told that they weren’t sure but knew that it would be a friday!, for a guy who doesn’t have any transport or any means of communication it somewhat blows our minds to think that he was left with that answer.
as we leave this man we have a phone call to tell us that one of our friends brother has died from AIDS this afternoon, the sister will now need to sort out the funeral arrangements and pay for everything to ensure that his life is remembered in a way that we would expect, this expense has come out of the blue and will mean that this family will now have to wait till the next month’s payday to afford the basic food stuff which we all take for granted, what are we to do, put our hands in our pockets to help, and if for them then why not everyone we have seen today?
4pm and we are back at Thembacare Grabouw, the day has been long, hot and very frustrating, however the CG all meet up to pray at the end of their shift, thanking God for His provision for them and His strength and safe keeping as they served in their community, their day wasn’t over then, they would have to walk back home, perhaps prepare dinner, little more than maize meal and maybe some sausage or worse still other offal, which they will be cooking over a paraffin stove or open fire. It is amazing how these wonderful women whom Thembalitsha employ manage to present themselves so immaculately each morning as they prepare for another day. As we set off to leave for home we hear that one of the patients at thembacare passed away that evening, things seem so cruel.
as we drive home through the squatter camp at the bottom of our road we are greeted by hoops of joy and shouting as the children recognise our car, shall we give them a lift, just a joyride up and down the road, or are there more pressing things to do, like watching that TV, which thankfully we don’t have at the moment or catch the last rays of a wonderfully sunny day?....you guessed it the children win.............only wish i could take them to the beach and let them experience the feel of water lapping over their feet, oh well maybe tomorrow!
i think that sums up a day and as we come home to our warm home, with a nice tiled roof over our heads, a fridge, washing machine and cooker which is connected to the mains power we just want to share with you some of the some words and thoughts which we feel as we serve those with little hope in our new town:-
shock, rabbit warren, size of the homes, some less then 6ft x 6ft, poverty, AIDS, hopeless, third world, first world, health care, playing with a stone outside of her shack, caregivers, walking through swaves of rubbish, smell of paraffin, sick people live in these dire conditions when they are so ill, disability allowance, no appointment system, shoplifted to get arrested to have food and shelter, burst appendix, medical care, lives on a farm, has to be picked up. no other means of communication, day hospital full of people, doctors can only see so many each day, everybody is doing the best they can but just seems like treading water, football boys not turning up on Monday because of TB, funeral..
......however in it all we are seeing God in action, these amazing women and the work of thembalitsha in the community is making a difference, maybe not to all but certainly to some and that is all God asks us to do... the book of james tells us that true religion is to look after the widows and the orphans, this is what me, maz and arron are seeking to do as we serve those in Grabouw, please join us in our prayers for these people, the system they live under and the day to day fight for life that so many face each day.
just thought that i would bring you all up to date with the various sites which are now on the net with a link into thembalitsha and thembalitsha uk, if you would like to find out more about this amazing charity who work with people (including a great work with babies and young children) infected with HIV AIDS then please visit their web site here, which should be updated with info about thembalithsa uk, here, as usual the winslow christian fellowship keep their site up to date so please see their page here.