wrapping up and continuations...

By now you should be aware that I am leaving South Africa on 22nd December and am returning to live in the UK. I resigned from my job with Grapevine Foundation thinking that I'd have to leave all my profiling and documents at the school until someone else came along in the future to pick it up again. However God had other plans and within a few days of me resigning, one of the teachers from the school came forward to take over as Project Manager! God is good.

Her name is Fikile Nxumalo and she works in the management at Inchanga Primary School. She's been watching me for a while and wondering whether to get involved but the time is right now. I've already had a meeting with her and I'm confident that she's the absolute perfect person for the job. She speaks Zulu and excellent English, she knows the kids already and can visit them at home without the need for an interpreter!

We are so excited about the way God has moved in this situation, it's yet more confirmation that He is moving me on and moving the next person in. My job has been to introduce Grapevine to the children and then get Fikile interested and excited about it, just by going about my work.

It's nearly the end of term and I'll be saying goodbye to the children next week with a final food parcel for the holidays. Please pray for Fikile as she takes over and for the enthusiasm she has for helping the children to grow and grow as she gets stuck into her new role.

Russell and Precious's Big Day

After many months of planning, Russell and Precious's Wedding weekend extravaganza was finally upon us!

Final frantic preparations were taking place on Thursday, even at our house, the 'church' for the White Wedding part. Some of the young men from Russell's were dispatched to help make the garden lovely and they worked hard alongside Steve and Mike to clear and burn all the garden debris. Friday was just as chaotic with any spare vehicle being sent left right and centre to move marquees, chairs, wedding clothes and the like. In the midst of all of this one of Precious's brothers had his car stolen in central Durban, so that added to the stress!

The fun was officially timetabled to start at 3pm on Friday when the first cow was to be slaughtered. However, the poor thing didn't meet its end until gone 9pm! Even for Zulu timing that is late!! Before that, at Precious's mum's house they had to slaughter a goat and then inform Russell's house that it had been done, this gave the go-ahead for the cow. I missed the goat slaughter but the rondavel in which Precious was hauled up absolutely stank of dead goat by the time I got there! Poor Precious and her ladies had to sit in there all night. I was glad I could travel, as photographer I had to go between the 2 sites. They offered me some freshly boiled goat, but I politely declined!

One of the main events on Friday was the moving of the 'Wedding Chest'. This is a huge polished cabinet with a lovely elephant decoration on the front. It was moved from Precious's house to Russell's on Friday night accompanied by a lot of ululating Gogos. It featured in Sunday's traditional rituals.

Also, at midnight, Precious had to smuggle herself somehow into Russell's house. If she managed to do so then all the men there had to give her money. Sadly for her she was spotted. I missed this as I had to get home for some sleep. Steve and Mike, who stayed in the valley the whole weekend, also appear to have missed it - I think the excitement caught up with them and they were asleep. The rest of the wedding party however stayed up all night.

The problem with staying up all night is that you are quite tired the next day. So when I turned up on Saturday at 7am ready to party, everyone else was already a little worse for wear! Thankfully it was a beautifully sunny day (unlike the forecast - ah the power of prayer!). Once everyone was ready, the main bridal party - couple, 4 bridesmaids, 4 best men (including Steve and Mike), and the flowergirls and pageboys - all set off for Durban for photos on the beach.

We were only running 2 hours late for the service at our house. By the time we got to our house it was quite crowded. Officially only about 20 people had been invited to the White Wedding service in our garden. Unofficially, another 100 Zulus had turned up. They were hot, hungry and desperate for a glimpse of the happy couple. Apart from the rude women who helped themselves to food out of our fridge, everything went smoothly. (thankfully for them, they only stole juice, fruit and bread, if they'd started on my chocolate, it would have been a different story...!!!)

The procession then travelled from here back to Russell's in the valley, with cars beeping their horns and veering all over the road. Everyone they passed waved and cheered. At several points they stopped the vehicles and various people got out for a bit of a dance. None of this dancing compared to the first dance (video on facebook) which far surpassed all other dancing of the day. The entire bridal party danced into the reception tent. I can't really describe it, it has to be seen to be believed...

With the White Wedding over and done with, Sunday morning arrived with cloudy skies and the traditional outfits for Umabo. Having been to several weddings now, I'm noticing a change in atmosphere on the Umabo days, it's much more relaxed than the white wedding. I think the Zulus just do their thing on these days and enjoy it.

I'd hoped to miss the second cow slaughter, scheduled for 6am, but no, it happened at 11.30am, just after I arrived.

Oh joy. Yet more brutality and blood.

It's totally gross and then strangely fascinating. Once the animal is dead it just looks like a huge piece of meat and the butchering is rather interesting.

The photos are still gross though!

Mike and Steve were in traditional Zulu Skins (see above pic) and I wore a Zulu outfit too, slightly warmer than theirs. The Zulus were delighted to see us dressed like this and lots of people wanted photos with us. The traditional cermony comprised a lot of dancing, singing and parading round with sticks and shields for the men. The boys joined in and blended in very well. After all the backward and forwarding, they were officially married the moment Precious did a runner from the field and Russell headed off after her. Then suddenly it was all over.

The heavens opened shortly after this and I decided to make a move, given that all the houses were now full of hungry Zulus awaiting their beef curry. Mike and Steve stayed on and reappeared only yesterday, so their wedding experience lasted a lot longer than mine, although I still reckon I'll remember more than they will ;-)

A great weekend, all in all, crazy, chaotic but full of fun times and good memories.

Now there's just the small matter of about 1000 photos to edit...

My newsletter - December 2010

I've finally worked out a way of getting my newsletter onto the blog!
Below is what I sent out for December 2010 - lots of changes as you'll see.

END OF AN ERA AND FRESH CHALLENGES
After much deliberation and prayer, I’ve made the decision to move back to the UK in December, just in time for Christmas. Read on for more information…

SCHOOL UNIFORMS
Maureen Ahern, from the American charitable organisation ‘Our Journey, inc’, contacted me earlier in the year with the offer of school uniforms for 20 of the orphans at Inchanga Primary School. She visited South Africa in October and made this happen. I selected the 20 most needy, most of whom were from my ‘40’ children, and measured them up for new shoes, dresses or trousers and shirts. A local sewing co-operative in Swayimane, run by a lovely Zulu lady called Victoria, were given the task of making school dresses, grey trousers and white shirts for the children. They are finishing them off as I write.
A few weeks’ ago, Maureen and I went into Pietermaritzburg where she purchased shoes, socks and school jumpers for the children. Unfortunately, Maureen couldn’t come into school with me to give these out to the pupils but they were overjoyed to receive the new items and eagerly put them on. Thank you so much for this donation that takes the worry away from 20 carers for new uniforms for the new school year!
A couple of shoes were the wrong size and needed to be swapped. On the way to the car, I noticed another one of my ‘40’ who was wandering with no shoes on at all. I asked her what size she was and she said ‘2’. Amazingly, that was the very size I was about to swap so I gave her a new pair and went off to buy another pair in the shop instead. She was very happy but didn’t put the shoes on immediately because she was too busy showing them off to her friends!

SIYATHEMBA – WHERE HOPE BEGINS
My sister, Liz, and our friend Anita spent 2 weeks here in September. They were here to spend time with some of the young people from God’s Golden Acre as Anita’s family sponsors several of them. During this time it became apparent that some of the older young people needed encouragement and assistance with the next step as they looked to finishing school and making the transition from care to independent living.
We’ve been looking into ways of facilitating this and founded ‘Siyathemba’ to make this happen. For the past 2 months I’ve taken food regularly to 2 of the older boys – Mlu and Goodman – who have been moved to live in a township but have hardly any food and nothing to do all day. It’s not an ideal situation. Pray for the right direction for these 2 boys as they consider their options. Pray for protection as township life is much different from residential care, especially that they wouldn’t be tempted into alcoholism or drug abuse (cannabis use is rife in all townships).
We are seeking ways to help these young people to make the most of their education and complete any training they can do for a better future. Please pray for the future of Siyathemba, in its initial stages now, that the right people would come onboard and it would benefit the young people over here and be a source of hope and encouragement to them.For more info please email me at siyathembadirector@gmail.com

‘Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come.’

Jeremiah 33v3

‘For I know the plans I have for you, (..) plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’

Jeremiah 29v11

Church@GGA – YOUTH ALPHA

This term we’ve been doing Youth Alpha with the children at GGA. This has been amazing so far and we still have a few weeks and the Holy Spirit Day left to go. When I returned from the UK we had initial troubles from a group from a local Zion Church who had moved in to take over the Sunday services. Google them to find out more, but basically they believe in a mixture of Christianity and Zulu tradition, which is not Biblical. It took a lot of prayer and discussion to get them to leave the children alone. Praise God that the children recognised immediately that what they preached was false. Pray for the management at GGA, that they would stand firm in their decision that the church@GGA is Anglican and Bible-based. Pray against these people returning when I leave in December. They are still loitering now and the children need good solid Bible teaching and not to be confused. Alpha, in the meantime, has been well-received and in the first week all of my group of 11-14 year olds prayed to become Christians. The Holy Spirit Day is set for Saturday 27th November. Pray that nothing prevents that from happening and for an awesome time together. In total over 30 young people are doing Alpha in 2 groups.

CHRISTMAS FEEDING PROGRAMME 2010

I will be co-ordinating a food parcel for the ‘40’ for the end of term in December but as I am returning to the UK there will be no feeding programme as such during the holidays. However, there is the 1000 Hills Community Helpers project next door to the school where the children can get food every weekday so this will help them.

RUSSELL AND PRECIOUS – SITHEMBAKUYE

The wedding of Russell and Precious is fast approaching – Friday 12th-Sun 14th November. Look out for pictures on Facebook, my blog and in my next newsletter! Everyone is working hard to get things ready and Steve and Mike have spent many hours practising their dance moves for their roles as groomsmen. I’ve decided to bless this family with the Hilux (or money from the Hilux sale) and we are in the process of arranging that. If they can raise the funding to cover the extra costs on the vehicle they can have it or I will sell it and donate a major proportion of the money to them to buy a different car. Russell passed his driving test recently and a vehicle would benefit their organisation and family greatly. Pray for the right way forward in this and that the Hilux would continue to be a blessing.

FUTURE PLANS

As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I made the decision on Oct 31st in light of my support and funding that it would be financially unsustainable for me to continue here. Therefore I shall be returning to the UK on December 23rd in time for a family Christmas. I have started my search for jobs in the UK, mostly in teaching again but I will consider anything. Whilst I am sad about leaving the many children here and having to return to the middle of Winter in the UK, I know that this is the right decision to make. I have had an amazing time here and met so many brilliant people who will remain forever in my heart. I intend to continue supporting people in whatever way I can from the UK and shall return here to visit at some point in the future. Pray for Micky and the future of Grapevine Foundation.

However, new challenges await me in the UK as well. I shall not be returning to the UK alone but with my new partner, Bob Okafor. I met him in October and it would appear that our meeting was no accident but a God-incident. He is currently living in Johannesburg but will visit the UK with me for Christmas and then look to relocate to the UK once I have a job and am settled somewhere. Pray for us as we embark on this new and exciting relationship and for God’s guidance in where to live, work and for visas for him. He is a Nigerian businessman, a strong Christian and we get on very very well!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR INVESTING IN GOD’S KINGDOM WORK HERE IN KWAZULU NATAL.

MAY GOD BLESS YOU MIGHTILY AS YOU SUPPORT ME AND THE CHILDREN OF SOUTH AFRICA.

Keep in touch!

Much love from Caroline xxx