Ho Haha - Reprise

Here is a further update on Ausi Moselentja's house and family.

I was out to the home on Friday to pick up the last of the tools the Machabeng volunteers had used when they created the garden plots. I picked up a few packets of garden seeds to take along.

When I arrived at the house, Ausi Moselentja's younger brother, Lehlohonolo, was forlornly wandering about the yard with a hoe hacking at weeds and grass here and there. The garden plots were ready, we had had a nice rain, and he was ready and wanting to get to planting their garden. But there were no seeds. Moselentja related how he had been asking when they might get some seeds. I spent M70, (about $11 Cdn) on the seeds. A paltry sum by Canadian standards, but an amount which would have been out of the reach of Ausi Moselentja. Anyways, when I arrived with the seeds it was almost like Christmas.

As he brought each seed packet from the shopping bag, Lehlohonolo would whoop with delight and show it to Moselentja, just like a child at Christmas might show another the gift he had just unwrapped. Then he was off and back in a few moments with a knotted piece of string and a couple of sticks with which he staked out a straight line and he was planting his seeds. I got to enjoy seeing his broad smile as I helped him with planting the corn/maize, then he was onto the pumpkin and beet-root while I was loading the vehicle.

Meanwhile Moselentja was busy waxing the floor and the steps to her house. She has also been busy adding some other touches, making her tiny house a home. What a pleasure it has been for me to be part of this project and witness the delighted smiles on the faces of Ausi Moselentja and her siblings. So little, really, has brought so much hope and delight to this little family.

~ Benno ~