The last day of school and I am swept into an emotional storm of goodbyes to colleagues who are moving on and those who have just gone for the summer, hugs from my S1’s, goodbyes to others…and amidst all this, feeling huge sadness since I’d hoped to have some of my IB students stay over for the next couple of weeks so that they can attend a Rice University workshop…but that is not working out.
Sometimes things are so frustrating. An institution from the USA offers to come and provide a FREE three-week Biomedical Technology Session for our students. Almost thirty sign up because it’s a great opportunity to liaise with a North American Institution. The catch is that they have no place to stay AND the taxis here are threatening a ‘stay-away’. These students live a long way from campus and have been boarding at the school, but they can’t board for these three weeks. Now those ones who cannot get transport will have to give up this great opportunity. They are very disappointed, but stoic, as ever.
That stoicism is something that awes me. I call them ‘rubber balls’; they are so used to bouncing back. My IB’s work so hard for their future; and they work against so many odds—all the time! I just wish that we could make the path smoother at times instead of adding more bumps. Life is bumpy—very bumpy here (or as one of my Poetry Club students writes, "...Life is a crooked path...".
Here are a couple of stories among many, many that represent my students…
One student writes…
I have been working very hard since my primary level so that I can succeed in the future. My parents abandoned me when I was still a child and I was brought up by my late grandmother who passed away when I was doing Form 4. I worked very hard to pass C.O.S.C and I was living with my younger brother and he was expelled for school fees, so he is not attending school due to financial problems. Right now I am living with my brother and two of my uncle's orphaned kids. [Here, if students can’t pay fees they are expelled, so lots of promising students lose huge opportunities due to lack of finances.]
Another one writes…
First of all, I am from a local disadvantaged school and the student motivation there is very low, so I have been looking for a way of motivating them and the only thing that I think will motivate them is when they see me as a former student of their school gain grounds in my career. In this way they will see that even though their school is low-rated, there are still some people from their school who succeed due to
determination and dedication, having been given an opportunity to further their studies. So, Mrs. Fath, getting a scholarship maybe, to study abroad, will serve as the best tool for me to go back and update them about my career in that moment. This is because I have always believed that what keeps people going is when they see the people ahead of them prospering in terms of their careers.
So the storm is raging, and I’m trying to build lifeboats. I’m researching more scholarship ideas for students here. This year I was able to find and get one excellent scholarship for a student. She will be heading to UBC in Vancouver this August with full scholarship, including accommodation and air fare. There’s NO POSSIBLE WAY she’d ever be able to go overseas to school without this opportunity. How grateful I am to institutions like UBC who have a strong global perspective. Perhaps they have a sense for the overwhelming poverty and lack of resources for most people in countries like Lesotho. I’ve found a few more good scholarships so hopefully the number of students who receive them can be at least doubled next year.
Another lifeboat would be finding laptop computers with wireless that could be donated for student use here. I’m stymied: my students will spend a good amount of their winter vacation working on some major research papers that they must complete to graduate. The catch is that they need Internet to research. If they were to rely only on the State Library here—HA! What a joke! The books are all woefully old, limited, AND they cannot even be signed out. Using Internet Cafes? Cost prohibitive. Lack of technology and lack of resources here just make the challenges huge, and the college is not doing too much to help them in terms of making research facilities available during this time. I'm stymied, but I'm sure THEY'LL figure out a way to deal with it.
So, as you can tell, I’m in an emotional storm at the end of this school year, but I would not trade it. It’s been a very rewarding year!
Saturday, 28 June 2008
Saturday, 14 June 2008
My Heroes
Five o'clock in the morning
she's up--
Darn early for a girl
who likes to sleep late
She's off to Baylor
with two of the babes from MIS
to wait in line
Lines begin early
5:00 a.m. is not too early
to wait
That was an early morning
Usually they leave our house
at about 7:00 a.m.
walking in the frosty morning
to grab the taxi
walking from the taxi to MIS
It's about a 45 minute trip
They're yawning and shivering
before they leave
but the kids at MIS are waiting
The kids
fill albums
Michelle with a photographer's eye
has captured the beauty of these kids
She paints a pristine world around them
They could be from a wealthy family
They look so beautiful...
children of privilege
Then the next photo paints them
in the real scene of MIS
dirty
crowded
too much pap and not enough nutrition
Not enough of anything
Annie tells me that these kids
likely never will be adopted
because they are not registered
with Social Welfare
In this society
where are they?
Who are they?
There are often no records
Records, for kids found
in pit toilets
in ditches
on roadsides
on doorsteps?
The detritus of despair
Perhaps rather than lack of care
Who cares?
Annie is in the baby room
and as I enter
I see her on the floor
surrounded by the children
She loves them
that is clear
She's nursed them
potty-trained them
cuddled their tears away
held them close
so close every day
that she lives with chronic
ring-worm
Just a by-product of
affection here
Strange ring of love
Strange love
these girls have found here
Strange love
they have given
these two--only 18 and 21
They are an anomaly
from their community
where girls their age
get married
have babies
"Of their own"
But here they are
in Lesotho
at MIS
and with us
sharing our home
They have become more than house mates
they inspire me
with their energy
with their passion
with their courage
with their giving hearts
They are the bright future of a global dream
They, and their kind, are the seed of hope for a better world
They have reached past self-serving, self-absorption, self-indulgence
To touch the hand of another
To carry just a bit of compassion
from one side of the world to the other.
Annie and Michelle thank you
~ Wendy ~
she's up--
Darn early for a girl
who likes to sleep late
She's off to Baylor
with two of the babes from MIS
to wait in line
Lines begin early
5:00 a.m. is not too early
to wait
That was an early morning
Usually they leave our house
at about 7:00 a.m.
walking in the frosty morning
to grab the taxi
walking from the taxi to MIS
It's about a 45 minute trip
They're yawning and shivering
before they leave
but the kids at MIS are waiting
The kids
fill albums
Michelle with a photographer's eye
has captured the beauty of these kids
She paints a pristine world around them
They could be from a wealthy family
They look so beautiful...
children of privilege
Then the next photo paints them
in the real scene of MIS
dirty
crowded
too much pap and not enough nutrition
Not enough of anything
Annie tells me that these kids
likely never will be adopted
because they are not registered
with Social Welfare
In this society
where are they?
Who are they?
There are often no records
Records, for kids found
in pit toilets
in ditches
on roadsides
on doorsteps?
The detritus of despair
Perhaps rather than lack of care
Who cares?
Annie is in the baby room
and as I enter
I see her on the floor
surrounded by the children
She loves them
that is clear
She's nursed them
potty-trained them
cuddled their tears away
held them close
so close every day
that she lives with chronic
ring-worm
Just a by-product of
affection here
Strange ring of love
Strange love
these girls have found here
Strange love
they have given
these two--only 18 and 21
They are an anomaly
from their community
where girls their age
get married
have babies
"Of their own"
But here they are
in Lesotho
at MIS
and with us
sharing our home
They have become more than house mates
they inspire me
with their energy
with their passion
with their courage
with their giving hearts
They are the bright future of a global dream
They, and their kind, are the seed of hope for a better world
They have reached past self-serving, self-absorption, self-indulgence
To touch the hand of another
To carry just a bit of compassion
from one side of the world to the other.
Annie and Michelle thank you
~ Wendy ~
Sunday, 25 May 2008
IRONIES and Worlds Apart
I'm up in the middle of the night. Can't sleep and perhaps there's a reason. My mind is full, so perhaps it's just that, or perhaps the Spirit is prompting me. Maybe I need to be praying for someone...
Getting up, I reach for the computer and head downstairs to see if anyone the other side of the world is online. Then I think about doing some more research on Scholarship opportunities for students here, but in Bookmarks my finger goes to Dylan's blog http://www.mr-boohiss.blogspot.com/ to check if perchance he has a new entry...
He does. It leaves me stunned and feeling a world apart, especially when after reading it I go to our blog and read Benno's latest entry. Yes, life is SO peaceful here. We are so close, yet worlds apart in current experience, although there are moments where we touch, like in my S1 class on Friday.
Ironically, the current turmoil in RSA, especially Jo'burg, was a topic of conversation in my S1 class on Friday. One student had brought in a political cartoon for our daily "Challenge". It provoked tears from my Zimbabwean student, that I had to deal with. Yes, this is difficult. It brings to the fore the realities of what is going on in her home country. As a class we discuss this issue. I describe what Dylan has experienced. The conversation is abbreviated since we have to do “Revision” (review) for next week’s end of year exams, but we will come back to it. After all, I want my students to be aware of the issues around them; besides, they are a fabulous group for good discussions about all kinds of important issues of life. They are the bright future for Lesotho and I want to foster their interest in the world and help them to be “raised up” as globally aware and socially conscious.
You see, even here in one of the poorest nations of the world, it is possible for people to live in bubbles, isolated from the harsh realities around them. Oh, the disparity in this country is great, and perhaps most poignant because the gap is so wide and so evident to the keen observer—the one who takes the time to explore both sides. That is one definite advantage Benno and I have since he works on one side of the economic chasm and I work on the other.
The chasm? Here is but one example: Just as recently as Friday I was at our school’s graduation ceremonies… (Oh, Cyndy and Sally from H.J. Cody YOU ladies know how to do a grad! I’ll say no more but to pay you that tribute.) While there, I was speaking to the family of one of my students and was introduced to this student’s older brother who is currently living and going to school in Jo’burg. As a black ‘immigrant-type’ person (a Masotho, not Zulu) I wondered how safe it would be for him there. I was surprised when he seemed oblivious to the situation in Jo’burg, but then he attends a private school in a gated compound. He feels no fear. Such a contrast from the experience of those Dylan is working with! Such a contrast seems to be a catch phrase for life in Africa, so full of contrasts that I could struggle with cognitive dissonance ALL the time, but it would drive me to distraction, or depression, and that would be pointless, so I will pray and just keep doing what I CAN do.
DO check out Dylan's blog. It is a pretty poignant account of life in Jo'burg at present.
Wendy
Getting up, I reach for the computer and head downstairs to see if anyone the other side of the world is online. Then I think about doing some more research on Scholarship opportunities for students here, but in Bookmarks my finger goes to Dylan's blog http://www.mr-boohiss.blogspot.com/ to check if perchance he has a new entry...
He does. It leaves me stunned and feeling a world apart, especially when after reading it I go to our blog and read Benno's latest entry. Yes, life is SO peaceful here. We are so close, yet worlds apart in current experience, although there are moments where we touch, like in my S1 class on Friday.
Ironically, the current turmoil in RSA, especially Jo'burg, was a topic of conversation in my S1 class on Friday. One student had brought in a political cartoon for our daily "Challenge". It provoked tears from my Zimbabwean student, that I had to deal with. Yes, this is difficult. It brings to the fore the realities of what is going on in her home country. As a class we discuss this issue. I describe what Dylan has experienced. The conversation is abbreviated since we have to do “Revision” (review) for next week’s end of year exams, but we will come back to it. After all, I want my students to be aware of the issues around them; besides, they are a fabulous group for good discussions about all kinds of important issues of life. They are the bright future for Lesotho and I want to foster their interest in the world and help them to be “raised up” as globally aware and socially conscious.
You see, even here in one of the poorest nations of the world, it is possible for people to live in bubbles, isolated from the harsh realities around them. Oh, the disparity in this country is great, and perhaps most poignant because the gap is so wide and so evident to the keen observer—the one who takes the time to explore both sides. That is one definite advantage Benno and I have since he works on one side of the economic chasm and I work on the other.
The chasm? Here is but one example: Just as recently as Friday I was at our school’s graduation ceremonies… (Oh, Cyndy and Sally from H.J. Cody YOU ladies know how to do a grad! I’ll say no more but to pay you that tribute.) While there, I was speaking to the family of one of my students and was introduced to this student’s older brother who is currently living and going to school in Jo’burg. As a black ‘immigrant-type’ person (a Masotho, not Zulu) I wondered how safe it would be for him there. I was surprised when he seemed oblivious to the situation in Jo’burg, but then he attends a private school in a gated compound. He feels no fear. Such a contrast from the experience of those Dylan is working with! Such a contrast seems to be a catch phrase for life in Africa, so full of contrasts that I could struggle with cognitive dissonance ALL the time, but it would drive me to distraction, or depression, and that would be pointless, so I will pray and just keep doing what I CAN do.
DO check out Dylan's blog. It is a pretty poignant account of life in Jo'burg at present.
Wendy
Thursday, 22 May 2008
Fall
Fall has fully arrived in Lesotho. (Though the locals might correct me and say winter has arrived.)
The grass has ripened, turning the hills and mountains rusty brown. I do miss the golden copses of poplar or birch found in Alberta. The leaves here don’t really turn colour, most of them just wither, turn brown, and fall.
Many months ago I mentioned that “winter” here is like endless Indian summer. It is wonderful. I am enjoying the crisp cool mornings, often with frost on the ground, though the last week has been unseasonably warm. The morning air is clear and the hills and mountains are sharp against the bright blue skies. The days are warm and sunny. I love it. When the wind blows it can bite a bit, but add a jacket and life is good.
Inside, … well that is the other story. Like when we first arrived, I am again carrying extra layers to put on when inside. It seems that the masonry the buildings are made of holds the night time cold. The extra layers are necessary to keep the cold at bay when inside. But at home, our winter coal supply has arrived and we so enjoy the warmth our little heater provides. While putting on an extra layer or wrapping up in a blanket is essential when I am at work, not so sitting in front of the fire at home.
And the cool, crisp, and sunny days are an invitation to get out and explore. Last Sunday it was off to explore a rugged cliff face.
The quest - to reach the tower.
Almost there.
Looking down the other side past the tower.
But the top is so unlike the narrow ridges in my Rocky Mountain experience. Yes, the tower was a narrow outcrop, but up a short climb opposite it was a gently undulating plain dotted with herd boys and their sheep.
A scene up and behind Wendy in the "almost there" picture.
On our way down we came upon a sheepfold and the simple shelter where the herdboys spend their nights.
The herdboys night time home.
Looking back to where we were.
Fall, winter. If it stays like this, l could almost find myself wanting to spend a bit more time in this part of our world.
~ Benno ~
The grass has ripened, turning the hills and mountains rusty brown. I do miss the golden copses of poplar or birch found in Alberta. The leaves here don’t really turn colour, most of them just wither, turn brown, and fall.
Many months ago I mentioned that “winter” here is like endless Indian summer. It is wonderful. I am enjoying the crisp cool mornings, often with frost on the ground, though the last week has been unseasonably warm. The morning air is clear and the hills and mountains are sharp against the bright blue skies. The days are warm and sunny. I love it. When the wind blows it can bite a bit, but add a jacket and life is good.
Inside, … well that is the other story. Like when we first arrived, I am again carrying extra layers to put on when inside. It seems that the masonry the buildings are made of holds the night time cold. The extra layers are necessary to keep the cold at bay when inside. But at home, our winter coal supply has arrived and we so enjoy the warmth our little heater provides. While putting on an extra layer or wrapping up in a blanket is essential when I am at work, not so sitting in front of the fire at home.
And the cool, crisp, and sunny days are an invitation to get out and explore. Last Sunday it was off to explore a rugged cliff face.
The quest - to reach the tower.
Almost there.
Looking down the other side past the tower. But the top is so unlike the narrow ridges in my Rocky Mountain experience. Yes, the tower was a narrow outcrop, but up a short climb opposite it was a gently undulating plain dotted with herd boys and their sheep.
A scene up and behind Wendy in the "almost there" picture.On our way down we came upon a sheepfold and the simple shelter where the herdboys spend their nights.
The herdboys night time home.
Looking back to where we were.~ Benno ~
Saturday, 17 May 2008
It's been a while...
Yes, life has been pretty full to the brim of late.
LOVELY THINGS…
FINDING A GREAT SCHOLARSHIP opportunity for our students here, and having one of our student nominees accepted for a FULL scholarship to attend UBC in Canada! It’s even better that she is a wonderful young woman who is very, very deserving.
TEACHING SHAKESPEARE to kids who don't know they're supposed to find it boring or too hard to understand is really fun. Listening to my 'babies' the S1's who are 11-13 as they hoot with laughter, or chuckle at every appropriate funny moment as we watch the movie version of Twelfth Night, is so rewarding. Having a young twelve- year-old state with enthusiasm that the movie version of Twelfth Night is, “the bomb Mrs. Fath," just keeps me chuckling. The bomb? That means it's fantastic!
I love the fact that these kids, most for whom English is NOT their first language, get so many of the subtleties, even of Shakespeare's English which a lot of first language speakers find intimidating. The thing I love is that my students here don't seem to know they are supposed to find Shakespeare’s language boring, antiquated, “Why do we have to study this?”… so they just tackle it. Okay, they DO admit that reading it was getting a bit tough, but when the language is brought to life through the set, costumes, gesture, facial expressions and interactions of the actors, they love it! In fact, students ask me if they can borrow the DVD to take it home and watch.
When I encourage this group to discuss their favorite moments of the play they want to go on and on…so after we’ve discussed as long as we can, I ask them to write me a response for homework telling me about their favorite scene and their favorite character. No complaints! Well, not from them. I’m groaning to myself as I realize that’s just one more batch of reading and marking for me!
MAYBE…JUST MAYBE A HOUSE FOR THABISO and his family! Our wonderful life insurance agent in Red Deer is considering coming over next February and maybe bringing some others, and maybe helping with a project to build a house for Thabiso’s family. We’ll see how that progresses, but just the idea that someone from home is enthused and willing to consider helping with such a project is a HUGE, HUGE piece of encouragement!
THABANG is another good thing. He’s the baby in Benno’s last blog. Tonight he was over playing with us while his mom was Skyping with our niece, Jillian. Gosh, this little guy is adorable! It’s so fun to see how fast he is learning to crawl and ALMOST to walk. It is so heartening to see a healthy and so well loved and cared for little fellow. He is so bright and full of all the promise life has to offer.
HARD THINGS
For other babies, life is so much more…MUCH more tenuous. We have a friend who is now working part time at the local public hospital. The stories she tells… In fact, Thabang’s mom confirms these stories with a very horrified, “Uhh, uhh,” as she shakes her head and rolls her eyes when I ask her how her labour and delivery was at this hospital. Clearly it is something she has no wish to recollect. This is the same hospital Steven Lewis so poignantly describes in a video clip about Maseru on Youtube. Are the medical conditions here really so appalling? Last weekend’s paper had an article about a young mom who has been charged with abandoning her twin babies. Ironically, at the same time there are twins who are dying of neglect at the hospital in Maseru. No one is feeding them regularly. No one is holding them regularly, if at all… NEGLECT. In the hospital.
It is strange for me to hear such stories and feel such a knot in my stomach knowing that even if I could do something about this situation, it would be one miniscule move against a tidal wave of social issues here.
Sometimes it’s a bit of a struggle for me, too, that I see some of these things—hear some—and yet, for the most part, I live in a bubble here compared to the average person. So do my students, even as they live side-by-side and walk amongst those who have so much less. Do we just turn a blind eye? I’m often confronted with the fact that even here I am living with more than I need while others live with so much less. I’m challenged to consume less and give more, but I’m still not as good at that as I could be—not by a long shot. It bugged me at home when I saw how much money students had to spend on junk food but they weren’t too keen on doing fund-raising projects for social causes; yet here I see the same lack of awareness or interest or concern or whatever it is that motivates us to reach out and help others. Here, too, the kids line up to buy their junk food every single break and lunch hour. Somehow this little thing appalls me yet I am just as guilty. Last trip to the store for groceries I bought a bag of candy that costs more than half a day’s wages for many, many Basotho. It’s easy to self-justify, rationalize, or ignore… but it may all come down to the words of Christ referring to such things as cups of cold water, that when we give to others we are giving honor to HIM.
~ Wendy ~
LOVELY THINGS…
FINDING A GREAT SCHOLARSHIP opportunity for our students here, and having one of our student nominees accepted for a FULL scholarship to attend UBC in Canada! It’s even better that she is a wonderful young woman who is very, very deserving.
TEACHING SHAKESPEARE to kids who don't know they're supposed to find it boring or too hard to understand is really fun. Listening to my 'babies' the S1's who are 11-13 as they hoot with laughter, or chuckle at every appropriate funny moment as we watch the movie version of Twelfth Night, is so rewarding. Having a young twelve- year-old state with enthusiasm that the movie version of Twelfth Night is, “the bomb Mrs. Fath," just keeps me chuckling. The bomb? That means it's fantastic!
I love the fact that these kids, most for whom English is NOT their first language, get so many of the subtleties, even of Shakespeare's English which a lot of first language speakers find intimidating. The thing I love is that my students here don't seem to know they are supposed to find Shakespeare’s language boring, antiquated, “Why do we have to study this?”… so they just tackle it. Okay, they DO admit that reading it was getting a bit tough, but when the language is brought to life through the set, costumes, gesture, facial expressions and interactions of the actors, they love it! In fact, students ask me if they can borrow the DVD to take it home and watch.
When I encourage this group to discuss their favorite moments of the play they want to go on and on…so after we’ve discussed as long as we can, I ask them to write me a response for homework telling me about their favorite scene and their favorite character. No complaints! Well, not from them. I’m groaning to myself as I realize that’s just one more batch of reading and marking for me!
MAYBE…JUST MAYBE A HOUSE FOR THABISO and his family! Our wonderful life insurance agent in Red Deer is considering coming over next February and maybe bringing some others, and maybe helping with a project to build a house for Thabiso’s family. We’ll see how that progresses, but just the idea that someone from home is enthused and willing to consider helping with such a project is a HUGE, HUGE piece of encouragement!
THABANG is another good thing. He’s the baby in Benno’s last blog. Tonight he was over playing with us while his mom was Skyping with our niece, Jillian. Gosh, this little guy is adorable! It’s so fun to see how fast he is learning to crawl and ALMOST to walk. It is so heartening to see a healthy and so well loved and cared for little fellow. He is so bright and full of all the promise life has to offer.
HARD THINGS
For other babies, life is so much more…MUCH more tenuous. We have a friend who is now working part time at the local public hospital. The stories she tells… In fact, Thabang’s mom confirms these stories with a very horrified, “Uhh, uhh,” as she shakes her head and rolls her eyes when I ask her how her labour and delivery was at this hospital. Clearly it is something she has no wish to recollect. This is the same hospital Steven Lewis so poignantly describes in a video clip about Maseru on Youtube. Are the medical conditions here really so appalling? Last weekend’s paper had an article about a young mom who has been charged with abandoning her twin babies. Ironically, at the same time there are twins who are dying of neglect at the hospital in Maseru. No one is feeding them regularly. No one is holding them regularly, if at all… NEGLECT. In the hospital.
It is strange for me to hear such stories and feel such a knot in my stomach knowing that even if I could do something about this situation, it would be one miniscule move against a tidal wave of social issues here.
Sometimes it’s a bit of a struggle for me, too, that I see some of these things—hear some—and yet, for the most part, I live in a bubble here compared to the average person. So do my students, even as they live side-by-side and walk amongst those who have so much less. Do we just turn a blind eye? I’m often confronted with the fact that even here I am living with more than I need while others live with so much less. I’m challenged to consume less and give more, but I’m still not as good at that as I could be—not by a long shot. It bugged me at home when I saw how much money students had to spend on junk food but they weren’t too keen on doing fund-raising projects for social causes; yet here I see the same lack of awareness or interest or concern or whatever it is that motivates us to reach out and help others. Here, too, the kids line up to buy their junk food every single break and lunch hour. Somehow this little thing appalls me yet I am just as guilty. Last trip to the store for groceries I bought a bag of candy that costs more than half a day’s wages for many, many Basotho. It’s easy to self-justify, rationalize, or ignore… but it may all come down to the words of Christ referring to such things as cups of cold water, that when we give to others we are giving honor to HIM.
~ Wendy ~
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
Shopping and Girls
When we left Red Deer our pastor, Dan, offered a prayer on our behalf. One of his requests as we left two of our three sons behind was that God would have other children enter our lives. While I was thinking of hiking and stimulating conversations with young guys, Pastor Dan must have been thinking of daughters. It is mostly girls that are crossing our paths here in Lesotho. The latest escapade had me taking two teenage girls shopping!
We're ready! Let's go shopping!
I continue to be so grateful for the family and friends in Canada who sent a few dollars now and then that allow us to serve others here. The two girls are both orphans. Mabeta is one of the Khasapane children, from the family we have ‘adopted’. The other lives with an aunt across the back fence. What they both had in common was a lack of warm outer layers with winter coming on. So with funds from home (Canada), off we went.
I guess I really didn’t take them shopping. It was more me leaning on a hand rail watching the rhythms of the street, while they did their shopping. The girl from next door was the more savvy shopper. In short order she had found a couple of hoodies for herself, a new outfit for her little boy, and some small things for the aunt and two cousins she lives with. (Showing me the lacy red bra she bought for her girl cousin had this father of sons sputtering and more than a bit at a loss for words.)
Savvy shopper modeling her purchase.
Mabeta was more circumspect, much more conscious of cost. She purchased just one hoodie. But is seemed to be something she was so delighted to have. I sent some extra dollars home with her for the rest of the family, and that whole family is now a bit better outfitted for winter.
I love it, so fuzzy and warm!
The girl next door attends church with us so we were able to get a picture of her little eight month old in his new duds the next Sunday.
Eight month old Thabang.
Girls, girls every where ...
Wendy takes much delight in our two female Canadian roommates. For once she is not in the minority she says. And below are the only colleagues I could find for a recent hike.
~ Benno ~
We're ready! Let's go shopping!I continue to be so grateful for the family and friends in Canada who sent a few dollars now and then that allow us to serve others here. The two girls are both orphans. Mabeta is one of the Khasapane children, from the family we have ‘adopted’. The other lives with an aunt across the back fence. What they both had in common was a lack of warm outer layers with winter coming on. So with funds from home (Canada), off we went.
I guess I really didn’t take them shopping. It was more me leaning on a hand rail watching the rhythms of the street, while they did their shopping. The girl from next door was the more savvy shopper. In short order she had found a couple of hoodies for herself, a new outfit for her little boy, and some small things for the aunt and two cousins she lives with. (Showing me the lacy red bra she bought for her girl cousin had this father of sons sputtering and more than a bit at a loss for words.)
Savvy shopper modeling her purchase.Mabeta was more circumspect, much more conscious of cost. She purchased just one hoodie. But is seemed to be something she was so delighted to have. I sent some extra dollars home with her for the rest of the family, and that whole family is now a bit better outfitted for winter.
I love it, so fuzzy and warm!The girl next door attends church with us so we were able to get a picture of her little eight month old in his new duds the next Sunday.
Eight month old Thabang.Girls, girls every where ...
Wendy takes much delight in our two female Canadian roommates. For once she is not in the minority she says. And below are the only colleagues I could find for a recent hike.
~ Benno ~
Thursday, 24 April 2008
Mountain Musings
I continue to spend a day each month on the mountain (Thaba Bosiu) for solitude and reflection. These continue to be moments that nourish my soul.
In March I lay on the exposed sandstone. Above me birds soared, juxtaposed against a pale waning moon delicately hanging in space. Earth ... sky … life.
Oh, to soar like a bird I thought, free and carefree in the morning drafts. What was the meaning of life, I wondered? If I am just the result of some arbitrary process, why couldn’t I have been a bird - exulting, riding the breeze, soaring, free, untroubled. If I am just the result of random chance, truly life is meaningless. My end is the same as that of the birds.
April. Again on the mountain. Again the breeze, waving grasses, the birds, solitude. God, or random chance? My thoughts again were drawn to origins … and faith. What did it take to believe in God? In random chance? Faith … faith in either. I thought back to a defining point in my journey.
Fall 1972. Biology 101 - Cellular Biology. I was incredulous at the amazing complexity of the cell. A single cell was not just a little blob of cytoplasm around a nucleus and within a cell wall. Rather it included an incredible collection of tiny organelles. Unique entities, with unique functions, working together, orchestrated, sustaining life.
Spring 1973. Biology 101 - Term 2. More amazing discoveries about the mysteries of the cell. Then, the crash. From whence did this tiny, yet amazingly complex, entity arise? From a broth of chemicals in some primordial sea I was taught. I could not fathom this. I was asked to believe that an organic molecule could spontaneously arise in a broth. Then replicate? Implausible! And somehow become a cell, impossible! My faith in science was shattered. In the light of what I had spent two terms learning about the cell, I simply could not muster the faith to believe that a cell and life spontaneously arose from a primordial soup.
Alone. On a subsequent mountain. Another thought. I came upon two parallel rows of piled stones. Low flat topped walls made up of large and small stones. I felt a momentary surge of connection. Someone had been here. A fellow human. Another person had walked this mountain before me. I felt less alone. But wait.
I wondered, ... could these low walls have resulted from stones rolling down the slope and forming roughly parallel walls? If they were walls, they were old and in disrepair. Maybe they were not walls, just random formations. I considered the challenge it would be to convince someone the walls were formed by random chance, especially when I noticed a third row/wall. Despite their crude detail and design, infinitely simpler than a DNA strand or a protein molecule, they cried out for a creator. And if a Creator, then … ?
Mountains. Birds. Stones.
~ Benno ~
In March I lay on the exposed sandstone. Above me birds soared, juxtaposed against a pale waning moon delicately hanging in space. Earth ... sky … life.
Oh, to soar like a bird I thought, free and carefree in the morning drafts. What was the meaning of life, I wondered? If I am just the result of some arbitrary process, why couldn’t I have been a bird - exulting, riding the breeze, soaring, free, untroubled. If I am just the result of random chance, truly life is meaningless. My end is the same as that of the birds.
April. Again on the mountain. Again the breeze, waving grasses, the birds, solitude. God, or random chance? My thoughts again were drawn to origins … and faith. What did it take to believe in God? In random chance? Faith … faith in either. I thought back to a defining point in my journey.
Fall 1972. Biology 101 - Cellular Biology. I was incredulous at the amazing complexity of the cell. A single cell was not just a little blob of cytoplasm around a nucleus and within a cell wall. Rather it included an incredible collection of tiny organelles. Unique entities, with unique functions, working together, orchestrated, sustaining life.
Spring 1973. Biology 101 - Term 2. More amazing discoveries about the mysteries of the cell. Then, the crash. From whence did this tiny, yet amazingly complex, entity arise? From a broth of chemicals in some primordial sea I was taught. I could not fathom this. I was asked to believe that an organic molecule could spontaneously arise in a broth. Then replicate? Implausible! And somehow become a cell, impossible! My faith in science was shattered. In the light of what I had spent two terms learning about the cell, I simply could not muster the faith to believe that a cell and life spontaneously arose from a primordial soup.
Alone. On a subsequent mountain. Another thought. I came upon two parallel rows of piled stones. Low flat topped walls made up of large and small stones. I felt a momentary surge of connection. Someone had been here. A fellow human. Another person had walked this mountain before me. I felt less alone. But wait.
I wondered, ... could these low walls have resulted from stones rolling down the slope and forming roughly parallel walls? If they were walls, they were old and in disrepair. Maybe they were not walls, just random formations. I considered the challenge it would be to convince someone the walls were formed by random chance, especially when I noticed a third row/wall. Despite their crude detail and design, infinitely simpler than a DNA strand or a protein molecule, they cried out for a creator. And if a Creator, then … ?
Mountains. Birds. Stones.
~ Benno ~
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