South Africa Day 27- Reflection

I spent this past week working construction at the building site. We are currently building two structures at the same time. The first is a training center which I mentioned before and the second foster homes 7 and 8. Over the past seven years I have done a lot of construction through mission trips and summer jobs. I have gained a lot of experience and have worked on almost ever stage of construction. I have done everything from gutting a house to putting on a new roof. The one thing I have never done is start from the very beginning. In every case up to now, some sort of foundation was already there. Therefore being able to see this project proceed from the very beginning and helping to lay the foundations has been a really neat experience.  I also un-expectantly have learned a lot about South African society through working on these jobs.

 I am the only Caucasian laborer working at these job site.  The only other Caucasian person there is the contractor who oversee the work. Because of this, many people have assumed that I am in charge. One example is; there is a house being built in the lot next to ours and many of the men working on building this house has asked me to borrow “my” tools. This might now sound that significant but it was the way they asked that I could tell they had the impression that I was the one in charge and who owned the tools we were working with.  Another example was on Wednesday; The Contractor had left for a short while and a man came up to me asking me for a job.  Luckily one of the other workers helped me explain to this man that I was not in charge and that he would have to ask The Contractor who had left but he could wait for him. The man decided to wait and proceeded to sit silently on a pile of bricks for over an hour waiting not for a job but the chance to ask for a job. This really made me think a lot because most people I know would have either left and come back later or just try their luck elsewhere. But this man waited, silently, just to ask for job. There were no promises or guarantees but yet he waited and I think this really shows how much he must have wanted the job and also probably how much he needed it. 

The apartheid ended in 1994 but even today in 2011 I can see that there is still a lot of inequality and major differences between the different races of people here. I have heard from a friend who has been living here for almost 4 years, that in the time she has lived here, she has seen a lot of changes in the society and the gap between the groups getting smaller. But even so, I believe there is a lot of change still yet to come. I have been fortunate enough to have studied the civil rights movements of the United States in college. I think there are many similarities between how things use to be in the United States and how things were here during the apartheid. I praise God for allowing me to experience this and I’m sure it is only a fracture of what it used to be but even still it shows me how fortunate we really are in the United States that we have come so far since the 60’s and 70’s. I know that we aren’t perfect and still have problems with differences in race in the United States but in comparison we have come a long was. Looking at how far we have come in the United States give me hope for South Africa. They are going down a very similar path that we went down and because they are trying to overcome these same differences that we struggled with; I have hope for a future for both the United States and South Africa that one day we all will see each other not by the color of our skin but as one people in Gods beautiful world.

South Africa Day 21- Construction begins

Today was a really neat day. I have had a change of routine; instead of working at the pre-schools, I am helping with some construction at the work site. Just down the road from the Mosaic foster homes we started building a training center. Last week they began clearing out the land and today we started getting ready to lay the foundation and put of the fence. Its funny how warm it can suddenly seem once you are doing physical labor. When I left my apartment this morning, it was cold enough that I could see my breath but within maybe an hour and half I was already down to a t-shirt.  Probably one of the coolest things of the day was that I learned how to weld. At first it was a little tricky but after a few tries I started to get the hang of it and it was actually a lot of fun.

South Africa Day 16- A day at Mosaic Pre-School

Yesterday morning like normal, I worked at Mosaic Pre-school. The problem with this statement is that unless you have been there, that sentence doesn’t even come close to explaining what that really means. Therefore I thought it might be nice to  walk through a “normal” day at the pre-school.  When the children first arrive at the school they are fed breakfast. 

After breakfast is free time and on nice days they get to play outside.   

After free time is music and story time. All of the children gather in one room where they sing songs about Jesus.  It’s fun to sing songs that I use to sing when I was little such as "This Little Light Of Mine" but then to also hear songs in their native language. They also have dances that go along with each of the songs which makes it even more fun. After singing one of the teachers reads a bible story. 

After this everyone is then given a snack and they they divide up into their individual classes.  Once they break up into their classes they go over the lesson for the day. My classes practiced counting from 1 to 5 in English. After the lesson the children were given some time to draw where we practiced some shapes. After drawing was lunch time followed by a nap. After a nice nap, the children get the rest of the day to play while they wait for their bus.

South Africa Day 12

I finally got internet yesterday so I wanted to make a blog to keep everyone posted with the work I am doing here down in South Africa. I am all settled in now and feel that I am getting a routine down with my work. Usually in the mornings I go to work at the Mosaic pre-school, I have been helping out with the 3 year olds. Right now they are learning to draw different shapes. I really like working with the kids but it can be a challenge sometimes because of the language barriers. It can be hard working with young children because they can have trouble communicating what they need but then on top of that there are three native languages here so that makes it even more difficult, especially because most children at that age don’t know a lot of English. At the end of the school day when it is nice out the kids get to play outside while they wait for the bus. This is probably the highlight of working there because they love dragging me all over the playground asking me to help them to get things out of reach or just climb on the jungle gym with them.

My afternoons really have been varying depending on the day. On Mondays I help teach an after school bible class. Its really awesome to see kids stay after school because they want to learn about God. Last week we went over the parable of the talents and asked the kids what talents they have and how they can use them to glorify God. Then the rest of the week I am either working at the mosaic foster homes or at Aunt Susie’s day care for the elderly. Aunt Susie’s is a really amazing woman, even though she is elderly too, she is running all over the place helping out other elderly people in her community. The first time I met her, she came up to me and hugged me saying “my son is here, my son is here, he came to help us.” Even though she has never met me before, she welcomed me with open arms and is just so extremely grateful for the work I am doing.

I also have been attending a church called His People. The first time I went was a really great experience. The service is very similar to most church services that I have been to. Everyone there was very welcoming and the service began with some worship songs. The first two were in English but then the third was in Swana. It was one of the most beautiful sounding songs I have heard, I was just blown away. I only wish I could have recorded it but I know that even then, I would not have been able to record the moment. 

Last weekend I noticed a group of guys playing soccer in a field across the street from my apartment and they were back playing there today. I don’t have tv and very little internet so I have been finding things to keep me busy during the evenings and weekends so today I decided to ask them to play soccer. It was a lot of fun and there were actually so many of us that we decided to break up into 3 teams and rotate who plays. I am not very good but I still managed to keep up.

That’s about all for now and I would like to thank everyone for all of their support and prayers that make this work possible.

In Him,

Jon