Chapter Ten- Meet the Kids

For those of you who have read my last post you now know about the general conditions in South Africa. However, neither I nor Restoring Hope are here for that reason, we are here for the people. In their case that is brought out in the largest part of their ministry, long-term care for orphaned children. I would like to introduce to you the kids and their stories as well as their personalities in the way that I know them:

Motshidisi Karreebos- Age 17- Motshidisi and her sister Dieketseng were both living in a small tin shack in Thabong with their grandma, four other children, and occasionally an aunt. Their grandmother was HIV-positive and was often in need of as much care as the children. The aunt was a prostitute and was more harmful than helpful when she was around. In 2006 the situation came to a head and the children were all moved to the Pines (the organization the Niehoffs and O’Tools previously worked at). Now they are both happily living at Restoring Hope and doing well.

Motshidisi is the oldest of the children and often serves as a caretaker to help the housemothers handle the load. She is often shy and softspoken but is a wonderful girl and opens up once you know her. She is very obedient and as I mentioned earlier, extremely helpful and willing to serve. This makes sense, as she told me that her name means “supporter” although I later learned it is more accurately translated “road”. Well we are what we believe we are, right? For all her experience taking care of kids though, I watched her perform her first diaper change and I would say that her and her gag reflex have a way to go! Due to her background she was significantly behind in school when she began, but she works very hard and last term she made honor roll (which means she completed all her school work with at least 80 percent). As of Saturday she is still deciding what she wants to do when she is older because I had to explain to her that paramedics, her previous ambition, had to work with blood and possibly dead people. As you can tell she is a very funny girl. She knows Jesus Christ as her savior and along with her sister attends Bible Study on a weekly basis and enjoys it.

Dieketseng- Age 15- You have already been introduced to her story so I will do my best to capture her personality. She is a very outgoing girl and I wouldn’t say she is stubborn but she is definitely confident (even when she maybe shouldn’t be). Never one to let you miss what is going on in her mind, which makes her a prime target for me to pick on. Don’t worry though she is quick to dish it back! She is very bright and made honor roll this last term, finishing a week before the end of the term. Her hobbies include playing netball, watching movies, and dodging work (especially with “uncle Brian”). She has lots of ideas about what she wants to do when she grows up, but topping the list right now is a musician. She loves High School Musical but still has to overcome the obstacle of learning an instrument. She would very much like to visit America and after so much interaction with the Niehoffs, O’Tools, and team members I think she could fit in well. This is something which hasn’t escaped her classmates attention as they call her “America” because she speaks such good English. Although Dieketseng is attempting to fight this image- she recently requested new soap because the current one is “making her skin too light”. She is very lively but is a sweet girl and she also loves and follows the Lord Jesus Christ

Lerato Ramakhale- Age 9- Lerato and her sister Monica were the first two children at Restoring Hope Village when it opened. They were living with their uncle in the township as a means for him to get a child care grant every month. They were often locked inside while he went to the bars and there were often times other men living in the house. It was a dangerous situation for them so in December 2010 social services got them moved to the Village. When they came, neither of them spoke English but I could hardly tell by the time I arrived in May. At that time Monica and Lerato were the first and only children at the Village. They attend Dunamis Christian school and both of them achieved honor roll this last term.

Lerato is a sassy young lady but very good-natured. I can always expect her to spot me when I get back home and yell my name so that she can come running over and climb on me. She is definitely not shy and when the children sing in church her voice is always audible above the rest. She is a good big sister to Monica and I expect she’ll be a good leader some day after seeing her take the role of interpreter/crowd control for me when I was in charge of Sunday school. My attachment to baby Tumi hasn’t escaped her attention and so whenever I head down to the kid’s home to visit them she will carry him out to me (which I assure you is no small task). She may be bold but I can definitely see the soft side she has when dealing with people. However, when I asked her what she wanted to do when she grows up she told me, “I’m not old like you I don’t have to decide that yet”. Like I said, she has no problem asserting herself.

Monica Ramakhale- Age 7- Pint-sized Monica is about as cute as they come. She’s just a little thing with a gap-toothed smile and a near constant giggle. She loves to be around people and has no hesitation in attaching herself to someone. During the day when people are working down on the house she likes to make a game out of trying to distract them to play with her. Rosina and I are probably the most susceptible to this but let’s be honest, what won’t Rosina do to get out of work? I don’t think I’ve ever been around Monica without seeing her smile or laugh and so she is a very cute, very fun girl to be around. Her favorite activities include singing, giggling, and getting piggy back rides. Despite her age and small stature I have seen her exhibit monumental feats of strength and cunning. For strength she can carry Tumi for a good 20 feet which is impressive because he’s half her size. For cunning she has fooled me in a game of soccer in which she fell and promptly turned on a very convincing waterworks display only to stop abruptly and make a break for the ball when I turned to help her. She’s like a sour patch kid in reverse- first she’s sweet, then she’s sour.

Tumisong – 9 months- More commonly known as “Tumi”, “Sumi Tumi”, or “Chunker”. He is a little (or should I say big) roly poly plumpster, which has led to him taking the brunt of many a fat joke. Don’t feel too bad for him though, for one thing he is only a baby so he doesn’t understand anyway, and he also gets his fair share of attention. When he came to the Village at the end of May he began staying at Brian and Lois’s house so I saw plenty of him (and believe me there is plenty of him to see) and for some reason I was just drawn to him. I began taking care of, playing with, and feeding him whenever I could so we established somewhat of a connection. This did not make him any less hesitant to spit up on me as often as possible though. He was brought to the Village because his mother is on her way through the court system and most likely to jail. We don’t believe she was a great caretaker anyhow (despite his “well fed” appearance) and he has spent most of his young life laying in his crib on a steady diet of sugar water. As such he is a bit behind in development although I claim personal credit for teaching him how to sit up, click with his tongue, and shake his head violently back and forth. He is coming along well but it would be nice if we could get him to crawl rather than just lay on his stomach like the beached whale that he is (there is no end to the joke material that he provides)

Amohelang Oliphant- 3 months- I honestly can’t tell you a whole lot about this little chiclet because she likes to spend most of her time within the confines of her swaddling cloths. I can assure you that she is quite the opposite of Tumi in size and when she arrived at 6 weeks old could nearly fit in the palm of your hand. What she lacks in size though she makes up in hair as she has a veritable jungle on the top of her head already. In what I suspect is likely due to her tiny hands and quiet demeanor she has become a popular attraction amongst the ladies visiting here. She was brought to RHI because her mother was discovered to abandon her on more than one occasion and is not emotionally stable enough to be caring for a child. She arrived in May about three days before Tumi and has probably grown more than him in her time here which is good progress. Her favorite hobbies to my knowledge are sleeping, pooping, and chilling with Mama Lizzar.

So that is just a quick introduction to the kids here and after spending two months with them I absolutely love them and it will kill me to have to leave. It has been a great blessing to experience firsthand the fruits of this ministry and see the lives these kids are getting in comparison to the ones I know they would be getting otherwise. I have seen glimpses of life in Thabong and I assure you the love, opportunities, education, and spiritual influence they get at RHI is beyond measurement in comparison. I hope that through this you have gotten a small feeling for the individual personalities they each bring to the table. If you are interested in helping sponsor any of these children (and I personally recommend all of them) you can contact RHI at childsponsor@restoringhopeint.org

Chapter Nine- South Afripedia

So it has come to my attention that living in a place for two months enables you to learn certain things about a place that you can’t find out on Wikipedia. I know this because I’ve checked. I figured that I would fill you in on the things I have learned about the culture, medical treatment, and Restoring Hope’s ministry here in Welkom (pronounced Vel-kome). I do not claim to be an expert, but some information is better than none for the curious mind. Please bear in mind that when I use terms such as blacks and whites, it in no way is a racist thing, that is just the way things are here. It is very important to remember that their racial history is very recent and the outcome of that is a large separation of things in many regards along racial lines.

A rough statistic about South Africa in general: about 90 percent of the population here is black or colored, with the other 10 percent being whites. For a long time, the whites dominated the country, leading to Apartheid, the legalized segregation and racism policy from the late 1940s to 1994. Many of you may be familiar with Apartheid and Nelson Mandela as the face of its end. Essentially it was originated to separate the racial groups to keep them from fighting each other but led to horrible policies based in racism. Blacks and colored people were not allowed to vote and relegated to poorer areas and general living conditions. Even since the end of Apartheid though things have not fully improved. Due to longstanding inequality , blacks are still socioeconomically crippled and poverty is rampant. The ANC (African National Congress) is the party of the blacks which has been in power since 1994, but despite their promises of change the country is still in poor shape and the party is known to be full of corruption. In addition, it is common practice and policy to hire blacks before whites, regardless of qualifications. Just by observing the healthcare, education, and other areas it is clear that things are not being run well, but I certainly don’t agree with the prior regime either. This country still has a long way to go politically.

As for culture, there are many ethnic groups making up this country and 11 official languages. Generally, each province (similar to our states) has its primary black ethnicities with their own language. Afrikaans is spoken amongst the whites and taught in most schools, and English is also very common amongst whites and many of the blacks. I’ve mentioned before that Christianity is the major religion of South Africa, but tribal religions are also so embedded into the culture that most “Christians” have additional beliefs added in such as ancestor worship, demonic activity, and various other superstition or false teachings for the sake of money. Suffice to say, the depth of Christianity here is lacking and a solid Christian is fairly difficult to find. Superstition and tradition are very deeply rooted into the black culture and beliefs are very hard to change in the people. For example, even in the hospitals the doctors struggle with patients that take herbal remedies or methods of treatment from “traditional healers” which do more harm than good. Many also believe in the mythical Tokoloshe, which is more or less an evil gremlin which torments people, usually while they are sleeping. Some churches will capitalize on this and tell people that they have to give a certain amount of money to have it removed. Not to say the culture is entirely negative (they have beautiful music) but the presence of such immorality and depravity has really dragged them down. Now only the gospel can truly save these people, but education is another key to lifting them out of the lifestyle. The problem is that schools take time, money, and effort from children and families who cannot or are not willing to commit that much, which in poorer areas such as Thabong creates a viscious cycle shown by the 60% unemployment rate in SA and nearly 80% in Welkom alone. These people are hurting because they are in a place and condition that is bad enough to not allow them to leave it.

Statistics will probably tell you that the HIV prevalence in SA is somewhere near 10-15%, but this is a gross underestimation. Due to the huge social stigma, people almost never get tested unless they are pregnant or very sick. Doctors wouldn’t hesitate to tell you they believe its more like 30-50%. This prevalence coupled with their unwillingness to face it or even talk about it creates a huge problem in attempting to treat it. When patients are admitted to hospitals with TB, pneumonia, wasting, meningitis, and other various conditions they are often tested, but must have counseling just to take the test. Most doctors know based on the patient’s condition but because of the stigma they must jump through hurdles and use words like “retroviral-infected” or “immunosuppressed”. AIDS is only a word used on government scare tactic posters and has lost its true medical meaning. Still, once they are placed on treatment (ARVs) and receive counseling, they almost always drastically improve and are able to live a more normal life. I can’t tell you a lot about general health other than that it is mostly not good, especially when it comes to nutrition. What I can tell you about is the entirely different atmosphere of medicine here as opposed to a developed country. With so many immunocompromised patients, which make up the majority of admissions, you see such a whole new and more potent set of conditions than anywhere else. Starting with TB, 70% of HIV-positive individuals will contract TB in their lifetime. Slightly under half of the patients I see have confirmed or suspected TB, and I see it in a variety of ways. There’s not time to cover all of them but meningitis, pneumonia, stroke, lung infection, Kaposi sarcoma, and so many more conditions relating to infectious diseases are common here at an unparalleled level. The government healthcare here is affordable for the hordes of poor, and though it is not top notch and waits may be long, it is effective for treating the flood of potent diseases mostly resulting from HIV and the conditions I’ve already mentioned. It seems cliché to come to South Africa and focus on HIV, but its not really avoidable. And I’ll be the first to tell you about the loads of other issues, but most roads will lead you back there.

Restoring Hope has taken an interesting angle on addressing the situation. They know they can’t come in and fix this country’s problems. So they have come to fix the lives of the victims of those problems. They are building a community of children’s homes for orphaned kids affected by the AIDS crisis. They are rescuing the kids from poor futures either alone in the township or with elderly grandmothers, uncles, and cousins who are often unable or unwilling to raise them in a proper, healthy manner. If it was just that though it wouldn’t be enough. They place the kids in a family environment with a housemother as well as older Christian mentors. They recognize that all the world, in poverty or not, is lost and in need of saving. After they have rescued these kids physically they show them the gospel, that Jesus Christ died for their sins to save them. They teach and disciple these kids with spiritual truth and do this in a loving environment. As I mentioned earlier, it is so hard to find a solid believer here due to the conditions and the culture. But they are bringing them up so that they can be a light to the people and influence those around them in order to change the heart of the culture. In addition to Restoring Hope Village, they are actively engaging the culture by making connections with people in Thabong and doing outreach. Several Bible studies have been done and a number of young men, now at university are living testaments to the power of God and the influence that personal discipleship has had on them. They hold church in a schoolroom in Thabong and are looking to purchase land and build nearby. These people have a passion for loving the children and people and are seeking to begun change on a personal level and through the most powerful tool available- the Gospel.

The missionaries serving here are Brian & Lois Niehoff and Louis & Amber O'Tool. You can learn more about their ministry here: http://restoringhopeint.org/
If you feel led to support them you can contact them through that page. Any other questions, you can come to me- I highly recommend and support this ministry having seen and experienced it firsthand

Brian, Lois, Lindie, and Liam

Louis, Amber, Drake, and Meredith

Chapter Eight- Please Don't Blame Tim

No one should ever dare to embark on a journey to Africa with the expectation of having any expectations. Things always have a way of surprising you, often times at your expense but at the benefit of a great story. This Tuesday I had my own little adventure which has definitely spiced up my trip. For those who haven't heard, on my first trip overseas I managed to get my first broken bone. To protect the dignity of all those involved I will leave it to your imagination to come up with any number of heroic scenarios you desire to explain the following outcome. At first I thought everything was fine because I had heard collar bone fractures were extremely painful and I was not in that much pain. I don't consider myself as someone with an astounding pain tolerance so things were looking good. However, I then felt something just south of my neck moving around and noticed there was an unnatural lump. Still convinced it wasn't painful enough to be significant, I had now decided that it was dislocated. With the gracious help of Timothy O'Tool- who is in no way responsible, at fault, or liable for this tragedy- I made it back inside and attempted to finish our game of Ticket to Ride. The group was apparently concerned about me so Brian drove me into Medi-clinic, the private hospital im Welkom, for x-rays. Once they had finished taking them I sat in the waiting area and my jaw dropped when I spotted this hanging up in the radiologist's office:

In an ironic turn of events Dr. van Sittert, the orthopedic surgeon who Matt and I observed for a day, was the one we called to come and consult on it. He said that I could either choose to have surgery and end up with a scar or just use a sling for 4-6 weeks and have a permanent bump and a bit more pain. Never one to back down from a chance to prove my manliness (or to avoid getting surgery in Africa) I chose the second option. The only reason I regret this decision is that if they would gave operated I could have had Matt attend and record the surgery which would have been beyond sweet. Due to the nature of this trip I never pass on a chance to investigate the medical side of things, so here is the radiologist's report on my x-ray:

"Comminuted fracture with overriding at the fracture site was noted in relation to the junction between the middle and distal third of the clavicle with suboptimal alignment. Associated soft tissue injury not excluded"

For those of you unfamiliar with medical terminology, thats a pretty intense fracture. There was complete separation of the bone between half and two-thirds of the way down my clavicle with a few smaller shards as well. This is right on the border of where they typically decide to operate or not. There is a lot of soft tissue and blood vessels in that area so surgery can be delicate and tricky with a high risk of sepsis (blood infection). In addition, its possible that the tissue can get between the bone fragments, impairing them from healing properly at which point surgery would be necessary. After about three weeks it should be obvious whether they are coming together properly.

It is a little disappointing that I can't help as much with work but ever since the incident I have been at the heels of everyone in probably annoying fashion, trying to make up for my lack of ability with effort. I have been glad at the chance to scrub floors or just hand people tools because I want to know I'm of use. So things are going well and I'm taking it in stride. I just wanted to share my little adventure with all my faithful readers.