Ngifuna amanzi!

...means "I want water!" I can say other things like tomatoes, onions, even avocadoes. After my frenzied post yesterday I thought I’d come back and write a proper one. I know I already talked about Zanele’s funeral but I thought I would add a bit. In retrospect, I really wish I had known Angel was going to force me to say something…I perhaps would have had something more meaningful to give the people in the community. It was really kind of scary though. The whole way up there (I rented a car and Arron and Sakhile drove for us) I was so worried about how the community there would react. I asked Arron multiple times but he always said that it would be fine. I thought they may have been a little resentful, and after speaking, I thought some of them at least, would be like, “Ok, so this girl has known Zanele for a month, and she thinks she has the right to attend her funeral?” But they were all just so amazing. The children of the community were awesome…reminded me a lot of the kids at Agape. And Angel took us to meet all of the elders of the community who seemed not only surprised that we came, but so genuinely happy. When we left, all the kids chased our car as far as they could…

On the way home, Sakhile and Arron let me drive for a bit! First of all, they drive on the other side of the road here, and second of all, the car was standard. I stalled so many times and drove on the wrong side too. Sakhile just started steering and changing gears for me at one point. Arron and I talked for a while and he maintained that most white South Africans still dislike black people. It’s such a strange time to be here because the country is still in the relatively early stages of integration.

On Sunday, we went to a recording studio with the kids – so fun!!! They did two tracks with one of the judges from South African Popstars, this guy Zwai, who also has his own tv show and is apparently pretty famous. People were stopping them us on the street and stuff. Anyways, the kids absolutely loved it. They’ve been to the recording studio a few times already, working on a CD that will be produced to make money for the orphanage. I will be bringing some back with me, and they’re only like $25. If you would like one, please email me and I will be sure to get you a copy. I would really really recommend it for two reasons. One, because the children really do need the money. I haven’t really gone into detail about the living situation at the orphanage, but they are trying to build a new one since the current one is literally falling apart. Two, because they really are so good!!! I have always been so overwhelmed by the strength and quality of the voices that come from even the children as young as 7! Even at the funeral, I commented on how intensely calming the singing was. I feel as though God gave the black people here such amazing voices to sing as though to somehow compensate for the lack of voice they still continue to experience in politics, business, and education. It really has made me wish, for the first time, that the Indian culture had the same energy in satsangs, for example, as black people have in gospel and traditional Zulu songs.

Vincent, one of the social workers at the Dream Centre, asked me last week to get involved in some research and statistical analysis for the centre. I was actually really excited about it, but it turns out that it isn’t going to happen after all. I will, however, be helping Bronwyn, the physiotherapist who works with patients, which shall be pretty interesting.

This week has been really really hectic. I don’t think I mentioned this on the blog before, but there used to be a project Molweni (we laid bricks and sewed there). The lady who is in charge of the running of the project is Lindiwe, but this guy Tim is in charge of the funding and stuff and so his name is on all the donations. Unfortunately, Tim turned out to be this really racist ass, and so Lean on Me has subsequently pulled out of the project. But Lindiwe is the sweetest lady and she is really upset about the volunteers leaving, and I’ve been upset because it was my favourite project to work at. I have finally gotten a hold of Lindiwe (she doesn’t have a phone so I keep calling her neighbours) and hopefully can pick up all the fabric and sewing machines so that we can finish all the sheets for the orphanage at least.

We also started working at another project in Molweni, and got to dig the foundation. It was such hard work. It was so hot out and we had to dig a one metre deep border around where the building was going to be. But we were really quite pathetic. I mean, I was really tired after about an hour and a half of using a pick and shovel, and so were most of us. It really made me realize how little I know of hard work. Then, there were a lot of people in the community that came to help, and some of the women that were helping us were so strong! They were working so much harder than we were, simply because, we were just not used to manual labour. It made me appreciate my desk job – I do not know how some of the people here find the energy to work so hard with such poor diet and living conditions.

We also took the older kids from Agape to the gym the other day which was awesome. We took this taibo class that they really seemed to enjoy!!! And I also went to Dr. Davis’s Centre and helped Alicia (a doctor volunteer here) see patients. It was really interesting and quite refreshing!

There’s been a few other happenings here, but I am getting hungry so I have to get lunch!!! A few last words. A lot of people have been bugging me about donations. The kids at Agape are going on a fundraising tour in England, but unfortunately, are lacking a lot of the funding (plane tickets, accommodation, transport). They don’t even have warm clothes that they could wear in Nov/Dec. So, if you would like to help out with this, it would be great! All proceeds will go to the new orphanage that they are trying to build at Agape in the coming year. You can either:

(1) Call my mom at 905-286-1977 and tell her how much you would like to donate and make arrangements with her to give her the money.

(2) Donate into the bank account of Andrew North (who is organizing the tour in England).
Name: Agape Fundraising Limited Account
HSBC #: 82103435
Sort Code: 40-20-30
Please email mr_andrew_north@hotmail.com to let him know how much you are contributing.

And last, everyone’s been complaining about not being able to see my pics. Since I don’t have any embarrassing albums to hide (I don’t think…), just use my email address and the password “reshma” to log in. You can also try these links:

Part One: http://www.ofoto.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=653349937103&page=1&sort_order=0
Part Two: http://www.ofoto.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=313429108103

Take care everyone,
Resh.