Ungumhlobo muni?

...means "What nationality are you?"
I had an interesting few days. On Sunday we had a party at the second Molweni project to welcome the community and stuff. It was pretty fun, apart from the random missionaries that showed up. Winnie (the woman who owns the land where the new orphanage will be built) invited them. They were asking volunteers if they went to church and stuff like that so I mainly steered clear of them, thinking that I might explode if I didn't. Then they did this feeble hip-hop dance and started singing. It was quite awful! I really dislike people who come to a country and spend too long trying to show them all about their home country, when really they should be learning about the country they came to. Then the leader of them said a speech about what God thinks of the orphans. At that point I just moved to the back and started playing with the kids because I didn't want to hear the filth coming from her. I mean honestly, I've really questioned my belief in God since I've been here. What does God think of the orphans? Not much, otherwise He might be doing more to help them and the povery-stricken state of this and other third world countries. Honestly though, I don't mean to offend or anything, but it's really difficult to believe in any sort of God after a lot of the horrors I've seen out here. I'm not saying that I've lost the belief completely, just that it is getting harder and harder to nourish it.
I remember one time while I visited Zanele a woman came into her room and asked her if she still stood strong in her belief of Jesus Christ, her Saviour. I thought to myself, "See the sores all over her body, ask her what physical state she is in, learn about her life, her family, all of her sorrows, learn about her lifestyle, the poverty she was raised in -- ask her how long it's been since she has seen her children, and if she'll ever see them again, ask her what their caregiver is doing to them...and after all that, ask yourself if she's got any reason to believe in God." I disliked that this woman could enter Zanele's room and disregard the real aspects of her life as though it were unimportant.
Anyways, back to the party -- to top it all off, they had only been invited the day before...who do they really think they are?
Other than that, the party was pretty fun. It was nice to meet the high members of the community (the chief and headman came, which is very rare) and the kids were awesome. I gave out Ms. Dixon's donations which they loved. It was really hard though because after there's no more toys to give out, the kids get really sad. But they were a lot of fun to play with for the day.
On the way home, I went to Lindewe's house at the old Molweni project which was awesome -- picked up the sewing machines and fabric so I can start sewing at home!
Last Friday, I think I forgot to mention that we got to visit a new baby house that Lean on Me is helping with. It's a group of cluster homes, separated by age, that can house up to 140 kids. They were really nice houses. Each child shares a room with only one other child (as opposed to like 10 at Agape), they have a dining table, enough showers and bathrooms (Agape has one bathroom for the girls, one for the boys and no kitchen table really). One of the houses is going to become a library with a computer room. These were really nice homes, that were like the ones we are accustomed to living in. The whole time I was there I just kept wishing that there was something similar to give the Agape kids, because the state of their home is really quite deplorable. The kids at these homes are really going to have a chance. Sometimes I feel like the Agape kids aren't going to have a shot at a post-secondary education; the orphanage provides them shelter and food, but doesn't concentrate too much on education. But the kids in these homes are really going to have a chance.
Yesterday we dug a vegetable garden at the new Molweni -- I helped dig for a bit, and then started going to the river with the kids to get water. I carried buckets of water on my head like they do, because I soon discovered it was much easier!!! The kids really helped a lot though -- they were so sweet and really funny.

Quick shoutout to Benu Masi who called Sunday but I was out!

Listening Pleasures: Mostly the children singing, but I am really in love with Tracy Chapman these days. I think the era of Ani is over as well because I haven't really listened to her since I came here.

Reading Pleasures: I'm almost finished "I write what I like" -- a collection of essays by Steve Biko.

Take care all, lots of love,
Resh.