Week 25....Preparing for Christmas

Since the office closed last Friday, I thought this week would be a little less busy and relaxed, but it wasn't! Monday-Wednesday I ran around with another volunteer helping with the boys and checking on the kids. We took one boy to SACRO, a organization to help/rehabilitate young crime offenders, he stole some phones and then stole some money from out of a car, so he needs help before he gets sent to prison for stealing. We took some children to SWAGGA for counselling and we checked on the orphans whom we had placed at our orphanage last week. They are doing well and are happy at the home. On Thursday, we started to put together the gifts for the kids. We got a bunch of donations and then we went out and bought a few more things for the children. We have 93 kids in our care so we had to organize and put together everything for 93 gifts. It will make for a long day on Saturday of wrapping gifts! On Friday, we took the older boys, high school and trade school age, to Mlilwane Game Reserve. We swam, played soccer, and had lunch. It was a great time, minus the fact that I am now really burnt haha. But I think the boys really enjoyed their time and i'm sure it was great for them to get out of town for a little while. I really enjoyed the day being able to hang out with them and get to know them better! This weekend, will be filled with wrapping Christmas presents and getting the meal together for Christmas day for the boys who weren't able to go home for the holidays.

This Christmas will actually be my first Christmas away from home. Since we've been so busy I haven't really had time to think about the fact that I won't be home. We will be busy up until Christmas and then we will have a Braii/BBQ on Christmas day with the children, so my hope is that beause I'll be busy I won't have time to think about not being home for Christmas. However, I would appreciate prayers because I think it will be hard even though we have things going on. I know that God has me here for a purpose and things with the girl's home is coming together but times like these, holidays, special events happening, etc. make me miss home a lot. So prayers that I would be present here with the children would be appreciated! I hope you all have a blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year! ( I am headed to Cape Town, South Africa for a week or so with some of the other volunteers the day after Christmas for a little vacation. So I may not be able to post a blog until I get back in January.)

God protects the widows and ORPHANS! (Week 24)

I talked last blog about three orphans that we had found. Well this week was me and another volunteer basically trying to find out how to help them and give them a safe place to stay! On Monday, Betty, a volunteer, and myself went and did a home visit to the children's home. They were staying with a neighbor the last time Betty had met them but since then they had returned to living on their own. They lived in a one room house with a bed and a little table. They had a little bag of food, no electricity or water. So we took them to the office. We talked with Alban, MYC's social worker, and he said we had to go to the Social Welfare Department in Manzini. So I went with the children and tried to talk with them about the orphans but they had an emergency they were dealing with so we had to come back the next day. So we went back to the office and I had to send the kids home to nothing. We gave them food and bus fare home but I don't know if I've ever felt more helpless in that moment. If I was in America, those kids would've been in foster care right away. On Tuesday, I went back and talked with the head of the department and he told me to bring the kids back with him on Thursday so he could talk with them. So that is another two days of them on their own. So after lunch on Tuesday, Betty and I took the kids some food to last them until Thursday. On Wednesday, was a relaxed day. I was in the office all day and really just needed a day where nothing stressful happened! So, finally on Thursday we took the kids to the social welfare department. The 3 kids were interviewed by the social worker, he wanted to check all the facts, just in case anything got mixed up because of the language. Their older brother also showed up to verify facts and be in on the decision of how to help the children. The brother has some sort of mental health instability and only has jobs here and there so he was unable to take the children. So through all of the conversation and all the facts being verified, the social worker decided that these children needed to be placed and asked if MYC was able to take them in. We shared the plan with him that they could stay in McCorkindales, our orphanage over the holidays until the kids who went home started to return and when the girl's home opened the two sisters would move there and the boy would move to one of the boy's home that was closer. The brother was okay to have them in care and for them to be together. Once the holidays are over we will need to return to the social welfare department and inform them of our plans for the kids. So once we received their approval of placing the children, we had to return to MYC office and talk with our head of social welfare. After, explaining to him the situation and him sharing the difficulties of bringing in more children he finally agreed to bring the children in to the orphanage. So they were placed there on Thursday afternoon. It was such a huge burden off my shoulders to know that they would be safe. The whole week was a real test for me. We had to go through the steps of the system and be patient with how slow everything works here. It was a huge challenge to not worry about these kids and be able to give them over to God and know that he would protect him. I didn't really have a choice though. I had to trust that God would take care of them because if I didn't I would have been a wreck! He really gave me peace about the situation and giving it to him was the best thing I could have done! It was a great end to the week.

Lastly, on friday, I went and saw the girls home. It is coming along and pretty close to being done. I am having some of the older MYC boys help paint and help outside. So it was cool to go see them working on friday and see how far along things are going! 

Some of the boys painting.

Bath tub becoming a shower.

And things keep moving along...Week 23

This week was pretty good. On Monday, three orphans came into the office looking for help. I interviewed them, gave them some lunch, and then Alban and I went to see the pastor who had been helping the kids out. Both parents had passed away. Their mother had passed away in March. They had been getting food from the church. But the oldest girl, who is 14 years old, is the one caring for her younger brother and sister. Since we only take in boy's right now we are working to find a temporary place for them until the girl's home opens so the two girl's can stay there and the boy can stay at one of the boy's homes. We could have our first two potential girl's for the home, which is exciting, but obviously their situation is not one you want any child to have to be in! On Tuesday, we had a girl's home meeting to figure out more about the logistics of how the home will run, who the house mother will be, etc. We also worked on a budget for donors from Germany who are giving money to the project. It's been exciting to see each week how things get closer and closer to having it open and me moving in there! On Wednesday, I went to this program at the Hope House, a hospice center, where our Marimba band performed. It was the first time I had seen them perform! They were awesome!!! :) On Thursday, I took one of the boys to the hospital/doctor because he had gotten kicked in the hand and our nurse thought maybe it was broken. But thankfully it wasn't, he was given pain pills and a sling so that it would help with the swelling! On Friday, I went to the girl's home to see how everything was going. It is starting to look so good! The left side of the house is basically finished and the right side they are almost done tiling the floor. They are also working on removing the bathtub and making it into a shower! We're almost there! :)

I am really excited to get into the home and start doing what I came here to do. But as it gets closer, I get more and more nervous about how much responsibility I have and it becomes overwhelming to me. But I have to keep reminding myself that this is God's plan and he wouldn't put me in this situation alone. He has been giving me what I need and will continue to do so when I move into the girl's home. I just need to trust in Him. It's not through my own strength but through HIS!!!!

Taking that bath tub out and putting a shower in.

Re-tiling the floor on the right side of the house.

  

Week 22

The wall just needs one more coat of paint
 and it's finished  :)

I apologize in advance for this entry, it may not be very detailed or flow very well. I have a cold and my brain is kind of foggy so I am having a hard time thinking about this past week and writing this blog so it makes sense! I started writing about 3 or 4 times and I'm not really sure what stood out to me about this week or if anything eventful really happened. I got sick on Wednesday, so in the afternoon Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I just relaxed and watched movies and had a few visitors come visit me, which was nice. I worked on girls home things this week as well. One morning, we painted the girls home, I worked on job descriptions for volunteers and social workers. I went to Enjabulweni at the beginning of the week to collect the last of the pen pal letters with Mary-Kate's students. It's been a good week but also don't feel like anything jumps out about this week. However, on Wednesday, I had a meeting with Titi and Marcia, two of Mary-Kate and my friends about how to help Tenele since she's been kicked out of her mother's home. We are going to see Tenele on Sunday and she what she needs, if baby Lucia is up to date on her vaccines, if maybe some weekends she wants to spend at Titi or Marcia's home. They aren't able to have her full time but they want to help her and make sure Tenele knows she's loved and supported in caring for her daughter and herself. She's only 18 years old and she needs all the support she can get. So if you could pray for Tenele and her future and for us here around her just to know what to do next and how to help her succeed, it would be greatly appreciated! I pray that God continues to work in her life and all of our lives and leads us in the direction we are to go!

One of the workers breaking up the tiles to put new tiles down.