Ft Wayne meets Ft Wayne in South Africa

Since before we came, we have been following a blog called "African Daylight" that is by a couple, Brandon and Rachel, who are serving in the Peace Corps in South Africa. They are nearing the end (in December) of more than 2 years in Africa. Brandon grew up in Ft. Wayne, and they both went to school at Taylor. So, during our recent school break, we took our longest road trip yet to pay them a visit. This was a 5 hour trip (one hour of which was the very cumbersome border crossing process). But, it was well worth it. Brandon and Rachel (who we had never met except through the blogosphere) are great people doing great things there. The experience of interacting with the kids in this very poor village was a good way for the kids to see a part of Africa that is starkly different from the game drives and such (although we did see some warthogs on the side of the road along the way). And... Ted and Brandon were able to swap stories about their glory days in Wildcat Baseball.

The village (see the name on the sign below), is about 1200 people or so, and was just down one long strip of very bumpy, dirt road. Ted says the Google Earth coordinates are: 23 degrees 16' 57.89" S, 28 degrees 00' 21.73" E.



If you look at a map of S.A., the nearest town you may see is Ellisras - almost an hour away, which is where we spent the night. Brandon and Rachel live in a tiny out-building of a village lady and her two granddaughters (side photo is their bedroom/living/office/storage area). They work in the village school, running after-school programs and supporting the work of the teachers. I won't be able to do their work justice here; I encourage you to check out their blog to read about all the work they have done:


http://www.africandaylight.blogspot.com/


They also have an Oct 5th post about our visit and many more photos of us and the kids in their village in their 'Gallery of Photos'. Look in the upper left part of their page. While you are there, check out the aprons shown on the website. They are made in the village by some of the teachers in a program organized by Rachel to help fund the girls' after school programs.

When we went for a walk around the village, Rachel told the kids that they were the first white kids the village children had ever seen, and that Hope's hair would be the first blonde hair they had seen. Sure enough, as we started to walk, we soon had a large crowd of kids, some as young as two I think, following us around. They were hesitant at first, but by the end of the walk they were holding hands with our kids, running, chasing, having a blast. It was a very neat experience. They all wanted their pictures taken, and then wanted to see the pictures.



There is no running water in the village, but there have recently been some new bore holes installed nearby. What would a Nitza family blog be without a good picture of our children by some water-related device? Ted note: this is a 'standpipe'. Several standpipes serve the village and are all connected by underground piping to a nearby borehole (groundwater well). In America, standpipes are instead large (thousands of gallons), storage tanks shaped like a cylindar standing tall. These village standpipes are simple faucets that generally serve a surrounding 6-8 homes. If you need water in your home for any reason, you need to grab a bucket/pail/jug and walk to the standpipe. Imagine how much more you could do if you didn't have to spend time fetching safe water to drink? Back to Amy:

You may be weary of reading about how dirty my children get here, but Trey absolutely set a record this time. The dirt there was much more red than in Botswana, so it showed up in an almost alarming way. Rachel commented that he was truly the dirtiest kid she had ever seen, but on reflection she realized the dirt just probably showed up more on his white skin.


We have seen people using donkey carts in several places in Botswana. (In Hope's unit of inquiry on "transport" at school, she had to make some form of transport out of clay, and she chose to make a donkey cart, which I thought was awesome. She did a great job with it). However, this was the first time we had seem them in use really close up. This man drove by while we were on our walk:

There were some heartbreaking moments to this experience. Rachel took an informal survey of her students and found that 40% of them live without their parents for various reasons. The family right next door to Rachel and Brandon is just three children. No adults whatsoever. The parents live and work in Pretoria (about a 4-5 hour drive from this village), and come home once in while to bring some money. I am generally pretty open-minded and can accept a wide variety of life choices, but I have to say I struggle with this one. I am sure the parents have their reasons for doing so, and I can not begin to put myself in their position. They must have some very difficult choices to make. However, I simply can not get myself to imagine what circumstances would make me leave my children at home to raise each other. It brings me to tears thinking about it, and about those three children. Of course, there are lots and lots of kids living like that for various reasons in Africa, but largely because they have lost their parents to AIDS. In the literature they are referred to as OVCs (orphans and other vulnerable children). But meeting them and walking around the village with them brings it home so painfully. I gave the little boy a juice box and opened it for him. It was the most motherly gesture I could come up with.

There are, of course, organizations that support OVCs. Some of them do great work, others keep the money for themselves and give the kids virtually nothing. If you have the opportunity to donate to a trustworthy organization that supports OVCs in Africa, please do so.