School HOLIDAY programme

The children recently had a two week holiday from school (the education system here is set up in three terms, so they have holidays after each term). Refilwe organized a programme for the children in the nearby communities to attend during this break. The children came from 10:00am-3:00pm. They played games, sang, had discussion sessions, played games and put puzzles together, and watched movies. On one of the last days, I helped organize some relays and games, including an egg race and an obstacle course on the jungle gym sets. On the last day, they were told about the meaning of Easter and had a treasure hunt to find chocolate covered marshmallow eggs. Lunch was provided each day and a chicken braai (BBQ) was held on the last day. It was a great way to stay connected with the community children and provide something fun for them to do during their holidays.

10 TENORS weekend

At the beginning of April, the 10 Tenors came to South Africa. They are from Australia and Cliff and Kat's friend Boyd is one of them. He arranged for us to get free tickets and we enjoyed the show at Carnival City. This is a picture of us with Boyd at a very classy hotel, where the 10 Tenors were staying. The show was Friday evening and we were able to spend the day Saturday hanging out with him in Jo-burg. We went to the Apartheid Museum, which was an incredibly emotional and informative experience. Below are a few pics from the museum. We then spent Saturday night with Claire, my boss, and she allowed us to stay there for the night. Sunday we went to a huge African market and then traveled back to Refilwe in the afternoon. It was some enjoyable time off and quite good to see more of Johannesburg.

Vulture SHOW

The other week a woman from a nearby animal park brought a cape vulture to Refilwe. These birds are in danger of becoming extinct, so she's educating communities about the value of these birds in preventing disease and cleaning up dead carcasses. Some tribes have killed these birds for their skulls because they believe it is good luck. These are the misunderstandings this woman is trying to correct. It was a fascinating session.

SOWETTO

Sowetto--this is a township outside of Johannesburg, about one hour from where I'm living at Refilwe. There is a lot of history here from the Apartheid era. Basically, the white South Africans decided to move the black people to this area to separate them. This is now one of the famous townships and it is very large. There are neighborhoods of all different types of housing. There are informal settlement areas where people live in shacks. Then there are simple house structures that the government has now made (post-apartheid) that people live in for free. And then there are bond houses, also government made which people pay rent to live in and may potentially own one day--I'm not sure exactly how all this works, but these are some things I picked up on my travels.

I went with a woman from Refilwe to pick up her two daughters (pictured above on the left) who were staying with family for the holiday. The picture of us is taken with Sowetto in the background to the right. We stopped at a June 16th Memorial. This is in honor of those who were killed during Apartheid times, when there was a march down the main road to Sowetto to protest all education being taught in Afrikaans (the language of the white South Africans). The top two pictures were taken at this memorial as well. The two painted towers are just another landmark in Sowetto (at least I don't know what they might signify). Clearly, I still have research to do about this area and the history there, but it was good to spend an afternoon in the famous Sowetto.

TEACHING with Jean

Jean Stewart, known to some as Sister Jean or Mama Jean, is a wonderful woman who teaches the home-based care team on Monday and Thursday mornings about topics such as hygiene, food gardens, how to dig pit toilets, and multiple health topics that are prevalent in the communities. She, along with another woman, founded Refilwe as an organization. In addition she has done amazing things in her past as a nurse and in the communities. She also started an AIDS hospice at one point. Being in her presence is both inspiring and incredibly encouraging. Jean has a huge heart and is very passionate about the work that is done here, understandably. In this picture, she is teaching the team to give a bed bath to a terminally ill client (which is played by one of the home-based care workers, Sipho). She stresses practical applications and recently had me acting as an injured client to demonstrate wound care! We are all grateful for her contributions to the work of Refilwe.