Smarties, 100Rand, and the Milky Way

Smarties are the closest things to M&Ms you’ll find in our neck of the woods. There are no M&Ms here. Nor are there chocolate chips. Why? Dunno. If you want a handful of tiny candy-coated chocolate orbs, Smarties are what you’re looking for. The check out registers at the grocery stores are very much like the ones at home, littered with impulse-buy commodities. But there are no conveyor belts, all the candies are unfamiliar and, at most, half the price of what they would be at home.

For reference, 100 Rand is approximately $5 US. For quick calculating purposes you can divide the number by two and drop a zero. 20 Rand? Slightly more than a U.S. dollar. For 12-18 Rand you can buy a loaf of bread. For 64 Rand you can buy: a can of beans, a bag of macaroni, a box of soya mince soup and a small bottle of cooking oil - which is what we bought for each of our hosts to thank them for their hospitality to us during our “community stay.”

Meals for three families

Now that we’ve explained South African M&Ms, let me tell you about community stays. As part of Hands at Work it’s very important to walk with, and very personally understand, the communities that we are serving. A major part of getting to know them is to spend time experiencing life with them. What better way than to have a sleep over! We call these sleepovers “community stays” and they are scheduled once a month in each community we serve. Since there are many communities, we don’t all go on every one, but alternate personnel and community based on scheduling availability and convenience. I was invited to one community stay this week, so Eric took over kid duty and sent me on my way. Eric actually did a community stay last week in a different community when he went to fix a gate that needed to be reseated and welded back together.  So basically community stays are sleepovers with the intention of building relationships and learning the community needs and people more intentionally and intimately.

The Seville B Care Point

It’s two in the morning and I’m laying in a sleeping bag on a cement floor listening to the dogs and roosters yelling at each other in their God-given voices screaming “You be quiet! No! I said it first! You be quiet! It’s morning! No it’s not! Yes it is! Go to sleep!” Clearly no one is winning that argument and so the chorus continues back and forth, on and on. No wonder they are relatively quiet during the day: their energy will be fully spent by sunrise. Inside this home there’s an alternating lion’s volume purr inches from my head. Eric does not snore, but Thembi, my interpreter and community stay sleep over buddy for the night, surely does. The two of us are being hosted by a mom of four children in her home for the night. Her kids range from four to fourteen years old: girl, boy, boy, girl. Five of us are on the floor while mom is in the bed with the littlest. If not for my phone and fatigue I would be lost for time as this family sleeps with the lights on. And I could be wrong, but it sounded like they made an exception for our stay tonight: they also usually sleep with their TV on all night too. I'm glad the fuzzy, crinkly TV is off now. I’m curious if this is a safety thing. Do we want the neighbors to know there’s someone here? Or is it a comfort thing where the sounds and people on the screen make the family feel safer while they sleep? Their father is away doing piece work, farming and harvesting the oranges for citrus season. He returns to his family at the end of each month after being paid, so security may be a significant concern.

View from my pillow

Three a.m. is approaching and I imagine the kids should be up in about two hours. They said school starts at six a.m. here. They were shocked when I told them what time my kids started school in the US.

I get it though. This cement floor is brutal on the body. Maybe after getting used to it I might be able to sleep longer, but with sunrise and 4 children, I think sending them off to school at six so mom can get some of her own work done makes sense. I learned that “piece work,” like sweeping someone’s house once a week or doing their laundry (by hand) will earn you 400R a month. If you can rack up a few clients you might have enough to survive. I can’t wrap my head around $20 per month with 4 kids to feed and care for. It really stretches my heart just to think about it. It adds weight to the importance and impact that the care point has here in this community. Having food stability for these kids is huge. This family immigrated here in 2010 from Mozambique, so I think only the eldest was born there. None of them have papers, which means they’re all here illegally and have no government support. Even the ones that were born here. It’s a praise that they’re even able to go to school.

Our host family

Maybe it’s because guests are here, but I wonder if there are other reasons for the kids’ behavior. They are quiet, shy, don’t argue, and they simply passed out after tucking themselves in on the floor next to us.

The two-room home consists of kitchen and bedroom. The window is covered with a torn lacy tablecloth and a flat sheet. This is material poverty. I need to pee, but I can’t bring myself to use the bucket in the room with everyone else here. I know someone already used it a few hours ago so I know how noisy the pee hitting the drum-like bucket would be. I honestly don’t think anyone would care if I did, so what’s the big deal? Why would it take courage for me to drop my pants to pee in a bucket while everyone is sleeping? I’m sure it would be easier if the lights were off. Maybe that’s another reason the light is on. We cannot be having someone tripping over the pee bucket in the middle of the night if five of us are sleeping on the floor. Yeesh.

Don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely floored (get it?) by this family’s hospitality. Not only are they offering us a free place to stay and generously giving us their resources of water and firewood, but they also insisted to share their dinner of pap and eggs with us. Truth be told, those eggs were amazing. They were just like my Lola’s. Scrambled with some sort of secret MSG seasoning yumminess that I don’t own and my tastebuds crave with nostalgia and tsk-tsk crunchy California shame would never allow me to consume …unless these circumstances dictate necessary (which they do).

The bath

Back to my candy theme. Before hitting the hay, our hostess heated water from the fire for our bucket baths. Thembi and I took turns bathing in the one room while the mom bathed her kids outside in front of the house. I didn’t see her bathe too, but I think she bathed in the kitchen before coming in to sleep for the night. There is no running water, no toilet, not even an outhouse here. There’s just the ground outside with no visual obstacles to hide your naked butt from the neighbors’ view. While I was getting my last nature pee in for the day I was blessed by the darkness. Not only did it cover my business, but it reconnected me.

The night sky

Here the air and noise pollution is thick from fires burning, animals bickering and loud music booming, but the light pollution at night is delightfully scarce. From here I could see thousands of stars. I could see dozens of constellations and clearly make out the Milky Way. The stars dare me to count them until I laugh, and my spirit hears Abraham’s response to God “there are too many to count.” But alas, that is the point. The fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham are too numerous to grasp. The beauty of His creation is so wonderful and yet it is only a glimpse of His glory.

Eric asked me before I left what I wanted to do or see during my community stay. I told him that I wanted to see God. So I looked for God in the people and found Him in their joy. I looked for God in the families and found him in their hope. But it wasn’t as deep or as rich and powerful to me this time as seeing his Crown Jewels hanging in the ceiling of the night sky. The majesty, the power, the glory of His beauty need no translator. The gift of seeing his handiwork beckons me to adore and worship his everlasting power and authority. The Holy Lord Almighty is seated on the throne and the whole earth is filled with His glory.

Many of our closest friends know that we are entering another difficult season as a family. We will be heading home to California in June and there are many uncomfortable uncertainties about what lies ahead for our circumstances, but none of it is unknown to the maker of these stars. Nothing is a surprise to the ruler of these heavens. He who keeps us neither slumbers nor sleeps.

We plan to share more of our Northern Hemisphere summer plans in the next blog. Until then, we are so grateful for your prayers, continued encouragement and great love that you have shared and continue to lavish upon us.

On repeat this week:

Other happenings:

Hiking to view God's Window

Beth kicking it with friends

Books not sold in the US

Tali earning brownie points