This is sunrise over the house where Anita and Jeff are staying. It is a duplex, sleeping four on each side, so when Kasia and Shane join us tomorrow, they will stay there also. The other half of the duplex is unoccupied currently, and the owner of the guesthouses said we could use it to shower this morning since the hand held sprayer was no longer attached high up on one of the showers in the house the rest of us are staying in, so I walked over to the duplex at dawn this morning to shower. Only to find out I had brought the wrong key, so I came back and just showered using the hand held sprayer (in my hand). It was a nice morning to be outside at dawn though, so I'm glad I went out and experienced the sunrise.
We met at the coffeehouse at 8AM, then went as two different groups - some of us to Palm Grove Initiative, my group to Kudvumisa, (and Anita I think went to Operation Hope). On the way to Kudvumisa, we went through a game preserve. Apparently the elephants and other large animals they keep behind a fence, but other smaller animals -baboons and wildebeasts -can and do wander out onto the road. The baboons especially like to come out on the road this time of the year during the sugar cane harvest to pick up sugar canes dropped by the passing trucks, as the baboon below is doing.
After we exited the game preserve, we drove past the sugar cane fields (and processing plant in the background).
Here are Laura and Denise at Kudvimisa. This is a NGO (non-governmental organization) with three main parts - 1. a medical clinic, originally specialized for HIV diagnosis/treatment, but now a general medical clinic, 2. an economic development part, and 3. outreach to the community providing home-based care for disabled children (also 4. a guesthouse to provide some income for the other outreach efforts). They were able to acquire the land for the clinic and guesthouse in 2013 and hope to build a maternity ward in the back since it is difficult for many of the patients to get to the hospital for delivery.
Entering the clinic
we passed by these chairs with Psalm 147:1-6 written (in both English and Siswati) on the red stripe.
Mitch Dube (clinic manager) first gave us a tour of the clinic. They have a doctor who comes M-W, and nurses the other days. The doctor costs about $20/visit, but they are able to fundraise such that they charge the patients $1/visit. They have a limited pharmacy, which is also subsidized through fundraising so that for most medicines they are able to charge $1-3. (of course the patients pay in Rand but he gave the prices in USD so we could relate better). There is a lab with a few instruments that is staffed by a contract with lab personnel M-W, but their own staff do limited point of care testing at any time (HIV, TB, etc).
Next we went to the other half of the building, the "economic development" side. Here they have a variety of economic development projects that they use to support the local economy. For one, they can go out and catch crawfish, boil them, freeze them, and sell them. Another is that they use the seeds of the moringa tree. These are crushed (by hand) to crack them open and extract the seeds (kind of like taking a peanut out of a shell, but you have to squeeze harder. Then they have an electric pressing machine to squeeze the seeds and make oil, which is sold for medicinal purposes (lowering blood sugar, etc).
These are bags of the moringa seeds waiting to be processed since their pressing machine is currently malfunctioning and is difficult to repair it in Eswatini (it came from a donation out of the US).
Another economic development project is to take the marula fruit (looked like a small walnut to me), and break open the nuts. This cannot be done by hand as it is too hard, and must be done by sledgehammer or a large rock. Then the nut/fruit is removed from the shell and put into the press (shown below) to get the oil, which can be made into handsoap. This press is not electrical so if it breaks down, they can usually repair it. However, it looked like you have to be very strong to push the lever around to squeeze the nuts. A lot of energy expended to get just a few drops of oil into the bucket at the bottom.,,,
Next he showed us the guesthouse, and then we went with their team to do homecare visits to two families with disabled children. These families were in quite rural areas. We passed by this cow wandering out on the road snacking on several sugar canes.
We briefly stopped at this community of people living in makeshift houses. The men are cutters in the sugar cane fields and the land is not owned by them. The settlement is "temporary housing", but many end up just living there permanently.
Next we drove to this home. As we pulled in, Nolwaze Dlamini (the clinic director) asked us to note how much nicer this house is than the ones in the settlement - It's a permanent house, made of brick, with a roof! Yes, it was an improvement. It all depends on the comparison.....
This family owns this land, and it is a beautiful view of the mountains. Below is the grandparents house which is just down the hillside from the other house.
This is our crew - Laura, me, Nolwaze, Denise, and another worker at the clinic who helped with the physical therapy today (but not trained in PT per se).
The mother carried her daughter out of the house. Her daughter, six years old now, has cerebral palsy. She told the story of her birth, how she was in the hospital for a month and a half, and when she went home no one had told her that her daughter needed any special care, only to give her some seizure medicine. It wasn't until much later that she learned her daughter had cerebral palsy. She gave seizure medicine initially, but eventually stopped - too expensive and it didn't seem to be helping. She also has a son, age 4, who was running around behind us, but very shy and would only peek out at us occasionally. She said he loves his sister and is very protective of her.
The situation is, of course, a very difficult one. The daughter has seizures still. Dad has to work. Her mother (grandma) comes over to help, and was there during the visit. The woman from the clinic talked with the mother about feeding the child, and the mom said she now makes sure there is food in the house at night because the daughter frequently wakes up in the night and in the past she would have to come to her outdoor kitchen to fix something, but now at least she keeps some food on hand in the house. She fed her daughter while we were there. She can eat from a spoon, and had no problem swallowing the cassava/rice mixture.
Then we went to look at their garden plot. Kudvumisa had given them some seeds to plant and the tomatoes and beans were growing. To take her daughter with us, the mother hoisted the child carefully onto her back and then somehow wrapped a blanket around the two of them. I was sure the child would roll or fall off while mom's hands were busy with the blanket because the whole time she had been on the ground she had been moving and rolling, but on her mother's back she was very still waiting to be wrapped.
Then the woman from the clinic did some stretching exercises with the daughter and encouraged the mother to do the same. The mother was so welcoming of us (strangers) and so open in sharing her story with us.
Next we visited this little boy , age 5 who lived not far from the first family. In fact the first mother told Kudvumisa about the existence of the boy and suggested they could help him as well. We had a similar visit there. The boy also has cerebral palsy, likely caused by the vacuum suction used at delivery. He also has a cleft palate, and is unable to eat except by squirting a pasty consistency food in his mouth with a syringe. He had such an amazing smile and looked at us all in wonder at so many people. This little boy has two older siblings who unfortunately do not accept him. He is cared for mostly by mom with some help from grandma and also dad when he is available. Dad is a carpenter and so sometimes can work on projects at home, but doesn't have much time to help with the care of the child...
After each visit, we said a prayer with the family. Both mothers had prayer requests. The first mother prayed that her daughter would be able to communicate more with her one day and be accepted into society. The second mother prayed that her son would be like other boys when he grew up. They know the Lord hears the cries of their hearts and is giving them strength to face the challenges. They are both doing a great job caring for their children despite many challenges. At both houses, we dropped off bags of food - rice, ground corn, dried beans, and oil. They were both very appreciative of our coming and our prayers for them.
As we drove out, school must have been getting out as we passed multiple groups of children along the road.
The roads, as you might imagine, were not always well maintained.
Sunset over the game reserve.
Another wandering cow. Ndumiso said that if anyone hits a cow with his vehicle, the police will track the cow to the owner (based on the ear tag) and the owner will have to pay any damages to the person's car since they are responsible for making sure their animals don't get on the road. We asked if the meat from the cow would go to the owner in that case, and the answer was technically yes, but if the animal is out on the road for any period of time, various other people may come by and cut off some meat for themselves.
Back at our guesthouse, Barb led a devotion based on Galations 6:9-10.
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
We talked about how hard it is to work at an NGO and see such suffering each day. Many times, it may not seem like there is much "harvest". We know there are interventions that could help these children in the US (surgery, mechanical devices to aid in stretching the muscles and walking etc) However, the child's condition with cerebral palsy is not likely to dramatically improve with the limited interventions present here in Eswatini. But God is at work and we saw first hand the immense love he has put in the hearts of these mothers, the determination to raise their children in the best way possible, the selfless giving of the NGO workers to support these families in whatever way possible, and also the hope that was there between us as we talked, encouraged one another, laughed, and cried together. What a rich harvest!
Back at the guest house, Helen Ponds, the owner of the guesthouse complex where we are staying, stopped by and shared with us a little of her story, and that of her husband who runs both a for-profit and a not-for-profit ophthalmology business there.
At dinner, Lynda Arroyo from Hopealive 268 (268 is the area code of Eswatini) stopped by to tell us about her NGO. She is a third generation Swazi, her grandfather having come as a missionary right after WWII. Hopealive 268 focuses on children in trauma/crisis, providing education support/scholarships, and anti-human trafficking efforts as key initiatives.
We were joined at dinner by these four from Palm Grove Initiative - Hlobi, Rachel, Michael, and Jesse. (Michael and Jesse are married and live here on the Mabuda compound.) You may remember Rachel and Michael from their visit to Our Redeemer! (Hlane and Rachel hope to visit Iowa again in November this year. Jesse may be able to come also. Michael will likely be unable to come given the current restrictions on Visas for those from Nigeria). The PGI group were with the other part of the Our Redeemer group today, visiting children with hearing, speech, and developmental delay concerns.
Walking back from our wonderful catered dinner at "the white house" (another building on the premises here just down the road), we saw a red moon rising. I know it looks like a sunset in the picture, but really, it is a red moon rising....
I leave you with these words from the wall at Kudvumisa
How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the exiles of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.
The Lord sustains the humble
but casts the wicked to the ground.
(Psalm 147:1-6)
How important it is to praise the Lord in ALL CIRCUMSTANCES. He doesn't take away our troubles, but he does heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds. Surely He sustains those who call out to Him, as we saw today.
Lord, we ask your presence with these families that we visited today as well as the NGO workers who tirelessly care for them. Fill them with your peace and be their sustaining power as they face what humanly would be insurmountable challenges, but we know You are a God mighty in power, and You can do all things. We have seen you do amazing things today. Thank you for being present with us, and for the time we were able to share with these your children today. Amen.
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