Through my Eyes

After three intense weeks of travel and moving from one city to the other, I am home. Don't get me wrong, the trip was awesome with lots of laughs, adventure, and interesting situations, and of course many funny comments and questions by yours truly, but it is good to be home. However the trip was fantastic, with many memories made and friends created and strengthened. Over the course of 19 days we saw 11 different cities and spent the nights at 8 different hostels and 1 friends house. We saw everything from castles and cathedrals, to fancy university's in Cambridge as we went along the river in a little punting boat, to the Tower of London, which was both a home and a prison at one point or the other during its course of history. We saw Big Ben, and went to a service at Westminster Abbey which was absolutely incredible.  We also arrived just in time to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. It was so cool that we were there at the right time. The flag was also ...

I lost my phone on a taxi and got it back all within five hours. I was sitting in a Primary Care-Givers meeting when I decided that I needed something from my bag. I looked around trying to find my phone and to my utter horror, I couldn't find it. That feeling is the absolute worst. When you realize that the object you are looking for actually is gone and you can't get it back. I started to panic. Thankfully I was with one of the ladies from the service centre Margret* and so she took me outside to help me think things through. She tried to get me to remember where I had last had it, so that she could possibly try and call the taxi driver. After about twenty minutes, I remembered taking a picture of a broken door in one of the taxis. That must have been where I left it. So Margret* called around and finally got ahold of the taxi driver. He said that he hadn't seen it but would continue to look. Margret* was calm throughout the whole ordeal saying that if she has pain in her...

Maria* was only 14 years old when her mother passed away in 2006. Tragically only two later later in 2008, her grandmother passed away and a year later her dad. In a span of four years, Maria* had lost three of the people closest to her. The people that should be there to see everything that you do in life, and see who you turn out to be were not. Instead she was an orphan left to care for her brother and sister as an eighteen year old girl. Its under stable to think that after all this trauma that she has endured that she would want nothing to do with caring for the most vulnerable. Its reasonable to think that she would not want to open those old wounds and give of herself. However despite all of these obstacles and wounds, Maria* has made the choice to dedicate her life to serving the most vulnerable children within her community instead of walking away and not looking back. I had the opportunity to sit with Maria* and talk with her about her life for about 45 minutes. Her story i...

As orientation has now finished, I have been placed here in South Africa, where I will be working with the Hazeyview Service Centre Team. What this means... I don't really know yet. I haven't quite figured that part out. All I've been told is that I'm to build relationships with the individuals that work within the service centre and encourage and support them with the work that they are doing. If they need help with some work, then I will help, but most importantly I am to follow them in what they do and to learn from them. I think that the reason that we are not told much is that they don't want people to go into this time with the Service Centres with high expectations and also they dont want people to go in thinking that they know everything. We are told to have "big ears, and small mouths." This next 5 weeks will be a time of learning, and gaining more insight into the work that the Service Centre does on a regular basis. One of my favourite moments...

"Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?" James 2:5  "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27  This past weekend, I had the great privilege of being welcomed into the home of one of our kids. I had the opportunity to live with them for a weekend and become a part of their family. It was an immense privilege that I will never forget. I was welcomed into the home of Cebile* who is 19 and her sister Edzai* - 24- who suffers from epilepsy. Edzai has a three year old son Jeremia*. He is one of the cutest little boys that I have ever met in community. When we got to the girls house on the Friday evening it was cold. Oshoek (the community that we were staying ) is t...

The first week of orientation has finally come to a close and what a week it has been. A week full of learning and digging deeper to understand to the fullest Hands at Work. We got to experience three very different communities and their CBO's (community based organization) within them. Coming from Zambia to South Africa has taken a bit of adjustment. There are things here in South Africa that are much more stigmatized then they are in Zambia, in terms of health care and a male presence. Male care workers are typically non-exsistent here in South Africa in comparison to Zambia where there are at least 2-3 in every community. The second day we were in a community that is in the Bushbuck Ridge region. There we went on holy home visits in the community. Holy Home Visits are the chance for the care workers to go into the community to visit the children in their homes, and just check up on them and have that opportunity to catch up with the children on what is going on in their lives...

I am now in South Africa, my new home for the next little while. My last week in Zambia was actually quite a busy week. We had two teams staying at the farm, a kids camp, and Maranatha Celebrations that were all going on at the same time. So it made for a little chaos. I was asked by Prag and Ashley to help run the kids camp alongside of Rita and Gideon because neither Prag nor Ashley would be able to be there due to Marantha Celebrations. The kids that were here for the camp, are from one of the Luanshya communities Maposa. As a result of the team only being 5 people, the number of the kids is less making it only 20 instead of the normal 30. They have been such a joy to have around the farm, always laughing, and smiling, simply enjoying the opportunity for this type of vacation. The team that was running the camp, were incredibly creative with the kinds of activities that they did with the children. From baking bread (story of the feeding of the five thousand), to making t-shirts that...