Ans in grandmotherly pose!
The young girls dorm - six to a room
The young girls section at the Care Centre
The music team - Michelle in the long dress is a Zimbabwean studying at Uni. The girl next to her lives at the Care Centre
Michelle came to help lead singing at the homeless service
The homeless men's service and lunch. Note how young many of these guys are.
The Zulu songs were fantastic
1/02/2009 2:39 PM
At ORT for the flight to Durban
Today has been a fairly interesting day – of contrasts in some ways. The Hillbrow Church service was fairly inspiring. The musicians were fantastic and it would be hard to go past the three females who sang. Nothing like African music. A number of the songs were sung in Zulu and one didn’t need to be fluent in Zulu to be uplifted by the songs. Apart from Ans I was the only white in a congregation of about 200 people, clapping, swaying and singing rhythmically. There are numerous African countries represented in the congregation. I counted off at least a dozen – Cameroon, Malawi, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Botswana and others plus different SA language groups although it would seem Zulu appears the dominant language and the ones that others from different countries learn.
Afterwards attended the homeless service in the hall. Fairly confronting talking to guys who for the loss of a job in less than three months found themselves on the street. One or two were fairly upbeat, others had had jobs which they had lost and very few that I could see were long term homeless people. Most were fairly young and there were only a handful over thirty. One guy Muzi had HIV and had just started on ARVs three weeks ago. He was wanting to set up a support group as he was in contact with guys who are sick and refusing to be tested and he knows the outcome for them. Lunch was nutritious and plentiful and for many of these guys the only hot meal between Sundays.
Then off to the Care Centre which is an annexe of the church. 47 kidd and teenagers living in an old hotel. The younger kids in rooms of six with a carer full time in a room off to the side who cares for them six days a week. Off the carers’ room was a kitchen. The younger girls were having lunch when I arrived. Talk about cute. An orphanage by any other name I wondered if there was any alternative to this form of care until I was told about one of the churches that had set up a large mail box to receive children no longer wanted or able to be cared for. This was a response to the eight month old child found in a rubbish bin. Whilst I saw poverty close up today Ans reminded me that the poverty in KZN is far worse. The problems appear insurmountable.
At ORT for the flight to Durban
Today has been a fairly interesting day – of contrasts in some ways. The Hillbrow Church service was fairly inspiring. The musicians were fantastic and it would be hard to go past the three females who sang. Nothing like African music. A number of the songs were sung in Zulu and one didn’t need to be fluent in Zulu to be uplifted by the songs. Apart from Ans I was the only white in a congregation of about 200 people, clapping, swaying and singing rhythmically. There are numerous African countries represented in the congregation. I counted off at least a dozen – Cameroon, Malawi, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Botswana and others plus different SA language groups although it would seem Zulu appears the dominant language and the ones that others from different countries learn.
Afterwards attended the homeless service in the hall. Fairly confronting talking to guys who for the loss of a job in less than three months found themselves on the street. One or two were fairly upbeat, others had had jobs which they had lost and very few that I could see were long term homeless people. Most were fairly young and there were only a handful over thirty. One guy Muzi had HIV and had just started on ARVs three weeks ago. He was wanting to set up a support group as he was in contact with guys who are sick and refusing to be tested and he knows the outcome for them. Lunch was nutritious and plentiful and for many of these guys the only hot meal between Sundays.
Then off to the Care Centre which is an annexe of the church. 47 kidd and teenagers living in an old hotel. The younger kids in rooms of six with a carer full time in a room off to the side who cares for them six days a week. Off the carers’ room was a kitchen. The younger girls were having lunch when I arrived. Talk about cute. An orphanage by any other name I wondered if there was any alternative to this form of care until I was told about one of the churches that had set up a large mail box to receive children no longer wanted or able to be cared for. This was a response to the eight month old child found in a rubbish bin. Whilst I saw poverty close up today Ans reminded me that the poverty in KZN is far worse. The problems appear insurmountable.
Leonard on Keyboard is youth pastor. He is from Malawi
Members of the Zionist Churches wear distinctive uniforms of many colours.
A 5 minute walk from my accommodation revealed a prosperous middle class area. This si still predominantlt white.
