wharfedale vineyard : Alex goes to Durban, South Africa

Feedback:

	Anne Button	23/07/2009, 12:07
An update from Alex in South Africa: As you may know, I'm out in Durban, South Africa working with Project O and Metro. See: http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.projecto.org.za On Tuesday a van with Metro workers and volunteers, traveling into one of the townships in the area, was hijacked at gun point and forced to repack the van. The van was stolen, stripped and dumped somewhere. All the equipment and staff personal belongings, including one volunteers insulin, was taken. Also the other main vehicle, owned by project O, has been written off so we are relying on one staff vehicle for over 15 of us and have been unable to run Metro (daily Sunday school for the kids in the townships) or deliver much needed food to the Zulu orphans in rural areas in the valley of a thousand hills, which is devastating news. The only option we have is hire cars which need upfront payments that just aren’t in the charity’s accounts. If you feel led to help with this situation, please donate what you can - contact Matt & Anne Button for details of how to do this, or look on the project O website. Any help you can offer is really important, the project can't run without vehicles. Thanks guys! xxx
	Anne Button	07/08/2009, 17:22
2nd update from Alex: Hey everyone! Been here a week today so I thought I ought to get my act together and write a little update, I almost forgot, it's been so busy and exciting. We spent the first couple of days trying to sort out vehicles after the hold up the day we arrived, which was actually OK as it gave Georgie and I a chance to settle into our surroundings and get to know the other people staying here. There are three other girls who are 17, 17 and 18 from Leeds. They were the three held at gun point! They are lovely girls and make really nice company when the boys are getting too lad-ish, haha. There are two middle age ex-drug dealers from Bournemouth, covered in tattoos and full of hilarious comments, one of whom is born again (so we're praying for his friend Mark). A boy called Jonny (19) from somewhere near Newcastle who is a really dedicated Christian and would love to teach out here after he finishes his teaching degree. A guy called Mark who is a mystery to all of us, but we love him for it, and just reminds us all of Stuart little. All the above will have left by the time Georgie and I leave but Tom (22) is another guy from London who will be here for 5 months. So, as you can see, we are quite a random group of people and are becoming a somewhat dysfunctional family, which makes each day even more amusing! Also a few of the African staff live here and Gogo (grandma) who does the cleaning and our washing, who is an angel and slightly crazy! The house we are in is HUGE and has a pool, a communal kitchen and a few bathrooms (cold showers and not usually any electricity but oh well!). They have a bunch of really hilarious dogs and two adopted Zulu boys called Jesse and Joe who are only toddlers and fill my times nicely when I'm not busy with other things ;) Sometimes the monkeys come and join us for breakfast but they steal food and shiny things as soon as the get in through the windows, so we have to be smart, which I find hard as I'd love to find a monkey in my room by accident/on purpose, haha... The pool is awesome, however Georgie took a fully clothed dip after dumping a bunch of leaves she fished out on Tom's head ;) I feel this may be the beginning of a war. The main focus at the moment besides the usual delivery of food is to build a new house for a girl who lives with us at the moment called Cindy and her four brothers and her Gogo. We have been painting the rooms and digging outside. The house is in the valley so the little Zulu boys love to come and help us dig and eat our lunch and sweets of course (which we obviously take for them in mind). The house will have beds f\in the roofs and computers and TV so the kids can study. They also have to walk for a couple hours in the mornings to get to school, all the way around the lake, so Project O are hiring one of the Baba's in the village to be a boat man and drive children to and from each side of the lake. The valley of a thousand hills is incredible, I've never seen anything like it in my life. And the lake and rivers are so amazing. It would be impossible to see these kids who have nothing, smiling like they have everything just because they get to play with a shovel, and not be grateful for all the things we have in such abundance. One of the boys, about 12 or 13 was beaming from ear to ear digging this hole for us girls (as we were clearly incompetent by his standards) and I was stood there thinking wow, he's so happy and then one of the Zulu staff translated that he was saying, "Haha, I'm here digging and I've got all these pretty girls staring at me!!" That made us all laugh a lot. Today Georgie and I went with Vashti and Sevello (one of the staff) to a really dangerous area to deliver d to five of the orphans on the project's delivery system. This broke my heart so much. Although they may have a tiny bit more in the way of money than in the Valleys, it was so much darker.The men were all outside at 2pm drunk and the little girls were so timid, Vashti said it's highly abusive in that area. Georgie and I played catch with a few of the kids but couldn't stay long as it's not very safe, especially for girls. Plus white people are never seen in these areas and it can attract really negative responses from some of the people. I can't believe the difference in the way the disabled people are treated here. the people with cerebral palsy are left with no care or attention and most of the beggars in the road are disable. People are so desperate here. I really hope I never forget this feeling of being so aware of how blessed I am just because of my geographical positioning and where I was born, let alone the care I have from my family and the care my brother has had that he would have missed completely had he been born somewhere else. We are going to a street outreach programme tonight to spend time with the people who go to the homeless shelter. Most of them are prostituting themselves or abusing drugs and alcohol. Vashti says that sometimes they just really appreciate some one to talk to and even ask for prayer. Georgie and I had a really deep talk the other night and began to pray and really felt some Spiritual things move. We both experienced something really dark in our room and prayed the blood of Jesus over us and the house and felt God's covering. I've never been so sure of anything supernatural before, it really frightened me but I was so sure of God's protection after. We both felt it was a real wake up call to the way things move Spiritually and how we are targeted when we are pushing through in the things we feel God is calling us to do and to seek him in. I will explain more of that night when I am back. Anyway I better eat. I will message again next week. Lots of love. PS. The surf is amazing and the people are all beautiful!! Haha x
	Anne Button	07/08/2009, 17:22
3rd update from Alex: Here's the best condensing I could do. Still way too long! I wish I could tell you everything... The night I wrote the last one we went into a couple of the homeless shelters in down town Durban. The basic aim on these evenings is to try to offer some kind of representation of Jesus to the people in the shelters. They are lined in bunk beds or metal beds in huge warehouses with no carpets or wall paper. Sometimes they have warm showers which are unisex and often no electricity. The majority of them are substance abusers, ex-convicts, prostitutes and disabled. It’s so heart breaking and I felt so helpless. All I felt I could do is listen to these people as they told their horrible stories of how they ended up in those hell holes and how they stand on the sea front literally begging people to buy pens or stickers. There are also families and small kids, who have been given no work, had their homes taken or their wage stopped or born into a poor home. Georgie and I spent an hour or so with a beautiful old Indian woman with big blue eyes, inhaling smoke from the guys’ spliffs all night, freezing cold and no food. Her son was lying in the bed next to her (he was about 55, himself), dying and her daughter was still on the street “selling pens”. But it was past 8pm and it’s dark at half five here, so it is likely to mean she is selling herself to feed her mum and brother but not telling them. Imagine your children having to live that life, I bet that’s more painful than living it for yourself… Another night we sat on a bed and played board games and silly face games with two little girls (6 and 11 years old) who had been living with their mum and dad in the shelter for over three years. I seriously can’t imagine having to sleep surrounded by abusive, drunk men and share showers with them at 11 years old, have food taken straight from you when your parents turn their backs and all kinds of other awful things these girls would have been exposed to, yet they were the most beautiful girls and so pure. We really want to go back this week with some dresses, food and treats for them. I realized how crazy some of my “needs”/wants are. As I began to think of what they NEED, I started to eliminate so many things that I would usually think are necessities, but are almost completely frivolous to these kids. They really know what it is to need. We really want to bless them. We’ve been driving on the quad bikes through the mountains delivering food every day. This is a totally different experience to the homeless shelters. The poverty is just as striking but its not urban, it’s completely cut off from the rest of the world, it’s like nothing but the valleys exist. The houses are exactly what I imagine when I think of third world Africa (Georgie reckons my house would fit in nicely!! Cheeky hey mum?? Haha…). The house we’ve been building is in the valley and is coming along really well. I was up on a 9 meter ladder painting the walls last week, much to the dismay of all those below ;) We’ve been pick-axing too, for the water pipes; Georgie has a real knack for scaring everyone when she gets her hands on sharp and heavy implements. She works so hard and never gives up on anything, no matter how bizarre or unsuitable the task is for a woman, she WILL complete it! The other day we had to cut the whole field area’s grass down with the machete-type thing you see Zulu women swinging. This was very amusing to everyone as we had to get quite aggressive. Georgie had blisters on her hands that had bust by the end of it. We have also been having a LOT of fun! The weird mix of people we like to call “the team” are really tight now and like a big family. We laugh loads and have all the inside jokes and silly phrases a group of people could need! It's like the Waltons at night, "Night Jon-boy!" (etc) The other day Vashti took me to pick her boys up and watch them do ballet. It made my day! Watching them run around and jump in their little ballet shorts. Zulus are just such good dancers naturally! Jesse loves to do Zulu kicks and Joe has a really lovely singing voice; I’m still trying to convince him to sing for me though… This weekend we got a mini holiday!! We drove in three cars to St.Lucia and did two nights in chalets. We had too much fun and far too much laughing. When we arrived Martin booked us all in for a crocodile and hippo boat tour, which was awesome, followed by a HUGE BBQ. Georgie almost ate the whole steak we bought. It’s like two pound for a steak bigger in circumference than your average wok out here, no lie!! We had to get up at 4am to go on safari. Jonny, Tom, Georgie and I were all in a car together which made for lots of crazy behaviour like throwing loaves of bread at the rest of the team in their cars and pretending we’d spotted something then driving off and leaving them staring into the bushes really confused… After the day out we went and ate GOOD food. I had a grilled calamari steak for four pounds! Then us older ones and Vashti went to a cool bar and listened to a crazy old man play awesome tunes on his guitar ‘til 2am :) Perfect. I dragged everyone in the bar up to dance as well! Plus, it’s 80p for a glass of really nice wine here… BONUS! We drove back this morning after getting wimpy for breakfast. I am now home alone because I have been banished from the food trip due to it being my birthday tomorrow! I hope I get to spend tomorrow night with the girls in the shelter. Wish me luck on planning an outing for this evening to celebrate! Lots of love x

Reach Out

Alex goes to Durban, South Africa