My African dream

Goodbye February....

2012-03-01T01:10:00.000-08:00

One of my new years resolutions was to at least write a blog once a month....but February even in 2012 is just too short.

I always say February the most work.. new school year, harvesting and the most guests.

Marloes is back and relieving me and Lee of a lot of little jobs.

I could finally move the last of William's furniture to his new home in Malmesbury. If you are familiar with Google street view, go to corner of Tswete and Arend Street and you will see his house. Yesterday I had a lot of stress regarding William. He had an operation scheduled for 01 March in Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. I tried in vain to organise transport for him from Malmesbury to Groote Schuur. Malmesbury hospital told me that Groote Schuur must organise it, Groote Schuur told me Western Cape Rehab must do it, Western Cape rehab told me Malmesbury must do it - full circles, I ended up where no one could help me. Thank goodness for Edith from Denmark who is working as volunteer at Brooklyn Chest Hospital that went with her friend to fetch William. And even that was not without drama but I will tell more when I tell you how William is doing after the operation today. A friend from Namibia is at the hospital and will look in on William. The operation is to release tension in elbow so that he can have more mobility in his right arm.

Lethu that was attacked over Christmas is now with family in Khyaelitschia and when William goes home, he will go with him for a few days to Malmesbury. Lethu is making a lot of progress but still gets very tired. His right side is paralysed but he has started to walk again and at least he can use his left hand. Also about Lethu I will report later more.

At the project the garden has supplied us with onions, cabbages, pumpkins and carrots. I have been working with the cook Kholeka together to try and get a better idea of the needs of the kitchen. Friends call it " so you are doing your Jamie Oliver at the project". But it was quite interesting and I think we both learned a lot from each other. Every week I harvested tomatoes from a local field and that could also be used in the kitchen. Here at home the deep freezer is stacked with tomatoes already peeled so they will have enough to use for the rest of the winter.

Every morning I take Dieter and Jean-mari to school in Bonnievale and turned around to pick up station children for school. First few days they were crying, then they became very quiet and now I have a bunch of singing and shouting children. I am learning them a new song and now that Marloes is doing the driving she will have to sing with them.

"Kaptein span die seile" and "Ek wil huis toe gaan" are the favorite songs.
"Captain pull up the sail" " I want to go home"

2012-01-14T00:35:00.000-08:00

Liza and Lee

Liza and father Izak

Mothers bringing their children

Boeta and Boytjie , An identical twin. If you have photo of one you see both.

What fun it is to do Brain gym!

House of Vulelo

House of Vulelo with Shack which he uses for church.

Schack/Church inside where William will now sleep

Kitchen area

Entrance to Schack

Neighbour house that we are in the process of buying for WIlliam

Day one and two....

2012-01-12T06:08:00.000-08:00

School started again on wednesday and we just jumped in.

Jurie was at his post as driver, at the project Lee, Nita and Izak made sure the classrooms and grounds were ready to receive the children.

I organised the food and for the first day I thought we should have only sandwiches. Snack was water melon. Today they had normal menu with oats as porridge, banana for snacktime and noodles with mince for lunch.

Lee and I had to do quite a bit of "mothering" as the children are not yeady fully potty trained and luckily it was a very hot day that the children enjoyed being "hosed" down.

We will be looking for a class room assistant and a cleaner/cook as those two positions are really needed.

Good news is that we have found a house for William in Malmesbury right next door to his brother who is at the moment his caretaker. If all goes well I will help them to move to Malmesbury on the weekend. First we need to attend to a funeral, Albert who in early days helped at the project passed away age 72.

Ein bunter Spielplatz

2012-01-10T09:38:00.000-08:00

Hallo zusammen, wir sind Pierre und Christin, zwei Medizinstudenten vom Tygerberg Hospital in Kapstadt, und verbrachten 2 Tage auf Heidis Projekt. Seit wir in Luxembourg von dem Projekt erfuhren, weckte es sofort unser Interesse und wir beschlossen, während unseres 5-monatigen Studienaufenthalts in Kapstadt, Heidi und ihr Kinderprojekt zu besuchen.

Nach einer umfangreichen Rundfahrt rund um das Projekt und einer herzlichen Einführung in die Ziele und Ausblicke des Projekts, spendete Heidi so einige Zeit, um all unsere Fragen zu beantworten und uns die (manchmal schwierig zu verstehenden) Ansichten der Dorfbewohner zu erläutern. Das Projekt begeisterte uns von Anhieb an.

Zuguterletzt konnten wir sogar einige Zeit mit den Kindern verbringen, indem wir gemeinsam dem kleinen Spielplatz vor dem Squatter Camp etwas Farbe verliehen und neue Schaukeln aufhängten. Für die Kinder war das natürlich eine willkommene Abwechslung im Alltag und ein Riesenspaß mit den Farben zu experimentieren, und für uns war es eine einmalige Gelegenheit, den Kindern etwas näher zu kommen und sie ein bisschen kennen zu lernen. Diese kurze Zeit reichte schon aus, unser Herz für das Projekt und die Kinder dort zu erobern.

Zuerst müssen die Reifen vom Staub befreit und sauber gemacht werden

Die Kinder und wir beim bemalen der Reifen

Heidi mit den Kindern

Jetzt sind die Reifen bunt und machen viel mehr Spaß zum spielen.

Im Nachhinein sind wir so begeistert von dem Mut und der unfassbar aufwendigen Arbeit, die Heidi dort leistet und möchten ihr nochmal ganz besonders herzlich DANKE für alles sagen!

My work at the project

2011-12-01T03:14:00.000-08:00

I am Marloes, 25 years old and I come from Holland. In 2010/11 I was here for half a year with Maartje, Marina an Ruby for my internship. Back home I finished my study primary school teaching and I decided to come back to South Africa. The children and the project just stole my heart and I need the help here. So this last three months I worked as a volunteer again and now it is already my last week. Hopefully I will be back soon, because there is a big need of help for the kids.

Because I am a teacher I started to help the current teachers. Sometimes I take over the class and sometimes I just assist the teacher. I also take my time to observe the children and their behaviour. Teacher Nita is studying now to become an Early Childhood Educator. She is open to learn, so I work mostly with her.
The children that come to the project now, are from 2 years old to 4 years old. This is younger than I am used to work with. My expertise is more with the older children.

I found out that a lot of older children are at the plakkerskamp during the day. They don’t go to school. And they don’t come to the project anymore, because that is not allowed. This is very heartbreaking, because I want to help them.
One example is Maggie. She is 13 years old and she stays with her father, mother, pregnant sister (16) and two little ones in a small house. The last two months she didn’t go to school anymore, she sleeps in the bush and she breaks into houses at the plakkerskamp to steal their food. One day Jurie found her in the plakkerskamp with all the angry women around her, because they caught her in a house. Maggie got spanked by the ladies and everybody was very upset with her. Jurie took her to the project and Lee helped her to get clean and to make her talk.
After that I worked with her. She didn’t want to feel ‘special’, so I also invited her friends Kathy, Jason and Bonisile to come to the project. I make art and play outside games with them. Maggie loves to make jewellery with beads, so I help her a lot with that. They love the new computer. We dance on music and video ourselves with the webcam. On these moments you can see a happy smile on Maggies face. But the next moment she can turn around all the way and she can be very difficult. So it is really important that she gets help and love, because she really needs it.

For next year I am brainstorming what we can do with these older children.
When I am back next year I want to work with these older children after school time. I want to do workshops with the help of volunteers. We have also people in this area who would like to help at the project. So I want to find out who has which talent and how we can use that.
When it is all organized I want it to be a busy, fun time. One group is playing soccer, while another group is making art. The next day somebody makes wire cars with a group and the other group is dancing in their hip-hop group. I personally have a background in art, so I would help them in art classes like painting and making sculptures.
It would be nice if we can make things to sell, so the children learn how to make money with simple things.

In the mornings, or early afternoons, I want to give kids remedial teaching. There are a lot of children who need extra help. Also the children that are going to government schools. If I can give them extra help, they can maybe stay on the level of the other children in their class.

I hope I can realize my ideas next year and I am going to work hard to make it happen.

Thank you for being interested in my story and I want to thank everybody that helps the project. I will write again when I am back in South Africa.

Marloes

Sep - Dec 2011

2011-12-01T03:09:00.000-08:00

Good morning everybody,

As Heidi just said, I will write the blog today. I will write another blog about my work and here I will tell you about the last two/three months at the project.

A lot of things have changed this year when I compare it to last year. Because of the strict government rules, it is more difficult to do what we want to do. But luckily there is so nice help at the project that I see a bright future for the project.

To begin with Ellen en Tina, the volunteers of the previous blog. They helped out a lot. They worked hard to make the classrooms look better. They painted the rooms in bright colours and they made it look very attractive for the children, with nice pictures and drawings. Thank you so much girls!

Then we have Lee, she is a real gift for the project! She is since September the principle of the project. Lee has a very good feeling for the children, the staff and the plakkerskamp. She helps the teachers with their lessons. Every day she makes a program, so the teachers know what to do.
She works hard to get the parents more involved. And believe me, that is not an easy job. Everything is so good organized now. People come now to the project to sign their children in for next year.

Ralph finished the containers in the back of the project. It looks very nice. Next year we will work here with the older children. Pictures will come!

My father Hans came here in November, to start up a computer room. He bought two laptops and a printer. He installed everything and he helped Jason to work on the computer. We are very happy that my father did this, because now we can teach the kids computer skills. Educational programs are a bit too expensive, so we have to look for some nice affordable educational games. Thank you again dad for this great project! He also wrote a blog: https://sites.google.com/site/bonniepeoplezuidafrika2011/

In October Aly and Francis from Luxemburg visited the project. They worked hard to organize things for the project. They had a lot of meetings and they made some nice decisions. Soon you will hear about these new plans! I am very excited.

For next year, we want to get the whole community more involved. We would like to do this by activities for young and old. For example: Ladies who like to do needlework can make things together at the project. Maybe they can make things to sell. Important is that the people feel welcome at the project and that they have a good time. Drinking tea, music on the background, talking with each other, etc.
We made some very nice contacts with other community projects in this area. We are very open to work together and help each other, so we can be stronger.

In January we will start a new year, with new ideas and new youngsters and children. There will be volunteers in January and we are very thankful for that!

Children learning to eat with knife and fork

01 December 2011

2011-11-30T23:20:00.000-08:00

I just said to Marloes, it cannot be that our last blog was in September. It feels as if Tina and Ellen only left yesterday....

Today we have in Bonnievale a lot of rain, so much so that Jurie cannot get to the children and even the road to the project is so slippery that Lee was grateful not to get stuck.

That means that even Marloes is at home and can help with some paperwork - actually computer work.

We want to update our Bonniepeople website, we have to organise training for Kholeka at Cwd for the kitchen container project, and update our blog.

Today is also the last day of school for children - even if the schools officially only closes on the 9.th of December. Will be interesting to see how many children will be coming tomorrow.

As Marloes are leaving Bonnievale on Saturday 03 December, Staff have organised the year end function for tomorrow. I just had a look at the yr.no weather forecast website and it even predicts more rain tomorrow.

Luckily I did not trouble myself by watering the garden yesterday. The garden at the project is also looking good and the children are already eating carrots from the garden.

Now I will get to more paperwork so that Marloes can also post a note on the blog.

Volunteering at the project

2011-09-24T14:27:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody, we are Ellen and Tina, the current volunteers on the Bonnie People project. Ellen is 22, comes from Holland and is a 5th year medical student. She is volunteering at the project for 2 months and arrived 18th August. Tina is from Germany, is volunteering for 4 weeks and arrived 11th September. We support the teachers at the project and we also organize some special things. Last Wednesday we took the older children (4-6 years) to the birds paradise in Robertson with the money we got from family and friends in Holland and Germany. Ellen also got support from the fund WWvK (www.wereldwijdvoorkinderen.nl). We rent a bus, went there for a morning with 10 kids and 5 teachers, including us. After the tour at the birds farm, we had lunch at the playground.

We are also working with a 14-years old boy called Jason who has dyslexia. We are playing games with him like four-in-a-row and are trying to teach him letters and numbers. On Friday, 16th September, we went shopping for new clothes with him, see here the result.

Especially he was very happy with his new white shoes and the sun glasses. As he felt unobserved he was dancing in the fitting room. It gave us a very special feeling to be able to do this for him.

Currently we are painting the classrooms in yellow and green. The classrooms were really dark before we started and Lee came with the idea to change the colours, so that the kids can feel more comfortable. It's a lot of work because the walls need to be cleaned, sand papered and cleaned again with a special chemical stuff. Before we can paint with the colours we have to paint the walls white for one or more times to hide the dark colours. The children are having their lessons outside at the moment. We'll show you the results as soon as possible!

Received this today - made my day!

2011-08-25T19:34:00.000-07:00

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a
pole which she carried across her neck.
One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always
delivered a full portion of water.
At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot
arrived only half full.
For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only
one and a half pots of water.
Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments.
But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable
that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.
After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the
woman one day by the stream.
'I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak
out all the way back to your house.'
The old woman smiled, 'Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of
the path, but not on the other pot's side?'
'That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower
seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water
them.'
For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate
the table.
Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to
grace the house.'
Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each
have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.

You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good

in them.

So, to all of my cracked pot friends, have a great day and remember to smell

the flowers on your side of the path!

What about the children? And other news....

2011-08-24T23:22:00.000-07:00

At the Project:

Department of social welfare are closing a lot of early education facilities down and they have been giving us a hard time on quite a few levels. I have visited a few of these places that has been closed down end of 2010 and they are still closed. What saddens me is the question: "what about the children?" Where are they now and why are the Department not starting Early Education Facilities themselves. Early September there will be a meeting at Government level in Cape Town and we will have a representative to attend this meeting.

What is most important is that we do need to move forward and do more for these children.

The Department requires all staff to have a certain level of education to work with the children. When we started the project for us it was important to "take care" of the children and employed "carers". Important was also to give people from the Plakkerskamp these jobs so that at least some families will have a better income.

For the last 18 months I have put in a lot of effort to get staff on training programmes. But I have also realised that my staff at Bonniepeople are not teachers, so even if I send them for training they are not able to apply learning techniques to the children what they have learned.

After a lot of discussions, dissapointments and receiving a lot of advice from people working with the same sort of projects there are some very heart wrenching changes to be made at the project.

So there will be a lot happening at Bonniepeople at the end of 2011.

I have informed staff at the project that I will not be renewing their contracts with Bonniepeople from January 2012.

I will be advertising for trained people to take up teaching positions at Bonniepeople from 2012. .

We are giving the present staff advice and support to search for other jobs, and also to go on different courses in the fields that they are more interested in.

We are reminding them each month about the ending of their contracts and that we are there to help them to put a C.V. together and even to take them to places should they hear of job possibilities.

Kholeka are interested in pallative care.

Tembisa would like another training course in early childhood education.

Vivienne will go for more cooking lessons.

Elsie is undecided.

Nita is now enrolled at a teaching facility for training as level 4 early childhood education.

Stacey, the principal at the moment is pregnant (baby is expected in September) and she found another job at Maraisdal Primary School.

Staff members that I am keeping are:

Alida to continue doing the bookkeeping and payments.

Jurie - driver, he is also community worker

Izak - gardener.

Volunteers:

I have Ellen from Holland and she will be with us for the next two months. She is a medical student and will do a lot of work in the "Plakkerskamp". Hospice needs feet to work with patients there and these are patients with cronic diseases, Hiv and Tuberculosis.

William:

At the moment he is going through a stage of "anger". Partly because decisions are being made "for him" and also I think he is realising now that he will always be in need of someone to take care of him. He had to deal with a lot of dissapointments. Both carers that I took to Cape Town to take care of him has left him without any prior warning. At the moment his brother is looking after him.

Ralph - that build the jungle gym is also here at the moment and he is prepared to put up a storage room for the garden and do the roof and repairs for the containers.

Hans - He is the father of Marloes who was a volunteer at Bonniepeople in 2009. Hans is a computer specialist and he is coming in October from Holland with the intention to put up a computer room for Bonniepeople. Idea is to put it in where the storeroom is now and also to put in an alarm system. Will let you know more about that later. Very exiting and I do hope that is something that can be beneficial for the children as well as for the project as a whole

Garden - I know that I am an "idealist" but that is what made me start and kept me going.

Izak has been planting what the people in the community need and if they ask for spinach or cabbage he will just give it to them. No charge. At the moment there is a woman working in the garden from the community. She comes after her day job and helps Izak. I thought she was the wife of Izak but she is not.

It turns out that she takes from the garden vegetables home and she feels that she needs to give something back to the garden.

"Dreams can come true"

Paul Harris Fellow / 19 July 2011

2011-07-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

I invited the Rotary Club of the Breederiver Winelands to come and visit the Bonniepeople project. We also served lunch and Kholeka made a very nice dish of Umgushu.

Here Rotarian Gert helps cooling down the food for the little ones.

Tembisa, Elsie and Nita also had to help blow...

In the big Wendyhouse guests and visitors had time to look at the projects that the children did in the school holiday.

The children came up with the name of Hopeville - and now they want to call the squatter camp - Hope Valley.

I did not know that the Rotarians planned to present me with a Paul Harris Fellowship

Dear Rotarians

If you have asked me if I would like to receive a certifcate, a medal and a pin to be recognised as a "Paul Harris Fellow", I would have declined.

But you did it as a complete surprise, as Ronel said, on my "homeground" at Bonniepeople project.

It is sometimes very lonely working with people that see no future, escape in drugs and alcoholism and leave their children without any dreams.

At Bonniepeople our motto is "community work from the heart" and my heart is in this project.

This recognition I would like to share with many people who have their "hearts" in the Bonniepeople project.

Without the support of friendship and dedication of the people working for the Bonnievale Project in Luxembourg the Bonniepeople Project would not be.

And I know I can also count on the friendship and dedication of the Rotary Club of the Breede River Winelands.

Thank you very much.

Heidi van der Merwe

William learns to paint

2011-07-19T23:18:00.000-07:00

Marieta Bosman, art teacher, teaches William paint techniques using paint brush with his mouth.

Two beautiful pictures

William has no use of his arms or hands.

gap time

2011-06-30T04:42:00.000-07:00

WHO IS WILLIAM AND WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?

2011-06-21T14:20:00.000-07:00

I did not think about it that so many people will read this blog that has not met William yet. William is from the Transkei and speaks Xhosa, Afrikaans and a little English. About 12 years ago I was looking for someone to help me start up with a project with children from a very disadvantaged community. But normally when you find a worker you need to always be there to supervise this worker. My message was that I was looking for someone that likes to work for himself.

From the winecellar I got a message that the worker I am looking for is on holiday from the transkei and is travelling with his sewing machine. Where ever he is he will start doing amends on clothes and get some money in. I showed William my plans and I will never forget how enthusiastic he was. His wife (they are now seperated) was still in the transkei and would only join him much later.

William started as builder, then painter, then gardener and finally he was the best teacher for our Grade R children. The children lovingly calls him "Boetie", meaning Brother.

Early in the start of the project William found children abandoned and sleeping on weekends under the bushes because of abuse in the community. William took them into his own home and later sponsors from Holland put up a small hut for these children. One of these "children" - Andile became William's attacker and another one - Lethu is now a personal carer of William.

Andile for a long time was a problem maker and for the last two years we have refused him entry at the project. He turned out abusing alcahol and drugs. Drug abuse are increasing in Bonnievale and he wanted money from William. But he was not alone, another person also joined the attack. Both of them are now in prison awaiting trial for this attack but also for other crimes.

They stole R 2000.00 from William and with the brutal attack on him, he was left for dead, his life are changed forever.

photos from last weekend

2011-06-18T17:19:00.000-07:00

Children wanting to help with wheelchair at the project.

Elsie and Zano with their children

Kholeka and her youngest boy

During church service everyone came to greet William first the men, then the woman and then the children. From the oldest to the youngest all on their knees...

A lot of dancing made all of the churchgoers very sweaty

Dancers in front of William

Some of William's injuries. Wound at the back of the head is finally healed.

Lethu helping William out of the wheelchair

Lethu busy putting braces on Williams hands

Weekend with William

2011-06-12T13:33:00.000-07:00

William ist at the moment in the Western Cape Rehab Centre, close to the Airport in Cape Town.

He is allowed to go for a weekend "home" to Bonnievale.

For William to return "home" I had to take Lethu for training on how to take care of William. Lethu did very well with the training and staff at the Rehab centre complimented him on his caring attitude. But when I took Lethu home he said to me that he does not mind doing this for William but he is a young man, only 21 years old and he does not want to do it all the time.

William has no control of muscles in the torso and that means he has no use of his arms, hands. He cannot sit on his own. Everything that we do for ourselves without thinking twice - a carer now must do for William.

So we had to take Zano (husband of Elsie - employed at the project) last wednesday to do training. On Friday I could pick the two of them up. I arrived at 12h00 and finally at 14h00 we were on the road back to Bonnievale. Normally a two hour drive.

William was in good spirit, I bought him an ice cream and he enjoyed it very much. On the farm he was very tired and I send Hugo with Zano back to Bonnievale. Zano wanted to see his family again and Lethu would stay with William for the weekend. Big was my surprise when Hugo cam back not only with Lethu but also with the three children of William. Phumesa, Ayanda and Pakamani - had to make another bed for them.

On Saturday I took William to the project and left him there with helpers to pack his things. It took me another two trips to bring all his furniture and stuff to store on the farm. Now the two rooms that he occupied we can use for the baby room. We are registred now to take care of 6 babies and we want to start doing just that.

Saturday evening William was very tired and after putting him into bed we were all tired. It was quite a picture as I sat unwinding watching a film with the children of William and Lethu all in a row next to me. Lethu was very attentive and every now and tehn checked with William to see if he was ok.

On Sunday I took William to a church service of his church the Zion Church. They organised to have it in the big wendy house at the project. I left him there at 11h00 and at 16h00 I went back to pick him up. But they were still busy with dancing, singing and praying. I took some nice photos and will post it later in the week.
Lethu stayed in the Squatter Camp and Zano came out and is taking care of William tonight. But they are both tired and when I looked in they were both asleep at 21h00.

Tomorrow I have to take the children to school at 07h45, then William has to see the police, and we have to go to the Bank. Then I will take the farm truck to Paarl for a service, at the moment I am the only one with a valid licence to drive the truck. Hugo will come to Paarl with William and we will together go to the rehab centre.

We will stay over in Milnerton and on Tuesday Hugo has a conference in Paarl and I will then take the truck back to Bonnievale.

This week is a short week, Thursday is a public holiday.

Wochenende mit William

2011-06-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

William ist im moment in der Reha Klinik "Western Cape Rehab Centre" in Mitchells Plain, nicht weit weg vom Flughafen in Kapstadt.

William durfte fuers Wochenende nach Bonnievale kommen. Aber...

Letzte Woche Mittwoch habe ich Zano zur William gebracht fuer Training als Versorger. Am Freitag konnte ich die beiden dann abholen. Um 12h00 war ich da, um 14h00 waren wir endlich dann wieder auf dem Weg nach Bonnievale. Ja im Rollstuhl ist alles nicht so einfach.

William war aber sehr gut drauf, ich habe ihm einen Eis gekauft und er hat es mit Genuss geschleckt. Unterwegs hat mein Handy immer wieder gebimmelt - Verwandte und Freunde von William wollte wissen wann er dann endlich kommt.

William ist im Oberkoerper gelaehmt. Er kann die Beine bewegen aber er kann kaum stehen und kann garnicht gehen. Die Arme sind bewegungslos und die Finger kann ruehren aber er kann nichts greifen. Er muss gefuettert und gekleidet werden. Und alles andere natuerlich auch was wir so selbstverstaendlich machen kann. Er ist aber sehr gedulgig und positiv eingestellt. Er wird sehr gemocht im Reha Centre wegen seiner Persoenlichkeit.

Freitag Abend zu Hause habe ich Hugo mit Zano nach Bonnievale geschickt. Zano wollte zurueck zu seiner Familie und Lethu der schon training gemacht hat als Versorger sollte kommen. Gross war meiner Ueberraschung als Hugo zurueck kam mit Lethu und die drei Kinder von William. Musste dann noch einen Bett zurecht machen fuer die Kinder. Phumesa, Ayanda und Pakamani.

Am Samstag sind wir zum Projekt und habe ich William dort gelassen mit Helfer. Die haben seine Sachen zusammen gepackt. Noch zwei mal war ich zum Projekt gefahren, jetzt sind seiner Moebel und Sachen in einem Abstellkammer auf der Farm aufbewahrt.

Die zwei Zimmer wo er gewohnt habe werden wir jetzt als Babyzimmer einrichten. Wir duerfen jetzt 6 Baby's versorgen und wollen dann auch damit anfangen.

William wohnt bei uns im Haus, habe einen Zimmer mit Zwei Einzelbetten eingerichtet. Er ist sehr zufrieden. Samsatagabend war er schon ganz schoen erschoppft. Ist frueh ins Bett gebracht und ich habe mit den Kindern und Lethu Fern geschaut. Das war ein Bild - ich mit 4 Schwarze Kinder auf einer Reihe. Gott sei Dank hat Hugo kein Problem damit. Lethu war sehr aufmerksam und ist immer wieder hoch und hat nach William geschaut.

Am Sonntag haben seine Mitglieder von der Zionkirche einen Gottesdienst arrangiert im grossen Wendyhaus am Projekt. Ich habe William und Lethu gegen 11h00 dort hin gebracht. Gegen 16h00 wollte ich William wieder abholen aber kam gerade noch in Zeit wo letzter Tanz und Gebet gemacht wird. Habe sehr schoene Fotos gemacht - werde die spaeter in der Woche auch auf dem Blog bringen. Und dann wurde noch gegessen.

Lethu und die Kinder von William sind dann dort geblieben und Zano ist wieder mit als Versorger fuer die Nacht. Zano ist sehr empatisch, Ehemann von Elsie (Angestellte am Projekt) und er hat im moment kein Arbeit.

Ich muss William am Montag ( Morgen) zur Bank bringen, auch muss er zum Polizei. Es gibt gute Nachrichten, beide Attentaeter sind gefangen und sind im Gefaengnis.

Morgen 07h45 bringe ich die Kinder zur Schule, dann William zur Polizei und Bank. Dann wieder zurueck auf die Farm. Hugo faehrt mit William dann nach Paarl und ich mit dem Laster. Laster muss in die Werkstatt in Paarl und ich bin im moment die einsigste auf der Farm mit gueltige Lizenz. Von Paarl fahre ich mit zum Reha Centre. Abends werden wir in Milnerton uebernachten und am Dienstag hat Hugo Konferenz in Paarl. Dann werde ich wieder Laster abholen und zurueck nach Bonnievale fahren.

Die Woche ist wieder kurz, am Donnerstag ist Feiertag "Youthday"

Thursday, Thursday...

2011-06-02T04:51:00.000-07:00

IZAK IN FRONT OF A VERY CLEAN GARDEN

LORETTA WITH THE EARLY DANCE GROUP....

How is William?

2011-05-31T08:34:00.000-07:00

Last week I took Lethu for training to help William.

Lethu was found by William abandoned by his parents and William took him in and cared for him when he was only about 6 years old. Lethu is now 21 and a really intelligent young man although he never learnt to read or write. Lethu lives in the squatter community of Bonnievale and has no permanent job. When asked if he could do training to help William he was very eager to do it.

William was so happy to see us, especially also to see Ralph, who himself had to do a long time rehabilitation. Lethu stayed at the facility and slept in a bed next to William.

William can sit supported in a wheelchair. He can move the fingers of his left hand but he cannot use his left or right hand or arms. He can move his legs and when he is in the wheelchair he can move the chair with his feet. In bed he must be turned around every two hours and he needs help eating and drinking. He told me he cancelled his coffee in the evening because they (the staff) bring it, put it on the bedside table and he can smell it but there is no one to help him drink the coffee.....

The next day I went back there to visit the social welfare officer, the therapist and the doctor that are treating/helping William.

All of them were very impressed with Lethu and how quickly he learnt how to help William. It helps also a lot that William is very patient and also very reminding - telling Lethu every step he should do.

The social welfare officer explained that William will receive a wheelchair free of charge and he will receive a grant of R 1000.00 per month as well as a grant to pay a carer. R 350.00 per month. I was stunned - he needs full time care and R 350.00 is only a week's pay.

The therapist asked me about William's job when he comes back and for me it was heartbreaking to sit there and tell him that he has no job at the project at the moment. But I thought of the computer room and asked the therapist about possibilities to teach William to use a computer with his mouth. (William has never before used a computer and he told me the very next day that they already started on computer training.)

I saw his doctor, and told him about William's complaints that he is consistently cold. William is now on medication for the nerve endings in his feet and hands and he says he can sleep now a lot better. He also had to see the specialists at Tygerberg about his mandible and the problems he has talking, chewing and swallowing. He most probably will need another operation.

On Friday when I wanted to pick Lethu up again my car was broken into, and the ignition broken with, I think a srewdriver. I had to wait for police and mechanic and luckily my dear friend Edith took the volunteer to the airport and fetched Lethu. She has seen William and was surprised about how much better he is looking.

The damage to my car was such that Edith brought me home on Saturday and the car stayed behind in Cape Town for repairs.

Lethu told me that William really look forward to his first visit for a weekend to Bonnievale, the weekend of 10 June. That will still mean a lot of preparation, he is coming to stay with me/us and I still need to find a hospital bed and an extra small bed for Lethu to sleep on.

After the weekend he most probably will return to Cape Town until he finishes his rehab expected at the end of June.

2011-05-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

Moin hier gruesst Lukas aus Hamburg!

Ich bin jetzt seit ca. zwei Wochen hier in Bonnievale und genauso so lange arbeite ich beim Projekt Bonniepeople auch schon mit. Eigentlich sind zwei Wochen nicht genug um sich voellig zu Hause zu fuehlen, aber in meinem Fall war das ein Selbstgaenger. Warum? Weil ich hier bei den van der Merwe's empfangen wurde wie zu Hause und das besonders schoene daran ist das es nicht nur mir so ergangen ist, sondern allen anderen Volunteeren der letzten Jahre voraussichtlich auch. Diese Art ist fuer uns Volunteere einfach nur ansteckend und wir versuchen sie auch an die Kinder im Projekt weiterzuvermitteln. Wenn uns das gelingt haben wir meiner Meinung nach schon das Ziel unseres Aufenthalts hier erreicht, denn wenn diese Kinder warmherzig behandelt werden, erhalten sie etwas, was sie vielleicht von ihrem traurigen, fuer mich erschreckenden Alltag in den "Squatter Camp" ablenken kann. Es ist fuer mich jedes Mal wenn ich durch den "Squatter Camp" fahre ein Schock und ich wuenschte ich koennte wirklich dratisch etwas veraendern, doch wenn ich dann nach nur wenigen Hundert Metern zum Projekt zurueckkehre merke ich warum ich hier bin. Es sind die Kinder denen man taeglich mit unverhaeltnissmaessigen Kleinigkeiten eine Freude machen kann.
Diese Freude die ich den Kindern geben kann macht mir selbst Freude und wenn ich dann nach dem Projekt nach "Hause" komme, geht mein Tag freudig bei den van der Merwe's weiter..., also was will man mehr mein Aufenhalt in Bonnivale hat sich jetzt schon vollends gelohnt.

Ein Tag am Projekt....

2011-05-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

Heute musste Jurie bei den Wahlen helfen und darum haben Ebru und ich seinen Job als Fahrer fuer den Tag 'uebernommen'. Wir starteten um viertel nach 7 Richtung Squatter Camp und holten die aelteren Kinder, um Sie zur Schule zu bringen. Sie waren erst ueberrascht und wussten nicht dass wir Sie heute nach Happyvalley brachten aber nach kurzer Erklaerung sprangen Sie auch schon gleich in den Pick-up. Wir fuhren zur Schule und es waren mehr Leute als sonst auf den Strassen unterwegs. Spaeter erfuhren wir, dass heute der Tag war um das Geld fuer die Kinder abzuholen."Allpay" Jede Mutter machte sich natuerlich mit Ihren Kinder auf den Weg, da Sie das Geld dringend brauchen. Nachdem wir die Kinder abgesetzt hatten machten wir uns auf den Rueckweg und holten die kleineren Kinder ab. Nach mehreren Runden hatten wir dann alle Kinder beisammen. Wir holten dann die Milch von der Cheese Factory, die wir jeden Tag (10 l) fuer die Kinder gesponsert bekommen. Darueber freuen Sich alle richtig, da die Milch sowohl fuer das Fruehstueck als auch fuer einen kleinen Drink am Nachmittag gebraucht werden kann. Vormittag werden auch gleich die Einkaeufe fuer das Mittagessen erledigt. Die Frauen kochen richtig lecker und es ist auch noch im afrikanischen Stil. Oft gibt es Chicken, Kartoffeln, Reis oder auch Spinat vom eigenen Garten. Vor dem Essen holten wir die Kinder von der Schule in Happy Valley und brachten Sie nach Hause. Danach ging es nochmal zur Cheese Factory um die leeren Milchbehaelter fuer den naechsten Tag abzuliefern. Nachmittag halten die Kinder meistens noch ein Mittagsschlaefchen und nachdem Sie sich dann im Garten am Spielplatz oder auf dem Trampolin nochmal richtig austoben koennen ist der Tag im Project auch schon wieder zu Ende und die Kinder werden zurueck ins Camp gefahren. Somit geht auch fuer uns ein interessanter und schoener Tag zu Ende.

on a very wet and cold saturday...

2011-05-08T09:46:00.000-07:00

Bronwyn and her family comes as volunteers to the project every second saturday. They have a programme where they split the group (sometimes up to 80 children) into smaller groups where they read a bible story, sing a song, play a bit, have something to eat and then return home.

Bronwyn asked if it was possible to use the facility at the project and of course I did not have any objections. They already feel need for more space to work with the children so the new class room that is sponsored from Belgium to arrive in August will be also a benefit for them.

This Saturday it was pouring with rain and I wanted to introduce my volunteers: Sabrina, Lucas and Ebru(from Germany) to Bronwyn so we went to the project.

Bronwyn and her family had decided rather to make a big pot of soup and take it to the children as it was really no good weather to do anyting else.

Oh, this orange smells so nice...

Bronwyn on the far right, her mother holds the oranges.

Jason and Lerato with their little sister, I forgot her name.

It was so nice to see children enjoying the soup.

So how was your day?

2011-05-04T11:34:00.000-07:00

For me it started with a walk with my dogs at 06h00 because I knew I will not have time later in the day. Then I took the volunteer to the project and on the way there I drop the children at school. Before that I had to stop to pick up a farm worker that needed to go to Bonnievale and a little later I was stopped by a mother asking me to give her son his tie that he forgot....

At the project I showed Sabrina how good the Wendy House looks with new floor and walls being painted.

Izak is busy planting beetroot and spinach.

At 09h00 I have a meeting with Stacey our principal and we discuss various things especially the dancing course that Dance for All is starting with our "little ones" and Dina.... a 5 year old abused little girl.....What can we do for her ...Bonnievale has no Welfare officer, well today Dina did not come....so we will get to it tomorrow when she is there....

Kholeka brings me a bowl of porridge and I am ever so thankful because I left home without eating. Izak comes and alarms that Bianca is outside. 14 years old and her grandmother has put her out of her home, I take her to the police station and ask them to help Bianca because she will become a "problem"...Stacey later phoned to inform me that Bianca's grandmother will be admitted to hospital tomorrow - she has breast cancer. It turns out that the grandmother is a very caring person and that she is under a lot of stress because Bianca has a boyfriend and she comes back very late at night. I asked Stacey to follow up on the grandmother's hospitalisation and see if she or the children need some of our support.

On the farm Alida, our secretary and also Bookkeeper of the project discussed Budget for 2011/2012. I made lunch for the men and then the whole afternoon I was in the juice factory cutting pomegranates. Afterwards we also attended introduction course for food safety and I have to make plans how to get volunteer to the project tomorrow as I will be needed on the farm at 07h30.

My children left me some scraps to eat - enjoyed it thoroughly. Sabrina is already asleep - tomorrow she will be tickled pink with two young people from Germany to help her at the project.

Visit to William

2011-05-03T01:07:00.000-07:00

Sunday Morning at 09h00 I picked William's children up in the squatter camp. On the way to the airport I realized I am missing my cellphone and realized I lost it in the squatter camp. Without a phone - what a crisis. I bought a cheap one at the airport so at least I can be contacted but alas with "rica" it took a full 24 hours before I could use the phone. Sabrina also missed her connection flight so we had to wait for 2 long hours in the airport. The children enjoyed every moment, they have never been to an airport. At 15h00 we saw William and I was so dissappointed because he looked excactly like he looked two weeks ago in Robertson. Lying flat on his back, the wound on the back of his head has not healed yet and he still has pain chewing and talking. We left him alone with the children until six and then picked them up to go for a sleep over with Edith in Milnerton. She volunteers at a childrens hospital in Milnerton.

Edith was our angel as she could visit William in hospital and also get him clothes that he needed.

On Monday we visited William again and surprise surprise! he was not in his bed. He was sitting in a wheelchair waiting for somebody to help him eat lunch. I was more than happy to help him eat. He can move the fingers of his left hand a little bit, but he cannot lift his arms. He can move his legs but cannot stand. We stayed with him until they had to put him back in bed at 14h00. The hospital where he is now is really doing great work, he said he could not wait for Tuesday because then they are going to do therapy in a warm pool and he likes that very much.

It will take a long time for him to get better and I do not think he will ever have full use back of his arms and hands - but lets hope and see what will happen.

William sends his regards and thanks to everybody that take care of him and of his children.