Mbonisweni Home Stays

For two nights this week we all had the opportunity to do a house stay in the homes of families from Mbonisweni community. We split up into groups of two, I went with Katja, a Swiss girl who is a volunteer on base. We got to our host families house around 5 tuesday night and stayed till 8 am thursday. It was such a neat experience to live life with them. Our family consisted of a mother and 4 children. The youngest boy and girl still lived at home, their middle son lives with their grandpa taking care of him (he was just in an accident) and their oldest son lives with his grandma. The father of the children passed away this past fall. He was a police man, she told me, and she must wear black until June to show she is in mourning. We sat on her bed as she crouched down to pull a stack of photos out of the dresser. They were of her and him in high school, him in his uniform, their children, their family. It was so precious to look through and I wondered if it was hard for her to see photos of him. 

Do you miss him? I asked. 

Yes, she said. Sometimes the children still ask me 

where is daddy, when is he coming back.

She said he died of a sickness he had for awhile.. I didn't ask more but I wondered if it was AIDS. So many of the deaths in this community are from AIDS. There are single and double parent orphans everywhere. Its so sad to see how few men are around. The family structure God designed is being destroyed and the women and grandmas are what is holding the community together. So few families have fathers. So many boys have no one to look up to. 

Their house was very simple, they had few personal possessions. There is one bedroom where the mom and youngest sleep and then a garage/kitchen/storage room and then another bed room. Half the house was half done, she said they were building but ran out of money and then their father passed away.

We ate together, mostly in silence because of language barrier, and she gave us silverware which was so sweet because culture is they eat with their hands, which they did, but she put forks and spoons on our plates haha. 

The simplicity in the way they live was beautiful, and at the same time the poverty broke your heart. After dinner me and Katja took the children outside and we danced under the stars to the music being played in surrounding houses :) Us and the two kids all cuddled in one bed taking funny pictures with my flashlight and before we knew is little 6yr old Sipelele was fast asleep curled up against me :) The first night we were there we shared the bed with his sister Precious, and then the second night she slept on the floor and I fell asleep with a sweet little boy cuddled up with me. It was so humbling to be able to just walk in and be apart of their family, to cook and eat with them, to fall asleep two in bed with a little one curled up in between. 

I feel so connected to these children now, they are my brother and sister and the next day when I saw and recognized them at the feeding I scooped up Sipelele and gave him a huge hug. He stayed by my side the rest of the day :) mmhm I love it so much. these families are so precious, so sweet, and yet the reality of the orphans, the poverty, then sickness, the AIDS is so great. Its sometimes hard for me to comprehend it, to really understand what a large majority or these children go through. From talking to John, one of the TTH leaders, so much goes on in the community of Mbonisweni. House burnings, circumcision camps, witchcraft, all this darkness we can't necessarily see. But so much GOOD is happening to. TTH is making such a huge impact there. There is discipleship happening, and the christian youth of the village are now impacting the lives of so many orphans. Homes are being built.. both literal and internal. Homes of protection and love and acceptant being built into the hearts of these children. Its so neat to hear John talk about what all is happening in this community. We can only join in prayer that it will continue to flourish and God will completely restore anything that has been lost or taken from them. That heavens peace and perfect justice will reign here.