Walk in the Light

We started working in Walk in the Light this week. The work was laid back because there wasn't much to do this week and we're waiting for some supplies to come in, but it was nice to slowly begin working in the community of Haniville.

When we first got there Pennile told us to split into groups of 5 because she could only take one group at a time to clinicals. After diving ourselves up, my group was chosen to go and we drove in the back of a Land Rover. We were picking up 3 people and giving them a ride to the local clinic and we weren't going to fit, so I sat in front inbetween Peni and Neils like a little kid because I was the smallest of the group. We drove around Haniville and then went to the clinic where we asked the nurses questions and found out more about the system. Some of the nurses asked us questions too and they were shocked when we told them health care wasn't free in the US.

While we were out, the rest of the group was sorting through clothes that we're going to give away and when we came back we all went for a walk. We walked to the house of a man called Mandla. Mandla is in a wheelchair and he's HIV positive and also has Tuberculosis. His house is made out of mud, but it's falling apart. After praying with him we left and Penni told us one of our projects is going to be to build him a new house.

After visiting other members of the community we went back to Walk in the Light and had lunch. After lunch there wasn't much to do so I took a 3 hour nap under the shade of a tree. Some people also napped and others played soccer.

When I woke up from my nap, it was time for the youth meeting. Walk in the Light has a church and the youth meetings are on Friday. The pastor decided to let us take charge of the meetings for these next four weeks. We played some games with the youth and then heard a devotion and sang songs in Zulu and English. There were about 40 people, 20 from us and 20 from them so it was really cool to all come together and talk about our lives. We're so similar despite the environments we've grown up in. A lot of the youth are going to college and they know every Beyonce song word for word. They all have such beautiful voices and can dance so well that it almost embarrassed me to worship along with them, but it was beautiful to see us coming together. They taught us Zulu songs and we taught them English songs.

I have a feeling that Walk in the Light is going to be a great learning experience, but it's also going to be a challenge physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.