Monday, May 6th lunch with Zanele at Spurs

We were supposed to have a meeting this morning with the Lotus FM radio station to choose the 30 people who receive the wheelchairs and to decide how the giveaway would be done on May 30th. However, we received a copy of an email Saturday night from one of our PA people where he said that the notice was too late and could we do it Tuesday instead. We assumed that we were not doing it Monday, but when we woke up today, there was an email from the station manager saying she would see us that morning and asked if Clive was going to be there too. We couldn't reach our PA people, so we called Lisa at the station and we decided to postpone until Thursday. We passed the word and will be seeing them on Thursday.

We then rushed off to a lunch appointment with Zanele in Umlazi to give her the family enrichment books for her Mother's Day project. She is such an amazing person. We found out that she has three children and her husband is an electrician. She told him he could take the car that morning and after he was gone, she remembered that she had three appointments that day, so she rode in a 'Taxi', that mode of transportation feared by all missionaries and white people in Africa...Ha. Actually they are the white vans stuffed full of riders trying to get to work or where ever for the least amount possible. More importantly, they drive like maniacs with no regard for the rider's safety or any other driver on the road. She didn't seem fazed by it, except she was eating chocolate cake when we arrived to help with the stress, she said later.

We started asking her questions about herself and found out that she had good job and she and her husband were doing well, when she had the idea that she should be doing more for her community. She was especially worried about all the children with nothing to do after school. She could see the bad choices they were making and the fact that many were alone for several hours until their mothers came home from work. So, she quit her job and got together with some other women to try and start a non-profit organization that provides activities for these children after school. She has an amazing business plan, but no sponsors yet, so she is paying for things out of her own pocket until she can get some donations. She wants to be able to pay herself and the another woman a small salary when they get going, but until then, they are pretty much donation their own time and money to keep it going. She has plans for ways to earn money through the children to fun their own programs, like teaching them to cultivate a garden and then selling the food they grow to earn money.

She wants to teach the children to dance and sing and then once a month have a show for the community where they pay a small fee to watch the show. She wants to teach some women to sew and get some sewing machines donated, so they can make clothes to sell to earn money and to teach other mothers in the community to make their own clothes and their children's clothes. We are trying to see if the church can get her four sewing machines to get her started, but she still needs fabric and thread, etc. It is a huge project, but she just keeps going. I was thinking it might be nice if I could get a Relief Society group in Texas to think of someway they can sponsor some of the things she wants to do...maybe through a fundraiser or sending fabric. We could send pictures of the ladies involved in the sewing and get some from the ladies in Texas. I'll work on that after my trip to Swaziland this weekend. Whew...so much to do, but so many people that impress us with their spirit.

After lunch, I told Zanele that we would take her home. She said, "No, you will get lost." Ha...she knows us well, but we told her we had Lea (GPS) and a heavy box full of books for her, so she said okay. We traveled through her neighborhood and I thought, we'll never find our way out of here...we almost didn't, but this time Lea came through. Ha.




In the evening, we went to the Cluster's for family home evening. They are such a sweet couple. We rode with the Holts again (Thank goodness), because we had never been there before and it was tricky as there was no where to park, except on the street, and apparently the missionaries parked their car on the street there one night and someone broke in the car and their scriptures and backpacks were stolen, but we all parked there and made sure that we didn't leave anything in the car that anyone would want. The one thing we have a hard time getting over here is the bars on everything, but you can see why.

One of the couples, the Zawakeys are going home in a week and so our FHE was getting them to tell us what they learned from their experiences of the past two years. Elder Zawakey came dressed in his Africa outfit (minus the spear and fur headband ha.). He looked great! And he didn't seem a bit self conscious, so I told him he had to wear it on the plane. He might have done it too, but he was instructed to wear his suit on the plane. The Zawakeys were the missionary couple over seminary and institute classes. Their job was to provide materials and instruction to the teachers and to keep track of who attended the classes. We heard of their struggles for transportation and how hard it was to make the teachers understand what they were supposed to do. We also heard about the young men who wanted to get married, but couldn't afford the Labola (bride price) that the bride's family was asking for. Often the young man cannot come up with the price for his bride, so the family will not let her marry him. This can go on for years and sometimes they have children together and their families still won't let them marry.

 Sister Zawackey would just tell them they were being ridiculous and to just go do it. They are very attached to their customs, but she got a couple of them to actually go against their families and get married. The families eventually came around and they got the blessings of the church and the temple. She reminded me of a good friend of ours from a long time ago (Sister Alfrey)...full of fun and mischief, but pretty good about telling someone the way it is. We had good conversation and homemade (By sister Cluster) apple pie that was delicious! I told Sister Cluster about how to set up a blog...all in all a great day.