Sonny is either investigating something on the pathway, concentrating on eating some snack, or just walking slow and everywhere his Mom walks she has to turn around and wait for him. Dan & Jenn are a couple that came in my orientation, and they have gone out of their way to reach out to me which I appreciate. This is one of their sons.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Precious Joshua
Little Joshua is so easy to love. He smiled at me and captured my heart. I see him around a lot because he is adopted by a 'Hands' couple here. His family went to UK for a month and South Africa wouldn't allow him to leave the country, so he remained here. He's very excited to have his parents and sisters back.
Emmanuel
Little Mikey from Hope Church gave me some things to bring with me to hand out here in Africa. This little boys named Emmanuel rerceived the shirts. Isn't he a cutie. The babies blanket will be taken to Zambia next week to be given to the 'Young Mothers' group there, which is a support group for teen-age mothers. Thank you Mikey!!!!
Game drive at Kruger National Game Park
What an amazing day. We got a late start, but still saw ten lions. Of course we saw other animals too, but that was the highlight.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Glimpse into the manual I'm working on
I've been talking about the manual I'm working on but as it's just papers it's hard to show you what I'm spending my time so here's a few pictures to help you imagine my process.
The pictures show you the cover, a list of the topics that we're working on and some we're thinking of adding and some we're making two sessions (grief) and unfortuantely we don't find much to take out which means the training is getting longer.
You can also see some of my scribbles from our group work as we think through the 'Key Message' of the topic, and how best to teach it.
The other big part of my job is finding resources. There are many online resources that take foreverrrrr to download, then I printed them and put them into binders and now they are available for us to read and research.
Does that help you understand?
Friday, July 10, 2009
DAY FOUR- My favorite part is doing some teaching myself
We've been struggling all week with how to talk to the children about their deep emotional needs, as most of them are missing one or both parents and are struggling to stay in school and find their next meal. The problem is that when the children cry the small group leaders don't know what to do with the children to comfort them so it almost seems worse to open their wounds and not care for them than to open them at all. This is our quandry.
So…I came up with two lessons this morning to share. I shared them today and wish I could read their minds to know if it was helpful or not.
One was for the small
group leaders to teach them using a teddy bear what they can do to help a crying child, most especially give them a big hug or back rub.Then with the children I did a teaching comparing the 3 parts of us: 1) our physical side that can be wounded and leave scars and we drew that on paper, 2) then our emotional level where we also have pain but it can't be seen, and we made holes in the paper on that level to represent our emotional wounds where we need to draw close to friend and people, 3) and then the 3rd level being our spirit where we have the opportunity to be joined with God and walk with him.
At each level I shared with them some of my own life struggles, like my Dad's death, and so afterwards I told them they could come up and whisper their troubles or secrets to my teddy bear or they could tell me and my teddy bear and every time I held my teddy bear then I would be hugging them and remembering and praying for them. There wasn't enough time unfortunately to talk to everyone but the stories I heard made me cry and pray. Oh the pain those little souls carry around in their few short years.
I was told by others that it went well and as I had a translator I'm praying they received something from it. I didn't end up getting many notes typed up which was the goal for the week but it was good for me to see the workshop and meet the children and get ideas for how to lead the workshop better and then now today to even do some teaching. What a week.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
DAY THREE -Her grandmother who she lives with died today
This beautiful girl is Portia. When I arrived today she was crying. When I asked what was wrong they said her grandmother had died this morning, and she lives with her grandmother. Her father is dead and her mother is a drunk and can't/ doesnt take care of her.
Oh God! I cry out to you for this girl. So much pain already in her life and now there is more heaped upon her. Where will she go? What will she do? Please give her strength. Please bring a family member or friend to take her in. Please help her know
she is loved and not alone.Let me also introduce you to twins: Thabo and Thapelo.
Makes me smile just looking at them. Thabo is very far behind his brother and couldn't write at all for the activities. He is in 2nd grade while his twin is in 5th grade. At first glance you would never guess their problems because Thabo constantly has the biggest smile that draws you in to him.Tuesday, July 7, 2009
DAY ONE -Helping children with their emotional needs
Helping children with their emotional needs
Originally uploaded by Heart 4 Orphans
This week I'm observing and helping with a Workshop for 50 orphans and vulnerable children to strengthen them in their emotional needs. There are also 25 trainers who have received training about children's emotional needs but don't know how to lead this training for themselves. So they are helping and learning and leading small groups.
My main task was to come and type up what was happening in the sessions and take pictures. The goal is to turn this training into a manual. (A different manual than the one I am working on) I thought attending the sessions and typing it up would put everyone ahead in creating the next manual. BUT most of the work was done in the Siswati language and in small groups so it was more about observing, getting new ideas, understanding the situation, and giving the children some attention.
Helena is the training coordinator and she is the one sitting in the middle of the top picture here. Under here there are senior trainers, and then each community based organization that 'Hands' works with has their own people that are becoming trainers or receiving training.
The childrens ages ranged from about 5 to about 18 I would guess. They were grouped by gender and age so they could have good discussions in their groups.
It was a beautiful day. The children showed up tense, and by the end of the day were more relaxed and enjoying themselves.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Desserted Island
I had Dave and Marilyn over for dinner for Dave's birthday. I couldn't resist the opportunity to have my creative juices overflow and made this desserted island cake. I'm glad they enjoyed it.
D & M are the pastoral care staff here at Hands at Work. They are a real treasure and I can run to them to tell them my news and quandries.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Spiritual Needs of Children Training
Creating a manual for the spiritual needs of childen is on Julia's heart and she has drafted some ideas and is trying them out in a community called Mbonisweni. This was her second day but I thought it would be helpful for me to go to see it so I could see how we can tie her manual and the manual I'm working on together. As the document was handed to me there is nothing in there on spiritual matters so it's a big area that is lacking.
I went with Julia and Isa today to Mbonisweni as she led a small group of women who provide some sort of care for the vulnerable children in this area. She did some beautiful activities with them, that I enjoyed being a part of. The women seemed encouraged and felt very loved as a result I think.
The pictures show their joy, and they said they felt they could use these activities with children right away so that makes it special. Julia did a great job leading it.
Click on the pic to see other pics.
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