[Tribe of Hope]

{Malibongwe}

I have been so terrible at keeping up with this blog. But when you get the chance to hang out with people or catch up on sleep over writing a blog, you choose one of the first two. 

My last couple weeks have consisted of working at my service site, ending my community engagement course along with that came time to leave service sites, travel week, and now I'm here in the Western Cape of South Africa in a small rich white town called Fish Hoek.

What I will be talking about in this blog is my service site experience working at Ethembeni.

I worked at Ethembeni for 15 days. It was spread out over a months’ time including class on Monday and our trips and excursions that happened on the weekends. As I shared in a previous blog, I was unsure about which site I wanted to spend my time at. I had a dream that I was working at Ethembeni and really felt it was put on my heart the morning we had to make a decision because I had my mind set on another place. I’m not a person for cliché sayings, but it was the best decision I've in a long time and I wouldn't trade my time there for the world. 

God has His ways of working me. He did this by testing my patience at the very free flowing schedule Ethembeni follows. I sat during my lunch breaks angry and disappointed that I had choose to work there instead of going to RivLife. I felt uncomfortable and useless. I was good at working with children and only children. I did not feel like I was serving the staff and long term volunteers at all. On top of that, there were only three of us that had chosen to serve there, three girls (Which they usually had guy volunteers that came as well). When you start allowing these negative ideas and lies to come into your thoughts they spread rapidly. There I was feeling like I wasn't serving because I wasn't clearing a field, planting stuff in the garden, helping to care for a ton of kids, [insert other manual/medical labor], etc. Little did I know God, was redefining the meaning of service and what it looks like to be a servant.

[Some of you may already know this, so bear with me…I’m still getting there]

Serving others meant making tea every morning with the guys and Aunties on staff before the day got busy. It meant our morning walks with Ulwethu to the famliy center when he picked us up from Aunty Dudu’s home. It meant dancing with Thabile and Church in the kitchen in the afternoons. It mean sharing our lunch everyday with all the guys on staff. It meant my laughs and jokes shared with Ntokozo. It meant encouraging dreams that Ayanda has. It meant having conversations with each of the guys on staff asking them about their lives, their dreams, and their beliefs. It meant collecting the water bottles for the rain gauge project. It meant singing the only Zulu worship I know, Jehova Thelumoya. It meant laughing with Alex in the car on the way to homevisits. It meant a hug or handshake. It meant greeting people, Sawubona! Unjani? And answering Ngiyaphila. It meant walking around in the township learning about its history and the culture of the Zulu people. The best way to be a servant is to build relationships. I never knew I could love people I've known for a short amount of time. God honestly knew I needed those friendships and I’m glad He showed up in those relationships and my time there.

Not a day goes by where I don’t think about my time there and wish I could do it again. I am currently still trying to process my time there…I miss Pietermaritzburg a lot. I can only hope that it is in my future to come back again and for an even longer extended period of time. 

I wanted to add this because I'm proud of it, but it's tradition that their volunteers get Zulu names. My name is Nomandla, which means one with energy.

Pictures of my time there:

 Presentation day at A.E. with some of the family

 I killed that chicken. Sawed it's head right off. 

 The squaaaaaad, the crew, tribe of hope. 

Ary, Myself, Ayanda, and Sarah. I will miss our conversations with him.

Mpophomeni

Craft day

Typical lunchtime setting

Painting project

Before the Braii, Emmanuel and his chicken feet. 

Shout out to Ntokozo for taking this and being artsy :)

Alex and I. I met this guy doing home visits. He literally always has a smile on his face. He's one of the sweetest guys I've met. 

Out finished project :)

Lizzie!!!!! One of our favorites, she's from Kansas and is a long term volunteer at Ethembeni

Church and Thabile. The best dancers at Ethembeni. 

Nhlaka! This bad boy and I shared some good laughs and good times.

Ntokozo! I miss messing around with him. He's always had some smart remark to make that always could make me laugh. 

Ulwethu! I miss him. He was always so willing to answer our questions and take us the community so we could learn more about Mpophomeni. I appreciated his willingness and patience.