Home Visits And Toy Guns

The past two weeks volunteering have been great. I’ve continued to help the Healthy Mom & Baby Clinic staff with the government measles vaccination campaign here in J-Bay. There has recently been an increase in adult measles cases in South Africa so the government began a campaign to boost all children under fifteen with a third vaccine dose. Yesterday we finished the last school visit to administer the vaccine. I think we’ve vaccinated around one thousand children in the past two weeks!

I also had the privilege yesterday of seeing another part of the work done by the Health Mom & Baby Clinic by tagging along on home visits in the township areas. The clinic staff do home visits for all newborns in the area, checking in to see how mom & baby are doing. The moms are given a little gift bag with some clothing, a toy and soap. The staff also weigh the babies and talk to the mothers about care, nutrition, depression etc and will pray for them and provide other support or referrals as needed. The clinic has been struggling with funding for the gift bags they bring (specifically the cost of bags and soap) and a lot of the clothing given is second-hand donations. I spent a day earlier this week scrubbing baby clothes by hand with another girl to try to get out some of the formula and spit up stains. I’m not sure we were too successful, but we did what we could. These mothers will appreciate any clothing we can give, however it is an aim of the clinic to give them a nice new gift and make them feel special.

So, I went on three home visits. The first one was to a township called Oceanview. Don’t let the name fool you… this is nowhere to call home. This township is full of violence (one murder per week), abuse, rape and many problems. The people here are some of the most impoverished in the area and are lucky to have a tin roof over their heads. Many ‘homes’ are constructed of scrap metal and have no electricity or running water. Even the government built homes constructed of concrete don’t have indoor plumbing. We pulled up to the first home for our visit and discovered that the baby had already died (not sure of the reason). The mother was carrying around a toy gun (looked real..) for some reason and didn’t want to chat with us. She was given an open invitation to the clinic for counseling or support, but who knows if she will take that opportunity. The other two home visits were in Tokyo Sexwale (yes that is the name! sounds like tok-y-o sec-wall-eh). The people in this township are doing better than those in Oceanview and they generally have a bit better homes and facilities and a bit less violence. The two mothers we visited were doing well by township standards. They both had husbands and a few other children and lived in concrete homes that were hospitable. Their babies were doing alright as well and I got to hold them both, so cute! They were very appreciative of the gifts and we invited them back to the clinic for weekly baby weigh-ins and any other support they might need.

In addition to the volunteering, I am super busy with church and life... time at the beach... sunrises over Supertubes... braais (bbq) with friends... pizza night on tuesday... touch rugby on the beach sunday afternoon.... baking banana bread last night... movie night tonight... you get the idea. Oh, and I went to Addo Elephant Park again this past tuesday, saw more elephants and animals, then went to a lion ranch afterwards (held a two month old lion!). Still mega blessed here.


Vaccination Team




Supertubes







Addo Elephant Park & Addo Lion Ranch

Elephants For The First Time

It feels like I have been here for longer than just under two weeks. I have been enjoying every moment. This past weekend I went to Addo Elephant Park with some friends. The friends were going because they had been sponsored to take some underprivileged kids there for the first time. I was able to see my first wild African Elephant but these kids had not even seen an elephant in a zoo before. What a privilege to share with them that experience! We were certainly worn out at the end of the day, but we were able to see a jackal, some warthogs, kudu and the elephants. Was beautiful in many ways.

This week came with uncertainty about my voluntary work and what I would be doing for my time here. A two week vacation has been really great and I have been learning a lot about this country in the meantime. Very interesting stuff. So, Monday morning the call came that I was to be ready in half an hour to start some volunteering. I got a quick intro into giving vitamin drops to kids and helping with giving measles vaccines and then away we went. There are a few of us volunteering with Laura and the Healthy Mom & Baby Clinic ladies. The Healthy Mom & Baby Clinic is affiliated with Victory Church and they do so much for the community here and especially for women who have no other options for a healthy pregnancy. The whole of South Africa is being immunized right now and so we have been driving around to all the schools and pre-schools here in J-Bay to administer vaccines and vitamins and such that the government has provided. I am helping with this until early next week and then there will probably be some other work at the clinic I can help with. Looking forward to it.

Van of kids in Addo








These beettles are only found in this part of South Africa


Madri and I

Madri's place and her beautiful view (she let me stay with her for a few days!)


Where I call home

Blessed in J-Bay, South Africa

I arrived here on Thursday night. I was a bit nervous when my flight started descending into Port Elizabeth because I had no idea about anything. I wasn't even sure who to expect at the airport. A guy from Victory Christian Church (VCC) in J-Bay (the Church of the Nations church where my church in Calgary is planted from) picked me up and gave me a nice intro to South Africa. The drive to J-Bay was about 45 minutes with just amazing stars shining and new scenery. I got dropped off at the flat I will be living in for two months here. It is attached to the house of a couple from the church and is near VCC which is nice. I have a bedroom upstairs with an ocean view (although everyone has an ocean view here since the whole town is on a hill) and a tiny kitchen too. Its enough for me and the rent is very reasonable! The next day I met Sune from VCC who had been organizing everything here for me. She took me around J-Bay a bit and we also went grocery shopping. The selection at the grocery store was dismal compared to what I am used to but perhaps that is due to the small size of J-Bay more than anything else.

That evening, Friday, I went to my first braai. A braai is a South African barbecue and is pretty much the best thing ever! Tons of delicious meat is cooked on a giant barbecue (a lot of homes even have special indoor grills installed when they are built) and there can be bread and other things cooked on the grill too (the bread was really tasty). Everyone brings other snacks and drinks and just hangs out. I met a lot of really nice people, got connected to a life group, was exposed to the phenomenon of Afrikaans music (some love it, some hate it, I thought it was not the best) and learned how to Sokkie (a South African dance) all in one night. The next day I went to a few different beaches, saw a bit of the J-Bay townships (slums) and then met the Dutch couple I think I will be volunteering with. There was a hangout that evening with pancakes (crepes) and card games and more new friends.

Yesterday was church in both the morning and evening. The congregation for the morning service is maybe one thousand people and the evening service is a youth thing with good and loud worship music and relevant teaching. I am loving it here and feel like a part of a family in this church. Everyone is SO NICE and I have never met so so many amazing people in such a short time ever! Yesterday afternoon was beach time with some touch rugby and a coffee/tea after. I have been so busy already and what a blessing it all has been.

So, here are some funny things I have noticed so far... Everyone drives trucks. But they don't call it a truck, they call it a bakkie. But it sounds like buggy. So I laugh every time someone says "lets hop in the "buggie." Also, they tend to speak English for me and then it will turn right into Afrikaans without them realizing it... Or they will speak to me in Afrikaans. And then they get back a blank stare. There are so many other funny things, but I have forgotten them all now. I will try to write them down as they happen so I can share. And even with the differences, I feel right at home somehow and we have a lot of similarities too. I was expecting more of a culture shock actually.

Well, all this to say God is blessing me so much here with amazing friends and a church family already. Can't wait for what is to come! Love love love to you all.

Sher xo

Flying into Cape Town

Flying to PE (Port Elizabeth)

View from my window

Kabeljauws beach




Main Beach in J-Bay

London Layover

I’m at Heathrow waiting for my flight to South Africa, so I thought I might as well write something.

London is beautiful and predictably drizzly. I am experiencing European history, architecture and culture for the first time and I feel even more excited to return for some travel here soon! I am also thinking about the history of a place like this… all that has happened here is amazing and ugly, beautiful and terrible. We have many dark spots in our history as humankind and there are more to come to be certain. I guess I’m thinking about this as I read a book about Rwanda and the genocide. I’m trying so hard to understand how something like this happened in 1994. 1994! Even with how far we’ve come, we are not free from oppression, genocide, even slavery. It’s hard to remember that sometimes when I’m enjoying my life in Canada.

So, it feels good to be on the road again! Flying and layovers aren’t so fun but are well worth it. I am excited to learn, grow, teach, listen and much more. Please continue to pray for me. I want to get all I can out of this experience and I want to share it with you too.

I’m already missing the amazing people who make my life. xoxoxo

Time to go.

I leave tomorrow. Wow, time flies. It's late and I have a few random things left to do, but I'm ready. Thank you for all the support and love already ;) See you in South Africa.