NEWS FOM APRIL 18

Hi Everyone,

All is well here, although we’ve had some cool, rainy weather lately – I’m not ready for winter just yet, but it is coming. So, we’ve been burning fires in our free-standing wood burning fireplace for 2 reasons – warmth and to discourage the bees that want to nest in our chimney.

Two weeks ago, our church had a special visitor: the bishop from Iowa. Apparently the Anglican church in Swaziland and the Anglican church of Iowa have a long-standing partnership. This bishop was in country for several months and spent a week in our region. We arranged for him to come to Pasture Valley for an overnight. I helped prepare a musical program with the kids, and we all helped prepare the evening meal. The next day we met at church for a seminar on ways to empower lay leadership within the church. Afterwards we were able to enjoy a lovely luncheon at a local guesthouse before he departed for another village.

The need for housing for orphans continues to grow. Just last week Pasture Valley ot a call about taking in a 2 day old baby…. Even though we are full (actually beyond our capacity), the local child protective services unit of the police has called more than once about whether we’d take just one more child . . . There now are many “child headed households” where a 12 – 14 yr. Old is taking care of younger siblings alone, or with minor support from neighbors. When things fall apart, as they often do, these “family units” are very difficult to place in a children’s home, esp. since the child leader has become so independent that they no longer can function within the rules & guidance of a group home. To date, Michelle doesn’t know of any children’s homes who will take in a child older than 10! That leaves a lot of very vulnerable young teens at risk. There are no easy answers.

We are soon to break ground for our 3rd home, with a hopeful completion date of November. There will be no trouble filling those beds. We are praying for the right individual to apply as housemother. They are a critical component of making the home operate smoothly. Yes, Michelle and Peter are in charge, but the housemother sees to the day-to-day operations of “their” home and the children in that house.

Last night we got to attend the 60th birthday party of a new friend. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1989, and after his service, stayed in country, married a Swazi and is running the Nhlangano Funeral Service with his wife. It was nice to get out and socialize. The party began at 3 pm with a social hour, and concluded with a fabulous dinner. Nightlife is certainly something we both miss here. I know my children are laughing as they read this, because we traditionally go to bed early, but we did have our share of evening affairs in the US. Here, it’s lights our before 9 every night—and we mean for the whole country….
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We wish all of you a happy and joyful Easter. We don’t know quite what to expect for Easter here, but we do know that Good Friday will be a holiday. Egg dying is not often done, and we decided that was more than we wanted to try to do with 24 children! So, we’ll hide chocolate eggs. The kids are on a 2-week break from their first term of school.
We’ve scheduled a holiday program for them with activities each morning and afternoon for 1 ½ hrs. each. That way they still have some free time, but also some structure to their days.

The first day of break, the children were supposed to sleep in past their usual 5 am wake-up. Of course, several boys were up early playing soccer outside. One thing led to another, and somehow, a broom handle got broken over another boy’s head! No one was hurt, but the culprit showed up at our door at 6 am wanting to borrow our broom, while holding the broken one! We sorted out the story as best we could, and then sent him up to Peter to ‘fess up. He did, and will have to use some of the pocket change he earned to purchase a new broom. Brings back some “fond” memories of raising our own kids.

Hope you all are enjoying lots of sunny spring weather. Happy Easter.