returning from the transkei

we (myself and maz) have just returned home from a wonderful, if not somewhat challenging trip, to the xhosa homelands of the transkei. it is really hard to put into a few words the experience that we had as we made the 1000 kilometer trip to visit one of the boys who we had provided a home to at the village of hope. his grandmother had invited us to stay in their traditional family home over the easter weekend and to be welcomed with open arms by the whole village was amazing.

maz with the little boy outside his grandmothers home

our arrival was the height of conversation, the grandmother was somewhat of a local celebrity as she welcomed the first european visitors to visit their village into her home. the 'location' as it was called was around 20 kilometers from the nearest tar road and was made up of simple roundhouses (rondavels) none of which had any access to running water or electricity.

we were invited to join the village in a celebration on saturday afternoon where a large cow had been slaughtered and cooked for all of us to share and on easter sunday morning we visited the great grandmothers home, she had never met a white man before, let lone invited him into her home.

it was wonderful to see the boy, who is now 5 years old and coping very well in his new home, and to meet his extended family, to share in their daily lives and struggles. i am currently trying to document our experiences on the trip into some sort of format that i could share and maybe i will post that on this blog when it is finished.

shouting for bibles!

i am sure you have all walked past a building site and felt a little intimidated by some of the language you have heard, especially you lovely ladies, and its not many times that you drive through a building site and one of the workmen shouts out 'i want a bible' but that's exactly what happened to me (tim) as i was driving through the new government formal settlement in rooidakke (grabouw) on my way to run a sports outreach in the iraq/zwelitsha squatter camp yesterday afternoon.

the request came from a random worker who asked for not one but two bibles in the local xhosa language, it is now my mission to seek to fulfil this request and bless this man and his 'friend' with the word of God in his own language.

so next time you walk around or near a building site maybe give the builders the benefit of the doubt and ask if they really weren't asking to see your bible!