Sawubona

"Our Vision for every child,
life in all it's fullness;
Our prayer for every heart,
the will to make it so."
World Vision's Vision statement.

That's Hello in Zulu. I've finally made my way back here to say hello to everyone and to start sharing some of my experiences. I must admit, I've been procrastinating a bit on this, as I'm just not sure where to start, there's so much to tell, and how much does everyone really want to know?!
It was amazing, it was sad, and it was heartbreaking at times. I learned a lot of things. Africa's people, it's animals, the sights and smells and landscape are amazing. Did you know there are 10 million orphans in South Africa? That's sad! 60% of the children will be dead by age 12! That's heartbreaking! But I know we can make a difference. We have to make a difference! What I learned is that World Vision is helping to make that difference with "A hand-up, Not a hand-out'.
So, on with my tale:
Let's start with arriving in Jo'burg. I had a few problems in the airport, as expected, with luggage weight. For some reason I was told to pay, on the sly, mind, a baggage handler 200 Rand, for my overages. I was told by SA Airlines check-in, to pay that guy over there, but not to let anyone see me do it! As I was running late and was about to miss my connecting flight to Durban, I went along with this and probably a good thing, because he got my bags on the flight and me through security in no time flat and I JUST made my connection. I was running late as I had made the mistake of telling a customs official I was bringing in presents for the children. He wanted a list and cost of said presents, of course I had none, so it took a little explaining that I didn't know I was suppose to have that sort of thing ready (played the dumb woman and at that point it wasn't taking much playing). I hadn't slept since leaving Vancouver and was probably looking pretty pathetic by then, so he took pity on me and let me through.
I arrived on time in Durban and was met not by Hilda but by Nobhule who is the World Vision Kwa Maphumulo Area Development Project (ADP) Manager, with a very long and wonderful hug. Another team member Evelyn was already there with Nobhule waiting for me, as she too had just arrived on another flight. We went out to our vehicle where we met Ian, who also works at the KMP office as an agricultural engineer, and who it turned out was to be our driver for most of our time in South Africa. We headed off to our hotel where we met up with Hilda and the other members of the team who had already arrived. The hotel looked out over the most amazing beach of golden sand and the Indian Ocean sparkling in the sunshine. It was decided that Ev and I would room together, which we ended up doing for the whole trip, so we ran up, unloaded our bags and headed back out to the street market we saw on our way to the hotel. The sellers are worse than in Mexico, you daren't even glance at anything or they pounced on you! Everyone seemed to be selling exactly the same things, which led me to believe that everything was mass produced, but I later learned, most of it is made in the rural areas by support groups and others and then brought into the city to sell. Although I still don't know how everything is made the same? Durban looked like at one time it had been quite the resort city and I believe it still is, but looks rather run down in areas, I wouldn't feel totally safe in a lot of the areas we saw, and the litter and garbage about was mind boggeling! That started my big re-cycling campaign everywhere I went. More on that later. The hotel was nice, but had the slowest elevators I've ever encountered, and was on the old side, but clean and well kept. The group of us met each other over dinner, there was myself, Marie & Andrea from BC, Ev from Alta, the 'young 'uns' Bailey and Jordan from Sask. , Hilda, Carol and our only male, Terry from Ont. After dinner we were directed to a reception room, where we met Nobhule again and Sa who the the District Manager for the Umvoti ADP, as well as Pumi who is the overall Manager of everything. We were asked about our expectations of the trip, what we hoped to see, learn and do and then given a little background information about the areas we were to see and World Visions role there. Then it was off to bed, as I think most of us had our eyes bouncing around in our heads, by then. Neither Ev or I slept well and were up by about 4am watching the sun rise on that most wonderful view. I discovered that there was - wait for it - a Latte place just down the street, so by 6 am I was off dragging Ev in tow, for my morning fix. After breakfast we all loaded up our bags into the truck and ourselves into the van and headed out on the first leg of our adventure.
That's all I'm going to do in this installment, but now that I've started writing, I sure I'll be able to keep it up. I do want everyone to see Andrea's video she put together as soon as we got back though so here that is and also a link to my pictures, in case anyone wants to take a look.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28367928@N02/sets/

In the words of World Vision’s founder Bob
Pierce, “Don’t do nothing because you can’t do
everything”. Would you consider sponsoring at
least one child today?

Call World Vision @1-800-307-4641 or check out their web site for more information at
http://www.world vision.ca

tell them Donna sent you. Code 4095972