Visitors from the West

Last week we had our first visitors and we had a wonderful time.  Maddie and Chad flew all the way here to spend some time with grandma and grandpa before they embark on their adventure to West Virginia for medical school.

 They stayed with us in our apartment and slept on an air mattress that was flat every morning. We enjoyed some adventures, good food and played some mean card games of '500'. 

We spent several hours at the Apartheid Museum learning about a dark time in the history of South Africa.

Mike and Tami's Sophie emailed us Flat Stanley which we took with us many places.

South Africa is called the Rainbow Nation because it is blending so many different groups to form one country.  There are 11 official languages in South Africa, and the many different colors on the flag represents this blending of tribes, cultures, etc.

Tragically, Stanley lost his life later in the week

Maddie, Chad and Stanley with statue of Nelson Mandela at Mandela Square

 At the Elephant Sanctuary we spent some time 'up and close' with some very big elephants.

We took turns feeding the elephant

                                         And not only up close, but up close and personal

Maddie got kissed by an elephant

Wet and slimy.   Ugh!!!

 

Walking with an elephant hand in trunk

                                                     Maddie and Chad went for a ride

 

Wednesday, we went on a tour of Soweto (acronym for South Western Townships).  Soweto was originally an area of Johannesburg where blacks were re-settled in the Apartheid days in So. Africa before 1990 when they were forcibly evicted from their homes and taken to resettlement areas. 

Two abandoned, 300' cooling towers, now with a bungee jump between

. 

Garbage sorters go through the garbage cans and haul away their treasure

You can see just the roofs of these "homes" with porta potties nearby

Today there are between 1.3 million and 3.5 million people in Soweto, almost all black.

We visited a particular township of about 40,000 people there called Kliptown.  It is just a collection of tin shacks or shipping containers with unbelievably terrible living conditions. There is no running water or electricity.  They get their water from taps around the town to wash their clothes.

                                            The dirty water then runs down the dirt streets.

                             They cook on kerosene stoves and share an outhouse with 15 other families.

                         We were invited into one of these tiny homes, this one has one bed but sleeps 8

Living area



Bedroom

We visited an organization there called Kliptown Youth Program.  Some remarkably dedicated people working to improve the lives of the kids who live there.  It was started 5 years ago and has 400 children enrolled.  Their goal is to help the children graduate from high school, find jobs and raise themselves out of poverty.  Some youth have been helped with college tuition and so far 21 have gone on to college.  Along with their parents, these kids sign a contract and promise to stay in school and attend a tutoring class twice a week. The program helps provide uniforms for public school (all children wear uniforms to school), books and pay the school fees.  They have to walk a long distance to attend school.  On their way, they stop and get a sandwich for lunch and after school they get a hot meal.

Kitchen at Kliptown Youth Program

The founder and director of the center is Thulani Maldonado.  In 2012 he was chosen by CNN from a group of 45,000 as one of their top ten heroes of the year.  This cash award enabled them to get a computer lab with 20 computers.

A GREAT HUMANITARIAN

As he walked the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, he passed child after child begging for food.  They just wanted something to take the hunger away.  It was then that he decided to take some of them home.  He didn't have much but he could give them hope and something to take the pain away.  For years he kept quiet and never asked for money.  He sold his carvings to buy what he needed.  Now he is taking care of 98 children.

His name is Stephen Kyalo (pronounced 'cello').  He says, "My goal is to help 1,000 children before I die."
There are 1.5 million orphaned children in Nairobi. 90% of them have lost their parents to Aids. As he took in more and more children, he rented a two bedroom house and a tin shack for a school.  The name of his orphanage is 'Nazarene Orphan Center'.

 

ONLY A FEW OF THE THINGS HE MAKES
 

 He only has a few beds and so most of the children sleep on mattresses on the floor.  He has about 12 teachers that are paid. The toilet facilities there are very primitive.
In 2012 he came to Salt Lake to visit church groups and sell his products.  He is familiar to missionaries that have served in Kenya. He was interviewed on KSL and was written up in the Deseret News.  He now has others making his carvings and he sells them by word of mouth and through a website -  'www.africarver.com.'



HE IS KNOWN FOR HIS NOAH'S ARKS
 

When asked how he started carving, he said he learned as a young boy.  He lived with his grandparents and would sit and watch his grandfather carve stools.  As soon as he was alone, he would pick up a knife and start carving.




READING THE SCRIPTURES

 

I met Stephen a few weeks ago here at Dukes Court.  His story  was an inspiration to all of the missionaries that visited with him. He brought many of his carvings and it was hard deciding what to buy.

Security Central

I read a couple of weeks ago that South Africa has the largest Private Security industry in the world.  You don't have to drive or walk far to know that could surely be true.

Our apartment building has at least two security men on duty at all times, one at the front door and one at the garage door.

Our apartment building.  We're second floor (out of 5), center

A lady standing next to security wall beneath the electrified wire

The Area office has two or more on duty also.  One has to drive through two security gates to get to the doors or to the parking garages.

The mall across the street from our flat has probably 6 or 8 on duty.  Johannesburg is supposed to have a high crime rate, but we really feel pretty safe walking or driving around.  They tell us we should always drive with the windows up and doors locked. Also, that we shouldn't have anything in site in the car as we drive.

All of these walls are topped by electrified wires

 

We live in kind of an upscale area of town but certainly not an exclusive type area.  Nearly every property (apartment buildings and houses) have walls surrounding them.  These walls are almost always topped with electrified fences.

Just an old man looking up at an amazing, beautiful and huge tree



Every property has warning signs like this
 

Mom distracting a security guard from his post.  His chair is there on sidewalk. 
Note the other guard shack in the background

On the streets just North of our flat where we go for walks, lots of the houses have security guards in front or in enclosed stations by the gates.

Security station by driveway