South Africa Part I

No, I did not have time to blog from South Africa, my days usually started with me getting up between 6 or 7, and heading out by 7:30 for the day, I normally wouldn’t be back to my room until 9 or 10 pm. I must have traveled over 2,000 Kilometers in the 9 days I spent there. It was incredible. I really don’t know how I got so lucky to have the job I do and to be able to meet people like I have around the world. I left South Africa, knowing I would go back, but next time, Adam won’t be left behind. The whole time I was there, I just kept thinking, I wish Adam were here to see this or be part of it. Alas, he has to make the money and get a graduate degree, so I can have my non-profit job, and I am so thankful we have been blessed to sustain our needs with my salary. I will likely break up this blog into 2 parts, telling you all about the “working” part and the “tourist” part.

Since it was a work trip, I’ll tell you about my experiences with wheelchairs and meetings and the business conducted. So I went on this trip to visit a partnership we have with a company called Forever Resorts. They have 24 resort locations all over South Africa, but mostly in the province of Mpumalanga (yeah it took me a while to learn to pronounce that too.) While I was there I went to resorts in 3 different provinces.

I stayed in 7 different resort locations in 10 nights! I was always on the go. During all of my stays I met the General Managers and other key staff of the resorts who take on the role of distributing the wheelchairs in their areas. The first site visit was to an area called Denniltion, unemployment there is said to be between 80 – 90 %. It was a site to see. So much poverty, high crime rates and I just felt sad driving in there. However, upon meeting people there, I realized these people are joyful and happy and thankful for what they do have, and don’t focus so much on what they do not have. I learned some great lessons from these most humble people.
We went to a medical clinic where they had previously given wheelchairs. They gave 25 there, most had been handed out, but they kept some on the site so they could use them for patient transport. The government doesn’t always come through with getting wheelchairs to these small clinics, and budgets don’t allow for them to buy wheelchairs, when they don’t even have proper beds and stretchers. We then visited a few other local community projects, including a program that teaches women to make beaded products and paint, so they can learn a skill and put it to good use and try to sell them. We then made an unforgettable stop to an orphanage called Youth With A Vision, the children their sang and danced for us. They were so joyful, despite all the hardships they face. This program fed 222 orphans the day we were there… I can’t even imagine how many more are not being fed.

Other work related visited and programs took place throughout the trip, included several other days similar to the one I just described. Visits to the rural poor areas of South Africa where their voices are like angels. Everywhere we went people were singing and just happy to be alive. The wheelchair distributions and evaluations were great, it was a wonderful learning experience.

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