Return trip to Karanda ...

Wednesday, January 28^th – Thursday, January 29^th  

Mandy joined me for a return trip to Karanda, where we met with the home based care team with most of our conversation centered on ways to improve the goat project.  We took from that meeting a resolve to look for pedigree milk goat stock with which to improve the program, and the idea of sourcing supplemental feed for the goats.

That evening, Mandy joined me in a return visit to the Josiah village.  Word had preceded our arrival this time, with the result that the whole extended clan was there to greet us.  Five siblings with children and grandchildren of their own made for a crowd even if some of the young adults were not at home at the time.  Distaining the niceties of cultural protocol, the Josiah family greeted us with enthusiastic embraces.  Once gathered in a large group in the main village, we visited for a long time, then I was asked to lead the extended family in prayer. 

Mandy wrote, “Another window to look through and another perspective to gain. The joy expressed by the Josiah family at seeing us and the welcome they showered on us blessed us deeply.  I loved being back in the village context, in the raw simplicity of relationship.” 

We had come prepared with large bags of mealie meal and dried fish, some vegetable seeds and a supply of fresh onions and tomatoes for each of the families represented.  As evening fell we gathered around the vehicle to distribute the food. The only heart -breaking component to the evening was represented by the people who gathered around the vehicle thinking that general food distribution was underway.  Noticing the gathering crowd, I had to stop and explain that what we were doing was being done in the context of “ukama”, or personal kinship that had been nurtured through the years.  There was general understanding after that, which left us with a desire shared by so many who had gone before for time, resources and opportunity to develop the same ukama with everyone.

Mandy wrote, “This experience was, without doubt, the most heart wrenching one for me.  As I stood on the edge of the crowd, the man to my right, holding a toddler, implored me for some food.  He told me that his wife was dead and that he had no food left for his baby.  While he was explaining his plight to me, a woman to my left put her hand on my arm and pled for some food, saying that she hadn’t eaten for two days.  With thirty-some more people standing around me, most of whom were in similar dire circumstances, I had to apologetically explain, as Bud had already done, that we were deeply sorry, but that we didn’t have food to give them.  How I longed for the physical presence of the one who’d blessed just five loaves and two fish and fed more than five thousand.  It didn’t feel right that we could get in the vehicle and return to the hospital station to a dinner that was waiting for us when there were so many around us that night who would go to sleep hungry."