Written by Diane
Fourth Letter
4 April 2003
Greetings from South Africa!
We have now been here for 10 weeks - the girls at Inanda Seminary just left for their Fall Easter Break. I miss them already.
I take this time to reflect on our being here. Before coming here we just prayed that God would show us where we were needed.
Thus far we have put many of our skills and life experiences to use here, teaching- English as a Second Language, library skills, journalism, being a librarian, yearbook advisor, newsletter writer, living and working in a boarding school, offering help with computers and fundraising, doing liturgical music and storytelling. These have all come into play in the last two months.
Besides this Will and I helped some students with a public speaking contest. Their topic was T.B. which is one of the leading causes of death here and of course tied in with the AIDS situation. I helped with their research and Will helped coach with the public speaking aspect. They came in first in a local school competition.
Will just put out the first Newsletter with his journalism class. As yearbook advisor he has also taken the all school class pictures and well as the 35 Matrics/ Senior individual photos. He also is helping with fund raising development and hopes to get a web page going for the school.
I continue to run the library. With the help of our library club of 25 members we have reorganized the whole library. They have also been trained to check books out, mend them, put on covers, shelve books, track down overdues, and make library displays. Our newest plan is to have a contest to paint a mural for the library and make bookmarks. It has been fun. Twice a week I have an after school English as a Second Language class.
Katrina has been involved in soccer and the library club as well as doing her own studies. But her greatest offering has been her friendship. So many girls consider her their good friend and she has been an incredible good will ambassador for whites and Americans. Being the only white teenager amid 300 Zulu girls has been an enriching experience for her.
Inanda Seminary's long history has shown that it has been through many challenging times since it was started in 1868 as a UCC mission school, the first for black girls in South Africa. It continues to be a leader in education here, but has recently gone through a difficult period and was closed for a while. They have a new principal who started when we arrived and she is great. I feel our being here and helping in many different ways has been a boost to her first experience at Inanda. The schools motto is Shine Where You Are and we have been trying to do that.
We are trying to keep aware of the war on Iraq by going to Scott & Susans (mission ministers here) to watch CNN & BBC. With all the resentment over the (United States of Arrogance-as we have heard it called) war in Iraq, we feel we are able to show the people here another side of being American. Recently I was in charge of the chapel service and I used peace as the theme. Will played Let there be peace on earth on the guitar. It felt good to be doing something even though we are far from home.
We continue to learn new things every day- the AIDS crisis in Southern Africa, Zulu words & traditions, a South African perspective of Americas war in Iraq, race relationships between Africans, Coloured, Indian and White, and the history of this country that has 11 official languages! So much to absorb.
On a lighter side - Our senses are being bombarded every minute - so what are some of my favorites?
SMELL-the perfume of the tropical flowers as you walk around the campus.
TASTE-the delicious Mangos -they grow on trees at the school.
SOUND-The Zulu girls breaking into songs at any time of day and night.
FEEL-the warm tropical sun on me as I walk to the library.
SIGHT-the view overlooking the hills of Inanda with the Indian Ocean in the
misty distance.
Katrina and I are having fun learning some Zulu words and trying to pronounce
the variety of clicks in their language;
A few fun words:
Sawubona-hello
Unjani-How are you?
Ngisaphila-I am fine
Yebo-Yes
Woza-Come
Ikati-Cat
Hamba Kahle-Good bye
Sizobonana-See you later
Ngiyabonga-Thank you
