Weekend in Imbali

Realization of the weekend: Trying to paint a decent mural when surrounded by 40 little girls, who are all covered in paint and hyped up on sugar, is NOT a good idea. That being said, I went to the Orphanage this past weekend with full intentions to finish painting the building. About 10 other international students and I left Saturday afternoon for our weekend long escapade / sleepover in Imbali. When we got there, Stephanie and I started painting the cement block in front of the building. The orphanage had originally been a hospital, and the words “Edendale drop-in center” were still written on the sign, and Magic asked us to paint over it. We painted it yellow, stenciled out “Welcome to Ubuntu Crisis Center”, and then had the kids make hand prints on the sign. (I attached a pic, so you can see how it turned out!)

Afterwards, I began work on the front of the building. The whole time I was working, I had an audience of about 20 kids, all wanting their turn to paint. Making matters worse, their hands were still wet from the last mural, so paint ended up being everywhere it shouldn’t have been. I finally decided to put if off for the night, and got up early the next morning to finish.

While all this was happening, the others were out back having a braii (barbeque). We wanted to treat Magic and the kids to dinner, so we got meat from the butcher, as well as s’more stuff (it was such a hit at rowing; we decided to try it here). The kids were SO excited about having the braii. Magic told us that this was their first braii since they opened the orphanage 4 years ago. Meat and coal are just too expensive. The kids usually just have 4 pieces of bread and a cup of tea for dinner. Last week, we mapped out a vegetable garden in the backyard – so hopefully come spring they’ll have veggies to eat as well.

It wasn’t until we sat down to eat that we realized exactly WHAT we were eating. The agreement for dinner was that we’d cook the kid’s dinner, and Magic and his wife were going to cook us international students a traditional Zulu dish. It turned out to be “pop” (kinda like a mix of mashed potatoes and grits), sheep intestine, and cow stomach – all mixed together. Our dinner ended up being more of an episode from fear factor than anything else. But we stomached it, to be nice.

After dinner, we made mother’s day cards (for Magic’s wife), danced, ate popcorn and watched movies. We watched Mr. Bones, (a South African cartoon classic) and Toy Story. We then all piled into beds – and went to sleep. Those kids usually sleep 4 to a single bed. Two sleep on the top end, and two at the bottom with their feet touching.

As I mentioned before, I woke up at 6am to finish painting. Although it was VERY cold outside, I was able to finish up, and it was dry before the kids woke up (I attached a picture of how it turned out). On Tuesday, I’m painting a tree on the building, and I’m going to have the girls make green hand prints for the leaves. I’m also going to paint “Ubuntu Crisis Center”, a giraffe, and some flowers. So I’m basically going to be living in Imbali for the remainder of my time here. I’ll keep on posting pictures to show the progress. I know I ranted in my last blog about being anti-photography at the orphanage - but I wanted to document the paintings in some way.

Magic had told us the day before that he wanted to take us to church. So on Sunday, we all got dressed up and began our 2 mile hike to “ACC”. It’s a Christian church, with services held in an elementary school. It was a very interesting experience, and quite different from home… to say the least. I must say - I felt a bit out of place being there. As we walked in, just about every head turned to see us nervous, wide eyed looking tourists awkwardly try to blend in. The service consisted of lots of singing, dancing, yelling, clapping, and throwing your arms up in the air. The sermon was spoken in a mix of Zulu, Xhosa, and English so it was difficult to know what was being said. There was no pastor at the church - whenever someone wanted to speak, they'd just get up and talk. At one point, they had all the mothers get up (it was Mothers Day) to sing for them. Since most of the girls at church didn't have mothers, they instead talked about caregivers, and gave thanks to them. The little girls from the orphanage had also prepared a song in English that they sang to us. Despite the language barrier, was really fun going to church here. Everyone puts so much soul and energy into the service – it’s really a moving experience. The singing is beautiful too.

If anything came from this weekend, it’s made me realize that I’ve chose the right major, and I want to work with underprivileged kids after I graduate. Although it got a little frustrating at times, this weekend was TONS of fun, and I’m so glad I got to paint and leave my little touch behind at the orphanage. My happiest times in South Africa have been at the orphanage, and I’m going to miss them all so much when I leave. Those kids are so smart and resilliant. They all take care of each other, and never complain about anything - even though they have next to nothing.