Mormon Helping Hands Across Africa

Saturday, August 20th was a day of service for Church members across all of Africa.  Wards or branches of the Church each select a service project that benefits their community.  It can be for schools, charitable organizations, public entities, etc.  We chose to go to the project for the Berea Ward of the Durban Stake.  It was at an orphanage.  We had a number of tasks including, moving a huge pile of dirt and filling in places, gardening, fixing jungle gyms, sorting archival papers, pruning a couple of trees, and general cleanup of the grounds.  Like many of the orphanages in Africa, this one houses children who have lost their parents to AIDs.  First photo is getting our assignments.

Sister Gunderson and three of the young adults of the ward.  Phumile Pungeni on the left is a PEF student.  The yellow bibs are those you see all over the world when there is a disaster and the Church members step in and provide aid and physical labor to help those in need.

Bishop Scott, making assignments and talking on a cell phone at the same time.  He is a ball of energy.  We had to get  a Priesthood Endorsement from him for a student shortly after we arrived here and were waiting for him prior to a ward council meeting.  The Ward Relief Society president and Young Women's president went into the meeting and told us we would know him because he looked like a fire hydrant :-)

Some of the ward children enjoying a service project as only kids can.

Sister Gunderson with her little clean-up crew.  She is quite a task master but they were rewarded several times with cookies and candies, after they picked up several bags of leaves and trash..

The pile of dirt that we moved about 2/3 of the way completed.  I was thankful for Ibuprofen after that.  The mission is making me soft.  It felt good to do some strenuous physical labor.

More of the same.  The dirt was somewhat sandy and part was taken to fill in  a sand box for the children.The rest was used to fill in holes and areas of erosion on the grounds.  It was also nice to be in jeans!

Gardening.  They have a nice little garden at the orphanage where they grow fresh vegetables for the children.  The soil is very rich and good.  Covers and screens are to keep birds and monkeys out.

More gardening.  Notice the Zulu women wearing dresses to work in the garden.  We rarely see the older women in this country in pants.  Long, and often very beautiful print, dresses are traditional.

Taking dead leaves out of the banana trees.

President Bricknell, of the Durban Stake, up a tree so that he could cut limbs off that were overhanging the clothes line.  He got out on some very small limbs.  His wife was not at the project or she might have had something to say about this.  I could not help but think about Bill or Dan Winn when he was pruning.  Except they, almost always, use safety lines.

Repairing the jungle gym.  One funny kind of sad story.  One of our PEF students, who we have met with several times, quickly volunteered for this job when the assignments were being made.  He later asked What is a jungle gym? We have never seen a jungle gym or any playground equipment in the schools in the townships so he probably had never heard the term.  He is well on his way to becoming a doctor, by the way.

A couple of the member's children who took a liking to Sister Gunderson.  It may of had something to do with the candy that she was sharing; or maybe just because they know that she loves them.  I think the latter

I spotted this little baby gecko while cleaning up limbs and trees from the pruning.  He was well camouflaged but, when he moved I saw him.

Sorting archival documents as to what needed to be kept and what could be tossed.  Some dated back to 1909!
We had a great day and are thankful to be able to meet the wonderful Saints here.  Projects, like these, really help you get to know people better.
We are gearing up to teach a couple of  Planning for Success Workshops this week and for the next four Saturdays and Sundays.  One workshop that serves  two wards may have over 20 students.  Now we only have 36 more units to get the workshops going!  We keep plugging away.  We are working hard to get the Bishops and Branch Presidents to call teachers that we can train.  We can be much more effective if that can be accomplished.  We have six new teachers so far, so that is a start.