February 2011


Our Very Dear Friends

This has never happened before, that I’ve begun my newsletter to you whilst travelling back from our annual sea trip! Yip! Visiting Durban this year took place earlier than any previous year, mainly because I’m hoping to fit in 3 overseas fundraising trips during 2011 but also because the earlier in the year we travel down to Kwa Zulu Natal the easier it is to secure accommodation at The Lily of the Valley and avoid the crowds on the beach, uShaka Marine World and the amusement park.

So it was that 16 excited 12 & 13 year old Morning Star children left for Durban on 2nd February for the treat of their lives! For the very first time ever they saw, tasted, romped and ‘swam’ in the ocean, experienced the feel of sea-sand between their toes, built castles on the beach, saw a proper waterfall (Howick Falls) high mountains (Drakensburg range) and experienced sleeping between crisp white sheets on their own bed!

This privileged bunch was made up of 10 boys:
Mohau Moeketsi, Sanku Mosenoyi, Bokang Nthapo, Taunyana Tshehlo, Sello Thooe, Dazwin Kotelo, Bafana Lekaota, Mzwandile Matyane, Ben Thibakhoana and Clenton Tsolo
and 6 girls: Sindi Mpele, Michelle Hadio, Puleng Letsie, Martha Lukhuleni, Dimakatso Mohlala and Lerato Pereko.
A few ofthe above are sponsored by some of you. I’m sure you’ll recognise their names.

And our Gracious Lord protected and kept us all the way! The weather was glorious, no child fell ill, our Toyota Bus went like a dream, the sea water worked its magic on the 2 children with skin problems and, thankfully, there were no serious mishaps.

 

All-in-all, we cannot but extol praises to our Heavenly Father and exclaim with the psalmist:


“I will sing of the Lord’s great love for ever;
With my mouth I will make Your faithfulness
known through all generations.
I will declare that your love stands firm forever”
Psalm 89:1

What especially marked this year’s sea trip and will go down in the annuls of Morning Star’s history include:

Common denominator = Joan. Guess who should stay at home and not go to Durban next year?

Solomon Botha2011 at Morning Star began with a bang, with 40 new children replacing those who left us in December to start at schools near their township homes this year. There was surprisingly little wailing as our fragile charges adapted to their new routine and settled in with us. A few are really frail and weak and all, as ever, have their own sad life-story to tell. Hunger, deprivation, ill-health, inadequate shelter, sick parents, no parents, inappropriate guardians, all taking their toll in the lives of thousands and thousands of South African children! One of our new toddlers, 14-month-old Solomon Botha, weighed just 5.6kgs upon admission! It was touch and go whether he’d survive at all! But staff member Elizabeth Ramakhale, took him to her heart and ample bosom and has lovingly nursed him back to life again. Already he’s weighing over 6kgs and is more alert and even attempting to smile.

Thato MoeketsiA second tragic new case is that of 11-year-old Thato Moeketsi. This young boy’s mother died in November 2010 and was obviously too ill to attend to the serious health needs of her son at the time. Thato is now living with his father and step-mother but the damage to his body and spirit is seemingly irreparable. He’s skin and bone, has an oozing abscess on the side of his neck, is unable to eat much and is very weak and frail. Last week one of our boisterous children touched him in passing and just that minimal contact caused Thato to topple over!

It’s strange not having Sr. Patricia in our midst anymore. Nor Teacher Selina, who informed me during the Christmas holidays that she was not returning to Morning Star this year either. Selina had not been well for months, struggling first with her tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis & treatment and then with a severe bout of shingles. In the end, her sons insisted that it was time for her to stay home and do all the things she’d long planned for her retirement. Both Pat and Selina have been replaced; Pat with Sr. Pulane Leeuw and Selina with Dipuo Mahlangu and, of course, with our lovely Sarah from England! Change is always hard to adjust to and we’re missing our two team members hugely but life goes on and our work continues. Other new staff members this year are Selloane Maseloa (new child care worker – replacing Vallery who died), Lindsey Leonard (general assistance) & Petrus Rathuso (an additional gardener).
Selina’s retirement means that Sarah Wilkins is now ‘the old girl on the block’ and suddenly, ‘in charge’ of all educational matters. God sure works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform! Good news for us is that Sarah is in the process of extending her volunteer visa for a further couple of years. We wish we could keep her here forever!

Shortly after Morning Star began this year our gardener, Papiki, was involved in a motor accident on his way to work. His primary mode of transport has always been his bicycle. On this particular morning, without him even being conscious of what was happening, a school bus overtaking him connected with his bike from behind, causing him to first smash into the bus with his head – which knocked him unconscious – and then to be flung onto the tarred road. (No, he didn’t have a helmet on!) The first we knew of all this was when his wife, Julia, phoned with the news that the police had delivered her husband’s mangled bicycle to their home and informed her that he’d been rushed to hospital. It was with much fear and trepidation that Pulane and I made our way to Bongani Hospital, not knowing what we’d find there? Thankfully Papiki was still alive but immobilized, attached to an oxygen cylinder, bloody bandages around his head and hand and blood seeping through his torn clothing………………!
God was gracious to his family and to us. Not only was it a miracle that he survived the accident but that no bones were broken was utterly astounding! Believe it or not, he was actually stable enough to be sent home before nightfall that very same day! Papiki’s back at work now – and almost his old self. But adamant that he’ll never ride a bicycle again!  

Tragically, we had 3 more children dying over the Christmas holidays. They were 8-year-old Mmasabata Rantsheuwa (for whom you’ve long been praying and who died  in  hospital), 18-month-old Maipato Letaoana (pure neglect) and 1-year-old Kananelo Stabela who was due to start at our Kutlwanong Centre this year. Do you know, our number of deaths per annum hasn’t dropped much, even though so many of our children are on anti-retroviral drugs and enjoying better health? The heart-breaking thing these days is that our children are dying from the side effects of the anti-retroviral drugs rather than from HIV/AIDS itself! We’ve always known these drugs are highly toxic and, although they generally improve the health of our little ones, we’re increasingly aware that a child’s immature immune system doesn’t cope as well on them as does an adult’s. Our Mmasabata was a typical case – with the development of liver & renal failure after being started on ARV therapy.

You’re probably all aware that the first of 2 proposed fundraising trips to the UK this year is just around the corner. God willing, Glenys Barham and I will be visiting churches in ‘the south’ of England and Wales during the first 3 weeks of March 2011 and, providing I have the stamina, a second trip is scheduled for September when we’ll be concentrating more on churches/ venues in ‘the north’. It’s been a mad rush trying to photograph all our new children for overseas sponsorship and typing up their histories – in-between getting ready for our sea trip and attending to the umpteen school children with their individual uniform and stationery needs. We now have over 330 school-going children between the ages of 6 and 19 years and getting them all kitted out with uniforms is not only time con-suming but also hugely expensive. We’ll never know why public schools in the townships – catering for the poorest of the poor – choose to have such expensive uniforms? How folk without an income are supposed to purchase these items is a mystery? Most township children only have one shirt, one skirt/pair of trousers & one pair of socks each and shirts, especially, have to be washed/ ironed every afternoon in readiness for the next day!! They wear these until they are in tatters or so small for them that it’s a wonder they are still able to fasten the buttons! And this is not even taking in the fact that the huge, township rats can destroy an article of clothing overnight as well! For your interest, a school tracksuit is usually unattainable, costing up to 30-40 pounds in some cases – more than an impoverished family’s monthly income! How grateful we are for your assistance in this regard. Without your regular support of our school-going children they would be dressed in rags like everybody else and bitterly cold during our icy winter weather.

I guess this is a good place to end this epistle. I still wanted to tell you about catching our gardeners shaving in the schoolroom’s bathroom last week and live fowls accompanying our children home on the Morning Star transport! Perhaps there’ll be an opportunity to share these hilarious stories with you when I see you next month?

Until then, just know that we’re hugely grateful for your ongoing support, especially in the light of the present economic recession. The great reward is seeing little children blossoming in our care and knowing with all our hearts that together we’re making a difference in their lives. We might only be reaching a handful of the thousands out there – but we’re definitely changing the appalling circumstances of those that God sends our way!

Yours in Him
Joan

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