A Crying Shame

I carefully stepped out of my car and tried to avoid all of the muddy puddles on the ground. It was difficult as the ground seemed to be alive with water. I managed to stick to a strip of high ground and then I was there. It looked as if a party was on the go. Kids ran around screaming, a women on a chair was having her hair combed by another woman behind her, more woman sat around chatting, and two men seemed to be discussing a nuclear physics problem. One of these men, Paul, was the man I had come to see. I wanted to find out how his new wooden house had stood up to the storm that had just blown through our town.

Not being satisfied with what he had been given; Paul had already built on a new section and converted his long house into an ‘L’ shape. Somehow he had managed to match the front of his alteration with the rest of his home, no small feat for a man without any money. He was as excited as I have ever seen him; his home had withstood the elements. On further inspection, I found that the front door had leaked, soaking the entrance. A little shelter over the entrance would solve that problem and remove the problem from any houses we may build. Paul posed for a couple of pictures inside his house, and his wife came over and simply gave me a long hug. Nothing more needed to be said.

Paul’s friend asked if I would come and look at his house. Understanding his want, I reluctantly followed him. He chose another precarious route through the flood waters, meeting up with four youths along the way. They were none too happy to see him and a few barrages of verbal abuse were flung either way.

His shack was a sad looking affair, a hodge podge of wood nailed together and canted over to one side. He opened the door and invited me in. His two tiny rooms were wet as a result of a roof that had never seen better days. The family’s meagre possessions had been bundled into black bags and stacked on one another. The floor was partially wet sand and he explained that the heavy winds had actually moved his shack off its wooden floor. I was revolted at the thought of anyone having to live their lives in a place this despicable, let alone raise a young family.

His eyes welled up with tears. ‘Mark’, he said, ‘I need a decent place to make a home for Jesus’. He rushed off to his room and returned with a page torn from a children’s bible. A treasured possession, somehow kept clean and dry in all of the squalor, a shining beacon of hope. ‘Help us’, he pleaded. I did not have the heart to tell him it was a picture of Moses.

Sadly the waves of alcohol from last nights party closed up my ears to his pleas. I asked why he continues to drink instead of saving his money to fix his house himself. He promised to do just that. Could I really blame him for enjoying an escape from his terrible reality?

Standing in that hovel, watching a grown man cry, I wondered about my own lack of compassion. I was moved to help yet made no promises. He certainly did not deserve any help as a lazy man lost in a haze of drugs and alcohol, in trouble with the local gangs, full of lies, and without a hope in the world. I could not imagine him ever being able to change his ways on his own. For the first time in my life, I started to understand the depth of the social problems that exist just under the thin veneer of society.

I have no idea what to do. Interestingly enough, some guy a couple of thousand years ago saw the same things, met people who deserved nothing, and yet showered them with his compassion and love anyway!

Ask and you shall recieve!

This morning a neighbour reversed his car up my garage and sat there sipping his coffee while I hurriedly got myself out of bed. Normally I am up early but he managed to catch me napping. When I finally got outside, I was greeted by a heap of things for my ‘fix a house’ project; carpets, curtains, pillows, clothes, and even kitchen appliances. It felt like Christmas and I don’t even get to keep the stuff!!

Last week while we were building our first house, a lady approached us. She is well known in Sir Lowry’s Village as she has made it one of her personal projects. She made a very simple deal with us; if we supply the time, she will supply materials for future upgrades. You can imagine how my jaw must have dropped to hear such a generous offer! It does of course mean that we need to find some cash to cover the labour costs and plenty more of the stuff my neighbour sourced but it makes me so excited just to think about it!

There is of course one other little problem. How much time do I really have to dedicate to this project? Not a whole lot, but with that kind of offer on the table, it would be good that I find some! Either that or I need to find a couple more people to help!

I am overwhelmed by the generosity of this lady as well as my neighbours, thank you all so much!!!

Fixing Houses

I had hoped, when I wrote about my 'Fix a House' project some time back, that by writing about it, I would be spurred into action. That action has indeed taken some time to materialise, but at last it has happened.

A friend of mine, Nikluas, arranged a donation of more than R41,000 from a Catholic Church in Switzerland. With a couple of other donations, we had a substantial pot of money with which to make a real difference in the lives of some elderly and infirm forgotten people.

Last week Thursday we met on site at 07h00. The plan was to build on a new room to an old shanty for a very old half blind man. His room had been destroyed when a massive tree was forced by an unruly wind to relocate itself onto his roof. For the past year, he has slept on the floor of the kitchen in the shack that he shares with his family (5 other people).

Thursday 07h30, getting started

Thursday 08h30 - setting the uprights

Thursday 09h07 - Roof beams attached

Thursday 10h43 - the roof is on

Thurday 13h34 - Windows installed

Thursday 16h00 - UBR sheeting installed on back and side

Friday involved the pouring of the floor, installation of an internal door and the completion of the IBR sheeting on the front of the room. All completed in the pouring rain!

Monday 07h41 - Niklaus with Sakkie (the new resident)

Sakkie has now moved in and is very happy about his own space, although he owns almost nothing that he can put in there to fill it. Looking around his very bare room, I felt sad that I could not do more to make his space more comfortable, like cladding of the walls and roof, a new bed, a carpet on the floor, etc. There is of course a very fine balance between the value of investment into a squatter settlement and the problem one is trying to alleviate. By its very nature a squatter settlement is not permanent. Our view is that as long as we are able to provide a dry and comfortable room for people who will never have the means to do so for themselves, then we are making a valuable difference. Neighbours of mine subsequently donated two mattresses and located a stack of used carpets that we can use to clothe the concrete floor.

Today we have begun work on a shack in which two brothers live. Both unemployed and one with no legs. Their place is a pit. Anything we do here will make a world of difference.

The need is so great that one has no idea where to start. I hope that by just starting somewhere, we inspire others to make their own contribution in their own way, and that together we all make a difference in the lives of our fellow man!

An update of sorts

I keep making excuses and today that just had to stop. I am determined to post a blog. This very blog you happen to be reading is the fruit of weeks of useless procrastination...

I have decided it will be an update blog! The highlights of my life, as exciting as they are...

I was recently invited to guest blog on somebody else’s site. A pretty big honour and so followed through with a couple of words on fatherhood. Check it out here http://gillianhefer.blogspot.com/ (the Monday 15 February post).

My daughter is growing in leaps and bounds and starting to become her own real little person. The other night she woke up just once; it was like six Christmas’s and my birthday all rolled into one. Tell you the truth, I have found it a serious challenge to work my day away and wake up continuously at night, and then repeat the cycle for nights on end. The prospect that it may soon become manageable again, fills me with much latent excitement!

Luke has spent two Saturdays recently at the beach trying to surf his way into the Boland Grommet surfing team as an under 10. That of course means that daddy also has to spend his days on the beach. As an 8 year old, he also gets to have a ‘caddy’ in the water. I thoroughly enjoy being his caddy as it gives us some wonderful bonding time together. Of course it does mean that I get a couple of intense aqua aerobic sessions as I charge from the beach to backline and then back to the beach to collect Luke and repeat as many times as possible in 20 minutes. This past Saturday, he caught some awesome waves and surfed them so well, I could see his manoeuvres from well behind the wave. I was exhilarated! So far he has come second in both trials and made me exceptionally proud.

Matt on the other hand has started to become the most helpful kid on the block. He is into everything from cleaning the dishes to helping with dinner preparations. He has also started to skate on the halfpipe and doing very nicely at that! He is enjoying the social side of school a little too much and causing his fair share of chaos over there!

And then there is my good wife. She is back to gym twice a week and thoroughly enjoying it. The fact that she now fits back into clothes from before Matthews birth has made her smile for weeks Regardless, I think she is beautiful and wonderful, no matter what clothes she fits into

Tweety is doing well. Her electrics are 75% complete. I have also ordered the last remaining parts from the good old US of A. My latest discovery is that unless you are customising your Golf with luminous lights, skeleton shaped gear levers, or nitro conversions, you are not going to find the after-market parts for your car. Hence my need to ask the people over the sea to send some decent stuff over here! There is no way that I could expect Tweety to wear common stuff, only the best will be good enough!! Once they arrive in the next week or so, it should only take a week to finish her off and another week to touch up the paint work. After more than a year of anticipation, I am a little jaded by this project. But just maybe, it will come to be soon!

On the work front, things have gone bananas. I have been giving it horns since the beginning of December and the diary is full till the end of March. As a consultant in my own business, it could not be better! Apart from the fact that I have had to cancel a couple of my Monday morning surf sessions...

And then my ‘Fix a House’ project, where I aim to go and fix roofs and walls of some sick and infirm peoples’ shacks in Sir Lowry’s Village has amassed just more than R42,000. Yeha!!! Now I just need to find some time to spend it and do some good in this poor community.

And that’s just the fun stuff...