The Church Comes to VVOCF

The African Pentecostal church approached Nomusa and asked if they could hold a service at the centre Friday for heritage day. Nomusa agreed hoping it would bring exposure for VVOCF in the community. So they came Friday morning with a huge rented tent that they put up in the front yard. The church members were all dressed from head to toe in these green outfits. Many of the children came as well. For some reason the priests asked Naveed to sit up front with them facing the congregation. It was hilariously awkward: there's Naveed sitting next to 6 priests, reverends and an archbishop. I was seated among the church ladies near the back. The service began and went on, and on, and on! It lasted for nearly 4 hours (all in Zulu) with speeches and sermons and lots and lots of loud singing. Whenever any speech ended or anyone entered the tent someone would stand and burst into song which everyone else heartily joined in on. A different person started each song, we wonder if it was planned or if they were just moved at random to start singing. At the end of the service Naveed and I were asked to stand up and each say something so we talked about how honored we were to be there and to pray with them and hear the lovely singing. After this the church had brought a donation of breads and pies and cakes which we fed to the children. The collection plate was passed around then the priests blessed the money and donated it to the centre. Later the priests cornered Naveed and basically forced him into agreeing to have a meeting with them next Friday, they want us to come to their church and something was said about sponsoring them...they think we have money because we are white. Nomusa was upset that they cornered Naveed who was just trying to be polite. She said Friday we should hide and she would talk to them and tell them we are here to volunteer at VVOCF and don’t have time or money for their church. So that was an interesting experience to say the least...
Our main struggle here is the language barrier. We also have a lot of free time in the evenings. It gets dark around 6 so we're just in our room reading or watching movies and shows that we downloaded before we got here until we go to sleep. Saturday night there was a very loud dance party in the street a little ways away from the centre. The music went on until the early morning and even from our room it was louder than even Naveed's music in his car when he’s driving!
Church pictures are coming soon!
Love,
The Wandering Two

More Pictures

Here's a few more pictures of life at the centre in Zonke.

Our neighbors showing us their church outfits for Heritage Day

Naveed with some of the boys he plays soccer with

The VVOCF sign

The office

The school and field behind the center

This is where we get our water (which we boil)

The preschool nextdoor

Streets of Zonke

Olivia in the office

One of the children learning english

Girls with donated blankets

Life in Zonke

We realize we never explained why our last posts were called 'Is that a wig?' so here it is: on a few occasions when Naveed has been playing with the kids they have been amazed by the amount of hair he has, pulling on his head shocked that it’s his real hair... 

Anyways, we've been here for 2 weeks now. Yesterday there was a crazy windstorm that blew dirt everywhere; everything in our room was covered in a thick layer of red African dirt. We couldn’t leave our room for most of the day.
This week we taught the kids Red Grammer's “I Think You're Wonderful”. They all loved the song and wrote down the words to practice at home, we hear them singing it often. Today we did an activity where everyone had to say something wonderful about the person next to them and then we talked about the effect of positive and kind words. Naveed was told that he is beautiful and I was told that I’m special...we spend a lot of time with the staff here at the centre who are all volunteers, today Naveed made them all cups of Starbucks instant coffee (thanks Colleen!) and they loved it. We also showed them some of the loose-leaf tea we brought; they all thought it was medicine from the traditional witch doctor!
Every night Naveed plays soccer with the boys on the field until its dark. Some people have asked for our address so here it is:

Olivia Firdawsi and Naveed Akhavan

P.O. Box 1508

Germiston 1400

South Africa

3 days a week when the kids are here we get to eat the food we make for them and don’t have to cook which is nice, and Naveed gets meat sometimes so he is happy. Friday is heritage day and some church wants to come and hold a service here at the centre so that should be interesting. We'll post some more pictures soon.
Love,
the Wandering Two

Photos from Zonke



The boys spend all their free time making these little cars out of pieces of wire



Some of the girls in the dresses Olivia's mom sewed; they were very excited to receive them



The centre



Playing duck duck goose and other games with the kids



Naveed serving food for the children.  This day was fish stew, pap and spinach



Olivia being silly with the little ones



Naveed doing the same



Is that a wig? ... continued

Hello everyone! We finally got to an internet cafe and are posting pictures below. I think some of the pictures may be doubles or triples, I don't know why this happened, but we'll blame it on South Africa. So, Olivia and I have been adjusting to life in Zonki and every day is getting better as we become more familiar with how things work. We have been practicing Zulu with the staff and children and they have been patient with us but enjoy laughing at out pronunciation. We have started helping with the garden, which contains cabbage, spinach, and onions, as well as the potatoes we planted yesterday. We have plans to plant more this week. It is very cold at night and in the morning it is too hot. The children welcomed us with an hour of singing and dancing which we got on video. Yesterday we handed out the jerseys and played a big soccer game in the dirt field behind the center. I scored a goal and a penalty kick and the kids were celebrating with me, it was exciting. In the middle of the game I had to just stand and take everything in... and then a goat walked by... It gets dark early here so we spend our evenings reading and watching shows on our laptop. We have been to a few nearby towns via mini bus which was a fun and interesting experience. Today there was a police officer on the road ahead, so the minibus stopped and made 3 people get out because we were over capacity. After we passed the officer, we stopped and waited for them to get back in, as one man ran a bribe back to the police. Well, that's all we have time to write, but now that we know where to get semi-fast internet we will post soon.

Love you all,

Naveed and Olivia,

The Wandering Two

 VVOCF center grounds, our room is where the open door is

Preparing the soil to plant potatoes.

Olivia with some of the children.

Some of the children eating the meal given to them at the center.

  Some of the children eating the meal given to them at the center.

Me and some of the boys before we played soccer.

The children wearing the jerseys donated by the Manshadi family and others.



Is that a wig?

Hello from Zonkizizwe! Weve been here for a few days now and are doing alright. We're just getting used to being here and meeting everyone and trying to learn some Zulu. email is the best way to reach us if you want our phone number let uS know. Were posting this from our phone so we cant say much but will hopefully post more including some pictures later in the week.