Shubab's Snack Shack

Have you ever been so wind and dust blown that you can feel the grit in your teeth and blow sand out your nose? After today, each of us can answer 'yes' to that question.

Dihatshwane is situated in the middle of a large wind swept plane at about 5000' elevation. The plane is so large that only the horizon is visible in every direction. The ground is extremely rocky and the shrubs are covered in large sharp spines that are oddly reminiscent of hypodermic needles!

However, in the midst of this hard and barren landscape, the 2000 people who live there have formed a community of hope and love. They may be isolated and poor, but today we saw just how important it is for them to know that they are thought of and loved by the outside world. We also experienced the wealth of joy and love for God that they have to share with all who might listen.

We began the day by visiting the village grade school where we introduced ourselves to each classroom and talked about the importance of education in our individual lives. Once these children finish the sixth grade, they have to walk approximately 10 kilometers one way in order to continue in school. The 20 kilometer round trip in cold weather is too much of a deterrent for many of them who choose to stay home and work instead. Kimberly encouraged each classroom to remember that an education is about more than making money or gaining prestige, but about the joy that can be had in a life devoted to serving others. When she asked how many wanted to do work that helped other people she was met with enthusiastic smiles and shouts! Here's hoping we inspired someone to become a scientist that will secure the cure for AIDS!

Afterwards, we went to the local 'preschool' to visit the smallest children. There were 21 children in the preschool which was housed in one room of someone's private home. The room was no larger than a large dinning room table with only a rug on the floor and a small table of supplies. There were several 'teachers' there but none of them are paid for their work. The preschool was started by an elderly woman from the local church and since her passing a few months ago these women have taken up her mantle for free.

If you can imagine the scene of ten tall white people walking into a crowded room of tiny black children who have never seen a white person in their lives, you might understand the level of apprehension and fear they had. Some of them even began crying. Thankfully the teachers were calm and had all the children sit down. We all squeezed down next to them and Kimberly told them the story of creation with the help of Papa Joe (one of our hosts) translating. This helped the children calm a little bit so we decided to take them outside to play a game.

The walk through the house to get outside was difficult because the children didn't understand what the purpose was. Many of them began to cry again and and clung to their teachers.

Children are always ready to trust though, and as soon as we had opened up a sheet and filled it with tennis balls their interest was peaked. We then spread the sheet out and had each of them hold it and begin to shake. Soon the crying gave way to laughter and shrieks of joy as they watched the tennis balls bounce and fly off in every direction. I truly believe they could have played with that simple sheet and tennis balls all day long!

By the end of our time at the preschool the children had sung us several songs and all wanted to give us hugs and thumb snaps as we left (they love to hold up their thumbs like a hitchhiker, put them up to someone else's thumb, then make a snap as they say, "chop, chop").

To finish the morning we walked all through the village meeting local church members, visiting the very friendly chief, and boosting the local economy by loading up on snacks at the only store in town (and our namesake for this post).

In the afternoon we held Day 2 of the Vacation Bible School at the church. This is the first time anything like this has been done at Dihatshwane and the kids are starting to relax and really get into it. Today, they taught us one of their songs, which they agreed to perform on video on the last day so we can bring it back and sing it 'with them' for you all! We also taught them the joys of playing Musical Chairs and the delicacy of a candy called Skittles.

There's no telling what tomorrow will bring, but there is no doubt it will be a blessing for us and them equally!