In other news.

It seems that all we can talk about this week is Covid-19 and American politics. The two headlines are affecting every part of our lives, including our physical, emotional and mental health. While we are a million miles away from the U.S., we still see watch the news from afar, and hurt with our friends and family who are hurting.

 

The headlines in Eswatini are similar, but here our Covid-19 and politics are combined with high level government leaders dying from the virus, government funding not available for basic hospital. Morgues are full and they have had to stop accepting dead bodies so people are encouraged to burn their dead. Government hospitals have run out of body bags, and funeral homes are out of coffins. All of this has led to another police lock down for an unspecified amount of time. Along with all the usual ramifications, this also means that babies will be left to die because they cannot be rescued, people cannot visit us to buy fresh vegetables/milk/eggs and we all move back into a greater state of awareness of health and wellness trying to keep 275 children (many with underlying health issues) safe. 

 

Dups is the main group of funeral homes in the country.

But let me take a moment and share some other news from Project Canaan. This week our 2-year-old toddler named Carol went in for surgery to remove her right kidney after one of our Aunties brought a lump to the attention of our medical team. Several tests resulted in the awareness of a large mass on her kidney, which turned out to be her whole kidney. Thankfully her left kidney is in perfect working condition, but there is no pediatric surgeon in Eswatini and there is no way for us to take her to South Africa at this time for surgery. THANKFULLY we know a wonderful adult surgeon at a private hospital who was willing to do this major surgery. We are further thankful for a dear friend who has offered to pay for the surgery and hospital stay. Little Carol is still in the hospital and in pain, but hopefully will come home to us this weekend and will spend 7-10 weeks in recovery.

 

We continue in our building projects, hoping to have Emseni #6 built for our big boys by March as our other Emseni buildings are full (we will fill the last 7 spaces next week with 3-year-olds who are moving to Emseni before school starts). That means we will have 40 children in each of the five Emseni buildings and 75 children under the age of 3 on the lower campus. O2 is also under construction right beside E6.

 

E6 on the left, O2 on the right.

We have cleared a very large space (18,000 sq feet) for a recreation area, which we hope will one day house a large swimming pool, volleyball, badminton etc.  For those of you who are wondering why we would even consider putting in a pool, we believe that learning to swim is not just for fun or to cool down on scorching hot African days, but it is also life-saving and life-giving. 

 

E5 girls bottom left. E4 boys bottom right.

While the world around us continues to groan in pain, we will continue to give thanks in all things. We give thanks for continued health, financial provision as well as God’s hand of protection over us. We pray for those who are sick, those who are mourning and those who are lost. 

 

In The Message translation of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12) Jesus said:

“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

 “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

 “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

 “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

 “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.  (WOW! - emphasis mine)

 “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

 “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

 “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

 “Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble."

 Live from Eswatini ... we are blessed.

 Janine

Witch doctors vs. Lysol spray

 

My favorite epidemiologist has been tracking “Day One” of the Coronavirus in a country when that country has 150 confirmed viruses.  Thursday became “Day One” for Eswatini, with our second death reported.  (The newspaper also reported that both COVID-19 deaths are due to diabetes).

 

The country has not seen His Majesty King Mswati III in several months, and there has been lots of suspicion as to where he has been, but on Thursday night “The Lion Roared” in a special news briefing where he greeted the country.  His whole speech is easily read on line, but the part that confused me, until sitting down with several of my staff for an explanation, was his call for everyone to go and fumigate their homes “the Swazi way”, and then get back to work so that the economy can resume.

Here is what that means in Swazi culture, as it has been explained to me.

There are two ways to fumigate your home, both using ancestral worship. The first is called “Kuchela”, and it is a way to rid the COVID-19 (or other) spirits away from your home.  You take a grass broom in one hand, and a bucket of water in the other hand.  Then you put the grass in the bucket and go around the house throwing water on and around the house, from the bucket, shouting at the COVID-19 spirits to leave the house. People loved the King's speech and immediately started fumigating, posting videos on social media to encourage others to do the same. Below is one of those videos.

 

The second way to fumigate is with something called “Imphepho”, which are bunches of dried herbs easily found in the Manzini market.  You light the bunch on fire and walk around your house, inside and out, shouting at the COVID-19 spirits to leave and the smoke from the herbs literally smokes them out, with the help of your dead ancestors, of course.  

Imphepho

His Majesty the King also encouraged the traditional healers (witch doctors) to work quickly to make a muti (medicinal concoction) to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to cure it (I guess this is for the people who didn’t fumigate properly?).

Now, this may all seem strange to my readers, but I will say that Swazi’s know exactly how to use Lysol cleaning products and they all know what those warning symbols on the side of the bottles means “DO NOT DRINK!”  I have read in the US that there are Pastors who are still having church services and are praying away the virus – and while I believe in the power of prayers, it would seem a bit to me like “American Kuchela”, without the brooms.

As I live on a mountainside on a tiny Kingdom in Africa, I am amazed at how much I see similarities from here to North America. We all want to find a cure, we all want to find a vaccine, we all want to find hope.  Africans are no different, they just do it differently, based on how they were raised, how much education they have and who they can trust to give them accurate information.  Isn’t that what each of us is doing to?

The information source that I know is always accurate is scripture and so I will continue to fumigate my house with words from the Lord in Isaiah 41:10 that say, “So do not be afraid. I am with you. Do not be terrified. I am your God. I will make you strong and help you. I will hold you safe in my hands. I always do what is right.”

In other news, it’s Mother’s Day weekend and tomorrow we will be hosting LIVE church with our children on the Heart for Africa Facebook page at 9AM EST. We will start the service by dedicating our newest family member, newborn baby girl “Litsemba” (which means “Hope” in siSwati), who arrived on Thursday, after not receiving a baby in 7+ weeks. The children will perform a special Mother’s Day song, Ian will give a short message and then we will celebrate FIVE birthdays: Jeremiah, Samuel & Samson, Pheobe and Isaac.  Please invite your mom to watch on line with you and join our ever-growing family as we celebrate all the women who care for our 262 children and all the women around the world who are caregivers and moms. 

Live from Eswatini … how will you fumigate your house this weekend?

Janine

Looking at our children’s health through the lens of COVID-19

With 261 children living at Project Canaan we have a lot of health issues every day. We deal with “the normal” HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, asthma, boils (lots of boils!) and allergies, but we also have bicycle accidents, playground falls from kids just being kids.

COVID-19 has not appeared on campus yet, that we know of, but knowing that it is hiding in the bushes around us makes all of the above more complicated, and tense.  Two weeks ago, Miriam had a serious bike accident resulting in a head injury and broken tibia and fibula.  It took ten days before she could see the only orthopedic surgeon in the country for surgery, and that was at a private hospital, and another two days for us to get a one sentence report of what surgery had been done. 

Earlier this week our little boy Simeon (3.5 years old) suddenly had a seizure while on the playground, which lasted 2-3 long minutes.  He was unresponsive for a long time and was taken to a different private hospital and was admitted. They found a chest infection and tonsillitis and he was admitted for treatment, and they decided to do a COVID-19 test.  The results take five days, so we should have them tomorrow.  Several days later, when he was ready for discharge, he started vomiting, so is still in the hospital.

Yesterday we had TEN babies from the El Roi baby home go and see nurse Hannah with high fever and coughing.  Our children’s campuses have been on lockdown for two weeks now and any staff presenting with a fever in the AM (all staff are monitored daily) were sent to quarantine out of an abundance of caution. And yet, here we are with ten babies sick in one house.  Could it be?

Kitchen preparations for Easter breakfast.

Last night at midnight I was called by Anthony to tell me that Roderick (one year old) couldn’t breath and after being given oxygen and then nebulized, they were rushing him to the same private hospital Simeon is in.  I could hear him in the background gasping for air and it sounded like an adult saying “Help me! Help me!”  When they arrived at the hospital the doctor said it sounded like he had a chest infection and he was admitted. He will get a chest x-ray today. 

And then there was the day this week that a senior staff member presented with acute abdominal pain, possible appendicitis, and was rushed to a third private hospital for care.  On a prompting from the Lord, we sent her to see an OBGYN, who found a 4” x 4” ovarian cyst that had two twists in the fallopian tube and did emergency surgery.  I simply don’t know what would have happened to her if she had gone to a government hospital for care at this time.

Ovarian cyst removed this week.

If you are like me, living during this time of fear and uncertainty, you likely wondered how COVID-19 might be involved in or impact any or all of the cases above, and the truth is, we just don’t know, but I think about it a lot. We pray for protection over our children and staff daily, but the truth is there is a monster outside our gate who wants to come in, and he is here to kill and destroy.

Tomorrow is Easter and the timing is perfect.  We will focus our eyes on the resurrected Christ, knowing that He is our protector, He is El Rofi (the God who heals) and He is El Roi (the God who sees). Please join us for our live Easter service at 9:30AM EST on the Heart for Africa facebook page – I know you will be blessed. 

Today's craft at Kid's Club.

If you would like to give a very special Easter gift to a loved one, please consider making a donation to help us with our mounting hospital bills.  You would be giving the gift of life, and isn’t that exactly what Jesus did for us?

Please click here for the emergency medical fund in the US.

Please click here for the emergency medical fund in Canada.

Live from Eswatini … He is risen indeed!

Janine

#sharehope with an "essential" person

These are difficult days.  As we sit in the relative safety of the mountain top in Africa, we can’t help but feel helpless watching the news, knowing that our friends and family are struggling. Ian and I are “fixers”, and we can’t fix this global pandemic, so we have been asking the Lord to show us what we can do, and we got an answer.  About two weeks ago I really felt the Lord telling me to be intentional about encouraging others on a daily basis through social media.  So, I started posting daily videos on my Facebook page and Instagram pages that would hopefully bring a smile to my friends and families faces.  Below is a short video that I posted this week of baby Treasure and I doing a video selfie. 

On Thursday I had a video call with of our US team and asked how we at Heart for Africa could serve as encouragers to the world.   We obviously don’t have volunteers traveling to Eswatini, we can’t have meetings and fundraising events, and those things are what the US team does on a day to day basis.  Heart for Africa’s focus is to bring HOPE to the Kingdom of Eswatini in the areas of Hunger, Orphans, Poverty and Education, but now we must expand our efforts to bring HOPE to the world. 

So, here is one of the ideas that the team came up with.  What if we could provide a way to share hope with one another through Khutsala Artisans product?  They quickly created a special page with all of our HOPE products and we are asking you to consider ordering one of those products and send it to a front line “essential” worker who is working at a hospital, pharmacy, grocery store or any other essential position.  We will insert a special card that tells that special person that the gift is from YOU.  For as little as $10 you could bring a smile to someone’s face and let them know that you are thinking about them.  I will start by sending this HOPE bracelet to my cousin Carelle McKellan who is a Public Health Nurse in Canada and she is dealing with 400+ COVID-19 patients in the Fraser Health system. Carelle, we are sending love, prayers and thanks to you and all you are doing.  Stay safe!  

Please note that our Khutsala warehouse is in Michigan and product will be shipped from there, but we have limited quantities and we are not able to ship more product from Eswatini as Khutsala Artisans have all been sent home and airlines are not flying any non-essential product.  The good news is that if we sell a lot of product during this time, there will be work for our Artisans when they are able to come back to work. 

Some of you might be wondering how Spencer and Chloe are doing and I wanted to give you an update. Spencer is working in a consulting firm in Chicago and can do so from the safety of his apartment.  We are thankful that Jane and her puppy “Swazi” are nearby and they can spend lots of time together.  Chloe is finishing her last year at Brock University, but just started a job on Monday making COVID-19 testing kits!!!  Can you believe it?  She does her school work during the day then works from 4PM to 11:30PM at a biotech company called Norgen Biotek.  Two nights ago her team made 22,000 kits and they posted an hilarious video to celebrate. You can see it below.   We are so very proud of our two children and miss them so much.

 

 

Spencer working at home

Please join me in shopping, post a photo of yourself with your own Khutsala product and use our #sharehope hashtag to help spread the word.

Live from Eswatini … sharing hope.

Janine

An unprecedented week of encouragement

The world is crying out in pain, and the pain will continue to intensify in the days and weeks ahead.  We are watching from a mountain top that feels to be at the end of the earth.

South Africa is approximately 15 days behind the US outbreak and Eswatini is likely a few days behind South Africa. So, for now, there is silence.   As Ian and I sit out on our patio every night we have been talking about the tsunami that is coming our way, but this week we started to change our language to the wildfires that are coming rather than a wave.  Back in July we experienced for 40+ hours of horrific and terrifying wildfires on Project Canaan that quickly changed directions, jumped over buildings and came back to life after we thought they were out.  As this tiny nation, with the highest HIV rate in the world starts to look to the horizon, waiting for COVID-19 coming over the mountain, we know that we are not prepared.

Our Prime Minister made an announcement on Tuesday night that provided a glimmer of hope – a country shutdown that would start at midnight on Thursday night and end on April 16th.  He explained that all non-essential services should stop and only essential businesses such as banks, grocery stores and medical facilities could remain open.  We met with the Supervisors from all our departments to determine who was essential and who was non-essential. Then we met with all 345 Project Canaan employees to deliver the news.  Most non-essential people were very upset because they would lose their pay, but we did what we had to do.

Swazi’s all get paid once a month and it’s on the last Friday of the month, and then they all rush to town to buy groceries for the next month.  Public transportation and streets are packed with people, stores are emptied, and Swazi’s experience joy at being able to get their hair done, get nice food for the weekend and maybe even a treat for their children. The first day of the lock down was pay day. 

Then, a change in direction.  Friday morning we were told that the Minister of Commerce made an announcement on the radio on Thursday night saying all businesses are to remain open (perhaps so people could do their month end shopping?), and were to call all employees back to work on Monday. If we chose to remain closed we were to pay all employees their full pay until work resumes – that is 185 Project Canaan employees. It is only a partial lock down? 

Our employees all walked out through the front gate and headed to town with money in the bank, and the satisfaction of knowing that they would be back to work on Monday.  Ian and I saw their departure to town as being like matches lit and thrown out in to our surrounding communities.

We have put all the precautions in place that we can, and now we wait. But in our time of waiting the Lord has blessed us beyond measure.  We are in a time of preparation, and let me tell and show you what the Lord did in the last FIVE days.

The farm is an essential department and we have been looking for a new tractor for a couple of years. At the end of 2019 the funds were donated and our search began.  The current exchange rate is the highest it’s ever been in our time in Africa, so we were able to buy TWO tractors this past week. One is brand new and is being built and the other one is gently used and a really powerful piece of equipment that will help us immensely in our agriculture program. Our farm team is on the moon!

We currently have a 7-gallon milk pasteurizer that takes 90 minutes to pasteurize those 7 gallons of milk in our main kitchen. We need to pasteurize close to 44 gallons of milk every day for our children’s consumption.  Ian found a company in South Africa that makes inline milk pasteurizers, which will pasteurize 22 gallons per hour.  He ordered this equipment to be made at the end of 2019 and it arrived this past week!  Not only does it allow us to pasteurize 22+ gallons per hour, it then chills the milk and has a 90-gallon chilled storage tank.  The cherry on the top of this is that we purchased a milk separator and a butter churner, so we will be able to make our own butter! 

We want to increase our goat production so that we have more meat available, both for us and for our church feeding program.  This week we received the funds and were able to hire the people and purchase the materials to start fencing in 10 acres of land that will be prepared to start an intensive goat breeding program.  You can see the area planned in the image below.

With the recent closure of all schools, we took the opportunity to focus our construction team on building the 3^rd/4^th grade classroom. The materials for the second floor (called span slab) are made and imported from South Africa and we needed the funds to order them in order to proceed. Not only did the Lord provide the funds needed earlier this month, we were able to order the product and get it delivered on Thursday, before the borders completely shut down. 

Lastly, but perhaps the most interesting and comforting, was a US foundation approaching us and asking what we needed during this time of uncertainty.  David Bryant explained that with flights/trips cancelled for the foreseeable future, we will lose significant income that we receive when people travel with Heart for Africa to Eswatini.  The foundation committed to FULLY cover that lost income and a check is in the mail.

God is so good. He knew that during this unprecedented time of uncertainty that we needed an unprecedented week of encouragement, and He sent it in waves that brought joy, refreshment and hope.

I pray that this encourages you too. Look for the ways He is blessing you during these difficult times. “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”  Isaiah 4:10

Live from Eswatini … we are going for a long walk.

Janine