Life without electricity

When we first moved to Swaziland the landscape around us looked very different than it does now. At night when the sun went down, and we looked across the valley to the neighboring community called Sigcineni, it was very dark, with only a few open cooking fires dotting the hills. Now when we sit at the end of the day and overlook the distant hills we see hundreds of lights illuminating small houses that are home to many of our workers.

What is the difference you ask? Employment is the difference.  Many of our workers come from Sigcineni and their monthly salary has enabled them to first, feed their families, second, pay school fees, and third get electricity brought to their house.  For most, this is the first time in their family’s history that they have had electricity – lights to do homework by, lights for night time security, power to even have a refrigerator.  Electricity is life changing. Employment is life changing.

In order to keep these workers employed, we need your help. I am not asking for a donation, I am asking you to do some Christmas shopping at our Khutsala Artisans website at https://heartforafrica.myshopify.com/.  After paying our worker’s salaries, 100% of the profit goes directly back to help provide for our 211 children who live at Project Canaan.

Khutsala Artisans employees 100+ from our local community and they have had skills training in the area of bead work.  This year we made 100,000+ beaded items and shipped them to our warehouse in Illinois.  This includes a spectacular handmade wooden Nativity Set that includes 14 pieces that incorporate SwaziMUD beads and a sisal manger (the sisal harvested from Project Canaan).  We only made 200 of them and at the time of this blog post there are 134 Nativity sets left https://heartforafrica.myshopify.com/ so you should order yours today.

This year’s Christmas ornament is a very sweet Gingerbread man, complete with handmade SwaziMUD ceramic buttons.  You can even get the whole collection of six ornaments for $60 at https://heartforafrica.myshopify.com/collections/christmas-ornaments

 

Our Khutsala Artisans are very proud of the work they do.  Whether it’s the animal key chains or SwaziMUD jewelry, they are surrounded by beauty and hope every day that they come to work. In fact, our Khutsala motto is “Creating HOPE through beauty, design and excellence”.   Will you shop today and give the gift of HOPE (and maybe even electricity)?

Start your shopping today at  https://heartforafrica.myshopify.com/

Live from eSwatini … it’s time to Christmas shop!

Janine

Drought + storm + power-outages + 105 babies =

Over the past two weeks I have been praying and asked the Lord to turn down the heat a bit on our lives. I wasn’t speaking about temperature, but rather I was asking Him to turn down the crises, tragedies and human suffering that we have been dealing with so much.   I believe He answered my prayers and I have had some quieter days and even got a beautiful newborn baby boy on Friday, which brought me great joy. His name is Barak, which means "lightening". We thought that was appropriate based on the rest of the week... keep reading.

While turning down the “injustice” temperature a bit, He turned up the environmental heat to 100F+ for many days with intense humidity.  We don’t have air conditioning here on Project Canaan, and we all depend on ceiling fans and ice in our water to cool down.  We use sprinklers and small kiddie pools to cool down our children and leave the ceiling fans on high at night when they/we sleep.

This week the temperatures hit 105F+ (Swaziland was the second hottest place on earth on Thursday according to the newspaper), the rain started to fall and the power went off.  There are a few reasons why our power goes off 3-4 times a week.  Sometimes it’s South Africa (where our power comes from) who turns it off to help “load share” for their own power-shortage issues.  Sometimes it's a line that breaks due to a storm, and sometime it just goes off, seemingly for no reason.

This week the rains we have be praying for came, which was awesome.  The rains came and the electricity left.  First it was off then on, then off then on and then off. And it stayed off for almost 30 hours.  But the beautiful rain kept falling.

Imagine having 104 babies to care for when the power goes out.   It’s pitch black so you are working with portable flashlight type things and worse, the fans would not spin and the children were crying from the dark and the extreme heat (and I wanted to, but tried to refrain).  When the power goes out, so does our water purification system so all the water then needs to be boiled in order to drink it.  I want to stop and give thanks for ALL of our Caregivers who handle these situations with such grace and love.  They are truly amazing women and men.

It was the hottest night of my whole life and we didn’t sleep a wink.  The next day everything in everyone’s refrigerators and freezers started to melt and by sundown the next day the walk in freezer (full with a new order of chicken) was melting. Then I got a call from a neighbor at the nearby golf club who saw my whining on Facebook and offered her bunker freezer to help us out. What a gift that was at the right time.  Anthony and Denis loaded up the chicken and rushed it over.

Later that night the power did come back on (and off and on and off) and then stayed on. This small town girl from Northern Ontario, where it’s minus 40 degrees for weeks on end in the winter, was NEVER so thankful for a simple ceiling fan to come back on. 

We have looked at alternative energy sources and are working on a plan to get a large generator that will cover the Children’s Campus when the power goes out, but for now, we pray, and we give thanks for the rain, and the roof over our heads that doesn’t leak and that we are not living on mud floors that turn to muck when the rains come.

To answer many of you who are asking if the dams are filling. The answer is, not yet.  Our experience is that we need about 30 days of this kind of rain for the dams to start filling. The dams aren’t directly filled by rain, but rather it’s the rainwater that flows down from the mountains that fills them.  There has to be enough rain to saturate the ground up the mountain and only then does it start flowing down the mountain in to our dams.  So, we continue to pray for lots of rain.  The good news is that we do believe the ground is wet enough in the maize fields that we can go ahead and plant our maize crop next week.  

In other news, Friday was our first Kindergarten graduation at the Project Canaan Academy! Teacher Amber did a wonderful job (as always) and 4 Kindergarten students will go to Grade One next year and six Preschoolers will move up to Pre-Kindergarten.  We are so proud of them all.

We will miss Isaac Flentge next year as he moves back to the US tomorrow.

 

Preschool moving up to Pre-Kindergarten in February.

Giving thanks for rain, and electricity, and ice for my water to cool me down.

Live from Swaziland... Jesus bring the rain (and keep the electricity on please!).

Janine

PS – please consider giving a year-end giving gift to Heart for Africa to help us help the people of Swaziland and 105 children. Thank you.

In the US: https://heartforafrica.secure.force.com/pmtx/cmpgn__donations?id=7011A000001DHGq

In Canada:  https://www.heartforafrica.ca/2015%20Year%20End%20Giving.aspx

Completely freaked out about moving

On Friday my friend Jeanette asked how I was doing with the preparations for our move. I told her I was in a really good place. I had thought through what I wanted to ship (based on placing our furniture precisely our new home floor plan) and had a some idea of what we were going to sell on eBay, put in a garage sale or give away. I was selecting special family items that I felt needed to be given to other family members ie. Grandpa Willis’ pool table should stay on the Willis side while Grandma Cosen’s bible should stay on the Cosen’s side. (Yes, I see the irony in the choice of two items to be left here). It was good, and I had peace.

Then Saturday the wheels fell off.

All of a sudden I was completely freaked out.

For the first time since our decision to move to Swaziland I was shaken. Was this really God’s plan or was it a crazy idea that we had, maybe that I had, and had convinced everyone else of its wisdom. Did we really have confirmation? How on earth would we get rid of two thirds of our worldly possessions in order to fit in to our new house? Do we really have to spend $10,000 shipping a container of “stuff”? How will we get it all unloaded, AND get Chloe in school in Africa, and hang pictures properly on a wall that is made of cinderblock, covered with mud and paint (no dry wall used there). Holes in my new walls would be permanent!

Then I freaked out about our appliances. We would have to run 110V in the house along with 220V so that we can take our big appliances, as they are really expensive to buy there. Who would be able to help us run the 110V wiring and set up the transformer in the garage?

The rainy season was to start in November and our dams should be full by now, but they are dry. How does that affect the water supply at our house? If the dam is dry, we will have to irrigate crops from the borehole. Our house water comes from the borehole too (pumped to the top of the hill, held in a tank then gravity fed back down to our house), but if the bore hole dries up, what about our showers? Cooking? Drinking?

And what about the electricity? The price of it has gone up 1300% in the past year, and when South Africa “turns off the switch” we have brown outs or no power at all. I will pack hurricane lamps, but suddenly they didn’t seem so romantic.

God is good, and He is faithful, and He gave me a husband who knows how to calm me down. We pulled out a calendar, made a plan (I LOVE plans), moved some people around, and then asked our heavenly Father for some help (probably should have done that in reverser order). And it came. It came in the form of words of encouragement from Jere and Janet. It came in the form of our kids tackling their rooms and getting rid of things, packing treasures and helping get their space prepared. It came in the form of Ian going out to the garage and starting to purge and clean. It came in the form of Nan (our wonderful real estate agent) coming and assuring me that HE would take care of us. And then a wonderful gift – our dear friend Ralph was supposed to fly to Swaziland this week to serve at Project Canaan for 5 weeks. Sadly, his mother-in-law had a bad fall yesterday and he had to cancel his plans. And guess what? He rescheduled them to go when we move, so he can help with the 110V and the holes in the wall and the electric fencing and whatever other immediate needs we have. God has sent us a friend to help, ‘cause that is just the way He is. I am so thankful that His plans are perfect so I don’t have to worry about getting my plans right.

Today a man will come to the house to help me get some big items listed on eBay. Nan will come with a “home stager” to help get the house ready for showing. Tomorrow Woody will come and help us get some painting and fixing done. Then we list the house for sale on the market and it will be official.

Oh, and today we also go to the police station to get our fingerprints done so that we can submit them to the Canadians for police background checks. We need these to apply for work permits that will allow us to live in Swaziland.

I am not freaked out today. Today is a good day and I am thankful for His peace that passes all understanding. Be encouraged today friends.

Luke 12:22-32 Do Not Worry

Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

“Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Amen.