A personal thank you

Today I spent the day canvassing the neighbourhood with Gcinisizwe. This is a very long process but important because we are surveying every house so that we can set them up with Rain Water Harvesting, and as well, I am conducting an informal survey to find out how many people live in each house, and how many people are working, so far the numbers are not looking good. It is evident as I travel from house to house that people are really struggling. I will post my finding once I have completed this survey.

I met one man and his family today who really inspired me to keep going. Sometimes I wonder if in fact there must be a God up there, someone who sends these amazing people to me. I was speaking (through Gcinisizwe's translation service) to a elderly woman when this man came rushing into the house. This house belonged to him and his family and as soon as he saw us he began to run to us. He bounced into the house and immediately took our hands and thanked us profusely. You see, there are 7 people living in this tiny shack and he is the only person who can find work, sometimes....This man's name is Happy, and that is exactly what he is, Happy. When Happy does find work he is paid very little, between 60-80 Rand per 10 hour work day, that is around 9 Canadian Dollars. He only works a few times a week, or at times 0, it all depends on luck, and in Thembalethu luck can be hard to find.

Happy sat down in front of me and said "Sisi, I don't know what my family would do without you, I prayed to God that a miracle would happen, that I would find work so I could buy my brother a school uniform, and then the next day you came to my house, sat with my mother like you were our family, and now my brother has a school uniform." Happy and his family really struggle, with seven mouths to feed most days this family goes hungry, and most days his brother goes to school without food. Sisi by the way is what you call a woman that you respect very much, so to be called Sisi was quite a blessing to me.

Happy told me that he has also been praying because he would like to earn enough money to buy 4 egg laying chickens, 1 male and three females. These chickens he explained would live with his family and would provide food to the children so they would not be hungry. It is at this moment that I think that yes, there must be a God because my next question to him was to be ....."Do you need chickens and do you have a place to keep them", a miracle really!!

Happy made my day, my week really, if ever I have doubts about my work I will think of him and his family. Although I do not get paid to do this work, I feel blessed to do this work. In exchange for hard work and lots of volunteer time I am given the gift of love, a fair exchange I think.