The reason we are here

Not all of you know we were denied our first attempt for a visa for South Africa, we had tried for a retirement visa . They said we were too young and didnt have a steady income via a pension. We showed them bank statements and assets but still no go. I had a small sense of what it might be like to be a refugee ( I repeat small!) To have your destiny in someone elses’s hands. To know your good intentions but not be allowed to move on them.

I take you to a cramped little interview room in an office in Toronto. We had flown in specifically for the application and thought we had covered every eventuality.  We are in a room that can fit only 2 people , separated from our fate dealer by a wall of plexiglass and the little pass through gate, where you slide your passport in the hole and the person on the other end spins it around to retrieve it. You know the kind, where they speak to you through the microphone like you are some dangerous criminal. 

One of the first things I noticed in my office of truth was vandalizism, yes someone had the audacity to write on the walls of this fine consulate. What they wrote will stay with me forever, “Jam  God is with you .”Some of you might be thinking that I thought it was really close to Jan, but not so. Jam is an acronym we use in our family for Joelle , Avi , Marlo , and now you know a piece of almost all our passwords!  “Jam God is with you” was like a message specifically for us, and I knew that we would go to South Africa regardless of Rosie telling us “no, not as retirees”.

The drive to go somewhere in the world and give our family a different cultural experience was always Seans dream. As a mother it made me extremely uncomfortable and anxious to think of the massive challenge of transitioning our girls to some strange land at this precarious time in their lives . I was reluctant and knew I couldn’t get there on my own , so I prayed, God please change my mind and my heart if this is something we are meant to do. He did, and there in that office staring down the vandalism I knew it had become my dream as well ,and succeed we would.

In his research Sean had talked to anyone and everyone he knew had connections to South Africa. One such person is named “Doug” (and his wife Pam) , who graciously showed us around Capetown  when we went for a visit at Easter . We were scouting the schools, places to live and organizations that we might want to get involved with volunteering. The name “Living hope” came up , again and again and again. Everyone Sean talked to seemed to think that this organization was doing the best work with the farthest reach, the best reputation and government sanctioned.

Our original plan had been to get to S.A and have a leisurely look around at the different agencies and then decide what we wanted to do, God had another plan. In our eyes he said “NO” , you are not going to Africa without a rudder, without direction. I will encourage you ( Jam God is with you) but you must go with purpose and direction. So we returned to that musty little cubby in Toronto with a letter of invitation from “Living Hope” and were granted our volunteer  visa’s. 

So here we are, more or less settled in our little neighborhood with the girls in school and building their communities, now its our turn. Sean and I attended an orientation day at the Living Hope campus this week and were left impressed and a little daunted. We heard about their work in hospice and health care, AIDS and T.B education and treatment , life skills, addiction recovery , agriculture training and food support and the business center. This is where Sean comes in. He has been hired to further develop the buisiness training centre which gives basic skills to a myriad of buisiness people down to the very uneducated looking for a job. There is a lot of work to be done! In his spare time Sean will be looking for ways to market their drinking water that comes from a spring underneath their campus. I havent figured out where I fit into the puzzle yet but I will meet with one of the organizers this coming week to see where I might be able to help. One things for sure, it will be a stretch! 

So Masiphumelele ( so fun to say) , we look forward to what you will teach us over the next year  and what contribution we will make to your community, and inevitably who we will become as a result.

Faithfully

Jan