End of Year Update - By John

Hello all, just a few random notes to keep everyone up to date on what's happening.

Merry Christmas

We had a great Christmas, hope you did too!

Thanks for the presents!

Kruger Park

As promised, pictures of wild animals in Kruger Park. We saw these while we were with Henry and Lynn, who are now back in Canada, safe and sound.

Majestic Lions, posing just for us

A Vervet Monkey

Our New Address in Lusaka

In case you want to send us anything via the post, our new postal address in Lusaka is:

John and Charlene Wieler
c/o Mennonite Central Committee
PO Box 33086
Lusaka, Zambia

We are moving out of the house Tuesday (Jan 2) and flying to Lusaka the next day (Jan 3). While we are getting our house set up, we may not have internet access, so pardon the delay, but please keep the emails coming.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas to All - by John

Hello dear friends!

As we enter the Christmas season proper, we would like to wish everyone peace and grace. May your celebrations be filled with happiness and renewal of spirit. We wish that we could be with you in person, please know that we are with you in thought.

We pause to reflect over a tumultuous year and hope that we can extract some pearls of wisdom. Here's what we have come up with:

Thanks for staying in touch!
Just by taking the time to read our blog you are participating in our mission. We thank you that you continue to take an interest in our work and experiences in Africa. We hope that the “blog format” works for you. We also have email, and if you feel so led don’t hesitate to drop us a note at wielerfamily (at) gmail.com.

God is in control
It has been demonstrated to us over and over that God is in control and knows what is going on. Throughout all the turmoil, a sense that God wants us in Africa has been re-affirmed through the actions of his followers here on earth. We thank everyone who prayed and supported us during this year, and ask you to continue to pray for us during our coming transition to Zambia.

Visitors are wonderful
We were so fortunate to receive visitors this year, including Aunts (Anne) and Uncles (Dave). Having both sets of parents visiting was a highlight for us and provided many good times and shared experiences that will not be forgotten.

It takes a global village to support a service worker
It’s a big world, and we are blessed to have experienced more of it this year. Working and living in South Africa has been an incredible learning experience, and it has been good to have many of our stereotypes blown away. There are good people all over the world, and it was our privilege and gift to get to know some of them in White River and Nelspruit this year. Friends from church, school, and work made our lives richer than we had thought possible.

It really is a world wide church
If only to reinforce the previous thoughts, it’s important for us to say how exciting it is to worship the same God in word and deed with believers from many different geographic, economic and social backgrounds. We’re looking forward to many more experiences in Zambia
in the coming year.

Please stay tuned to our blog as we describe our transition to Zambia, more news about visitors, and post some interesting pictures. It's been a turbulent year with all sorts of suprises, next year promises to be interesting and exciting as well.

During this season, with the world putting the emphasis on gifting and consumption, please take a minute to think about the real gift of the season, the birth of our saviour. Also, please think about the poor around you, and do something for them.

Merry Christmas, and a happy and healthy new year!

Adventures with Henry and Lynn - by John

Hello all, this week was an adventuresome week for us, here are some highlights:

A great trip to St. Lucia

As you may know, Charlene’s Mom and Dad are visiting. Last week we drove down to St. Lucia, which is on the east coast, about 550km away. We had a great time down there, going to the beach, shopping, fishing (see next snippet) and generally relaxing. We were fortunate to stay in a really nice house, with our own pool. Here are some pictures:

Loaded down for the long ride

Having fun at the beach!
Our fabulous St. Lucia house, complete with pool

Braaing at the pool

Deep Sea Fishing – the Revenge of the Fish

Do you think it’s a good idea for a couple of prairie boys to go fishing in the Indian Ocean? Well, we did. While we were in St. Lucia we thought we would sign up for a day long Deep Sea Fishing expedition. Our skipper picked us up at 4:30 a.m., we drove down to the beach and launched into the surf. So far, so good. We motored out about a couple of kilometers, and the wind really picked up. The waves were VERY LARGE, much larger than Lake of the Woods for instance. Much, much bigger. Did I mention it was a smallish boat? While we fished, the boat rocked and rocked….and rocked. The ocean was a beautiful shade of green, matched by our skin color. While the other fishermen on the boat were pulling up interesting fish, we were giving the fish something back. It didn’t take long before any further thought of fishing was put aside for the fervent hope of an immediate departure from this world, bowing to Poseidon over the rail, moaning quietly with eyes tightly shut and head between knees….for the following six hours. Other than that, we had a great time. We even caught a few fish for all our efforts.

This looks pretty safe, eh?

Let's see if we can spot some fish!

The catch of the day

Swazi Shopping

Do you think it’s a good idea for a couple of prairie girls to go shopping in Swaziland? Well, Charlene and Mom think so, and therefore the Swazi economy is going to do just fine this year. On our way back from St. Lucia we drove through Swaziland, and of course we had to stop at many different craft markets. The ladies had a great time, shopping for Christmas presents and souvenirs. They spent quite a bit of time doing it, they are really good shoppers. How do you pack a nearly life-sized carved wooden giraffe?

A whole lot of ... stuff!

Hey Lady, for you a special price!

At the conclusion of a good deal, a handshake with JJ

Luggage direct to Zambia

Early last week we were wondering how we were going to get all our stuff to Zambia, since we have accumulated one or two personal items since we arrived. MCC has a bunch of household items in storage in Zambia already, so we don’t have to ship any pots and pans, but we do have a bunch of clothes, a printer, a microwave (thanks again, Uncle Dave!) and so on. The basic problem is that we have too much stuff and the airlines have cut the luggage allowance again, so we were in a bit of a bind.

While we were trying to figure out what to do, a friend told us about a friend of a friend, who had a business in Zambia. His name is Paul, and when we gave him a call he was very friendly and happy to help us out. In fact, he was going to drive up in just a few days. Much frenzied packing followed, and about a week ago we dropped off three big hockey bags and three big boxes at his place. Paul was going up about mid-week, so hopefully the stuff should be arriving any time now.

It's amazing how smoothly our transition to Zambia is going, we have a lot of people to thank for their thoughts and especially their prayers.

No really, it's carry-on luggage

Starting to Say Goodbye

We’re starting to say Goodbye to our friends in White River. This is prime summer vacation time, so a lot of people are going away on holidays. Here’s a picture of our pastor Cecil Edwards. As you can see, he is fond of very color vests (waistcoats in SA).

Bye Cecil, it was great being in your church! You were a blessing to us on many occasions.

Hank and Lynn have arrived - by Charlene

Well, they are finally here! After months and months of anticipation and planning, my parents are now in White River, South Africa. While Winnipeg was experiencing wind chills of nearly -40 C, Mom and Dad arrived to a temperature of nearly +40 C. They have settled nicely into our routine here and have adjusted to the time and temperature change very well. Here they are when we picked the girls up from school yesterday.

We're getting into full vacation mode here as we've mostly wrapped up the work that we've been doing and we're preparing for our move to Zambia. On the weekend we joined our friend Lucielle and her daughters Jennifer Lynn and Monique at Sabie Park where her family has a vacation home. The park is just beautiful and all the homes have a thatched roof, a stone face and only solar power - it also borders Kruger Park so they get lots of animals wandering around. We got up close with some zebras and giraffes and also saw an ostrich and some wildebeast. The park also has a swimming pool that we had to ourselves the whole time. We had a really great time and we also drove through Kruger Park on the way home.

40! - by Charlene

Well it’s been nearly a week and I am now officially 40 - hard to believe, I know. I had thought that moving across the ocean from my place of birth might somehow negate my birthday but it just ended my 30s 8 hours sooner than it would have at home. While I did miss the traditional turning 40 birthday party with our dear Winnipeg friends, we managed to celebrate on our own. My family planned a great day for me that began with fresh peach crepes with whipping cream, we took an afternoon safari in Kruger Park and then had a fantastic dinner at home later that day. On Wednesday we had a prawn braai with some friends and Friday night John and I went out together while the girls were at a sleepover. I feel very well-celebrated at this point. With the average life expectancy at birth in South Africa being around the mid-thirties due to the HIV/AIDS crisis, growing old is not something to complain about but celebrate!
Here are some of our favorite Kruger park animals wishing me a happy birthday.

Movin' On - By John

As you know from reading our previous posts, we have wrapped up our work at C4L and have been trying to figure out what’s going to happen next. Well, today we can tell you that we have accepted a position to work with MCC in Lusaka, Zambia. We will be working as MCC Consultants with a variety of local partners, helping to do organizational capacity building, maybe a little technology-related help, and pretty much whatever comes up. We will be in Lusaka till the end of our term, summer of ’08.

Last week Charlene and I flew to Lusaka for meetings with Siggy and Lois, the MCC Country Reps. It was very interesting! Zambia seems quite a bit poorer than South Africa. We had a chance to visit some “compounds”, which are sort of slums. In the compounds we visited some community schools, which are schools that have been set up by the folks in the compounds, not by the government. The conditions were pretty bleak, but the kids were very polite and friendly and eager to learn.

This is a school - how does it compare to the one your kids go to?

We also visited a drop-in center for street kids. These are kids that are as young as six years old, and they essentially live on the streets, due to a variety of circumstances. The Chimoso drop-in center tries to give the kids a safe place to go and something to eat, and ultimately tries to re-unite the kids with their families where possible. They are doing good work, and in that setting the kids seem comfortable and free to act like kids should, goofing off and playing around.

From the “what are the chances” file, my cousin Chris, who works for World Vision and whom I haven’t seen in a long time, happened to be in Lusaka at the same time we were. We spent an evening together reminiscing and having a fine dinner on World Vision's tab. I guess Sally Struthers or Alex Trebek will have to make more informercials to cover the tab.

Here's Chris and I. Thanks World Vision!

Just before going to Lusaka we attended the annual Church Family Camp, at a place called “Bambi Resort”. It was a lot like family camp at our church in Winnipeg, except the speaker went on and on which was a little rough. There were "Survivor" style team games, Danica and I were on different teams and had to compete against each other.

Here's Danica and I, still friends after the brutal competition.

Finally, the weather is getting hot and we are fortunate that we can use our landlord’s pool. The girls are in the water almost every day and frequently more than once. We will miss this when we move to Zambia.

Erin the Aquanot

Potpourri - By John

Hello all, we've been doing a whole bunch of stuff since our last post, so this will be a bit of a catch-up excercise.

A New Home
In August we found out that the house we were living in was going to be sold, so we needed to find a new place to stay. We looked around at a bunch of different places, and ended up choosing a house that is on the other side of White River. It’s a nice place with a great view, and a nice back porch. We are thankful to have found this new home, and especially thankful to all our friends who helped us move. Here are some pictures

The Living Room


The Porch


The Kitchen and Dining Room

Uncle Dave's visit
Over the last week we have been very happy to have my Uncle David visiting us. The girls were on school break so we travelled around a bit and had a good time showing Uncle Dave the local sites. Here are some pictures

Me and my Uncle Dave at God's Window

We went on the longest zip-line in Africa just down the road in Hazyview. It was a lot of fun!

Happy Thanksgiving
Yesterday we had a bunch of people over to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving, complete with Pumpkin Pie. They don't celebrate thanksgiving here, and don't eat Pumpkin Pie, so it was a first for our friends. The pie was a bit hit, thankfully local pumpkin tastes fine if you add a lot of spices and sugar to it.

Eating out on the Patio - Try that in Canada at Thanksgiving!

Snake in the House!
Yesterday the girls were on the computer when they noticed that a snake had slithered into the house and behind the desk. Much screaming followed. Luckily, we were able to remove it without further drama. Here's a picture of our special friend.

Our slithery friend, hiding in the desk

Farewell C4L

After several requests, here is the promised update. Our lives have been in a constant state of change in the last several months and we find ourselves trying to not get stressed and to really make the most of our wonderful experience here. We finished our work with C4L on August 31^st and we are still looking to see what other opportunities are available here in White River or possibly in other parts of Africa. In honor of our last day, we held a braai (pronounced: bry, it means barbeque with coals - no gas grills here) for all of the kitchen and garden staff. They have been great people to get to know and have enriched our time here. We made lots and lots of food – boerwoers, the local sausage specialty with salad and pap (a starch dish made with mealie meal that looks like mashed potatoes) and sheba (a salsa-type of sauce to go on the pap). Our plan was to send all of the leftovers home for their families but it turns out they ate nearly everything. They love to eat meat! After the meal they did a little song and dance for us.

Here’s the fun-loving gang: back row: Vusi (known on his pay slip as Vusi #2), Lettie, Elizabeth, Mavis, Winnie, Vusi and Patrick. Front row: Joseph, Dudu, Thembi and Baby.

We'll live in our house here at C4L until the end of the month and then we will be moving into a house on the other side of White River for at least October - December while we see what the future holds for us. Our mailing address will remain the same (P.O. Box 1449, White River, RSA 1240). Thanks to all who have been keeping in touch with us with all of our changes. We’ve appreciated your thoughts, prayers and support.

Running with the Lions

Yesterday (August 5), I got the chance of a lifetime to run a half marathon in Kruger Park.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Andre Vianello asked me if I was in good shape, as there was an upcoming half marathon in Kruger Park. Well, I wasn’t in great shape, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me, so I said “Sure, sign me up!” Andre, who is an excellent runner and is heavily involved in the local running club, said “It’s too late to sign up officially, but all you have to do is show up and they always have a few extra numbers (i.e. official entries) available”, and so we made plans to go. When we got to Skukuza Village where the race starts, I inquired about the extra numbers, and got a lot of good laughs for my efforts. Turns out that the race is very popular, the cut off for entries was October of last year, the race is so oversubscribed that they have to have a draw to see who gets in, and there were no extra numbers at all. Oh dear. But in the end, Andre came through by asking around and was able to find an extra numbers from one of the running club members whose wife couldn’t make it. So I got to run officially, and was fortunate to be able to change the registration detail so I wasn’t running as a thirty year old woman.

Here I am with my coveted official number

It was a beautiful day for a run, not too hot, partly cloudy, and of course we were running through one of the worlds greatest parks. The course was partly through Skukuza Village and partly through the bush on gravel roads, with a few good hills thrown in to make things interesting. There were rangers with guns posted here and there, and no one got eaten. I did see some Impalas running along side us, their beauty and grace as they leaped through the bush providing a stark contrast to our dull trudging. I just wanted to start singing ..."Born Free, as free as the wind blows..."

It was interesting to see the mix of people running. There were the usual unusual shapes, sizes and running styles. Before and after the race a group of gumboot dancers put on a show, which was unique and cool. I saw a young black kid who looked about 13 years old, running without shoes on the stony gravel roads, who finished in about 1:30 (that’s a really good time). There were the members of a running club who waited until the very last person was coming in, and then all ran across the line together singing their team song.

At the finish line - Danica is cheering me on.

Me and Andre

Can you believe this guy is 62? He is in fantastic shape. Andre has finished 19 Comrades Marathons (90km each), including the one this year. He beat my time by over half an hour, and complained that he felt slow.

As I was running I had a chance to think about all the things God has given us, the ability and health to run, friends like Andre who went to the effort of inviting me and finding me a number, just the fact that we were here in Africa, the fantastic complexity and diversity in nature – wow, it was very uplifting. Our God is a good God.

Hockey on my Birthday - by Danica

Yesterday was my 11th birthday. When I got up in the morning I had breakfast in bed which was croissants with butter and jam. Erin gave me an early birthday present which was a jar of Nutella and I loved it a lot and I ate it on my croissant. I took of container of brownies to school to share with my class because my mom is so fabulous and baked them for me! During chapel they called me up and gave me a sucker that I gave to Erin. I got out of school at 1:00 so I could go to my hockey tournament at the country club. It’s not the same kind of hockey as in Canada. We play it on grass with a funny looking stick and a hard ball. We have to wear shin pads and gum guards for safety reasons. I’m on the “B” team and we played against Nelspruit Primary. We played very well and had scored one goal but at half-time someone noticed that our team had 11 players and the other team only had 9. Ooops. We had to take some players off and in the end it was a tie game.

For supper, my fabulous Dad made me perogies from scratch with Oma’s sauce. No one here knows what perogies are! There were very yummy. For my birthday presents I got the Zoo Tycoon 2 that I had been wishing for and Sims Deluxe Edition and a bunch of other things. Erin and I got to have a Silly String war with the new cans that we got, it was lots of fun. Erin’s can stopped working so I won the war, ha, ha! I had a really great day and lots of emails from home. Thanks everyone for thinking of me!

You can see more photos on our web album.

http://picasaweb.google.com/wielerfamily/TheWielersInAfrica

Vacation in St. Lucia - by Charlene

If you’re thinking of the island in the Caribbean, this is not it - but it would rank very close in our opinion. Some of you are aware of the stressful times that we’ve faced in the last month or so and this vacation was exactly what we needed. There’s something about fresh air, sunshine and jumping waves in the ocean that induces restful nights and rejuvenates the soul. We’ll write more about our work situation once there are more details to share but right now MCC is looking for another organization for us to partner with so that we can continue our work here.

St. Lucia (more info on this link) is a national world heritage site and it contains beaches, coral reefs, a game park, thousands of wild hippos and crocs, humpback whales in winter (now), leatherback turtles in summer and over 500 species of birds. We stayed in St. Lucia for 5 nights and then drove through Swaziland on our way back home on Sunday. Our vacation highlights included a whale-watching tour on the Indian Ocean where our boat got to see the first new baby humpback whale of the season. At only 1-2 days old, it was estimated that the baby weighed around 800 kilos! We got completely drenched despite the rain coats we had been given but it was well worth it. We also enjoyed 4 different beach sites on the coast with one of them being full of rocks forming tide pools and full of shells, fossils and crabs.

Today was back to reality as the kids went back to school for their first day of the third term. Term 4 ends at the beginning of December at which time the girls will finally finish their grades that they began in Winnipeg in Sept/05.

The Visas finally come in

Hey Everyone. I can't believe that it's been almost a month since we last blogged. Time has rushed by, with preparations for camp taking center stage in our day to day work lives. The "Orchard Camp" has been spruced up with a new outdoor kitchen, hot water for the showers, electricity for the tent sites. Of course, camp also means stocking up with supplies, lots and lots of supplies.

We've also welcomed Canadian volunteers from Winnipeg (yay) and Vancouver. They have been a big help and a lot of fun to be around, and they also brought a care package from home, which made them extra special.

We have also had good news on the Visa front, two different ways. The first way is that we have been working to get Nqoba, one of our youth leaders, enrolled in the MCC International Visitors Exchange Program (IVEP), a one year exchange program which sends young adults from developing countries to North America. Nqoba is slated to work in Pennsylvania, which meant that he had to go through the process of getting an American Visa. This was no simple thing, involving several hundred dollars in fees, two trips to Jo'burg and a lot of paperwork. We are delighted that he got his visa this week, so he is good to go.

The other happy visa news is that as of today we are no longer illegally living in South Africa. After much delay, we finally got our South African visas today, and the best news is that they cover the entire period we are here (which apparently is very unusual, all the other South African MCCers have to reapply every year). We're very happy that Penryn allowed our girls to start school without their student visas in place - they've already been in school for 6 months and it would have been awful (for all involved) for them to be waiting at home to start school since our arrival last November!

Here's a picture of what the blessed document actually looks like:

My first Netball match – by Erin

On Tuesday, I played in my first netball match. We went to a school very far away called River View, there were 4 schools playing in the match: Penryn, Uplands, St. Peter’s and River View. Netball is a popular sport in South Africa and it is only played by girls. It’s kind of like basketball but there is no backboard and no dribbling. Everyone plays a different position such as Wing Defense, Wing Attack, Centre, Goal Keeper, Goal Shooter and Goal Defense. Each position is only allowed in certain areas of the court. Our school has a hard court like a tennis court but the school we went to had a grass court. Here is a picture of me and some of my friends: Tubby, Morgynne, Bailey and me. Our pinnies say what position we play and the numbers at the bottom say what parts of the court we can go into.

Our team lost badly but we were lucky enough to get one goal against Uplands. I guess we’ll have to practice a little more.

More Townships - by Charlene

Note: This blog was written May 22nd but only published May 30th due to technical difficulties.

Thanks for all of your feedback on the last blog, we’re still looking into ways to help the government schools. I don’t want to give a message of doom and gloom out in the township schools (FYI – the townships are the only areas where black people were permitted to live prior to 1994), there are lots of good things going on there.

During the orphan camps that were held at C4L last December, the kids were taught some life skills to help improve their health situation as lots of these children or their family members are HIV/AIDS infected. They were taught how to grow vitamin-rich vegetables using resources that are accessible to them. By growing vegetables in a dirt-filled grain sack cut with small holes for the veggies and watered by using pop bottles up-ended in the soil to disperse the water slowly, they are able to grow healthy food in a very small space. Heather was very pleased when we visited a school and saw the same process being demonstrated in the schools, here they are:

Last Friday I did another township trip mostly because our vehicle was needed for transport. A number of our camp leaders have been volunteering their time to help kids in rural schools start some after school clubs. Kids who are bored tend to get into trouble (it’s the same all around the world) and by starting these clubs the children learn new skills and build a larger network of supportive friendships. The school knew we were coming and we arrived to the smiling faces of over 150 orphans.

They divided themselves into groups based on their interests: music, drama, beading, drumming, speech and debating. In each group, skills were taught and leaders were appointed to keep the groups going. I joined in with the beading group, these ladies are learning skills that they can hopefully use to generate an income by selling their beadwork. Even newcomers like me can learn, here’s my finished product. Maybe if I sit out on the roadside, I’ll be able to sell my wares!