it was a relatively quiet and serene morning in swayimane. standing on the pavement, i could hear the song of birds crisp and clear against the wind swaying through the tops of the surrounding sugar cane farms and only a few hundred meters away, the laughter of children frolicking in the schoolyard. the weather is [...]

today was another full day in swayimane, mostly following up with several SHGs. audrey’s son, mulumbua(?) – who is the most charming little boy, came along for the ride and accompanied our visits, which made the day so much more special we met with the ‘bambanani’ SHG to discuss their current progress, as well as [...]

sawubona! today was my first day on the field. the drive to swayimane took about an hour from maritzburg and despite the (very) limited space, i could not have asked for a better arrangement than to be sitting alongside audrey and daphne. audrey is zimele’s manager of social development and brings a tremendous wealth of [...]

earlier today, miranda and i ate lunch out on the veranda overlooking the village of swayimane – where i will be spending most of my working days, about a hundred miles from the guesthouse. i very much enjoyed listening to her story, her involvement with zimele, her family history – and also sharing a bit [...]

i arrived safely in pietermaritzburg last night and was warmly greeted by audrey and her husband, along with her brother and her 2 adorable children. the airport was very small and almost felt like the entire terminal could be someone’s backyard. it was pretty chilly and windy when i deplaned, and i had just loaded [...]

the flight over to Johannesburg from JFK went rather smoothly. there was an unexpected systems failure that led to an hour delay, but once we left for the skies, the airbus was pretty calm and pleasant. as i suspected, i wasn’t able to pull off the 15 hour pass-out-until-you-get-there ride, but i did manage to [...]

Never in my life was the word ‘hope’ so potent to me as it was when I journeyed to South Africa. To be perfectly honest, hope was never a word that really meant all that much to me. Certainly I understood it’s eschatological significance (redemption, kingdom come, etc), but as an idea that I could [...]

During my multiple visits to the Kwazulu-Natal province of South Africa, the experiences have been jumble of my thoughts and especially my emotions. Every time upon my return to the states, I realize that my heart is not where my home is. Once in a while, I will sit reminiscing about the majesty and beauty [...]

This is one of many stories of how a Zimele Self-Help Groups are saving lives. This was really reassuring to see first hand that our prayers and financial support are making a difference in the community of Swaymani. Zimele is empowering the Zulu women of Swaymarni to think on their own and to solve challenges as a group.

Today was the last day of home visits for us during a week where we had become emotionally, spiritually, and thus, physically spent. Not only that, our morning visits had already psychologically draining. For our final home visit, there were 3 of us from our team, Daphne, and 4 of the Zulu women from the [...]