Cast of Characters

I've already introduced you to some of the marvelous people I met in South Africa, like Pastor and Mrs. Mawela. Here's another person I want you to know.

A few years ago, Dick Nystrom, an American pastor ordained in the Evangelical Covenant church (historically an offshoot of the Swedish branch of the Lutheran church) felt the need to do something different with his ministry. (Here's a little article about their call.) He looked into getting a mission call, but in the end decided to make it simple and get a Peace Corp assignment. The Peace Corp assigned Dick and his wife, Pam, to the Maluti Adventist Hospital in Lesotho.

Well, it didn't take long for Dick and Pam to prove their worth. Dick did everything from maintenance to building to fund-raising to assisting in hospital administration. By the time the year was over, the folks at Maluti asked him to come back for another year!

I liked Dick instantly: he's a Midwesterner like me, he's thoughtful and practical, he speaks his mind, but he is above all a very compassionate person.

The hard part is that Dick is living on very little right now. In fact, his denomination is paying his insurance so he can continue working at the Adventist hospital. I think that's extraordinarily generous of them. I wish someone would find a way to keep Dick on there at Maluti indefinitely, because he is a key person for this time to help move the hospital forward. Unfortunately, Pam can't be with him until October, because she's had some health problems.

So please pray for Dick and Pam. I have no doubt God sent them to our hospital.

Music

I've already shared with you (and will share more) of the marvelous music we heard in South Africa. As one of our hosts said, "Africans sing when they're happy, and we sing when we're sad, and we sing at all points in between."

At the Dwarsloop church I saw a few hymnals lying about, so I opened one. I don't know what language they sang in, though one would assume it is the Tsongan language, since that's the group we were with.


What especially intrigued me was the way music is noted. It took me a little while to figure this out, but I eventually did. I wonder if you can figure it out, too? If you do, add a comment, below.

You know the hymn, "The Cleansing Wave"—an old gospel hymn that we used to sing at baptisms. Here's the first phrase of it.


Hint: The Sound of Music.

Setsoto Design Weaving Center

On Wednesday we stopped at the Setsoto Weaving Center in Lesotho. It was quite fascinating to see these women work, how swiftly and efficiently. But the highlight was the spinner, and how much she enjoyed seeing herself on the video.



The rosa banksia lutea under the title slide was right out in front of the center, and it was loaded with flowers.

Home again!

Finally back home! After 24+ hours of travel by bus and plane, about 18 hours in the same seat, Jo'burg to Washington (with a stop in Dakkar) I am now in the Columbus Airport waiting for my ride. Thanks to all of you who followed the blog and especially for the comments.

The blog is not finished! I have a lot of great stuff to gather up and tell you and show you. So stick around!

Maluti Adventist Hospital

Today I visited one of the most remarkable ministries I've ever seen: the Maluti Adventist Hospital and all of its satellite ministries.

The Maluti Adventist Hospital has been around for over 50 years, and is the best hospital in the country of Lesotho, and I've never heard of it! In the meantime, they've become the top place for eye surgery, gynecology, treatment of HIV/AIDS; they operate clinics all over the country, and have even ventured into agriculture. Lesotho government ministers come to Maluti in preference to any other hospital in the country.

First, Lesotho. Lesotho is a landlocked country in the Republic of South Africa. (See map in earlier post). It is a mountainous region, of high elevation. Compared to other parts of Africa, it is lightly populated: about 2 million people in the whole country, compared to 3.2 million in the city of Soweto alone! It is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen: high elevation, cool, geographically reminiscent of the American west. The people are unendingly friendly and warm.

The flaw: HIV/AIDS was not addressed promptly here (like all of southern Africa), and estimates range as high as 43% of the population is infected. And climbing, because traditional African men have no interest in the measures they must take to protect themselves from HIV, and the women are unempowered to protect themselves.

Maluti Hospital is the light in this gloom. It has 40 beds, a big out-patient service, a nursing school, as well as an excellent SDA elementary school. The bad news is that as needs become more intense, Maluti is on thin ice, financially and otherwise. That's why Hope for Humanity is here, and why I've come along.

I said the climate is cool. Well, actually cold. Last winter snow fell at these high elevations. School was cancelled. But you can't cancel hospital care. The maternity ward has no heat, and the women were having babies in shivering temperatures.


The kindergarten is held in an abandoned machine shed. It is the most pathetic school for 40 little kids I've ever seen. They literally open a big sliding door for trucks and buses to get into school! They take naps on the greasy concrete floors. The 7-8 grade classroom is an old shipping container, with a door and a couple of windows cut out with an acetylene torch.

Later in the day, we went to one of the extension clinics far out in the mountains, in the village of Sebetia. Prettier and prettier became the landscape as we climbed higher into the mountains. The village is tiny, but waiting for us was a long row of women who are volunteer HIV/AIDS counselors: they hike miles into the mountains to try to tell those with HIV that there is treatment available to them. Another group also wanted to meet us: they raise gardens to give food to orphans of the AIDS crisis. I was very touched by their work.
I am exhausted tonight, so will pull this account to a close for right now. I have one more day in South Africa, and will fly home on Thursday.

Kruger Park

Over the past three days we've traversed Kruger Park in our coach, at least once each day. This morning I went out with the group again, and spotted this marvelous scene. Just had to share it with you.



There were 45 elephants in this group, marching single file. Why am I thinking of a Disney movie?

What animals you get to see depends on sheer luck. There are a lot of animals in the park, though, and it almost seems like they congregate near the roads. The "big five" animals people come to Kruger to see are elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard—and we saw them all! I thought I'd miss seeing a leopard, but about a quarter mile from the park exit, we suddenly saw one right beside the road. It crossed behind the bus at a slow walk, and sat down in a thicket on the other side of the road. That is one enormous pussycat!

Neither of the lion groups we saw were very clear. One group was distant, and could only be seen through binoculars. Then today we saw another lion family not far from the road, in the shade of a small tree, just rolling around, hanging out and playing, like kittiens. There was rather a lot of brush and grass, though, so we didn't see them well.

Our list (excluding some amazing birds): mongoose, baboon, crocodile, lion, leopard, buffalo, hippo, rhino, zebra, impala, wildebeest, waterbuck, giraffe, kudu, nyala, elephant, hyena, warthog, bushbuck, steenbok.

The vegetation of the park, at this time of year, is just plain ugly. I can't think of a better word. This is the end of winter, the dry season, and the landscape looks blasted. In fact, in some part of the park, they burn the veldt so the grass comes back better and stronger. Ironically, the dryness is what makes it a good animal-sighting season. In a month or two after the rains, there will be so much foliage that the animals won't be visible.

Tomorrow we are going to Suweto, to the Nelson Mandela museum; then on down to the Adventist Hospital in Lesotho. I don't know if I'll be able to update this until I get home, because there is no internet connection available to us in Lesotho.

Papa Mawela

I was fascinated by Pastor Mawela's stories of how he started a church and an HIV/AIDS center in his retirement community South Africa.

But rather than my telling it, I'll let him.

Part 1


Part 2