Caroline’s funeral and in the village
Yesterday, we attended Ma Caroline Dlamini’s funeral. She was a longstanding staff member at Heifer South Africa. An incredible lady who I have known for 5 years. We drove down Friday from Durban. It took us 9 ½ hours! Such a long car drive and not an easy one. The roads are terribly curvy and there are cows, goats and other animals that cross the road all the time. I was nervous the whole way down. We finally made it around 8:30 pm. And I was very glad. Yesterday morning, we left for the funeral about 9 am and got to the church as it was starting at 9:30. The funeral service lasted until 2 pm! I didn’t think it was ever going to end. And trying to keep the girls from getting loud for 4 ½ hours in a very hot and crowded church was miserable. The service was in Xhosa so I didn’t understand really anything. But they danced and sang and danced and sang some more. I would say that they sang at least 50 songs and that is not exaggerating one bit. Initially, Sienna and Sofia enjoyed the dancing and singing but then they got tired of it. At one point, Sienna was covering her ears and frowning. Then they fell asleep for about 30 minutes but woke up hot and cranky. The church was completely full. I would guess there were about 250 people there. We were the only white faces there. And then of course they called me to the front to speak. Sofia and Sienna had to come up with me. They asked lots of questions throughout the funeral and didn’t understand why the casket was not open. Sienna kept asking when they were going to stop singing. The service was in a Catholic Church and they also did mass which took forever. Afterwards, we went to the cemetery and there was about an hour more of singing and dancing. By that time the girls were fed up and they started running around the cemetery. There was broken glass everywhere so I was having to watch them. And then there was quite a few metal shanty houses right next to the cemetery and that kept the girls fascinated for a few minutes. There were goats and pigs running around the houses. After that, we had to go for a meal at Ma Caroline’s house. She was a nun for almost 20 years before coming to work for Heifer. After she left the convent, she had a son, who is disabled. I feel sorry for him. Oh, yeah, back to the service for a minute….there were quite a few others who fell asleep as well in addition to Sienna and Sofia. At one point when there was a pause in the singing and sermon and it got quiet, you could hear someone snoring really loud. Also, the priest scared Sienna and Sofia- he was very excited and it sounded like he was yelling. They said he was yelling at everyone because we had been bad. It was so funny.
At Ma Caroline’s house, a meal was served but the girls would not eat. Which is probably better because I am not sure about the sanitary situation as the food was cooked. I ate a little bit just to be polite. But the girls started crawling around on the floor collecting the bottle caps. They were so excited. They had a bag full by the time we left. As we were leaving they found a huge pile of them on the ground and were picking them up as fast as they could. All of the ladies kept picking the girls up and hugging them. They certainly attract attention anywhere they go.
From there, we went to a project. By this time it was already 4:30 in the afternoon. I was exhausted from keeping up with them but they were still full of energy. I needed to get some good pictures of one of our project members because we are going to use her story in an upcoming mail piece her for fundraising. So, off we went to Lillian’s house in the village. The project members knew we were coming so they were bringing in their cows to a pen so we could see them. And Lillian was so excited to show us her house. She had been able to make many improvements on it from the money she made from selling a calf. At first when we arrived, the girls were being pretty shy. By the time we were leaving, I could not catch them. They had about 20 little village kids around them playing with them. And Sienna and Sofia were right in the middle of the group. They did not want to leave. They were having so much fun playing chase. They kids kept touching Sienna and Sofia’s hair asking if it was real. I don’t think the little “kiddos” had really ever seen or played with a little white child so they were simply amazed- and then to see two who looked just a like. It was a sight to see. But you can’t even imagine how the girls just made themselves at home and were playing and laughing so hard. I got some pretty good pictures of Lillian and her cows. And then Sofia wanted to also help take pictures so she took my camera and was taking pictures of kiddos. I literally had to almost drag them away to leave. Sienna wanted to stay with Lillian. They are so innocent and have no stereotypes. If only everyone could be as compassionate as a little child. They could care less if the other children are poor and have nothing. They didn’t mind that they were wearing tattered clothes. They just connected with them because they were also children. I talked to them later about how the little kids didn’t have an easy life like they did and how they probably didn’t have lights in their houses or running water. They saw the “little round houses” which were the families’ bathrooms. Sofia gets particularly concerned about little kids having parents. She is always wanting to take them home with us. Sienna is a little more reserved. She watches and then will ask questions later. But Sofia just jumps right in the middle of the kids and starts holding their hands and playing with them and trying to bring them with her.
The bed and breakfast we stayed at in King Williams Town is called Twins. The owner is a twin. She has an identical twin sister. AND they have a set of identical twin brothers! So, their parents had two set of identical twins. The owner was not there but everyone there doted on the girls and I had to take pictures of them by the B&B sign to email to the owner. Sienna and Sofia are the first set of twins to stay there so everyone was really excited. And of course, they made themselves at home. They would go into the main part of the owner's house and start playing with toys they had found.
Then today we left at 8 am and got back at 5. The drive back was much better- less traffic on the roads. But still a lot of cows wandering in the roads. We saw a few ones dead by the side of the road.
I will post pics tomorrow or so. I am exhausted from the long 3 days.
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