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Published: December 10th 2008
Gogo's house a few weeks ago
This was what Gogo's house looked like a few weeks ago, before the tornado. I know it's only been a few weeks since our last message, but I thought that most of you would want to know what has just happened here.
We're Not in Kansas Anymore
A week and a half ago, a tornado struck the community of Bhekulwandle, where the Seed of Hope is. It was a beautiful Saturday evening when at about 6:30pm the sky suddenly turned greyish/yellow. The wind turned fierce and huge drops of rain and hail came down almost sideways.
At our place, the patio door slammed shut so hard that the glass in it shot out of the frame and smashed onto the ground. It was certainly the most intense storm I have ever been in. But within 6 or 7 minutes it was over. As Shauna and I boarded up our window with garbage bags we got a phone call that Gogo's house had been hit and was severely damaged.
We hopped in the car and headed for Gogo's house (about 10 minutes away). It was dark by the time we got there, but the headlights lit up enough to see the destruction. The tin roof of her mud house had been completely torn
Gogo's missing roof
This was taken the night of the tornado right after we moved Gogo's stuff out. off. Half of her roof had been thrown 100 feet away. The other half of the roof had taken down the nearby power line and pole.
It seemed like the entire community was there helping to move Gogo's stuff out of her house. Scott K. and Carl from the Seed of Hope were also there loading stuff into the truck. Gogo's neighbours offered her a place to stay at their house and so we moved her bed and some of her belongings over there. The rest of her stuff was moved into the Seed of Hope Centre. Amidst all the people was Gogo, walking through the mud filled remains of her house, still in her night gown. When Carl asked her later what happened she explained that she was sitting on her bed, getting ready to go to sleep when all of a sudden the roof disappeared! "Hou!" was all she could say as the rain suddenly poured into her house, drenching all of her belongings.
The next day, we came back to survey the damage. The roof was still strewn all over the place and the walls of her house had started to collapse. There was nothing
A muddy mess
The inside of Gogo's house was a disaster after the rain poured in. to salvage. Her house is a total loss. Brett Fillmore (from Canada) and I helped to clean up her yard and collect all the pieces that we could. We tried to deal with the downed power line, but that was all we could do.
The damage throughout the area was severe. In true tornado style, not every house was damaged, but the ones that were, were damaged severely. That day, the news reported that 4 people from the area had died, fifty were hospitalized and 200 injured. I think that all those numbers are actually a bit low as most of the injured people would not have had access to medical attention and therefore would not be recorded in the stats.
It has been a struggle to figure out what to do in the situation. Some houses can be fixed by putting the roof sheets back on and nailing them down, but many houses are so damaged that a "quick fix" will not work. Yesterday and today we took some of the youth from our church to see what we could do. Armed with some hand tools, ladders and a few tarps we headed out to tackle a
Inside Gogo's House
This was all that is left inside Gogo's house after the storm. The back wall in this photo has now completely collapsed. few roofs. It was a bit of a challenge, but we managed to cover two roofs.
The first house had one of it's three rooms collapse down the hillside. The remaining two rooms consisted of a "cooking room" and a "living room/bedroom". In those two rooms live 12 people. There is a Grandma, her 5 girls, and her 6 grandkids (2 of which are babies). At night they have to put blankets down on the floor and crowd into the two remaining rooms to sleep. We couldn't do much for them, but we patched up the remaining roof and covered a huge hole in the wall, so that at least they can stay dry in the part of the house that is still standing.
The second house was in much better condition. The roof of one of the rooms had been blown off, taking all the rafters with it. It had been blown so far away that the only piece that we could find was a small 4 foot section about 200 feet away in a neighbours yard. We managed to put up some wood, cover it with tarps and set some old rusty tim roof sheets over
That's a long throw
Half of Gogo's roof landed here about 100 feet away from her house. top, with some cinder blocks thrown on top to hold it all down. It wasn't pretty, but it will do the trick for a while. The whole time that we were working, we were surrounded by the five little kids that live in the house. They are all AIDS orphans being raised by their grandma. When the grandma came home, she was shocked and surprised that were working on her house. We actually heard her coming down the road, exclaiming with joy when she saw us! She kept saying, "Thank you so much. I don't deserve any of this!"
Here is a grandma, stuggling to raise her grandkids, and doing a great job of it, and she thinks that she doesn't deserve someone putting a make-shift roof back onto her small house after a tornado has torn it off. It has made me think about what we actually do "deserve" in life (if there is such a thing). I certainly don't deserve most of what I have, but if anyone "deserves" anything, this Grandma certainly deserves a roof for her home.
Kids Christmas Party at the Seed of Hope
On an brighter note, the Seed of Hope had
What is left of a room
The roof of this house and outer wall collapsed down the hill. their annual kids Christmas party this past Saturday. We had over 265 kids show up for it! The party started with carnival-type games run by a local youth group and some of our Live Out Loud kids. There was face painting, sidewalk chalk art, water balloon games, bowling, and a many more creative games. After about two hours of games, all the kids gathered into a room to hear the Christmas story (yes, all 265 kids were in one room!). Then after listening to a special guest speaker, the kids all lined-up outside for a meal of Indian-made breyani and salad. The food was donated by a local businessman and his family, and it was fantastic!
The kids then went back inside to wait for Santa to arrive. They all listened quietly as sleigh bells jingled down the hallway. Suddenly, with a "Ho, Ho, Ho", Santa burst through the door to the surprise of the kids. It was quite a shock for some of the little ones, but they quickly realized that no one else was too worried about this crazy-looking guy in a big red suit and so they figured that it couldn't be too bad of a
Do you think it will leak?
A gap in the roof that we patched up thing.
Santa handed out a personalized gift to each child (which took about an hour and a half). All the toys were donated by members of Sweetwater Church in Amanzimtoti. They were such a blessing to us! After the kids got their gift they went outside to open it up, get a popsicle, and a treat bag full of candies. The kids were so cute as they opened their gifts and played with them. For some of these kids, this will be the only gift that they get for Christmas, so it was a privilege to be able to see the excitement in their faces as they opened them up.
It was a fantastic day for the kids, the staff, and all the volunteers that helped out. By the end, we were all quite tired, but at least the kids had some sugar in them to keep them going! Shauna and I were in charge of planning a lot of the party details, but since the tornado, I have been a bit preoccupied and so Shauna took most of the responsibility. She was feeling a bit stressed out all week as the plans were coming together, but in
One of Twelve
This is one of the 12 people who live in the house where the room collapsed during the tornado. the end, everything went extremely well and she did a great job. (There are some photos of the party below. Click on any of the photos to make them larger.)
Coming Home
We only have less than two weeks before we come back to Canada. We will be home on December 22, just in time for Christmas (and -20 C). We certainly haven't missed the snow! So we will be spending the next few days wrapping things up here in South Africa and taking stock of all that we have learned and experienced over the past year.
It feels like we have been a part of so many exciting things here and have had so many great experiences. Sometimes it feels like we don't deserve some of the awesome experiences that we have gotten to be a part of this year, but then again, what do we deserve...?
(New Video Uploaded -- A while back Shauna and I took a 4x4 trip from South Africa, up the Sani Pass and into the country of Lesotho. We loved the area so much that we came back a few months later and decided that this time we Losing Everything
This family lost their roof and then all their beds and clothing were ruined by the mud and rain that poured in. should hike up the pass. It was quite an adventure! If you are interested, you can watch our "Scott and Shauna's Sani Pass Adventure" video at www.youtube.com/user/shaunaandscott )
Click here for a link to the video
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