Meeting the Inkosi

Last week I was able to go and meet with a gentleman named Julius and his wife Joyce. They live in the village where I plan to focus my efforts. They have made a crèche (early childhood development center) and they have about 16 kids so far. The crèche is located in a rondavel that is on their property. It is far too small to accommodate the needs of all of the children who need a crèche. Crèches here are made for children age 1-5. Julius and Joyce’s goal is to build a crèche that will accommodate about 50 children. The Inkosi (chief) of their village has given them a piece of land to build a new crèche. Empangeni Child and Welfare had some stuff that was for their crèche.

Ingrid and I took it to Julius and Joyce. Some of the stuff that we gave them was damaged. Such as sandals, shoes, and clothes that were cut. This made them impossible to wear. I asked Ingrid why they were cut and she thinks it is because staff members at local stores will try and damage stuff so the store can’t sell it, then they will try and take it home. So the stores just start cutting the partially damaged stuff so that it can’t be used. This was done in hopes that staff will stop damaging products. I don’t know if I said that very clearly, hopefully you understand! Luckily some of the stuff can be sewn so that it can be used. It does not always look the greatest but at least it can be worn. We were also able to give them a lot of flour that the bags had been damaged so the stores could not sell it. Julius took Ingrid and I to meet the Induna. It is required that we meet the Induna prior to the Inkosi. I think it is important for us to meet the Inkosi prior to starting our work in his village. It was interesting to meet him and he was thrilled that I was able to talk with him in isiZulu. I enjoyed my time with Julius and Joyce. I think I will be working closely with them in the future and I look forward to it.

Julius and the Induna planned for us to meet the Inkosi today. I got a good feel for Zulu (Africa) time again as people are always late. We planned to meet with him at 8. We finally got to meet him at about 10:30. While we waited I was able to meet with some of the locals who were also waiting to speak with the Inkosi. We meet at a tribal court and there were about 30 Indunas and then the Inkosi. I was pretty intense and I was not expecting that many people to be there. The Induna introduced Julius who then introduced us. I stood up and did my introduction in isiZulu. I have to switch to English every now and then for words that I forget but overall it is coming along. After I finished I said it was nice to meet you all in isiZulu and they all started clapping. I bet my face went bright red. I for some reason got super embarrassed. I felt like a little kid who just sang a song to a bunch of adults. It was pretty intimidating but it was an overall great experience.