Though there’s been so much going on, I think I’ll just report on what’s been going on with my team at Project Gateway. We are 7, and it’s such a different atmosphere to be in such a small group.
Project Gateway’s campus is the Old Pietermaritzburg Prison. There were horrible things that happened in those buildings, but now it’s being used for God. Public hangings, gang fights and oppression happened there. Apartheid penetrated even prisoners. We saw isolation chambers and gallows, walls that were scaled for attempted escape and the cell that Ghandi was allegedly held in after his first act of passive resistance at the Pietermaritzburg train station.
Now, it fosters several programs which are trying to take off for themselves. Project Gateway is all about empowering so that programs will become self-sustaining. There is a fashion school which teaches fashion design and sewing, a homeless shelter where people have to pay 1 rand (about 15 cents) to stay the night, Esther House (which I’ll write more about) and Gateway Christian School. Even the Project Gateway itself is working towards self-sustainability by giving tours of the Old Prison.
Gateway Christian School is where we spend our Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings. I spend my mornings in Mrs. Reddy’s 4th grade class. If I’m not in class helping her out, I’m teaching a P.E. lesson, covering new library books in plastic or playing with the kids at recess. Let it be known that “playing” is a very subjective word. The playground has a giant grassy hill, and the majority of the school (somewhere around 300 children) climbs up, waits for everyone and then runs down screaming. I feel like I’m in a battle…and the feeling is even more authentic when I’m weighted down by 5 children on each arm and 3 or 4 more figuring out a way to hug me with everyone else in the crowd. Seriously, they adore us.
We then have a short lunch and head down the road to Esther House. There are 8 or so women who temporarily live there. They have been beaten and take refuge in the house with their children.
On our first day, all we heard the entire morning from Gateway people was not to be discouraged if they don’t talk to us…that in the past, the teams have just had to play with the kids the first day, and then on the second day, when the women see that we’re coming back, then they’ll talk to us. Our team broke the mold though. The first few minutes were a bit awkward, but we went outside together, and by the time we had to leave, we were laughing and running and playing games with the women and the children. They hugged us as we left and waved enthusiastically. Once we were back in our car, our Zulu language helper was raving about how that NEVER happens on the first day! She was absolutely amazed at how the women responded to us.
Yesterday, our afternoon was full of incredible stories from the women about their lives and tears on my part. It is so inspiring to hear the intense suffering that they’ve endured but they still have hope. I wrote about it yesterday in my journal: “’But,’ she said as my tears began to flow, ‘my position with God never changed. He is with me and He will never leave me.’” We prayed like I’ve never prayed at home and sang praise songs in Zulu that we’ve learned in the last week. As we climbed into the bus, we were all silent and just staring. All afternoon and evening we were trying to process it and I think we still were today.
Today was equally as good, but today and yesterday were like night and day. One of the women literally ran towards us to hug us as we walked down the driveway. We prayed together today and sang a bit more, but we left so lightheartedly. We spent a lot of the afternoon outside playing duck, duck, goose (one of their favorites), big booty and jump rope. We were running, jumping and laughing with each other and sang more Zulu songs on the bus ride home instead of the heavy stares that we had yesterday.
I’ll leave it at that for now. There are so many beautiful things happening here. Maybe I’ll have them straight enough in my head when I’m home to really talk about them more in depth with you all.
I’m sending my love to you! Hopefully I’ll have some new pictures from Gateway by the next time I blog…for now, I’ll leave you with a picture of my team:
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