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disciplesyouth.com : YOUth news : You're Doing What? Where? You're
doing WHAT? WHERE? Story and photos by Ellen Channels Editor's Note: Last time she wrote, Ellen Channels had just started a new job with the Christian Art Global Network. She says she is settled in and she has figured out her daily schedule. But in South Africa there are no "ordinary days", from what we can tell. Read on to find out more.
Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays I work at St. Thomas' Home for Children. The children are divided into groups according to their age and I work
with Q: Do you have a favorite camp song or game you think the kids would like? Let me know. On Thursdays I travel to a township, which is a rural area pretty far from the city where the black people were forced to live during Apartheid. They could move now, but many of them don't have enough money to live in the city and they have a community where they are. About a year ago I met a woman named Cynthia who had started an orphanage at her house. There are now 126 children who live with her. She has some other women who help her, but they don't receive any money from the government like the orphanages in the city do. They don't have many things there: some of the children sleep on the dirt floor, they don't have food unless someone donates it and some of the children are unable to attend school because they don't have enough money to pay everyone's school fees. On Thursday mornings, I do art activities with about 15 of the kids who are too young to go to school. There is a little boy there named Jabulo (which means "happy") who is about two years old. The other day, he was using his paint brush but there was no paint on it so I dipped it in paint and put it in his hand and helped him to paint a squiggle. I wish you could have seen his face! His eyes lit up in amazement at the color that miraculously appeared on the paper. He had never had that experience! From that moment on, he was hooked, full of joy and jabbering away in Zulu. JABULO, (which means "happy") is a little boy who lives at the orphanage in Inanda. He's painting for the first time. On Thursday afternoons I go to the Inanda Seminary, which is an all-girls boarding school. I am helping a group of students write a monthly school newspaper. They choose a main story and then the rest of the paper includes gossip, jokes, dedications, birthdays and advice columns. So far we have done two papers. The members of the newspaper team are proud of their accomplishments. The orphanage and the children's home don't have any money to buy art supplies. So, we do "trash art." We make things from recyclable objects. For instance, we are making a bowling game by paper macheing 2-liter pop bottles and painting them. For Easter we made bunnies out of egg trays and drew Easter eggs on paper that had been used on one side. All of my friends have been giving me their trash: egg cartons, styrofoam trays, pop bottles, toilet paper tubes, plastic containers, etc. This is a fun way to do art because it teaches the kids that they don't need money to have fun. At the same time, it teaches them about recycling and caring for the Earth. Q: Have you ever made something from trash? Send me your ideas! I: If you want any ideas of crafts you can do from recyclable things, let me know. This would be a great activity to lead for Vacation Bible School, Sunday School or church camp. You can have a "Junk Drive" to collect the materials ahead of time.
On Wednesdays I travel to the University of Natal - Pietermaritzburg, which is about an hour away from Durban. I'm working towards a Master's degree (which is the next level after college) in Theology and Development. The name sounds big, but it is basically about how the church can and should be involved in helping people around the world-kind of like missionary work. My classes are pretty small and the other students are from many different countries. In my first class, there are eight of us, representing six countries: USA, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Nigeria and Namibia. I am a minority in many ways: the only woman, the only white person, the only non-African and the only person under 30 years of age. In my second class, there are 15 of us, representing eight countries: USA, South Africa, Germany, Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Liberia. There are three other women in this class and two other white people. My biggest challenge is trying to understand their various accents, but it is wonderful to learn about these different African countries. So, this is what my schedule looks like these days. We are now beginning the winter season, but it doesn't get real cold in Durban -just chilly. I hope you and other members of your youth group will write to me! I'd love to hear your stories and ideas for this web page space. What do you want to know about me, my life in South Africa, etc.? More to Come! Watch for regular letters from Ellen and learn more about her life in South Africa. OR click here for Ellen's last letter.
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