Category: Uncategorized

In our update of December 2021, we told the story of “The Heroic Zama Family,” which introduced Daniel to viewers.  Born with cerebral palsy, limbs atrophied, speechless and more. Daniel spent the 16 years of his life on a mattress on the floor. The family was absolutely heroic in caring for him with great love. On 19 June this year, Daniel passed away. It was a hugely sad occasion, not just because of the loss of Daniel, but because of the 16 years of suffering that he had had to endure.  He is surely receiving his reward in heaven. We hope that he will now be the one to care for his family from there with the same degree of devotion and love as they showed to  him.

 

Zama, the older brother of Daniel, is an excellent sportsman.  When he matriculated in December 2021, his dream was to become a sports instructor. After much searching, we found a suitable course in town, but this ended in huge disappointment and, when we found out that it was not at all what we had expected, Zama quit the course. But just after Daniel’s death, by sheer chance, Diana met a family who owns and runs a college, called Fitness Professionals, which trains fitness instructors and it has turned out to be highly suitable for Zama.  The course issues an internationally recognised certificate in Fitness Training, which qualifies them to work at Fitness Clinics or related fields anywhere in the world.  It is really a dream come true for Zama who is so, so happy! No doubt Daniel had something to do with the finding of this course for his devoted brother. “What goes up goes down” and dreams really do come true!

 

One of our house leaders, Masengo, came to us in early 2018. We put him into Phoenix College, where he matriculated. He has always wanted to go into the field of photography and had his mind set on that. As  finance was lacking, he “seized the day”, and has spent a few years educating himself through courses online in photography and videography, even getting some occasional jobs enroute. His goal-consciousness and determination are simply amazing. He has got the reward he deserves: in July he started working for a company, doing exactly what he had dreamed about. Again, dreams do come true.  We thank him for his good example and also for his very efficient leadership at Mercy House.  He certainly has good prospects for the years ahead and we wish him well.

What a wonderful joy, when, on the 10th of July we awoke to find that it was snowing. Mercy House premises was covered with a beautiful white blanket.  For most of our people, it was the first time they had ever seen snow and they went crazy, as the photos show – you can see the reaction of our Sudanese Charles, who came to us from Sudan only a year ago.  This was only the second time that it has snowed in Johannesburg in about 30 years! What a lovely experience. So, thank you God, also for snow!

Wow, what a wonderful event this was. On Saturday, the 13^th August, our much-loved former house leader, Riccardo, got married, and even in his home country, Rwanda. Ricc came to us around 16 years ago. He had seen his father and siblings killed in the genocide when he was still very young and since the mother was missing, assumed he had no family left. It was after he had been with us for a good number of years, that the amazing news came through that his mother had been found and had arrived at the house of his uncle in Rwanda. This was too good to be true. A wonderful benefactor who knew about this, paid for a trip for him to return to his home country and be reunited with his mother, after so long. An amazing story. It was only fitting, when he decided to get married, that he should return to his home country to get married there, according to his country customs, and of course even with his mother present. It was a very, very special occasion and to make it even more special, our USA volunteer, Paige, and Diana even flew up for the wedding. The pictures below show some of the joy of the occasion. We wish Riccardo and his lovely wife everything of the best for their future.

On Thursday, 11 August, USA volunteer, Paige, and Diana departed at 3.30 a.m. for Kigali, arriving there at 7.00 a.m. The trip was to attend the wedding. It was a lovely surprise to be met by Riccardo and former Mercy House resident, Eric, who had come all the way from Dubai, where he now works, for the happy occasion. Eric proved to be such a helpful guide and companion, being Rwandese himself and knowing Kigali well. He accompanied us to many different places and could give us a lot of information about them all.

The first stop that very first day, was to visit the SOS Childrens’ Village, where our Moise had lived from birth until he was 8 years old, before coming down in 2009 to Mercy House, where he still lives today. A House Mother who had looked after him when he was at the Village, remembered him well, as also other staff members. We even went into the house and room where Moise had lived. It was so enriching and impressive to see how the large number of orphans are cared for there with so much love. Another heart-rending experience was the visit to the Genocide museum. Photos were not allowed, but the huge photos lining the walls gave us an insight into what really happened and an insight into the terrible tragedy of that inexplicably evil event.

We were blessed to be able to stay at Centre Christos – a very large Jesuit-run conference centre and guest house, where we met the most interesting people. Certain specific observations made a lasting impression and stand out clearly in our memories:

Firstly, it was obvious that the church is very much live and vibrant in Rwanda – judging on what we saw of course. It was amazing to see as many as 30 young people singing superbly in the choir at daily Mass with loads of people attending.

Secondly, not even one tiny piece of paper can be seen lying in the streets: Kigali is unbelievably clean and ordered.  And people work for it: on the last Saturday of each month no businesses are allowed to operate. Instead, all citizens have to spend the day cleaning the city, with a register even being taken!

Another interesting feature in the life of Kigali is that there are no minibus taxis at all. Motor bikes or scooters are the only means of public transport, whilst busses are used for city to city. There are hundreds of bikers filling the streets, or waiting for passengers.

Lastly, there appears to be no crime problem. Shops remain open till late and people can walk in the street freely at any time. Above all, the dignity of the Rwandese people is really noticeable.

All in all, our 5-day visit to Rwanda was an immensely enriching experience and instilled in us hope for humanity! The terrible suffering and atrocities of the genocide seem to have borne fruit in innumerable ways, some of which we were allowed to experience. What a blessing to have been there!

The photos show some of our activities.

In the very early days of Mercy House, we took in 8 young Sudanese who had fled from the war between North and South Sudan. We were able to get 6 of them through a degree as teachers, and 2 as accountants. After the war they went back to their country, using their acquired skills there and we have not had any Sudanese since then – until now.

In July 2022 the police kept phoning Diana to ask if she would take in a desperate Sudanese man. She kept on refusing because there was simply no room. They were very good to him and even allowed him to sleep at the Johannesburg police station until some solution could be found. Finally, Diana gave in, as long as the man was prepared to sleep on the floor in our storeroom!

When Charles had arrived in South Africa, someone offered to take him to a place where he could stay. Little did he know or expect that this was a set up.  After being in the transport vehicle for a short while, they stopped, threw him out, removed almost all his clothing, stole everything he had brought with him including his passport and other documents and left him on the street, hardly even clad. This was at night and he did not even know where he was. Fortunately, a security vehicle passed and took him to the nearest police station where he was given very compassionate treatment, including some clothing and more. What welcome to South Africa!

By divine co-incidence, just then, one of the residents left and Charles was even able to get his own room. He has been a very great blessing to our community, being a hard worker and has many handy-man and gardening skills, which he immediately put to good use.