Sun, Oct 12 - Makiswelo

Makiswelo (pronounced “Maxwell”)

Sunday, Oct 12, 2008

One of the boys who was on holiday (vacation) this last couple of weeks came back to the orphanage today with his nephew. Aubrey (the boy on holiday), went home to help in the fields and visit his family during his break from secondary school. He came back and all of a sudden Esther noticed there was a young boy she did not recognize. She questioned him and found out he was Aubrey’s nephew. His name is Makisiwelo and he is 10 years old. He was very small for 10 years old. Both of his parents had died and an “uncle” took him over into Mozambique. His uncle made him herd animals and was not paying him and only occasionally fed him. Aubrey gave him some of his own clothes and brought him back to the orphanage with the hope that he could stay. Aubrey did not have transportation money to get Makisiwelo back to the orphanage so he had him sit on his lap the entire way back. Transport from their village to the orphanage is about 16 hours by mini-bus.

Esther questioned Aubrey about Makisiwelo’s history, why he brought him and what he had. Aubrey said that he would leave the orphanage and give Makisiwelo his place, if he needed to. Talk about love………having a person sit on your lap for 16 hours because you only have transport money for one seat and then asking to give up your place at the orphanage so your nephew can be safe, fed and schooled.

Makiswelo was immediately greeted by Gift, one of the other boys who originally came from the same village. Gift gave Makiswelo some of his clothes and showed him around the orphanage. The clothes Makiswelo came with were very, very worn - worse than clothes I would have in the rag bag. Since both Aubrey & Gift have given Makiswelo clothes, I guess we go out tomorrow and buy Makiswelo some shoes and underwear.

After this, Esther laughed and told me that last Friday, when we had the kids take maize to the mill to be ground into flour, that was all the maize she had. The food should have run out Saturday night. She woke up this morning, not sure where food was coming from for the day. She went to look in the closet where the maize flour is kept and found two full bags of unground maize that were not there yesterday. She said the she knew something was going to happen today because there was maize in the closet. She said she had no idea Makiswelo was coming but that was the reason for the 2 extra bags. (This is the second time since we arrived that maize has shown up.)

Good night and we hope that the Lord blesses you with your “maize” for the day!

PS – Aubrey does not have to leave the orphanage to accommodate Makiswelo. They are both sleeping with full bellies tonight.