sister were about to leave the house. His mother was outside of the house still
working. Had we arrived any sooner we would have encountered an
empty house. We piled Musa and his sister in the car and went around looking
for their mother. When we pulled up to where she was the Gogo rushed out of the
car and the two embraced and smiled at each other. After we all greeted each
other we got down to business of discussing the boys.
Musa couldn’t hear what we were discussing, and he sat off in the distance with
our guide, Sabello. Right off the bat she stated that she had no intention of
taking the boys back. If she were to keep the boys she said that she feared if
she got desperate enough she would kill herself and kill the boys to alleviate
their situation. The she told us that they weren’t her kids anymore because she
had given them as a gift to our ministry.
After some time of discussing the matter the emotional
burden of what we were talking about proved to be too much for the mother and
she excused herself from the van to go off and sob, bent in half, in the grass.
The mother herself did not look to be in good health, and
she also admitted that her health was poor. Her glands were extremely swollen
and she was underweight. Her husband died a similar death years back.
It’s very likely she is HIV+. I think she so desperately
doesn’t want to take care of her kids because she fears she will be dying soon.
She came back to the van still sobbing and still
maintaining that she didn’t want her children. Mind you that in front of the
van like 15 feet away Musa is sitting in the grass looking off in the distance,
fully in view by all of us in the car. It was not an easy thing to hear a
mother say, while looking at her child, “I don’t want my kids”and then start to sob.
her current state. She is sick, desperate, and emotionally unstable. The Gogo
is actually willing to let the boys stay on her property if we will help her to
raise these kids. Just providing food won’t cut it. She needs help cooking for
the kids and washing their clothes (basically, the physical aspects of caring
for them). And they still need a proper shelter for them to stay in. I actually
think this is the best plan for them right now, and so does Pastor Bheki. I see
this as slowly pushing us in the direction that we dream to head in. The bottom
line is that if we are going to address the need of THIS community we need some
sort of safe house for kids to stay in until we can find a better situation for
them. I believe this Gogo’s offer to us could be a valuable relationship to
help us address the needs of the community through one of its members who has a
heart for the youth in this area.”
Even with the challenges we’d like to form more homes like this one. There are so many other similar stories! Please pray with us as we come alongside the Swazis and ask the Lord for Godly, culturally appropriate, and wise solutions.
Praying for those of you at AIM and in Swaziland as you make decisions and praying for our family as we seek how we can be part of the solution.
Thank you, Scott, and the other Swazi/AIM staff for all you are doing for His precious “least of these”.
Salani Kahle,
Elysa
This is both encouraging and concerning for me to read. It’s encouraging to know that the boys have still been taken care of, but definately makes me wonder what will happen in the near future. I miss those boys a ton and think of them often. If you get a chance, let them know they are in my thoughts and prayers.
Traci (Swazi Gogo) Derington