Day Six: Bophelong and AIDS Babies

We returned on Thursday to the same school we visited on Wednesday, but had a bit more time in the morning to serve and meet with the students. In the afternoon, we went to the Voortrekker monument in Pretoria.

During our time at Bophelong school, one group washed and scrubbed the chairs the students used while the other group organized the books in the library.

Most of the guys worked on the chairs. Some of them wear their pants too low. No comment.

Many of the girls worked with Amanda in the library. She was grateful for the additional hands in organizing the school's books.

At break time, chaos erupted in the main area above. Students were everywhere. Americans tried to keep up. (We had a hard time.)

Duhann, being an African-American, had a clue what was happening with the boys before we did. Notice him running? (We didn't.)

Meanwhile, the girls were exceedingly sweet. Two latched on to Chloe and Ronnie and never left their side. Until we had to go. Seriously.

Notice the boy with the mohawk? Get ready. Apparently, he was beating some Americans up. (Yes, that means us.) When I came over with the camera, he was beginning to punch and kick Nate and Dylan. I had no idea what was coming.

Then it began. My beloved CHCA students sent him after me and I was bruised for life. Seriously, this child hit hard. For some reason, the boys found it fun to beat the living daylights out of us. I still have bruises. And no, I am not kidding.

Being intelligent, I quickly diverted the boys and sent them after Grady. And told them to pull up his pants. They didn't, but they did beat the crap out of him.

And then Grady sent them after TJ. At what point should we start hitting back? We wondered. I'm still wondering.

The girls, God bless them, played circle games and held hands. Punching, kicking, and leaving bruises did not occur to them.

We never found out Mohawk's name, so I think we finally settled on Mike Tyson. Seems fitting enough, but he is missing the face tattoo.

Grady finally put Tyson in a full nelson. That subdued him for about ten seconds.

And then TJ held him up by his ankles. He didn't like that, either.

Tyson.

Victoria was, I am certain of it, in heaven with these girls.

There were actually some boys who were not exceedingly violent. This was one of them.

Amanda with her students. Amanda Kuderer was one of my students when she graduated from a small school in Cincinnati called Christian Center Academy in 2004. I only taught there for one year, and was hired at CHCA the following year. Amanda is living in Mamelodi now and working for Pastor Titus as a teacher/administrator at Bophelong for one year. An inspiring story which, if more of us in the West would do, the world would be a better place.

Around lunch time, we went to the AIDS BabyHouse which is a ministry of Doxa Deo. Hanna is the mother of the house which currently holds 10 babies under five who have AIDS, HIV, or other life-threatening conditions. This was one of the most impacting parts of the trip for many of our students.

Karen spent some time with this child on the right who survived an abortion over two years ago. The trauma of her experience has caused damage to her brain and spinal cord. When you pick her up, her head must always be secured.

Nate Post with one of the more active girls at the house.

Paiten with Dineo, a boy who now has full-blown AIDS. Holding a child with AIDS is one of the most difficult-- and still beautiful-- experiences in this life.

Nate Flint with the boy who was born with just a brain stem. When he was born, he was given only a short number of months to live, but he just had his second birthday.

Me with Solly. When I visited in July, Solly had HIV. Now he has AIDS. My heart aches for these children and those who care for them. This is truly God's work.

Our group with the kids. In the middle of this pic is Gideon, our bus driver for the week. He was incredibly helpful and participated in whatever we were doing each day.

After lunch, we ventured to this monument (called the "Voortrekker Monument") which commemorates the Afrikaners trek from the Cape to Pretoria in the 1800s and their amazing defeat of the Zulus. On an opposite hill in Pretoria lies the new national monument of South Africa called the Freedom Monument.

The city of Pretoria from the Voortrekker.

Inside the Monument is an empty tomb on top of which a ray of light shines every year on December 16. There is a tiny hole in the highest ceiling which is aligned perfectly so that it only occurs on this date, the anniversary of the Voortrekker's defeat of the Zulu.

On each wall there are detailed drawings and depictions of the Great Trek and the wars that followed. Our guide described each step to us on our tour.

And then... began our interesting but slightly creepy adventure with some Chinese tourists. They literally pulled a few of our girls out of the tour to take a picture, and so the boys went over to join them.

A few of our group being photographed and recorded by the tourists. One of the men loved to say: "Welcome to China." We weren't really sure how to take that, but they loved us.

At one point, these guys were taking so many pictures that it felt like they were the paparazzi. In stubborn defiance, I started snapping my own photos of them. It didn't really work.

Our group outside the Voortrekker on 1/14/10. Another event-filled day.