More homebound visits

I went on some more visits to homebound elderly people today, which I will now be doing only on Mondays, as there is a lot going on here and I need time to be with the HIV/AIDS support group (which I will post more about soon). My friend Mahoi is out of town, spending some time with family in the Eastern Cape, but I will see her again before I leave South Africa. Today I went with Johanna and Gladys, two other women from the congregation who visit the elderly. Like several other people I met today, these ladies introduced themselves by their English names. On principle I think I ought to learn people's Xhosa names (for reasons I will explain in another post), but I have to say it is easier to remember names in English (which I am bad enough at already, without long strings of consonants and clicks).

So we made about six visits to elderly people with various ailments, or who just hadn't come to the church in a while. As I said before, these visits are very similar to the sort of pastoral visit one would do in the States. I am enjoying seeing these older people, hearing their stories and seeing if there are other things we can do to help them out. One woman I visited last week, Mama Violet, had not been able to attend church in two years because she had a bum hip, and the replacement surgery had not done what it was meant to do. She especially wanted to take communion. Last Sunday was a communion service, which JL Zwane does only quarterly, so I offered to pick her up and bring her to church. Unfortunately, when I arrived yesterday morning to get her, Violet was feeling ill and was unable to go. Luckily, there is an American minister visiting for a couple weeks who will be taking communion to the homebound elderly this week.

One 89-year-old man I enjoyed visiting is pictured, as is his house above. He is nearly blind, and home alone all day, although the ladies and I were glad to discover, contrary to what he seemed to tell us at first, that his wife is still living, and two of his sons are also around to care for him. Like so many of the elderly people I saw, I was impressed by the sense of peace he had about being near the end of his life, saying several times that he didn't have much time left, but had been blessed by God and overcome many things in his life. This man would have lived 75 years of his life under the Apartheid regime, so I have no doubt that he has seen some troubles and hardships.

Another old man we saw at the last visit was a tougher one to deal with. He stood behind his locked gate and refused to let us in at first. After a moment he allowed us to come in, and was speaking very heatedly to Johanna in Xhosa. I obviously couldn't understand what was being said ("Hi, how are you?" and "My name is Zack" is about the extent of my Xhosa), but tone of voice translates across all language barriers. He was upset at the umfundisi for a number of reasons, first that he had done away with the traditional Presbyterian elders' session meeting and replaced it with "zones" in the community led by men and women who are responsible for knowing the needs of their area and working to mobilize other zone members to meet those needs. That change, I understand, has made Dr. Xapile rather unpopular with some others in the denomination, and this old-timer is among that bunch. He was downright offended that we were even appointed to come around, saying (as Johanna later translated) "The Reverend needs to come here himself and talk to me about these things, not keep sending women to my house. Talking to me is his job, and I don't want anyone else around when we talk, man to man." Not sure if umfundisi will come, and I can't say I was thrilled with the man's attitude toward women (which is pretty common, sadly), but the man is a long-time church member and deserves people to come around to see him. He was laughing and joking by the time we left, which seemed an abrupt transition from his previous state of "pisticity," but there you go.

Tomorrow I will be spending some time with the HIV/AIDS support group, and I got to meet several of the members today. I will try to do an informative post on the greatest challenge facing Africa today.