The Jiyane’s: Our New Family

Our host family consists of our Ma, Esther, her daughter, Dora and two lovely sheep. Ma has a husband, Elliot, but he travels for work and is rarely home, maybe visiting once a month. Esther is the principal of Mnyamana, one of Joe’s primary schools. She is well respected in the community and we have been told by numerous people how she has helped and encouraged them in their schooling and employment. Although not confirmed, we suspect that she funds many of her nieces’ and nephews’ university fees and employs family members without jobs to clean her house and yard. She is truly a pillar in the community and we feel proud to say that she is our ‘Ma’. Esther is also a very active participant in her church, attending meetings and prayer sessions almost daily. The congregation is in the process of building a new church (the current one is very small) and Ma has been a frontrunner in donating her time and money. The new church building is beautiful, but its newly painted bright pink exterior always brings a smile to our faces.

Dora is a tenth grader at a neighboring high school, choosing not to attend Vezubuhle’s high school. She spent her ninth grade year at a private boarding school, but decided that she missed home and her mother too much to continue. Dora loves playing soccer and her team recently defended their trophy at a local match. Besides soccer, Dora also enjoys cooking and has taught us many things from where to buy the best vegetables to how to cook them, with or without electricity. We have lots of fun with Dora, laughing and joking and often having water fights over dishes. Don’t worry; it’s only sprinkles of water as it is a precious resource!

The sheep, nicknamed ‘goat’ by Joe because he continued to refer to them by that name (it must be part of his dyslexia), reside in Ma’s backyard and are a constant source of amusement. Ma told us that she is trying to make money off of them, but she is not sure how. Whatever the case, they have conveniently become our garbage disposal. To the disappointment of Kelli, we had to make the decision not to have a compost pile in our yard. As we have enough trouble with rodents in the house (you name it and we have it: mice, termites, cockroaches, ants, flies, spiders, and unidentified incredibly large insects) and unwanted guests outside of the house (chickens and goats), we decided not to risk attracting more by providing a soup kitchen in our yard. The sheep are an excellent alternative and enjoy our vegetable scraps. Kelli loves watching them inhale banana peels in two bites. The sheep come running and bleating to the fence every time they see us and it never fails to bring a smile to our faces.

In our few conversations with Elliot we have discovered that he manages a security business that provides protection for rural white farmers. He explained that it is a profitable business, as many white farmers fear retaliatory homicide. Elliot is also a bishop. Through his church, he has traveled to the United States and England several times. He has visited L.A., which he thought was very cold, Chicago, and Atlanta. We tried to tell him that it must have been Chicago that he thought was freezing, but he insists that L.A. is one of the coldest places that he’s ever been. Besides Esther and Dora, we are surrounded by fellow Jiyanes. Esther’s two brothers, David and Jeff, along with their wives and children live in neighboring houses. They each have five children, and some of their daughters have small children of their own, so we are literally surrounded by the Jiyane family. This adds to our comfort and security, as everyone in the family looks out for everyone else. We are told that theft is a problem in our village, so it is nice to know that we have a built-in alarm system in our extended family that will alert us to any suspicious activity. For example, Ma came running over to our house one afternoon because she heard us unlocking our door (the metal door makes quite a racket). She was not expecting us home at that time and thought it was someone trying to break into the house. It’s nice to feel looked after. A few of our favorite cousins are Gladys, Linky and Solly. Gladys lives and works in Pretoria as a pre-school teacher but visits for a few weeks at a time because she is re-taking some of her high school standards. She stays in the spare bedroom / storage space that is right next to our house and often joins us for dinner. Compared to Dora’s quiet reserve, Gladys can be heard down the street, singing and talking. Linky, is an orphan (her mother died when she was three and no one ever knew the identity of her father) who lives with her aunt and uncle. She has taken to us, even telling the other children that they cannot play with us, as we are only supposed to play with her. She walks us to school almost every morning, sometimes going long distances out of her way, and loves the ‘pick me up’ game. We have given Linky the nickname shadow because she is always by our side. Solly is an intelligent 6th grader who loves to play Frisbee and comes by for help with homework or to share a good grade. Joe has recently helped him with reports on Nelson Mandela and the structure of the South African court system.

pictures: Kelli, Joe, Dora & Esther; the Jiyanes; Linky; One crazy family!