Assisting some Young Adults

At the dentists office

Sisfundiso is on school break so we scheduled two dental appointments for him this week.  We discovered Paul needs to complete one class in order become a security guard so we brought him along.  I stayed with Sisfundiso while Elder Stokoe took Paul to get the grades from a home study program he took in 2010.  The school had moved.  It was hard to find.  They had to call Jo Burg to find it.  His certificate had been mailed but not his grades.

This woman lives next door to Boselwa's Aunt

Good news.  Paul has a B average.  Now he can get a good job.  So they went to the police station where he was fingerprinted.  Next week Paul has an appointment to check into fire arms training.

The social worker did not want to be photographed.
Her office is in this compound.  They checked the boot for
guns before opening the gate to let us in.

I asked Boselwa if she had convinced some relative to go to home affairs to testify for her.

Her aunt had promised to go but when Elder Stokoe went to pick her up last week she had changed her mind.  Her uncle Cecil Rhodes had visited the family she stays with recently but he ignored her.  She will not ask for his help again.  

She decided to visit a social worker to see if she could put pressure on her old blind aunt.  I went with her on the second visit.  The case worker said she had talked to the aunt and asked her to go in but  she said she was sick.  Boselwa said this was just another excuse.

I explained that it was the government's fault and not Boselwa's that she does not have a birth certificate.  That she cannot further her education, apply for a job or live a normal life until she gets her national I.D. number.  The government made the mistake and it's up to them to fix this.  The social worker said she could not make the old woman go in and testify.  However she did call her the next day and the blind old aunt finally agreed.  We arranged to pick them up early Thursday morning.

Later we taught a follow up class at the Blau home where we ran into the missionaries.  Elder Wilde told me that it was the aunt who went to a sonoma or witch doctor.  The woman told her to poison her sister.  So it was the aunt who murdered Boselwa's mother.

Seminary is taught at Sister Blau's home.  She is in black.

Elder Wilde said Boselwa had told him about it when he interviewed her for baptism.  She cried and said she had forgiven her.  Evidently Bosewla wants to be part of a family.  However the only relatives that are kind to her are the one she stays with--relatives of her dead father.

 I've been telling Boselwa that if we can't get anyone to testify in her behalf I will have to visit  a witch doctor.  Little did I realise that one was involved.  Whenever I said this Boselwa would just laugh.  She never told me that it was a sanoma that had given her aunt the poison that killed her mother.

Cows outside Boselwa's aunts house

On Thursday we went to pick them up.  I kept wondering if the aunt would actually come.  We watched the cows feed and talked to the neighbourhood boys while we waited for them. What a relief to see her lead the old woman out.

We arrived at home affairs and found Banisi Muani who told us he could take care of this if we brought in a relative, ten years older than Boselwa, who would testify in her behalf.  He directed us to the counter and instructed a supervisor to help us.

The woman took everything Boselwa had brought in and began entering information into a computer.  Then she returned and told her she needed verification for grades 1 through 6 although she had all her high school records.  The worker did not interview the aunt.  I was surprised and angry.  I wanted to talk to Mauani, the assistant director, but Tom said "It's up to them to sort this out."  We took the old aunt home and drove Boselwa to her Primary school where her teachers, grades one thru six, signed and stamped documents saying she had attended. I do not know if we can get her aunt to come with us again when we go back next week.  I am so frustrated. We are running out of time.

We just heard form Michael Toise.   He got a welding job yesterday.  Charlene is working for a family with a disabled son.  They pay her a salary and cover the cost of transport.  They both finished planning for success over a year ago and are happy to be employed.  They moved in with relatives while trying to accomplish this and now they can better support themselves and their young daughters.  All this happened after Tom refused to help them and suggested they start taking responsibility for themselves.