Delivery to Odeke

(Thursday, 17th May 2007)

Text of report letter to Royalston churches:

Sanibona, Royalston!

Thursday was a long, tiring but worthwhile day, with three deliveries of material from Massachusetts i3L churches to their KZN counterparts arranged, and another task picked up along the way. The 375 km circuit of the southern part of the province allowed us to make our deliveries to Odeke, which went like this:

We headed off early down the coast, the hour and a half or so to Umzumbe, where the main church of the circuit of which Odeke is a member church is located. We met there with Claudia Cele, a great and good woman who’s one of the mainstays of the connections by Umzumbe to the Athol church.

By arrangement, we were met at the Umzumbe Mission church by Thembeke, the niece of Goodness Jeza, the main contact for the Odeke church. Thembeke, who lives and is studying in Durban, was home at Odeke for a few days, and so would be available to guide us to the school where Goodness teaches (and where she stays during the week due to transportation difficulties since she has no car), and where we would meet her to deliver the items from Royalston.

The road to Odeke is pretty straightforward but for one turn, which we’d have missed, so our request that someone meet us at Umzumbe to show us the way again, was well-grounded. The place we were going to was KwaBombo, where Goodness Jeza is a teacher. The road on from Odeke to there appears not to go too much farther inland, but to aim north; we’d been told that Goodness’ school was ‘between Umzumbe and Umtwalume’ (we'd been at the Umtwalume church last Sunday, as they're starting a relastionship with the East Walpole church, though we reached it from the other side). This description covers a lot of ground, but the roads are few and meandering, so it’s quite possible that if one took one or the other of the routes beyond, or close to, KwaBombo, you’d have a chance of finding your way to Umtwalume. Well, not us, but the locals.

The road beyond Odeke is similar to the one towards Odeke from Umzumbe, though it seems that the ridges along which the road runs are somewhat higher, and there are definitely more small copses of trees the further along you go. When we come to the place that includes the KwaBombo Primary School and, next door, a [impossible Zulu name with a q-click in it] Secondary School as well, the buildings are sitting, mission-style, on a gloriously situated promontory, with views to three points of the compass as far as you can see, out across the many ridges, small kraals scattered here and there, and only a few roads visible.

And yes, there’s a real school there, with lots and lots of little school kids in green uniforms (their high school counterparts are in blue). There’s a little vegetable garden, quite productive from the look of it, in the school yard, and coming towards us around the building is Goodness, in a very smart yellow-and-black outfit (Jan told her he hardly recognized her without her Amabutho uniform).

She showed us to her office, and Ruthann went through the presentation of a map showing the location of Royalston, and then the various items we’d been given to bring from Royalston, including multiple copies (for the several ladies named) of Ginger Asel’s wonderful letter with its description of some of the things included in the binder we’d picked up from Sue Veilleux, Ginny Moore’s letter to Cleopatra Jwara, and the binder itself, the letters, pictures, and more.

During part of this time, Jan did a bit of roaming snapping photos of the school. Goodness had told the other teachers that she’d have visitors this day, and that’s clearly a big deal at the school, lots of waving and laughing, but Jan may have exacerbated the disruption a bit more than needed, as he and his camera went in and out between the buildings. At one point in particular, there was a mini-flood of school kids out of one of the classrooms, who gathered around, and so we went through another group-shot-and-show-the-digital-image routine, with a bit of a mob scene resulting.

When we were ready to leave, Goodness determined that it would be best to send the Royalston materials back home to Odeke with Thembeke, and she would review them in more detail when she got home the next day. So we, Thembeke, and the things from Royalston carefully turned around in the school yard, and headed back out the gate along the track by the high school, and then down the rutted driveway to the dirt road we’d come on, retracing our route to Odeke where we dropped off Thembeke and the binder, and then found our way back to Umzumbe.
From there, it was back to the sea and the coastal highway, and north towards Durban and another world.

Attached are three photos: one of Goodness and Ruthann in Goodness' office at the school, reviewing the items from Royalston; one of a few of the school buildlings, giving a sense of the location with the view out into the distance; and then a photo of the mob scene described. Hope these are enjoyable.

We appreciate the efforts you and your congregants are making to help this effort to bridge the several divides, of time and space and other things, between Royalston and Odeke, as you and they reclaim the sense of being 'fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,' of the family of the one church and truly known to each other as such. God bless your and their efforts in this mission.

We'll keep you posted as things develop here. Keep trying from your side as well!

By the way, Ruthann wants to add that the cell phone coverage has perhaps gotten better in Odeke and KwaBombo, as recent phone conversations with Goodness in both places have been very clear. She is able to receive phone calls starting at 4 pm, South African time, on a week day, so 10 am EDT.

Best, Jan and Ruthann.