Easter Extravaganza!!

Our first ever Easter baskets--completely soaked in the rain by the end of the hunt!


Friday: It all began early on Friday morning…at 5:30 am to be exact. Here in South Africa (and maybe in other places too?) Good Friday represents a day were people gather together to clean/clear the graves of their loved ones, to honor their lives and to mourn their deaths. Fortunately for the children of Botshabelo, most of their relatives are buried at the on-site cemetery. We had been instructed to meet at the school at 6:00 am to accompany the Cloete family and all of the children up to the Botshabelo cemetery. As the tradition goes, you are technically supposed to go to the cemetery, clean the graves, and return home, all before sunrise…but we have all learned about "Botshabelo" time--we were the only ones awake!!! Around 6:45 we started our trek to the cemetery, which is about a mile away from the main section of Botshabelo, on the other side of the village at the end of the property. We made it about five steps out of the door before someone from the village came running to Marion with a problem...

Crisis Intervention Case #421: A young man in the village had gotten drunk the night before and had severely beaten his wife. Apparently, she took money out of his bank account without telling him (to buy groceries for their family and a cell phone) and that equals choking, strangling, punching, attempting to drown her in the toilet and threatening to kill her with a gun, plus slapping their oldest child. The police were called immediately and, needless to say, Ayla and Ilene got into Social Worker mode quickly: Marion assigned Ayla to watch the husband so he didn’t run away from the cops, and Ilene to console the wife and provide safety and security for the time being. About an hour later the cops showed up, took a statement from the wife, and took the husband away. In a situation like this, here in South Africa, the wife has all of the power—so it was up to her whether or not she wanted Marion to call the police as well as her decision for the police to take her husband to jail. At the end of the two and a half hour event, he was in jail and she was in the hospital.

Finally the hike up to the cemetery began! At the graves, we encountered Marion with an entourage of little ones. She was leading each child to the grave of their family members, and we would all sit down together and support the child in talking to their deceased love one. Picture this—Marion talking and the child repeating after her: “Hi Mom. I’m big now. I’m even in school, and I’m very clever. Don’t worry, I’m a good boy too. I hope you’re having a nice time up there with G-d. I’m not ready to join you yet, because I still have my life to live. But don’t forget to fetch me when I am ready to die. I love you Mom and I think about you all of the time.” Ahh…brings tears to my eyes just recalling those intimate moments. Then we would all give blessings to the deceased person and blow them kisses up toward the sky. Of course it was really, really, really sad—especially when we walked a child from their mother’s grave to their father’s grave, and then to their sibling’s grave...but it was also really, really, really touching to see little 7 and 8 year-olds supporting one another and seeing from a big picture perspective, that these children are being cared for and are living their lives.

Along with cleaning the graves, the kids picked flowers for their parents


Graves of some of the babies of Botshabelo who died from AIDS


Unfortunately, while we were up there, the weather turned yucky, and it got cooold and rainy. No one was wearing appropriate attire—a lot of the kids didn’t even have shoes on or a jacket!! Oy vey! Aye, and we got soaked down to our skivvies (which were somehow muddy by the end of the trek back home). After that kind of morning, there are only a few things a person can do: Hot bath and watch a movie. Luckily Shanna has a couch in her house, it is kind of disgusting (filled with baby pee and vomit), but we sit on it anyways. We watched a bad movie and ate popcorn. It was good times. That evening was spent like most evenings these days (remember Club Texas?), our friends Thami (pronounced Tommy) and David came over to visit.

Saturday: Ayla and I have recently been counseling a particular group of siblings (Ayla to a pair of brothers & me to the family of 9 kids that I mentioned I love so much—but I’m only really working with four of the nine), and our sessions consist a lot of art therapy, and narrative building. After some individual sessions, we are both anxiously awaiting Marion for our promised lecture on interpreting art! In the afternoon, we went to help with the ENORMOUS amount of preparations for the upcoming Easter Extravaganza. There was the bajillion bars of chocolate to melt down and spoon onto tin foil and then individually wrap. Then there was the Easter egg painting station, which turned into color wars by the end of the night. And don’t forget the ever-so-popular Easter Basket making!

Ayla & I helping in our first Easter!


Some of the kids painting their eggs that would later be hanging from the trees

Throughout the week the kids were so anxious to make their Easter baskets that they were searching high and low for anything they could use. We found ourselves donating anything and everything we possibly could... including our matzah boxes!

Some of their baskets were soooo intricate and the artwork was incredible!


But the best, by far, was the Matzah-Box-Turned-Easter-Basket. (this one made us really happy...and laugh a lot!) Who says different religions can’t come together?!?!?!


Sunday: Still more Easter preparation…but lucky for us we skipped out and went to a local church service with our old roommie Pauline (a lady who has lived here for about 20 years and is the Cloete family’s main assistant and she’s also head of the kitchen). Apparently the church is shared between two congregations: the white Afrikaners and the blacks. When we arrived the Afrikaner service had just ended, and they swooped in on us like vultures to fresh meat in hopes of recruiting us to their congregation. It was pretty amusing to say the least, but they were very friendly nonetheless. The building consists of a single, small room with about 50 fold out chairs, and everyone brings their own book—nothing like these massive, multi-million dollar mega churches you see in the States. Just makes you wonder what you really need versus what is just for show. So, the service began with harmonious singing and then went into a sermon by the pastor. Up to this point, everything was done in Tswana (the main tribe in the area). For the following sermons, however, we got VIP treatment: congregation members stood up next to the pastor to translate into English for us. The topic of the sermon seemed to center upon the two lives that we have: our human life and our spiritual life. There was much talk of rebirth, and having a choice of which kind of life you want to live. At one point, they even seemed to be telling the Passover story, but the accents of our interpreters were thick, and it was hard to know exactly what was being said. The service concluded with everyone taking communion. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. Interestingly enough, the host was matzah! As everyone lined up to receive it, we sheepishly stood back, but everyone’s intense staring and gentle nudging made it clear that we weren’t about to skip out on this one. For the first time ever, and the last time ever, Ayla and Ilene took communion. Amen.

After church we returned home to help with the continuing Easter shenanigans/extravaganza. We were there aaaaall night tying little strings to the Easter eggs and then to the trees (still not really sure why)…but it was pretty and kinda looked like Christmas with all the egg ornaments hanging from the trees.

Monday: Rainy, muddy, mushiness. Finally Easter had arrived!!! Unfortunately, the terrible weather kept postponing the Easter Egg Hunt all day. Through much anticipation and excitement, about 4:00 pm, the hunt began. First in the Easter Extravaganza—the ceremony of dumping the TONS and TONS of candy into big bins, so that all the kids could see the goodies that were soon to be theirs.

Candy!! Yummy!!


Marion dumping candy and laying out the rules for the hunt


Second, we carried the heavy-ass bins all the way up the hill, half way to the cemetery. Good thing we got biceps of steel!!



Third, we walked along the field of high grass and threw the candy as far as we could. In the end, I think the candy field stretched to the size of 2 soccer fields! FINALLY, the hunt began.

On your mark, get set, go!


The kids went crazy hunting for the candy!


In addition to candy, the family also hid 1 and 2 Rand coins as well as two 50 Rand bills and one 100 Rand that everyone was especially hunting for. Lucky Tshepang found the 100 Rand!


Two hours later the sun was setting, the dogs had eaten half of the chocolate, and the field was covered in candy wrappers. The kids went home, and we went with the family to the “wishing pile”- a sacred space to make blessings and wishes for the world.

All in all, a hugely (muddy and) successful Easter.