Community Stay

It's a funny thing to do a community stay. At first we seem to hit the surface and wonder why we are with this particular family. There is a 25 year old girl and a 22 year old girl living with their 2 younger brother. They even have 2 Uncles living near by and a brother who lives right across the road. No one speaks much English and we speak very mininal Siswati, so we have to ask ourselves are these the poorest of the poor. There is no doubt that these children are poor but are they the most vulnerable? Hands at Work is dedicated to serving the most vunerable, so I thought that is where we would be.
But as I sit and write this the youngest brother who is 10 years old, Jabu, sits beside me and we aren't saying a word. We are outside looking over the unbelievable view and listening to the 25 year old sing a beautiful melody in Siswati. The only word I can pull from the song she sings is Siyabonga (thank you). One of the care workers who walked around with us flipped my perception of this family on it's head. So now the situation is this.
These 2 young double orphan boys, 10 and 15 years old, usually live alone. The 25 year old is their cousin who lives with boyfriends and only comes around to eat and take their food up to her father who is a drunk. The other Uncle near by is also a drunk and he likes to stop by the house just polluted, and you watch how quickly the boys stop laughing when he comes in. The 22 year old sister is only around sometimes, but she does help the boys with household chores. The other thing is she doesn't work so when she's there she isn't contributing food or money. The boys biggest problem is this. These boys go to school all day and then come home every day to herd goat for 4 hours. They make about $15 a month which their much older brother takes and buys himself booze and occasionally will get them some food. Usually he just shows up at dinner time and takes what they have for food. I see the boys following the same path, both are years behind in school. The older brother at 15 is in grade 5, although he doesn't look 15. There is no solid role model.
Today the careworker said that Senzo had something to tell me, but he couldn't communicate. He couldn't tell the careworker, but he wanted to open to us. The only thing stopping him is a language barrier! That is beyond frustrating, that there is someone outside his community that he could finally open up to, but not quite. This breaks my heart and for the first time since I've been back in Africa I feel my heart breaking. The stay in Spelanyane has been amazing, but I feel so unsettled....

-T