HopeWorks

Interpretation – My brother showed up wanting to drive my pick-up. 😀 English is widely spoken in South Africa, but they definitely have their own flavor of English. It is a lovely mix of English, Afrikaans, and a bit of Zulu thrown in.

We are coming home for 6 months this year! We are thrilled!

But also realize we need to prepare our friends and families to understand us and our children. So here is your very first lesson in South African-ese. Enjoy!

When Elise says you must go look out the window, she is not actually ordering you around. Must means should.

Nate needs his tekkies for the afternoon at the park. Help him find his running shoes please. 🙂

It is lunch time and Marae asks for a sarmie – she means a sandwich. Read More…

I would like to introduce you to Beauty. Her Lesotho name is Keketso (She is from a tiny little country within South Africa called Lesotho.) She just turned 30 years old in September and has 3 beautiful sons. She is vibrant, fun-loving, sarcastic, happy, passionate, bubbly, and full of life. She has been working with us at Seed of Hope for almost 2 years now. Her job is to help prepare the meal for the 100 -150 children that we feed every afternoon.

Her fiancee is a Zulu young man. In the Zulu culture, before you can get married you have to pay “lobola,” which can be up to R30,000 ($7000) as a bride price. This, unfortunately, discourages young people from getting married because they cannot come up with the bride price. They often just stay “engaged,” have kids together, etc, but never get married because they can’t afford to. This tends to lead to very disposable relationships, which often leaves young girls alone as single moms. Read More…