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.
Thankfully that is not the way Beauty and Sizwe’s story plays out. They do have two sons together, and wanted to get married. They are both Christians and believed it was what God would have them do. So they spoke to the family’s on both sides and the family’s agreed to let them get married without Lobola! We got to enjoy celebrating her marriage back in June of this year.
Unfortunately, she started having some medical problems and since June she has been in pain and from doctor to doctor, clinic to clinic and back and forth to hospital – more times than you care to hear about. I have tried to walk through this with her as closely as I can. I was with her when she read the doctor’s note from her initial pap smear “appears to have an advanced lesion, most likely cancer.” I was with her when she got the official news – cervical cancer. I was with her when we had to fight to be able to get the tests done that she needed. The government hospitals are renown for being under-resourced and Beauty has suffered tremendously because of this. And occasionally her hope has wavered… But God has always done things to show that He is in control and she must trust n Him,
The last time she was at the local government hospital, she was told that she would be eligible for treatment in June of 2011. But the doctor said right out that people often die waiting for their date to be seen. So – that wiped the wind out of her sails for a few days, but she is back on track and she truly is an inspiration to me.
Beauty, I love you and am in this with you for the long hall!! Please pray that Beauty gets in for treatment earlier than next June. She needs a radical hysterectomy and then follow-up with chemo and/or radiation.