REYMAN E MAIL REPORT – 9 MARCH 2009
Hello to everyone from partly sunny and pleasant Alberton, South Africa. Our end-of-summer days are getting cooler. This is Karen bringing you the news from our part of the world.
ONE MONTH TO GO
As the countdown goes on toward our leaving Africa, we are sorting, packing, and selling our belongings. In the middle of all this, I took an online classroom management class in order to reinstate my teaching certificate in Oregon. The last time I took a university class, I didn’t even own a computer! So this has been a giant learning curve. Quite stressful, but I am managing. The class is done today, Monday the 9th of March. We fly out of Johannesburg on the 8th of April.
 TIGANE CHURCH
 Paul spent Saturday and Sunday, February 28th and March 1st, at Tigane with Patson, the minister, and a team from the USA. Joyce Morris, former missionary from South Africa and Zimbabwe, led the team of two couples that are from churches who have supported Patson and helped with the funds to build the building (Patson’s house and a toilet block).
The building is almost complete and is already being lived in by Patson and his family and used by the church on Sundays.
KHAYELIHLE CHILDREN’S VILLAGE NEWS
9 February 2009
Khayelihle Children’s Village (KCV) currently has 85 children at the Village and 105 in the Community Orphan Care Programme (COCP). Our schools are not yet opened because of the teacher’s strike. (Karen’s note: Since writing this, the strike has been resolved.) We do not know when schools will be opening. We are now considering giving children lessons from KCV. However, two of our boys are at a College where there are studying Micro-Technology, which is a one year course. Seven children from the COCP are also at College and they are doing a one-year course in Fashion and fabrics.
The economy in Zimbabwe is still very bad; we have the world’s greatest inflation. The few shops that exist do not accept Zimbabwean dollars. The basic essential foods are difficult to get and if you get them, they are so expensive hence; we have difficulties in having enough food for the children. Once a month KCV staff travel to Botswana to buy food.
This has been a promising year as far as the rains are concerned. We have had very good rains and the maize crop is generally promising. There could only be problems if the rains continue because some of our crops are already leaching. In our garden, we have maize, chomoullier, tomatoes and beans. These are still at a very early stage because we have not been using our garden since our borehole was down.
Two more boreholes were drilled and one was dry. The one with water has a better yield than the two existing ones. This will enable us to have more water for the garden and for the family’s consumption. We were lucky to get a donation for a generator to pump our borehole as our electricity supply authority switches off electricity so often. This will go a long way in helping KCV.
We continue to have our church services at the Village and the Church is growing. It has members from the neighboring farms as well as the KCV farm workers. We have our children, especially the youth, participating during the services. The children in the COCP continue to meet for prayer meetings every Friday at the Makokoba Church of Christ.
KCV now has its website which could be found at www.kcvkids.org. Any ideas, suggestions or comments on our website are most welcomed.
Thank you all for your prayers, dedication and love. May God bless you all.
Jabulani Xaba.
FAMILY FOOTNOTES
Paul’s father, Harold Reyman, has moved from the senior center in Crescent City, to a care facility in Brookings, Oregon, thirty miles from Crescent City. Harold has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and needs to have the care that this facility has to offer. We are saddened by this news, but are grateful that there is a suitable place for him to live.
We are excited to learn that Lonnie and Beth, our son and his wife, are expecting our first grandchild!
Laurie, our daughter, is in her last weeks of studies for her master’s in social work in Athens, Georgia. Graduation is the 9th of May. She is doing her internship with the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and will be going to Liberia in Africa for two weeks starting the 18th of March to help organize a Gender-Based Violence Workshop the Carter Center is sponsoring. So for two weeks we will be on the same continent!
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