THINK ABOUT THE POOR PEOPLE

Hello all our Friends!

Thank you Hannah and Becky for writing to us.  It doesn't matter if it takes long about the shoes.  It matters that I can't talk to you every single day.

Plus ... today I want to talk about wasting.  I thought about this for a few days already and so I decided.  You know that every single person that has a house and kids wastes food.  Hey, hey Kieran. That's kind of rude!  You should say SOME people waste. Not every single person that has a house ...

Ugh Jesse, YOU'RE rude ...  Well, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted people waste food but there are poor people on the street that don’t have any food. And that reminds me of something. Please if anybody wants to waste, and you see a poor person on the street please give him the food that was going to get wasted by you.

That reminds me about something else that’s quite sad. There is a little man … a black man … a little black man … he is not very old. Maybe he’s kind of Tommy’s age. He wears sacks and in winter he wears a faded red hoody. We think he might be a bit crazy. He has a crazy look in his eyes. Every single day he walks right up the tar road and then up to Southgate in the afternoon. We don’t know where he goes. We don’t know why he walks like that. We never see him coming back. We only ever see him walking UP.



TV time in Mom's room.  Look at the four ladies on her bed!
Mom always carries on working on her Laptop at night.
Mostly Pippa does too!

 Every day when Mom saw him she would say … oh there goes that poor dear little man. And we would all feel a little sad. So one day she thought if he was Jesus, she would love to buy him something nice to eat because he always looked so hungry. So she went to the Pick n Pay and bought him a nice freshly roasted chicken, 6 hot, fresh rolls, a 2 Litre Coke and a big Cadbury’s chocolate. Then she rushed back to find him on the road and she gave it to him.

He didn’t look pleased that first time. He opened it carefully. Like he wasn’t trusting it or something. When he saw the chicken he plopped right down on his bottom. Right there in the dust and started to rip up the chicken and stuffed it into his mouth. Mom saw this because she was curious and so she kept doing u-turns and driving past him. He didn’t even notice because he was so happy with his food.

So, maybe like two times a week she bought him that same lot of food. Chicken, coke and everything.  He always looked kind of crazy when she gave it to him. I don’t think he ever learned to say thank you. Maybe he never had a Mom to teach him such manners. We don’t think he can even talk because he just kind of grunts. But Mom knew that he was really happy. He never ate the food right away after that first time. He just took it and walked on.

So, one day Mom was coming home with a whole bunch of the girls in the car. They had bought donuts. Then they noticed ahead of them was the little man. So Zoë said, ‘Shall we give him the left-over donuts?’ and Mom said what a good idea. We can’t remember which one of the girls gave him the donuts. We know she was sitting in the back of the car. But he looked in the packet and when he saw the donuts (they were still new and fresh. Not bitten or anything) he went completely crazy. He dropped the packet on the ground and went totally mad and like shaking his fists to heaven and shouting loudly. Walking fast this way then walking fast back the other way again and beating his head hard with his fists. Mom felt so bad. She said, oh, I wish I could talk to him so he could understand. Oh, I wish I could give him a hug or something. She wanted to cry all the way home. She didn’t mean to upset him.

So the next time she saw him again, she rushed to the Pick ‘n Pay again and got the same chicken and stuff as she always did before. She rushed back to him and tried to give it to him but he looked at her very crazy-like and sort of growled and hissed at her and punched at the bag (but he didn’t hit it) and then he walked very fast away, almost like running. He just wouldn’t take it.

I wonder why he did that? I think I do understand. Because we were supposed to give him the same thing every single time. In his head that is what he wanted and expected. Maybe he was very, very disappointed when he only saw donuts and no chicken and it broke his heart. Because if you think that a big bag of delicious food like that to such a poor and hungry crazy person, would mean the whole world to him. It would be like promising to giving me a PSP, and when I look in the packet I just find a cheap little toy plastic cell-phone that doesn't even work, MAYBE I would feel the same. I don’t know … I wouldn’t go crazy like that because I know about being ungrateful. But I am trying to explain how his heart must have been broken because he was so very, very disappointed.

The only thing is that when I don’t get the right thing my heart just breaks and I start to cry inside. But you have to have good manners and not be rude to the person who gave it to you. But when disappointment comes in your heart, you can’t help it. You can’t stop it. It just comes and it’s sore.  It hurts a lot. Were you ever disappointed? Well, if you think about the very very worst time when you were disappointed, and think about how that felt. Then I think that you will understand why the poor little man did that. Also, when you can’t talk it must be even harder. Maybe if he could swear or something, it would make him feel better somehow. Not that swearing is a good thing, but maybe if he had words to use it would have been better. Even swearwords.



The homes at Jackon's Drift



We will see if we can have a camera ready and if we see him again we will take a picture of him, but we will make sure that he doesn’t notice because we don’t want to upset him or hurt his feelings. It’s just so you can see what I mean.  Zoe borrowed Mom's camera because she had to take pictures at her work.  She works at the squatter camp in Jackson's Drift, just down the road.  She helps the poor people there.  She tries to make their lives better.  

A lot of our babies come from Jackson's Drift.  Sometimes when I go there, (not very often ~ usually just at Christmas when we give them some of our Christmas presents), then I get very grateful that my Mom found us and adopted us, otherwise we might be living there right now.  Some of those kids live there and don't have parents.  And they are quite small like us.  Not teenagers or anything.




THE POOR LITTLE BLACK MAN
If your computer can blow him up you can see his face

Hello everybody on the blog.

Sorry we have not been up to date this week. Today at school my brother Benjamin was not that well behaved. He got sent out of class and he almost got a discipline mark. My Afrikaans teacher was shouting at Benjamin because every time his undies (his boxers) always show. He was not very happy. I was so embarrassed.

My brother, Crispin, came to our class and then my teacher started blaming things on him. She was saying that Benjamin learns his boxers habit from Crispin. I felt like I was going to die. Crispin looked sad like he thought it was unfair that she was blaming him for Benjamin. He was in a bad mood for the rest of the day (Crispin was).

But after school the teacher caught Pippa and told her that she has to do something about Benjamin. Then she told Pippa the story and Pippa was disappointed with Benjamin.

When Pippa came home she told Mom about it and they talked about it and they said that it is because he doesn’t want to be in Aloe Ridge Primary anymore and he wants to go to Randeor. But he can only go next year so he has to stay at Aloe Ridge in the meantime. But he hates it there and Mom thinks that he’s acting up because he’s angry because he thinks maybe he can just stay at home until the end of the year. But Mom says that’s not a good thing. He still has to go to school for now.

Today I did so well in my maths test. I got 100%! I really did! I am so happy and proud of myself because I usually get 80% or 85%. This the first time I have ever got 100%.

On Wednesday my teacher said we must say who our favourite soccer player is. My favourite soccer player is Lionel Messi. He is a good soccer player. He plays for Argentina. And Barcelona in Spain.

Lizzie, thank you for postcard. I was very shocked to hear that you were in China. Can you tell Ceri that I thank her for the Justin Bieber shirt. I was so happy when I got it! I am missing you so much Lizzie. Every time I listen to Justin Bieber’s songs I think of you. I can’t wait until you come back to TLC.

I wanted to ask my Mom if some day we could go to the movies and watch the new Karate Kid. I hear it is a very good movie. I was a Karate Kid once. I don’t really know why I gave up. I think it’s because I was by myself. All my brothers and sisters decided to quit and my Sensei wasn’t there one of those nights. I was upset and then they showed up so late … when it was time to go home. So I went home and then I quit, because I was too scared of being there by myself in the dark. That’s a dark and scary place, a bit farmish and it’s not nice to be in a place like that all on your own. I always remember Macson when I am alone in the dark. Poor Macson!

So look at this cool picture Mom and I made!  LOL! LOL!  LOL!  LOL!

Carlton in full Scout Uniform

Mom is not so happy that we all quit.  She hates it when she we start things and quit them again.  So, we were supposed to move from Cubs to Scouts this year, but most of us didn't want to and she was very cross.  She said, DONT KNOW KNOW?  Winners never quit and quitters never win?   She said ... YOU ARE GOING!  It's good for you.  Some of us were very cross.  (Not me!  I LOVE Scouts even more than I loved Cubs.)  But Brett and some of the others had a very bad attitude.  But I took a picture of Carlton.  He is the biggest of all of us and looked the grandest in his Scout uniform.  He is only 12 but he is the same size as Crispin who is 14!

Tim, I am missing you a lot too. I found the picture that you gave me. I was so happy when I found it. Thank you for the poster. I really appreciate it. Will you please send me a picture of you in the tiger’s cage. I am missing you so much.

I am so excited to hear that Benjamin is going to go to Randeor. It’s going to be a good school for him. I think that is why maybe he doesn’t behave right now at school because he is not happy at Aloe Ridge. People tease him a lot and he gets very upset. He can’t manage the work either.

Happy Dominique with her Danish Gifts

Pippa came back from Denmark. She was only gone for one week but it seemed like much longer. We did manage okay, but it’s not so nice without her here. At least I made my Mom happy and made her lots of tea! That made her feel much better. She always reminds of the nursery rhyme “I’m a little teapot short and stout tip me up and pour me out.” I don’t know why but I always think of that when she asks me to make her a cup of tea.  But it was so great to have her back.  She brought us lots of yummy sweeties and Martin and Martina sent Dominique some presents.  She was so happy. 

She is getting better and better every day now and even spends a small part of her day in the office again. The office has moved down to the school now.

Zoe has been whining for ages because she doesn't like her picture with Slobberdog  on our blog.  Mom kept telling her, don't be so  silly.  Why are you so vain?  But she was getting more and more cross.

Today we went and took the picture of the poor little man, and put it on the computer so that we could do the blog.  With that picture came the pictures from Zoe's work.  Zoe is studying Social Work at university but she does a lot of work at Jackson's Drift, the squatter camp, in her spare time because she really loves those people. 

Last night she went to her friend, Gladys's vigil and today to her funeral.  African's stay up all night the night before they bury their dead.  Gladys was living at the squatter camp.  Zoe helped her build a creche and make it nice for some babies and toddlers.  But last week Gladys was poisoned by somebody.  Zoe says that Gladys had a lot of enemies because she belonged to the Community Forum and there is always a lot of fighting going on there with people who want to do things THEIR way, and don't like the power that Gladys has because all the poor people love her so much.  Gladys was a strong and clever lady and some other people didn't like her at all and were always fighting with her.

The Tank that Gladys Organised

Gladys told Zoe the day she got sick and Zoe thought she just had a tummy bug.  She came home and asked Mom for some medicine and nobody thought it was serious.   Zoe was broken hearted the next day she found out that Gladys had been poisoned and had actually died.  She cried the whole day because Gladys was so strong and managed many things to help the poor people.  She managed to get water for them and that was a great blessing because before they had to wait for a truck and buy 5 Litres of water a day for some money and it was hard for the Moms to wash themselves, their children, their clothes and still make food and drinks with so little water.  Glady was very loved because she helped them to get a tank for water.

Yes, and so today we talked to Mom about the picture that Zoe hated.  We think its a great picture, but she hates it and so we thought we should change it because its disrespectful to use somebody's face without their permission.  Then we saw that Mom felt bad too and said ... You are right boys.  Let's change it.  We are so happy because Zoe is such a good girl.  She lives to help other people and we love her so much because she helps us all the time too.  So we are glad that we changed the picture and the new picture and the new logo aren't too bad are they?

Again, we want to say sorry that we took so long this week. It was a busy week. But we love you all so much. Do you know that our clicks are now 4000? That’s so cool. Mom is very proud of us. But I am proud of every one of you 4000 clickers.  THANK YOU!!!

Because we are so late this week we don't have time to do a FAMILY FOCUS so we are going to leave it this week, if you don't mind.  We will start it nice and early for next week to be sure that it will be there.  In a way ZOE was a FAMILY FOCUS for this week.

See you again, from Jesse

Yep! Till next week then.  KIERAN