A Reason To Continue Being Thankful...

From the November 5th Edition of the Northern Watch

Spending her time with African orphans

Written by April Scheinoha

Orphans in Ngculwini, Swaziland, Africa, enjoyed playing hand-clapping games with Thief River Falls resident Bonnie Van Schaick. The games were similar to games American children play on school buses. Van Schaick went on a two-week mission trip to Swaziland in August. (Submitted photo)

Each day, Bonnie Van Schaick thinks about the orphans she met in Africa. She thinks about the girl wearing the dirty pink flannel shirt and the boy who was so happy that someday he and others would be able to eat an onion that was growing in their garden.

For about two weeks in August, the Thief River Falls resident spent time in Swaziland, a south African country slightly smaller than New Jersey. Van Schaick worked on a mission in the town of Ngculwini (pronounced GU-la-win-EE). “I always wanted to go on this type of mission,” she said.

Van Schaick, who moved back to Thief River Falls this September after a 16-year hiatus, went to Africa with a program created by Dr. Bruce Wilkinson, a Christian teacher and author. While living in California and attending services at the Crystal Cathedral, Van Schaick heard Wilkinson speak about Dream for Africa. As part of the program, volunteers help local Africans plant and care for gardens. “I’m sitting there listening, and I thought, ‘I wish I wasn’t this old. I planted my last garden 40 years ago, at least 30 years ago,’” the 75-year-old Van Schaick said.

Then Wilkinson talked to those people who were not able to help in the gardens or didn’t wish to go. He noted there were other programs through which people could help. Wilkinson told a story about a man who received eyeglasses from one of those programs. The story touched Van Schaick. “He was a pastor who never got to read the Bible,” she said.

Van Schaick knew she could help others through that program. As a nurse in the 1950s, she worked with a similar program on the Red Lake Reservation.

Within days, Van Schaick was busy preparing for the volunteer trip in which she would pay her own way. Once she arrived in Africa, she was prepared to help people see better. “I thought I was going to do eyeglasses, but again God had another plan,” Van Schaick said.

The plan changes

The machine that helps determine eyeglass prescriptions didn’t make it through customs. Van Schaick, a retired nurse, then thought she was going to work in a hospital. That was until she learned she would only be observing the work there.

Then Van Schaick found another way to help – spending time with orphans. Even though she hadn’t anticipated that mission work, Van Schaick said, “Of course, that’s where I really needed to be.”

Each day, she and two male volunteers would travel 26 miles in a van from their hotel to Ngculwini. Other volunteers who were gardening in another town would drop them off.

Van Schaick went to an abandoned building similar to a warehouse. Five days a week, orphaned children would gather there. About 85 kids ages 2 to 13 would walk on their own from their community of huts to the building each morning, Van Schaick said. Most were between the ages of 3-1/2 and 8.

Orphans are at the end of the pecking order in their town, Van Schaick said. She noted that orphans will stay at a neighbor or relative’s home after both of their parents or their only parent dies. However, they’re not welcomed there because they’re taking up space, using water and eating food.

That’s why they come to the abandoned building. They are served food donated by various organizations. The food is cooked by two women who live in Ngculwini and volunteer their time to feed the kids. During the time that Van Schaick spent there, the women cooked food donated by German Seventh-day Adventists as well as food donated by Zionists. “Each kid would stand in line, and have rice and then beans,” Van Schaick said. The women don’t eat the food because, as they told Van Schaick, it’s for the kids.

It was the kids’ only meal for 24 hours. They had no milk or juice. If they wanted water, they went to the creek. “It was just worse than any dishwater you’ve seen,” Van Schaick said about the creek.

Van Schaick especially noticed the poverty of Ngculwini when a boy picked something off of the ground, wiped it on his clothing, put it into his mouth and then sucked on the item. She wondered what he had in his mouth and asked him. It was a grain of rice.

Meeting the kids

Van Schaick and the other volunteers got a lot of attention when they arrived at the abandoned building or what Van Schaick called the orphanage. “These kids would come up and just touch you,” she said.

Like many kids in that age group, they had questions. They spoke English and asked Van Schaick about America and the things she did when she was younger. “All these questions, you have no idea where they came from,” she said.

Go-Go plays with the kids

Some of the orphans had a special name for Van Schaick. “The little ones, they called me Go-Go,” she said. Van Schaick later learned that Go-Go is a term the kids use to refer to their grandmas.

Van Schaick, who has two grandchildren, showered attention on the orphans much like any loving grandma. “The look in their eyes was just unbelievable,” she said. “They relished anything that remotely resembled love – a pat on the hand, a hug.”

The kids apparently liked spending time with their Go-Go. They crowded Van Schaick as she hugged and played with them, she said. Van Schaick would count their fingers with them and play hand-clapping games similar to those that many American kids play while riding on school buses.

Then Van Schaick noticed a 5-year-old girl sitting beside her. “She had the dirtiest pink flannel shirt on I’d ever seen in my life, but you could tell it was pink,” Van Schaick said. Van Schaick touched the girl’s shoulder. The girl jerked, and turned away from Van Schaick.

The girl sat near Van Schaick the next day, but wouldn’t look at or touch her, unlike the other kids. In the midst of playing with the kids, Van Schaick later realized the 5-year-old girl with the dirty pink flannel shirt wasn’t sitting near her. Then she felt something move across her back. She noted it felt like a caterpillar was on her back. Then someone pulled at the cross necklace around her neck. Shortly thereafter, someone began using his or her hand to comb Van Schaick’s hair. Out of the corner of her eye, Van Schaick got a glimpse of a pink shirt. Then the girl stopped combing Van Schaick’s hair. She disappeared, only to return a few minutes later and stand next to Van Schaick and place her arm on Van Schaick’s leg. Later, she sat on the ground in between Van Schaick’s legs, and, with her back to Van Schaick, placed one arm on each of Van Schaick’s legs.

Van Schaick counted the girl’s fingers and the girl knew the numbers. For the first time since Van Schaick had been there, the girl responded to the people around her. “I think about her everyday and wonder if she’s getting attention from anybody,” Van Schaick said.

As much as her heart went out to the kids and others living in the town, Van Schaick was glad she didn’t live in Ngculwini. “You always were happy to see the dust coming down the road because you know you were going home,” she said.

The hand-clapping and counting games weren’t the only games the kids played in Ngculwini, but they had to be creative when it came to playtime. “They don’t have any toys,” said Van Schaick, who noted the kids played with a ball fashioned out of a knotted plastic bag filled with leaves.

Van Schaick and the other volunteers were surprised when they saw the ball. “We just sat there with tears in our eyes that this was all that they had,” she said.

Supporting a minister and his dream

While working at the orphanage, Van Schaick also met a pastor named Walter. “I found out he never had a Bible,” she said. Van Schaick had brought a medium-sized Samsonite bag filled with paper, crayons, pencils, and three or four Bibles along to Africa. She gave one of the Bibles to Walter.

“When you think about it, we take so much for granted,” Van Schaick said.
A house is being built for Walter. Work is also beginning on a church and school. Walter intends to raise chickens at that location as well.

While hearing about Walter’s plans, Van Schaick realized Walter needed a more reliable form of electricity. She suggested placing a transformer nearby with a solar backup system. Van Schaick also noticed Walter needed a well from which to draw water for the school. That entire project is estimated to cost $20,000 to $22,000.

How you can help

Van Schaick has already used some of her savings to pay for soil samples in preparation for the well. Others who would like to contribute to the project may send their tax-deductible donations to the United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 595, Thief River Falls, MN 56701. Checks should be written to the aforementioned church. In the memo area, write “Walter Project.”