Reality Check - by Kevin

It felt like we hit a wall this week.  Both Rachel and I had a difficult week coming to terms with our new world.  It felt as if the excitement and adrenaline have faded and it has left us tired and vulnerable.
I would like to share some of the areas that we have been trying to adjust to and would welcome your prayers.  The first is safety and security.
This was not really a concern in Ellensburg, we rarely locked our doors.  Here in Worcester, if you are not proactive you will most likely be robbed.  Every house has metal bars on the windows and a metal gate that surrounds the house (razor wire is optional).  

Padlocks are used to secure the points of entry, so now we have quite a collection of them.  We have one for the driveway, one for the garage, one for the front gate, back gate, and the front metal door.  Then 4 bolt/latch locks for the wooden front door.  It feels like it takes 10 minutes to get in or out of the house.  Our neighbor told me this house was robbed last year.  A man took advantage of an open gate, dashed in the house, grabbed a wallet and phone and ran.  I think they call this a "smash and grab".  

        (this is a re-enactment of a "smash and grab" with Timmy playing the part of a guard dog)

Every house has alarm systems and you are given a fob with a panic button, which activates an armed response by the security company.  

Everyone told us we "must" get a dog.  Dogs provide another layer of protection.  Timmy does bark, but I think if he tried to bite someone his dentures would fall out (he is 84, in dog years).

                     (I'm not sure which is older, our dog or the sign.)

Our house is in a good neighborhood, but our street has a steady flow of people going past as it leads to a bridge that crosses the railway lines.  Some of these folks are poor and hungry and are some looking for a soft target.

Most people keep their blinds closed to prevent people from "casing" their valuables.  We like keeping them open to let in the light, but then need to be mindful to conceal computers and anything of value.  

Secondly we are having to face the issue of living intimately with the reality of poverty.  The unemployment rate in South Africa last year was around 25%.  But the burden of poverty is not shared equally.  The unemployment rate for blacks was 40% and only 8% for whites.
On Thursdays we put out our trash bins, and then swarms of people move through the neighborhood looking through your trash for something of value or just something to eat.  It is extremely hard to watch.  One man came up to me and asked for food because he was hungry.  He been looking for work, but found nothing here and was headed back to Cape Town.  I went inside to make him a lunch, came out and there were 3 more people wanting food (good news travels fast).  One of them had a sore tooth, so being a nurse I wanted a look.  He had so many bad teeth it was hard to tell which one was causing the pain.  His gums were red and swollen so I instructed him to go to the hospital today to have the infected tooth removed.  I went back inside for more lunches and a handful of Tylenol (paracetamol).  
The gap between rich and poor is so severe here.  It feels stressful and heart breaking.  We are rich and I have to learn how to live with that.  We have to trust God to know when and how to respond to the question of poverty, and the faces right outside our fence.

Please keep us in your prayers as we start our new jobs tomorrow (Sept 14).  We have learned so much in the past 6 weeks, it feels like our brains are struggling to take on this new task.  We also have mold issues in 3 rooms and we are waiting for the landlord to fix it as promised. 

Thank you for your prayers and support.
The Yangi 

More photos of our house

...and here are the rest of the photos of our house.  
This one is of Ashani's room, which is actually a walk-in closet, with its own tiny sink:

And of course the bathrooms.  They are both very small but functional.  This one houses the washing machine and laundry baskets, and there is a bath tub hiding behind them too:

And this one has a shower: 

Here are some pictures of the outside of the house.  This one is taken from the back yard.  The upper-level windows you can see are in the corridor which has a very high ceiling:

Clothes line (very exciting):

You can see the back door in this one - it leads into the kitchen:

The side of the house:

And the front:

There is some mould in several of the rooms, and also a lot of maintenance and upkeep projects, painting, re-tiling, etc etc that should have been done before we moved in and weren't...  We are thankful that the house is functional as it is, but we are also planning to liaise with the estate agent and landlord to see if there's a way we can be provided with the materials to fix those things ourselves.  But that can wait.  At the moment we're just happy to have our own space.

We are home!

We moved into our house on Tuesday!  It feels really, really good to be here.  
My favourite thing about this house is that it has these amazing features called "rooms".  The way they work is this:  If one family member would like some time away from another family member, they can actually walk into another "room" and get this thing called "personal space".  It also means that when the boys need to do their homework, Ashani does not have to leave the premises.  It's absolutely brilliant.
Some of the other things I really appreciate having again are counter-tops, sinks, a draining-board, and toilet-roll dispensers (which enable Ashani to pee unaided, as there is very little risk that the entire roll will end up in the toilet).

I took a bunch of pictures of the inside of the house this morning. 
This first one is of the view from outside our front door, looking across the street at the neighbour's house, which is just in front of the railway line:

Here are some of our kitchen.  It has lots of natural light and plenty of space, and a WORKING FIREPLACE!!  Really nice for these chilly mornings.

As in many houses in South Africa, our kitchen has no sink.  The sink is in a scullery off the kitchen, where the maid would traditionally wash the dishes out of sight:

Timmy had been an outside dog, but he has adjusted extremely fast to being let inside for much of the day.  He was starting to make himself quite at home on our beds, until we got him one of his own in the kitchen: 

The living room has lovely big windows so lots of natural light, and another working fireplace!  As you can see we are sitting on the floor so far.  

The bedrooms are down the hall.  This one is Zaden's:

And Daniel's - we plan on putting a double bed in here eventually.  Both boys' rooms have built-in closets which is really handy:

Here is our bedroom:

I have apparently reached my limit of posting photos - I will try to post again tomorrow with photos of Ashani's room, bathrooms, and outside space.

We have been fortunate to be able to find nearly everything we needed second-hand - including the dishwasher, fridge, oven, curtains, and all the furniture!  

It's definitely starting to feel like home.  The kids are really enjoying having their own space, and home-cooked meals (well - frozen pizza, anyway!).  

Next week we will start work in the Transport department.  We're looking forward to getting stuck in to work at the YWAM base and becoming more familiar with the people and different ministries.