Three brothers struggle
By PEGGY GOETZ IRVINE WORLD NEWS

Editor's note: Irvine World News reporter Peggy Goetz is in Nkandla, South Africa, with The Africa Project, an Irvine nonprofit organization working with men, women and children there whose lives have been devastated by poverty and the AIDS pandemic. This is another of her reports from Nkandla.
    Life for ordinary people here in Nkandla, South Africa, is not easy; not even for the people whose lives are better than they once were.
    Like most people in Irvine, I had no idea what life here could be like. I still struggle daily to shed my preconceived ideas of what one needs to live.
    I try not to wonder why there is so much apparent disorder in some of the yards we pass, why simple handyman tasks have not been undertaken at the high school. Obviously there have been other priorities. Like food and shelter.
    On our second day here staying with the Franciscan Nardini Sisters of Nkandla, Sister Hedwig Maphumolo took us out to see some of the families she has been working with.
    Sr. Hedwig is a spirited African woman who has a laugh that can engulf you and whose driving, though highly competent, makes you catch your breath and close your eyes. African roads can be a challenge to any driver.
    Our first stop was the new home of three brothers, Sakhile, Lindokuhle and Simiso, who are 19, 18 and 13. The cinderblock house is stuccoed and painted a bright swimming pool blue-green that stands out against the earth colors of the hilly country. The simple three-room structure was built during the past year with funds from Irvine's The Africa Project.
    When the brothers came to Sister Hedwig's attention about three years ago they were living in the traditional mud-brick house that still sits beside their new home, still tumbling down.
    The boys were orphaned when their mother died in 2001. They were the youngest of 10 siblings. Their mother had sent the others away to find places to live when she knew she was dying of AIDS. The oldest of these three brothers was just 14, the youngest 8 and they were left in the care of an elderly uncle who lived in another of the mud-brick thatched huts. Within 18 months the uncle stopped feeding the boys and expected them to fend for themselves. They were starving. They broke into their uncle's house to take food and he reported them to the police. The police contacted Sister Hedwig.
    The sister still brings the boys a food parcel about once a week. She has them all in school now and provides money for transportation since getting to school would be mean walking for 1 ½ hours each way - a difficult task on an empty stomach.
    The boys are proud of their new house. They have decorated their walls with magazine pictures of pretty girls and sports figures. One boy has found some scraps of linoleum and patched together a floor for himself. An old kitchen chair sits across from his propped-up bed.
    Like most of the traditional homesteads in the area there is no electricity, and the boys use paraffin lamps most nights. In the yard, they have rigged up a car battery to a solar panel for some electricity; perhaps to run a radio.
    They are fortunate to have a water faucet in the yard. It means they do not have to walk daily to bring in water as you see many people along the roadways doing.
    The brothers have a mixedbreed brownish dog and one of her pups. The mother dog cowers and wags her tail uncertainly as she is approached and moans with pleasure when she is petted.
    One of the projects planned this month for Irvine volunteers with The Africa Project is to help the boys plant a garden. They have tried to establish a small flowerbed in the dusty soil in front of their house. The 10-by-3-foot strip is partly lined with empty bottles. An incongruous patch of grass turf about three feet square struggles to survive next to the front steps.
    But there is no vegetable garden, which would be a good source of food and even some income for the boys. First there must be a fence so wandering animals don't eat everything. Then the hard soil must be turned by hand. Compost or fertilizer would probably help too.
    The boys must learn the basics of gardening. They must learn not to plant everything at once so that all the food does not ripen at the same time.
    I looked back as the boys stood watching us bump back down the dirt track toward the paved road. I ask Sister Hedwig if there really is any hope for these boys.
    Her expression was serious and she nodded yes, if they can stay in school and get jobs.
    Sister Hedwig is wise. She says she just works helping one person at a time, as many as she can. That's all most of us can do. It's partly her work that The Africa Project supports.
    More information about the project, including how to contribute, is available online at www.theafricaproject.com.

SISTER HEDWIG.