Who Will Tell?

One of our first family pictures in Bungeni.

Life has definitely been interesting for the Simkus family as we have begun to get settled into our new life in Bungeni, South Africa.

For the most part, the people here have been friendly to us and we have been able to make some slow but steady progress in the study of the language and culture.

THE PEOPLE OF BUNGENI

Joel with some of the local farmers.

The people here are much the same as anywhere else. They are very curious about our family. They like it when we try to speak their language. They like it when we show interest in what they are doing. They like it when we walk around the village so that we can try to practice Xitsonga with the people. They like it when we show that we care about them. I think this same thing could be said of people just about anywhere.

There is a big tree in our yard with swings in it—it typically collects lots of children after school.

The children love to play and have fun.

Many of the boys love to play futbol in the front yard—I think they are practicing for the World Cup next year.

They also are pretty mischievous. For example, the boy pictured here…he just looks at us with this twinkle in his eyes and we know that he is up to something!

One of the boys that frequently plays in our yard.

THE VILLAGE OF BUNGENI

The village that we live in is a very big village. While we don’t know the exact numbers, we have been told that the village of Bungeni probably has close to 20,000 people living in it.

Wyatt standing alongside the road our house is on.

Some typical houses that we see in the village.

This is the road we live on. It is one of the few “tar roads” in Bungeni.

A typical village scene—complete with meandering goat.

The village is divided up into about 10-12 sections. Each section is governed by a headman. The headman deals with most of the issues in his/her section, with only the larger/more serious issues being brought before the chief of the village.

OUR HOUSE

The front of our house—from the driveway.

The Lord has blessed us with a very nice house. It has electricity, running water, and major appliances. While these things are very basic according to American standards, they are not necessarily a “given” in this area.

The back of our house. [Notice the Pennell tank on the left—this provides our water pressure.]

During the last 2½ years, as we planned to come to this part of South Africa, the only one of these commodities we were fairly certain of having was electricity. We were not nearly as certain that we would have running water or major appliances. We thank the Lord that, in His providence, He has allowed us to have these things—they sure do make life on the mission field a whole lot easier!

SOME EXPERIENCES

Kelly with the traditional headwrapping that is commonly worn by most of the women here.

We have had many interesting experiences, many joyful experiences, and some scary experiences in our short time here.

On Saturday, September 19th, we went to our first funeral. A young widow that lived close to us passed away, leaving behind three orphans. Kelly was able to wear a traditional headwrapping to the funeral, as it is their custom that all the ladies that attend the funeral wear one. One of Kelly’s friends, Shandukan, came to our house before we left for the funeral so that she could properly tie the scarf—Kelly was very thankful for her help!

Sydwell (one of our language helpers) and Joel were able to kill a small cobra in our front yard on August 25th.

A small cobra…WAIT!! For Joel, there is no such thing as a small cobra!

Wyatt sleeps on a bunkbed. One night, just before Wyatt went to sleep on the bottom bunk, we found a small scorpion in the upper bunk. He had just taken a nap on the upper bunk a few hours earlier.

A small scorpion…WAIT!!

We praise and thank the Lord for His protection of our family!

HAVIN’ FUN

We like it when Wyatt plays with homemade toys, because that is pretty much all the children here play with. Daddy is pictured here, showing Wyatt the finer points of aiming at an imaginary bear.

Wyatt has obviously caught on to the art of hunting any of the “Big Five” he might happen to find lurking in the shadows of our living room.

I guess Wyatt feels that, if he has to wear underwear, well, his stuffed animals are going to wear it too.

Kelly took this picture outside our house one afternoon, while Wyatt was taking a nap on the top bunk. Evidently, he prefers that his feet get as much fresh air as possible during afternoon naps.

Thank you for reading!

We thank the Lord for the fun times as well.