Fransie joked that there wasn't enough about him on this blog. He's right. So now he gets a special post. Fransie (known as Fransie because 'Armando' was too hard for the people to say and so they shortened his middle name, Francisco) grew up in Grabouw, just a couple minutes' walk from the Agape 1 premises. Most of the kids he grew up with are either in prison, recently out of prison, or on their way to prison.
Fransie became involved with Agape about 15 years ago when he attended the kids clubs. Now 25, he has a degree in human resources management and works full-time for Agape. Officially he handles human resource matters and some of the bookkeeping and leads the youth group and Sunday morning worship music. Unofficially, he does anything he's asked to do, regardless of the time of day or day of week. He is devoted to the children (both in the children's homes and in the community) and the ministry and I've seen him work selflessly since I arrived in April.
Here he is speaking with the youth at the conclusion of the fundraising breakfast they held several weeks ago. They are raising money for a late-November trip down the Garden Route to the Knysna/Plettenberg Bay area. He spends a lot of time talking with the youth about choices -- education, drugs, dating, friendships, and all the stuff teenagers deal with.
Comforting Jeannie following a particularly traumatic hair-styling episode.
With Chazno. These guys are best friends and always keep me laughing. Here we are in Chazno's dorm room. He's studying accounting at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and gets distinctions in almost all of his classes.
Making a potjiekos in honor of Lorraine, an English volunteer who was here for six weeks and was leaving the next day.
With Ranel, Gwennie, Rezhaan, and Kay-Lynne in Stellenbosch.
And here a video of the Sunday morning worship.
Fransie has been a huge support for me here. I'm not sure if I'd have functioning phone and internet without him. He's introduced me to people outside of Agape, helped me in the kitchen (like the time he arrived at the moment I was looking helplessly at a block of concrete custard, asked for milk and a whisk and turned it into something the children could enjoy), listened to me talk about friends and family back home, driven me all over the place (not as much now that I have my international drivers license), translated lots of communication from Afrikaans to English, and given me valuable insight into the lives and culture of the people here. Whew, that's a lot! I am very grateful for his friendship.
Eight of the kids at Agape are HIV+. That means they need more regular doctor appointments to make sure their medicines are right and the CD4 counts are in the healthy range. The antiretroviral drugs are very effective in fighting the virus, but unfortunately they also have a number of side effects. Some of the kids are having to change their medicines because of the side effects. Last week I took three of the kids to their appointment with the doctor. The photos are of us waiting outside the clinic and with Joanne, a Canadian doctor who's been in South Africa for 28 years. She specializes in HIV+ patients and made me promise not to tell her employer that she would do her job for free if she had to.
P.S. The HIV/AIDS crisis is like South Africa's holocaust, with the government denying for years the basic facts about the disease while millions of children were born HIV positive (very cheap drugs are 99% effective at preventing transmission from mother to child) and left without treatment for years. More info here on Wikipedia's "HIV/AIDS in South Africa" page. Notably, then then health minister, known as "Dr. Beetroot", advocated a diet of garlic, olive oil, and lemon to cure HIV/AIDS.
