Finale. Prestissimo

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A woman in a drenched raincoat walks past the Quarry road informal settlement outside Durban.   (AFP or licensors)

AFRICA

·        SOUTH AFRICA

·        ENVIRONMENT

·        CIVIL SOCIETY

·        LAUDATO SI

South Africa’s floods: Neighbours have been helping neighbours.

South Africa’s Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of Mariannhill, Neil Augustine Frank, O.M.I., has described the recent floods in South Africa as “sad and depressing.”

Paul Samasumo – Vatican City.

South Africans are still coming to terms with last week’s devastating floods. Amidst the bleak news from the flooding, the Bishop has also spoken of heartening stories of neighbours reaching out to help neighbours.

Over 4000 homes destroyed

It has stopped raining in South Africa’s KwaZulu Natal. People in the province are beginning to process what happened to them after a week of relentless rains that destroyed more than 4 000 homes leaving thousands of families homeless. The death toll stands at 448.

A bleak Easter 

For many residents of this coastal region, it was a bleak Easter.

“Attendance was very poor because many people were cut off. People couldn’t reach places of worship. In Mariannhill Diocese, people couldn’t reach the Cathedral,” said Diocese of Mariannhill Diocese Coadjutor Bishop Neil Augustine Frank.

He added, “Many people have lost their lives. Some families are desperately mourning, having seen their loved ones washed away by the floods. I have not seen bodies recovered, but some people are still missing. It is a very sad, depressing situation. Homes have been swept away or practically destroyed in the floods. There have been landslides,” Bishop Frank said.

Waiting to bury loved ones

The People in the Mariannhil Diocese are waiting for the waterlogged cemeteries to give them a chance to bury the dead, said Bishop Frank.

“One of the greatest needs now is the burial of loved ones,” said Bishop Frank. “The burials can’t happen right away because the land is still soaked with water. We have to wait a while. Many people have lost everything, and as a Diocese, we have to find funds to help people supplement what they have and what they might receive from the government for proper burials,” he said.

Affordable, stable housing

On Monday evening, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster. The floods, in a way, bring to light continued widespread inequality in South Africa, especially in the housing sector. Most deaths and destruction happened in informal settlements where people live in shacks due to a lack of affordable, stable housing. Many people just can’t afford stable housing.

Some people may not have lost homes, but their houses have become uninhabitable, said Bishop Frank.

Neighbours helping neighbours

“Some homes may still be standing, but these houses’ foundations have been compromised. The people have to leave them. They may still have some possessions, but since they are displaced, there is a need for mattresses, clothing, and in many places also for food. Fortunately, neighbours are taking care of neighbours, and that is what we preach in Church. To see this preaching happening in reality, to see it now, is encouraging. It is a sign of a Church that is working well. Various families are also responding. In some places, the municipal government structures are working. In some municipalities, these structures are not working as well as they should,” explained the Co-adjutor Bishop.

“Caritas South Africa has given us some funds for us to respond as a Diocese. We are supplementing. We cannot do everything. We have to see ourselves as working with others. Other NGOs and the government are doing great work here,” said Bishop Frank.

South Africa needs a new resurrection

As communities now turn to bury the dead and the arduous work of cleaning up and rebuilding, Bishop Frank hopes that some lessons will have been learned from the tragic floods.

“We cannot go back to building houses on sand – I say this literally and metaphorically. We thought that our resurrection was in 1994, but we have been disappointed. We must start again,” said the Mariannhill Co-adjutor Bishop as he referenced the end of the apartheid government in 1994. Many had hoped that the new democratic government of South Africa would usher in a period of economic emancipation for the country’s poor.

 

April, 16^th, 2002

It is hard to think positive here in KZN after so much loss of life and damage and so many having lost everything.. But at the same time it is heart warming to see how many have pitched in to being help and comfort to those suffering. The Holy Spirit is at work, for sure. But much more needs to be done, as in Ukraine and all those other places of great suffering.

 

April 13, 202

    I forgot to mention yesterday that the spasm in the left leg can be very vicious, at the same time the leg is very weak and can’t be depended on for putting any weight on since It will just fold up and you will fall if you can’t find something to support you.

 

Last night the electricity from our engine went out and stayed out….bad sign.  ..  engine has been running most days and nights since the rain on Monday. It has been raining, and raining and raining, so much that I thought I saw the ark outside my window. Ha. Many mud slides and damages to houses and floods. There has been almost no traffic as most roads have been closed since bridges or parts of roads have been washed away . One of our workers ha of her two rooms washed away with all their clothes , blankets, etc. Fr. Tom Szura, luckily, jest sent some money to help people like that. But I still have no internet (I am now used to internet banking) and I am not able, easily, to go physically to the bank.

I will try the atm, but I must hurry since it will be soon empty so soon before Easter.

That’s it for now. I will try again tomorrow.

 

April 12^th,2022                                                                                                                                                       April 12^th, 2022

Well. It is 3 weeks                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            since the Botox injection and this what I have experienced so far. The firs few days there was no noticeable change..Then change began to take place but not as I had wished or expected.

 The spasms began to be more frequent and stronger, more aggressive. If I had to wee during the night, the spasms accompanied me while I peed and even sometimes interfered with me while peeing, as the left leg would go into a spasm lifting the leg up forcefully sometimes causing the urine to go away from the portable urinal which I have been using because it takes me too long with the crutches or walker to make it to the toilet on time.

     The portable urinal has been my salvation in my two rooms (office & bedroom). When I am lying in bed or sitting at my desk, the spasms come about every 20 seconds, small ones, and only every once in a while a bigger one, stronger and even from the toes all the way up to the hip and across the back. One gets a kind of signal that it is time to pee and if you don’t move quickly enough your have a problem. Part of the problem is that just then your leg will go into a spasm and it won’t let you put your foot down on the floor. ,You may have to try 2 or 3 times before you manage to get the leg from the position that it has brought the leg up to a 90% spot, and, in the meantime, the urine is not waiting. If you don’t manage to get the urinal on time, some of the urine is already coming and sometimes it is a lot and they you have to do some cleaning up and maybe even change clothing.

    I sometimes complain loudly to God, God says you see that man over there, he can’t even get out of bed, or that one over there in the wheel chair, with his hands curled up. He has to be lifted out of his wheelchair. Would you prefer that? Then I keep my mouth shut.But although I am still not happy, I can still take a shower (even though even there the spasms come with me there), and I can get dressed and even put my socks on…and I can still drive since the spasms don’t bother me while I am driving. (My physiotherapist said that most of his patients can’t even get out of bed.)   I only drive to the pharmacy to get my meds or to the supermarket to get a few things.A friend takes me to my doctor’s appointments because it is too far for me to get from the parking to the office in the hospital. A friend who usually come with him will find a wheelchair so that I don’t have to walk all that way with crutches of with the walker.

I was advised to continue my medication and my physiotherapy (it was too expensive to continue with the professional physiotherapist, so Brother Albert from the monastery comes to me every day, faithfully, to give me my physio at 2pm. In the meantime I have been doing a lot of reading and checking the news on the internet either on my computer or on my cell phone. Sometimes, like now because of the constant rain, there is no internet.Quite often the electricity goes off (usually so-called load shedding) but we have a stand by generator so that we still have our own electrici

    

     The other day I drove my self to the barber shop for a haircut (it’s not far) and often, on Sunday for lunch I will go up to the Pillay family (our church leaders) for lunch and to ask how things are going at Savannah Park. It’s nice to get out of the house once in a while.

 

    From time to time a friend will come to visit or to take me out for a lunch and that also breaks the monotony..

 

   We don’t do much talking at the table in the dining room mostly because just abut everyone is deaf and you wind up shouting to be heard, so its better to just eat and be quiet.

 

   I thank you for your prayers and ask you to continue as I still have hope that this Botox will do its thing.

It is very expensive and a cousin in the US has promised to help.  The injection is supposed to last for about 4 months and then you need another one. If it gets to be too expensive we just stop. In spite of the spasms that accompany me whereever I go all day long, I am happy to be alive and still of sound mind, more or less. Ha.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             since the Botox injection and this what I have experienced so far. The firs few days there was no noticeable change..Then change began to take place but not as I had wished or expected.

 The spasms began to be more frequent and stronger, more aggressive. If I had to wee during the night, the spasms accompanied me while I peed and even sometimes interfered with me while peeing, as the left leg would go into a spasm lifting the leg up forcefully sometimes causing the urine to go away from the portable urinal which I have been using because it takes me too long with the crutches or walker to make it to the toilet on time.

     The portable urinal has been my salvation in my two rooms (office & bedroom). When I am lying in bed or sitting at my desk, the spasms come about every 20 seconds, small ones, and only every once in a while a bigger one, stronger and even from the toes all the way up to the hip and across the back. One gets a kind of signal that it is time to pee and if you don’t move quickly enough your have a problem. Part of the problem is that just then your leg will go into a spasm and it won’t let you put your foot down on the floor. ,You may have to try 2 or 3 times before you manage to get the leg from the position that it has brought the leg up to a 90% spot, and, in the meantime, the urine is not waiting. If you don’t manage to get the urinal on time, some of the urine is already coming and sometimes it is a lot and they you have to do some cleaning up and maybe even change clothing.

    I sometimes complain loudly to God, God says you see that man over there, he can’t even get out of bed, or that one over there in the wheel chair, with his hands curled up. He has to be lifted out of his wheelchair. Would you prefer that? Then I keep my mouth shut.But although I am still not happy, I can still take a shower (even though even there the spasms come with me there), and I can get dressed and even put my socks on…and I can still drive since the spasms don’t bother me while I am driving. (My physiotherapist said that most of his patients can’t even get out of bed.)   I only drive to the pharmacy to get my meds or to the supermarket to get a few things.A friend takes me to my doctor’s appointments because it is too far for me to get from the parking to the office in the hospital. A friend who usually come with him will find a wheelchair so that I don’t have to walk all that way with crutches of with the walker.

I was advised to continue my medication and my physiotherapy (it was too expensive to continue with the professional physiotherapist, so Brother Albert from the monastery comes to me every day, faithfully, to give me my physio at 2pm. In the meantime I have been doing a lot of reading and checking the news on the internet either on my computer or on my cell phone. Sometimes, like now because of the constant rain, there is no internet.Quite often the electricity goes off (usually so-called load shedding) but we have a stand by generator so that we still have our own electrici

    

     The other day I drove my self to the barber shop for a haircut (it’s not far) and often, on Sunday for lunch I will go up to the Pillay family (our church leaders) for lunch and to ask how things are going at Savannah Park. It’s nice to get out of the house once in a while.

 

    From time to time a friend will come to visit or to take me out for a lunch and that also breaks the monotony..

 

   We don’t do much talking at the table in the dining room mostly because just abut everyone is deaf and you wind up shouting to be heard, so its better to just eat and be quiet.

 

   I thank you for your prayers and ask you to continue as I still have hope that this Botox will do its thing.

It is very expensive and a cousin in the US has promised to help.  The injection is supposed to last for about 4 months and then you need another one. If it gets to be too expensive we just stop. In spite of the spasms that accompany me whereever I go all day long, I am happy to be alive and still of sound mind, more or less. Ha.