A Love Song for Africa: Blog #8: The van der Hams

This past week, my new close friends--the 4 van der Ham girls--stayed with me from Sunday to Sunday. It was like a sleepover for a whole week. Their father, who runs the local Crown Ministry project, was out of town and their mom had not been feeling well for a few weeks. So to help out, we said “come on over!” So, she and the girls piled into their car with overnight bags and schoolbooks and drove the “long” 10 minutes to our house. They exploded joy and excitement into the house as they bounced in! If you can’t tell, I enjoyed their company very much!

First of all, I don’t think I have properly introduced these friends. They are a South African family of six and luckily live just 1 or 2 kilometers down the road from us. The parents are Johann and Retha, and their four children: Suzaan-16, Annelee-13, Limbi-11, Amy-8. They are a loving family, always singing worship songs, dancing, playing games, and are just so much fun to be around.

All of the girls slept in the “bunk room” (a spare bedroom with bunk beds) and I joined them to sleep with them one night J. Their mother was in the room across from them. While they were here, I got Retha sucked into The Hunger Games! She finished all three books in a week. That’s totally understandable, because how are you supposed to set them down?

The girls and I had fun doing home school together each morning and playing LOTS of card games at night. They taught me new games, like “speed”, “smack the jack”, and “blowfish”. They also showed me how to play games that the Malawians play, such as “champion”, “netball” and more! Best of all, the girls all know how to speak Chichewa, so we could venture outside the property walls and get to know the Malawian children who live in the neighborhood.

I loved being with the van der Hams for such a long time because it gave us quality time to teach each other new things. It’s fun to be with people from different parts of the world so you can learn how others live, not just how we do.