Off to Bizana!

from Elliott
The ministry has been working on official 'registration' for the preschool for well over a year. Before we got here in January the staff had been trying to understand what the process was. They thought they knew but it turns out that they were on a wild goose chase with the wrong governmental department.

Katherine stepped in and with a lot of 'outsider' questions and with some divine guidance found an individual in the Department of Social Services who was willing to lead us by the hand through the process. The government often relies upon the local tribal authority to offer approvals as the first step and then the government processes it. With a number of meetings and some homemade bread, she got the support of the local chief or headman.

The Xhosa culture is an oral tradition so it was required that the community oversight committee appear in person with the Department to express their support and walk through the process as a group. Unfortunately, the meeting would be in Bizana 50 kms away. So we loaded our car and that of a partner in ministry and headed to the city of Bizana.

The good news is that the worker at the Department was very helpful and willing to walk us through the process. A couple of hours later Katherine and the community leaders were heading back to the ministry site at Msizazwe with at least the first step in the process taken care of.