Vicariate Apostolic of Ingwavuma

From the Memoirs of Fr John LeMay
of the time when he was Brother Jack,
in the early days of the Servite mission in Zululand.

1. Ingwavuma c. Nineteen-fifty-something...
Learning Zulu, the cattle sale, making blocks, a snake

The teacher was very good and patient. The beginning classes were very simple; we would point to some object asking What is that? And she would tell us what it was in Zulu. We wrote the word down in our assignment books.
Home work: memorize the words and be ready for the next class.
As the classes got harder we weren't always prepared. So we would look for some diversion. We would ask questions about grammar, hoping for a long explanation, but she would catch on and scold us.

(Isaiah 25:8-9)

From the Archive

Ingwavuma parish extends some thirty-five miles to the south, east and north. It is a big area, with not too many Catholics. I am in charge of what we call an Out-station. These are places some thirty-five miles from the main mission in Ingwavuma. They are taken care of by the priest of the parish. Such places may have their own church building, small communities, but no priest in residence. The priest comes along every two weeks to celebrate Mass; he visits the people's homes during the week.

MPALA
Mpala is a little place some twenty-five miles from Ingwavuma. It has no church building. It is on what we call the Veld. This is very flat land. It stretches for miles and miles along the Mozambique border. It is a very hot and humid area. Malaria is a common disease here, causing many deaths. People have no tap water, electricity, phones or tarred roads. The things that folk from overseas take for granted. It takes me nearly an hour to get to this particular home. The road being gravel is very dusty and bumpy, due to the pot holes and the variety of stones strewn all along the way. Other hazards are donkeys, goats and cows on the road. These are liable to jump out in front of your truck, or simply to stand in the roadway. Even when you blow your horn at them, they pay no attention. You just have to manoeuvre around them.

INTER SERVOS
(Dec. 2012)

27.11.12
ZULULAND, S. AFRICA
Last week Sifiso Mchunu and I were invited to a birthday party: Londeka's. Londeka, a bright young girl was celebrating all of eleven years. So what was significant about that? Perhaps a little background will help. Londeka lives in kwaMsane township with her grandmother (Gogo) and unmarried mother. KwaMsane is our biggest concentration of Catholics with about 190 families living at close quarters. The township is divided into six small Christian com-munities (SCCs) which I visit twice a year during Lent and October (Propagation of the Faith) in order to acquaint myself with the people and their social circumstances and to animate the SCCs. During October Londeka ‘s gogo, who is the coordinator of the SCCs, accompanied me to all six groups. The programme is quite simple: Mass with a dialogue sermon, a report by the SCC chair with comments, a donation to the priest "for his petrol" and, at times some refreshments and chat. The atmosphere is very familiar, spontaneous and quite informative. This year Londeka attended most of the SCCs and in the course of the process, informed her gogo that when celebrating her birthday she also wanted a Mass. Gogo did the necessary negotiations and Sifiso also got an SMS inviting him to attend. Being closer to the world of an eleven year old I asked him to grace the occasion with the necessary "few words." So Sifiso kicked off the process with great oomph, reminding Londeka about her future and the importance of education as to key to open all doors.