Dear Friends:

We are MK's (Missionary Kids)-Chasah, Caleb and Charliese West.We moved to South Africa in December of 1997 with our parents who are American Baptist missionaries working with the Baptist Convention of South Africa.Our dad is a minister and does a lot of preaching at different churches.He also trains other pastors.Our mom works mostly in the Convention national office training other people and keeping finances in order.

Chasah is twelve years old and will turn the "Big 13" on April 13th, 2004, Caleb is ten and will be eleven on December 8th, 2003, and Charliese is nine and will be ten on April 23rd,2004.When each of us started 1st grade it was in South Africa at Constantia Kloof Primary School.We are now attending school at the American International School of Johannesburg which has the same school calendar year as the schools in America.

Chasah enjoys playing the piano, flute and violin, composing songs and plays, reading, chatting on the computer and horseback riding.Caleb enjoys playing soccer, cricket and basketball, running, playing the piano and learning how to play drums.Charliese enjoys playing cricket and basketball, running, talking to friends on the phone, playing the piano, horseback riding and learning to play the violin.We all love to swim on our school's swim team (Yeah team!), play video games and play with our German shepherd named "Chacki."

School is out of session now and we are really enjoying our time off from school except on this side of the hemisphere it is wintertime and it is cold, brrrr!

One of the cool things about living in a foreign country is trying new foods.Sometimes we attend different church services and conferences and if the services are really long the ladies in the church cook.Because the buildings are so small, there usually is no kitchen so most of the food is cooked outside in large black iron pots by the "grannies" or "gogos" as they call them here.The food is then put in large plastic and tin bins and everyone, as many as two to three hundred people, can be fed from these pots with large servings on each plate.

Large tents are pitched so that we can eat inside of them and keep out of the intense sun and away from the flies.After the meal, we play lots of games with the children.We sometimes play soccer or a game similar to one-two-three-red light where one person turns his or her back and the others try to advance and be the caller.

Here is a picture of us eating "pap" (similar to grits), chicken, smothered cabbage, rice, carrot salad and "chakalaka" (a very tasty tomato sauce).

There are eleven official languages in South Africa.Most of the people speak two, three, sometimes four different languages.We can greet people in at least three of the South African languages.We are also learning French and Spanish in the American school.

A lot of the people in South Africa are very poor.Some of them live in houses that are made of tin and cardboard.Some of these houses have dirt floors so when it is cold and raining, it is very uncomfortable.Some of the children and old people get very sick and some of them die from exposure to the wet and cold.One of the things we would like to do is work with Habitat for Humanity and the churches to build a few houses. Can you believe it only costs $3,000.00 to build a house in South Africa?

Here is a picture of one of the houses in the Brits informal settlement where a new house could be built.There is no running water, no indoor toilets with plumbing, but there is electricity.These children in the photo live in the settlement.The older ones attend school but the younger children have no access to daycare or even supervision during the day.A lot of the children's time is spent hauling water to drink, cook and wash with.Many bad things happen to these children because there is no adult to watch over them.Some of the parents died of AIDS, or the children are left alone so the parents can go to work.

Signing off,

The 3 West's and Chacaliese our doggie

Question:Can you guess where the name Chacaliese comes from?

Answer:It is a combination of our names, Cha from Chasah, ca from Caleb and liese from Charliese.