Lowveld - April 2020

TO WANDER
THE WORLD
Four years ago, Get It
visited Annel Strydom to
find out more about the
challenges of caring for
a spina bifida child. We
loved Annel’s positive
spirit and can-do attitude,
and when we found out
how much further this
feisty and inspirational
family of four have come
since then, we decided to
catch up with them and
find out for ourselves.
Reuben, Annel, Tertius and Anika Strydom during their five-week sit
in Mauritius
Text: MELLISSA BUSHBY
Annel and her husband, Tertius,
of Mbombela are just like any
other family, but with a few small
differences. Their first daughter, Anika,
was born with undiagnosed spina
bifida in 2010.
“As a result, Anika has been to the
operating theatre 28 times in her
young life for back, foot and brain
operations, and is a wheelchair
user,” says Annel. Their second
daughter, Esti, was born in 2012 with
hypoplastic left-heart syndrome, and
sadly only lived for 36 hours. In 2015
the family was blessed with Reuben, a
healthy, busy little boy.
Life, as always, carries on, and in 2017,
the Strydoms decided it was time for
change. They sold their company,
started online businesses (courses
and products), and then, they hit the
road. For nearly two years, this family
32 Get It Lowveld April 2020
of four have been travelling - full-time
- around the world. Their somewhat
unusual nomadic way of life seems to
fit this happy family perfectly. “Some
doors in our lives closed and others
opened,” smiles Annel, “enabling
us to travel as a family and share
testimony of Anika, living a full and
happy life amid challenges,” she says.
”My daughter has overcome so many
obstacles and achieved so much
more than what doctors prepared
us for at birth. And that’s why we’re
doing what we’re doing. We just
knew that we had to share our story
of hope with the rest of the world.
“Tertius and I have always loved
travelling, and to combine family life,
ministry, work and school for this
season of our lives was the perfect
option, well, with one exception,
budget! To travel, especially abroad,
is expensive. So, we looked at several
options and found a way to make it
work. The answer to our predicament
was house-sitting.”
There are a number of different
house-sitting websites where you
register a profile and apply for
advertised house-sits all over the
world. The owners then work through
all the applications and appoint a
house-sitter to look after their home,
and sometimes pets, while they are
away on vacation or business trips.
“It’s a win-win situation for both
parties,” says Annel. “The owner can
rest assured that everything at home
is taken care of, while the housesitters
can stay for free (sometimes it
even includes the use of a car) while
staying in someone’s house instead
of a hotel room.” The family initially
started with a three-month trip to