Saturday, 13 April 2013
Thursday, 28 March 2013
Thursday 21st - Sunday 24th - A relaxing weekend
Thursday was Human Rights Day here in South Africa, our first public holiday and so all schools had the day off and then were given the Friday off as well! We made good use of the time off by spending it with friends of our from Howick who invited the team to their beach house on the coast for the weekend. It was just what we needed after 5 weeks away from home, time to relax, spend some time time as team and 're charge our batteries'. The house was a minute from Shelley Beach which was about a 2 and a half hour drive from Howick to Durban and along the coast. We were blessed with beautiful weather and wonderful company - an amazing weekend away!
Wednesday, 27 March 2013
Monday 18th - Wednesday 20th - A new edition to the family
Sorry for not writing here for a while, as you probably guessed, it has been a busy week and I have had no time to sit down st a computer and write. I will try to give you an idea of the past weeks events but I might not be able to go into a lot of detail or you could be reading for a while!
Monday started with an interesting event - we got a puppy! Londy, our boss here at Ethemebeni and the lady who lives with us girls for some of the week, came home and anounced that she had a puppy. We went outside and looked in the back of the Colt (Ethembeni's pick up truck/bucky) and curled up in the corner was a tiy black puppy, no more than 7 weeks olds. She was hardly moving and didn't open her mouth when we tried to feed her some milk. She had been found outside Mama Titi's house and Londy decided to bring one home with her. The boys came over shortly after and although Monday is a day off for us, we had a really productive morning of planning and talking over the new projects Grant gave us on Friday. In the afternoon we had a girly trip to the mall in PMB where I had my first 'real' coffee since being here, which I have really missed!
On Tuesday we decided to do what we do best and work from home, armed with cups of tea and coffee and a pack of biscuits.We begun to plan English lessons which we are going to try and run for six weeks, for the staff at Ethembeni who are keen to improve their communication and writing of English. Although we work better at home, away from the noise and distractions at the family centre, it does mean that, due to 'African Time', we sometimes have to wait for a while before the boys can get a car and come and pick us up. In the evening, Ruth and I went to our old home here in Mpophomeni with Nkosi and her three boys. It was so good to see them again after so long! We have been so busy since getting back from Durban and it was lovely to spend a long time with them and catch up. We spent the evening just like we used to, playing lots of card game including 'cheat' which we taught them when we were living there and watching lots of Zulu soaps! Nkosi had made her version of shepherds pie and it was delicious! The evening ended with a prayer and a hymn sung from Nkosi's well used hymn book.
Wednesday we took Poppy (that is the name of the puppy) to the local SPCA in Howick to give her a rabies jab, she also got de-fleed and de-wormed. Our main aim for our visit to Howick was to get paint and rollers for the decoration of Grace Chapel Pre-School so we spent a good while in Build-It getting together what we need for the afternoons of decoration next week. We have chosen a purple hued grey for the bottom of the wall, below where the hooks will go and then above that we are going to have a pale blue sky as the main colour and on top of that we are going to put our main design of creation.
Monday started with an interesting event - we got a puppy! Londy, our boss here at Ethemebeni and the lady who lives with us girls for some of the week, came home and anounced that she had a puppy. We went outside and looked in the back of the Colt (Ethembeni's pick up truck/bucky) and curled up in the corner was a tiy black puppy, no more than 7 weeks olds. She was hardly moving and didn't open her mouth when we tried to feed her some milk. She had been found outside Mama Titi's house and Londy decided to bring one home with her. The boys came over shortly after and although Monday is a day off for us, we had a really productive morning of planning and talking over the new projects Grant gave us on Friday. In the afternoon we had a girly trip to the mall in PMB where I had my first 'real' coffee since being here, which I have really missed!
On Tuesday we decided to do what we do best and work from home, armed with cups of tea and coffee and a pack of biscuits.We begun to plan English lessons which we are going to try and run for six weeks, for the staff at Ethembeni who are keen to improve their communication and writing of English. Although we work better at home, away from the noise and distractions at the family centre, it does mean that, due to 'African Time', we sometimes have to wait for a while before the boys can get a car and come and pick us up. In the evening, Ruth and I went to our old home here in Mpophomeni with Nkosi and her three boys. It was so good to see them again after so long! We have been so busy since getting back from Durban and it was lovely to spend a long time with them and catch up. We spent the evening just like we used to, playing lots of card game including 'cheat' which we taught them when we were living there and watching lots of Zulu soaps! Nkosi had made her version of shepherds pie and it was delicious! The evening ended with a prayer and a hymn sung from Nkosi's well used hymn book.
Wednesday we took Poppy (that is the name of the puppy) to the local SPCA in Howick to give her a rabies jab, she also got de-fleed and de-wormed. Our main aim for our visit to Howick was to get paint and rollers for the decoration of Grace Chapel Pre-School so we spent a good while in Build-It getting together what we need for the afternoons of decoration next week. We have chosen a purple hued grey for the bottom of the wall, below where the hooks will go and then above that we are going to have a pale blue sky as the main colour and on top of that we are going to put our main design of creation.
Sunday, 17 March 2013
Tuesday 12th-Sunday 17th - Fruit trees and Goats
Tuesday ended on good note as we were invited to a lovely friend's house from HCC where we experienced a South African braai where we cooked a wurst sausage, basically a long coil of meaty sausage with a lot of smoke and fire but it tasted yummy. So we went home after a blissful shower and with full stomachs!
Wednesday morning we worked from home so armed with tea and coffee and a pen and paper we did some plans for the walls of the pre-school and spent the afternoon at the family centre with the children. We were then sent for from the care centre and when we arrived were told that we were helping move a donation of 180 fruit tees from a van into the front of the centre. When we finished it looked like a forest of greenary, lemon trees, mandarins, plums and nectarines. Our methodical process was momentarily paused when Nicola attempted to stop a goat from eating lemon tree leaves and proceeded to chase it around the building before finally out the gate!
Thursday home vists went really well. I was back with the lovely lady called Jan from HCC who I have been with every other week. Luckly for me, she can't speak Zulu so its all translated by a wonderful lady from Ethembeni. We visited the triplets who I have mensioned before and they have grown up so much just in the time that I have been here! I think they are getting used to me now which is so lovely. They run to the door when they hear the car and they blow lots of kisses at us when we leave. I can't believe that under two years ago they were so close to death and now they are three little buddles of joy (and trouble!) After getting back to the familly centre a lot later than most people and after my lunch of rice and some kind of vegatable stew (every lunch at the family centre tastes the same but changes between meat and veg), I met a group of students from America who are helping out with Ethembeni for the next three weeks.
On Friday before our youth work at HCC we had a meeting with Grant, the director of Ethembeni, where we were given a number of new projects that we are going to work on in the next two months. One of these is for the girls to organise Womens days for the girls and ladies in Mpophomeni so if anyone has any good ideas that we could do then please let me know! We are also starting to plan English lessons for the ladies at Ethembeni because although they speak a reasonable amount of English, they are all keen to improve their comunication and understanding.
I will try and keep you all updated on our projects and what we are getting up to. I hope you are all well,
Lots of love and blessings from S.A x
Wednesday morning we worked from home so armed with tea and coffee and a pen and paper we did some plans for the walls of the pre-school and spent the afternoon at the family centre with the children. We were then sent for from the care centre and when we arrived were told that we were helping move a donation of 180 fruit tees from a van into the front of the centre. When we finished it looked like a forest of greenary, lemon trees, mandarins, plums and nectarines. Our methodical process was momentarily paused when Nicola attempted to stop a goat from eating lemon tree leaves and proceeded to chase it around the building before finally out the gate!
Thursday home vists went really well. I was back with the lovely lady called Jan from HCC who I have been with every other week. Luckly for me, she can't speak Zulu so its all translated by a wonderful lady from Ethembeni. We visited the triplets who I have mensioned before and they have grown up so much just in the time that I have been here! I think they are getting used to me now which is so lovely. They run to the door when they hear the car and they blow lots of kisses at us when we leave. I can't believe that under two years ago they were so close to death and now they are three little buddles of joy (and trouble!) After getting back to the familly centre a lot later than most people and after my lunch of rice and some kind of vegatable stew (every lunch at the family centre tastes the same but changes between meat and veg), I met a group of students from America who are helping out with Ethembeni for the next three weeks.
On Friday before our youth work at HCC we had a meeting with Grant, the director of Ethembeni, where we were given a number of new projects that we are going to work on in the next two months. One of these is for the girls to organise Womens days for the girls and ladies in Mpophomeni so if anyone has any good ideas that we could do then please let me know! We are also starting to plan English lessons for the ladies at Ethembeni because although they speak a reasonable amount of English, they are all keen to improve their comunication and understanding.
I will try and keep you all updated on our projects and what we are getting up to. I hope you are all well,
Lots of love and blessings from S.A x
Tuesday 12th - An exciting new project and a little request...
It was good to get back to Ethembeni after over a week away from the family centre and the care centre because of Durban. On Tuesday we were given one of our main projects for the next two months (I can't believe that we have been here for four weeks already!) which is to paint and decorate a pre-school in Mpophomeni called Grace Chapel Educare Centre. There are 180 children between the ages of 1-6 in four classrooms with 5 teachers! The walls are concrete and bare with the schools colours on the walls, dark orange and brown. The girls visited the school on Tuesday morning and spent the afternoon making plans and setting up a 'Just Giving' page. Our main aim is the paint the hallway to make it more cheerful and to provide bag and coat hooks which will create more space which is desperately needed. We have money given to us from Ethembeni but we need more if we are going to achieve our aim of making it a safer and better learning environment and especially to get the coat hooks made. This a link to our page and it would be amazing if we can raise as much as possible! Any donations would be greatly appreciated and would make the world of difference, especially because the exchange rate from pounds to rand is so good. I will try and post some photos on here when I can,
http://www.justgiving.com/transformsouthafrica
Thank you!!
http://www.justgiving.com/transformsouthafrica
Thank you!!
Tuesday, 12 March 2013
Tuesday 5th - Monday 11th - To Durban then a Howick weekend and a day in the house
The reason for not writing on here recently is due to the teams travelling over the past week. On Tuesday we travelled one and a half hours in the car to Durban to spend the next two days at the Integral Mission Conference. We were staying with a host from Grace Family Church, where the conference took place. Ruth, Esme and Londy (our boss at Ethembeni) and I stayed with an amazing Indian lady called Valerie, a policewomen in the area where she lives called Umhlanga. We were so priviledged to stay with her, she took us out for pizza on our first night in a massive mall called Gateway - the first biggest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere! We drove there in an open top car and I put my head back and stared up at the stars and couldn't stop smiling! Staying in Mpophomeni for the past three weeks really makes you appreciate everything and when moments like that come along, I just can't believe how lucky we are. As well as having hot showers and staying in a beautiful home, the conference itself was brilliant. Although it was aimed at men and women who have given up their normal lives to commit themselves to mission work full time, some of what was said had a big impact on us and had relevance to what we were doing. It was also really good to spend some time as a team but also by myself, relaxing and thinking and having some quiet time to pray and spend time with God.
On Friday, after a stunning thunder storm while driving home, we had our first night in our new house in Mpophomeni. The girls are together in one house (which has a bath but no shower, but has a kitchen so we can cook for ourselves - we had spaghetti bol on Monday night!) and the boys are in a different house but they come to ours to eat supper together. Having said that, people have been so generous to us and we have eaten more at other people's houses than in our own!
The weekend was spent mainly in Howick with the wonderful HCC youth on friday and sunday lunch at Esme's house. However, Saturday morning was slightly different...there was the Ethembeni Jumble Sale. We got up early that morning and drove to the Care Centre where we found lots of the Ethembeni ladies already up and about setting up. As soon as we were settled at the table which was the 'till', the gates were opened. I don't think I have ever seen so much enthusiasm before as the small crowd threw themselves sprinting through the gate. Immediately two ladies began to fight over an item of clothing, it wasn't at all dangerous but it gave us all a bit of a shock, definitely woke us up! In the end, with items that were priced between R1 and R25 we managed to raise over R3400 which was amazing!
Monday was our day off this week. We had a relaxed morning, reading and listening to music which was so good and needed! However after the boys left after lunch we began to have our first experience of 'cabin fever'. We can't leave the house without a car or someone to go with us and unfortunetly all of Ethembeni's cars were being used so we apart from a 'turn' around the garden/yard outside, we didn't leave the house all day until Londy got home and we took the car to the petrol station to buy bread! We had a chat with Londy though and shes agreed that if we are on the main road we can walk to the petrol station together so hopefully we won't have that situation again. However, the relaxed day had a positive result because we are all feeling refreshed today which is brilliant.
On Friday, after a stunning thunder storm while driving home, we had our first night in our new house in Mpophomeni. The girls are together in one house (which has a bath but no shower, but has a kitchen so we can cook for ourselves - we had spaghetti bol on Monday night!) and the boys are in a different house but they come to ours to eat supper together. Having said that, people have been so generous to us and we have eaten more at other people's houses than in our own!
The weekend was spent mainly in Howick with the wonderful HCC youth on friday and sunday lunch at Esme's house. However, Saturday morning was slightly different...there was the Ethembeni Jumble Sale. We got up early that morning and drove to the Care Centre where we found lots of the Ethembeni ladies already up and about setting up. As soon as we were settled at the table which was the 'till', the gates were opened. I don't think I have ever seen so much enthusiasm before as the small crowd threw themselves sprinting through the gate. Immediately two ladies began to fight over an item of clothing, it wasn't at all dangerous but it gave us all a bit of a shock, definitely woke us up! In the end, with items that were priced between R1 and R25 we managed to raise over R3400 which was amazing!
Monday was our day off this week. We had a relaxed morning, reading and listening to music which was so good and needed! However after the boys left after lunch we began to have our first experience of 'cabin fever'. We can't leave the house without a car or someone to go with us and unfortunetly all of Ethembeni's cars were being used so we apart from a 'turn' around the garden/yard outside, we didn't leave the house all day until Londy got home and we took the car to the petrol station to buy bread! We had a chat with Londy though and shes agreed that if we are on the main road we can walk to the petrol station together so hopefully we won't have that situation again. However, the relaxed day had a positive result because we are all feeling refreshed today which is brilliant.
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
Tuesday 5th March - Off to Durban
After a very hot week which included my first ever Zulu Church service and my first ever Zulu wedding (that post will follow), we are heading to Durban in about half an hour to the Integral Mission Conference. Nobody quite knows what to expect for the next three days! We have been told that it will be very busy, but we are all hoping we will have some time to spend on the beach!!
I will try to find some time to update you all on the past weeks events but I now have to get ready to go, love from South Africa x
I will try to find some time to update you all on the past weeks events but I now have to get ready to go, love from South Africa x
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