Gone but not forgotten.

Im sad to inform you all that our little premature baby boy, died on 15th December 2012 at 5pm (3pm GTM) after suffering lung failure and cardiac arrest. He had been kept on ventilators since monday and had to be resucitated three times.

He was visited during the hours of 3-4pm and when Chris arrived home she recieved a call to say he had passed away. As you can imagine we are all in complete shock, although he was 12 weeks premature, he arrived here at 5 weeks old and has been a strong healthy baby since.

We must celebrate the short life he had with us, the only family he ahd ever known, and praise the Lord for him. I hope you will join us all in this prayer.

November and December update so far

Well what a long time since I blogged, quite mad at myself because now I have to try and think of everything thats happened so I will try and keep things short and simple! It has been quite a rollercoaster as usual.

Our little girl who had been in hospital is doing very well, making progress every week little by little, she can almost poke her tounge out a little and is starting to hold her head up for longer. Still a long way to go, shockingly there has been no follow up appointments or explanation from the hospitals so we must just keep at it.

At the end of November the other couple who are volunteers, Herrie and Hans travelled home to Holand for one week as they have just become grandparents! SO that was lovely news for them. it meant a tough week for me and Maggie looking after all the children but of course you just have to keep yourself focused on what needs doing.

And on the 1st of December Kirstin actually come home from Belgium, she had a problem trying to find a family so after about 6 weeks in Belgium she decided it was best to come home and find work here. It was unfortunate for her but nice for us girls to have some more company! Though she is not on shift like us volunteers, she gives the odd help to feed a baby etc.

That sunday Mark and Chris were going, with the four older boys, on holiday. They have all just finished their school year and have 6 weeks off, exams all finished, and they havent managed to have a holiday in I think they said 6 years or something! They left on sunday and were staying 4 nights.

Although it was lovely for them it meant a heck of a busy time for us, luckily Kirstin did night duty every evening and me and Maggie did back-up 2 nights each. Then Herrie did the cooking and helped in the day, and we had another girl come and help called Briony, her sister also came down for 2 nights to help. It was a non-stop week.

Sadly I have some very bad news to report though. On the sunday evening Kirstin noticed our premature babies breathing was really fast and so we took him to the clinic the next day. They thought it was just very mild pnuemonia so gave him some medicines and vitamins for us to give him. But that evening we were all incredibly worried because he was breathing around 60bpm and not drinking his bottles much, maybe 40ml ervy 4 hours or so. So then we were worried he may start becoming dehydrated and keep getting worse.

That evening we took him to Jubilee Hospital, they carried out some tests but said the same as the clinic and told us to carry on using the medicines, if he didnt improve in 4 days time to bring him back. Considering he was 3 months premature, and 4 months old yet only weighed 4kg, we were till very on edge.

By wednesday evening I was with him the whole night and there was still no improvements. He was on my chest for about 4 hours and his breathing was horrific, 100bpm. I was on night duty with Kirstin and was going to just keep him on my chest all night to monitor him, yet I knew this was not right. So we called Hans to take him to hospital again.

He was admitted overnight, and when we visited him thursday he had a very slight improvments. Chris then arrived home on thursday evening and I went with her on fridya to visit him. (It was really sad for me, as it brought back memories of when i brought Oarabile into hospital) He had made great progress, he was just on a drip and being fed from a cup. Saturday he was also visited and was doing well, the nurses were hoping he would be home with us by monday.

Sunday no-one was able to go visit him, as it was just such a busy day yet monday morning at 11.30am Chris got a phonecall to say they wanted to move him to another hospital (the same hospital Oarabile was transferred to also) and that he had massively deteriorated. Chris was in Pretoria but went straight to hospital, and considering it was emergency it took them 3 hours to get an abulance! He was put in an incubater, with breathing tubes, feeding tubes, everything.

Yesterday was my day off and I was so blessed to be able to go with Chris to see him. He is in the Adult Intensive Care Unit. Well, what can I say. A very emotional time. He was in the adults ICU for some reason, we can only assume maybe he will be cared for better there than the children unit, maybe better equipment and staffing. So he is in a room with 5 other grown men. I was looking around dreading to think how they all got here. And our little prem baby looked so tiny on this huge bed, with 6 or 7 different tubes. They were even giving him blood we could see.

But all of a sudden, the staff gathered around and started to sing, the most beautiful harmonious African song, and then held hands and prayed. Would you ever see that in England?

There is no improvements with our little man, we are just hoping he gets better and better with all the tubes he is on etc. A very emotional time.

Then the other thing that happened on monday - the two year old boy that went back to his family in October, has now been brought back. The mother has disappeared, and the faily have heard nothing, she has a history of running away with men so we assume she has just run away again and left her poor son. The aunties and famliy are not willing to take care of him, so after just 2 months he is back! Its horrific. He is the most gorgeous little boy, and he has also changed a lot. It's so hard trying to get him back into the routine of things here, he is incredibly naughty now and demands all your attention, he's obviously used to being the children. He has also lost a lot of weight which is worrying.

Now Im not sure who knows about my visa situation but I had trouble getting it extended. It actually meant me and Mark taking a little road trip! We travelled to Botswana to the border crossing at Martin's Drift on 23rd November. It was wicked, we drove through all the mountains and it was beautiful. We also drove through some of the most desolate places, many little townships where people live in little shacks. Saw some horrific sights, but also some beautiful sights. When we stayed the night in Botswana, we stayed at a lodge and had a nice braai in the evening, and even had a hippo laid on the embankment on the river, just in front of our lodge! And the next morning were awakened by monkeys at the window and climbing the roof!

It was about a 6 hour drive to the border, and back home took a little less, but had to stop for food etc. but it meant my visa is now sorted till my flight in January. But yesterday I went again to Home Affairs to see if I could extend it a further couple of months. Eurgh it was a drag, its like standing in a sauna, no proper lights, the smallest stingy room, waiting in a queue for almost 3 hours. Had to see the lady then go and queue to pay the fee at a different counter then go back to the original lady to show her the reciept, only to find out I dont know if it will be accepted or rejected, I must go back in 30 days.

So Im a little confused because they took the money etc. and if I am staying I must change my flight, yet there is still a change it could be rejected for whatever reason so will have to make a decision on whether to change my flight or not yet.

Today Hans and Herrie have left Tsepho Ya Bana, so now we are jsut myself and Maggie till after Christmas when we get a new girl coming on 29th December. But Maggie is actually going on holiday with her family on Boxing Day so I will actually be alone for 4-5 days..... HELP!!! Hopefully Briony may be coming up, and assuming Kirstin doesnt have a job by then she will most likely help also.

Anyways, best be off now. Its 2 of our boys birthdays today - one has turned 1 years of age and one has turned 4!!!

Speak to you all soon xxx

This I wrote yesterday, but we had no internet again due to huge storms so Im uploading this a day late. But it also means I can update on further news about our little premature baby.

The nurse caleld this morning to say that there are no improvements, his heart gave in twice (yesterday and this morning) and they had to resucitate him both times. The nurse did not sound very hopeful, awe are expecting the worst and it is such a horrific time. I keep looking at his cot, and his bottles that are sterilised ready to make a bottle for him, and his tiny premature clothes and nappies. Every time Chris' phone rings we are all on edge.

And even worse, the mum and dad were called by the social worker to have a meeting to explain to them that their child is extremely sick and fighting for his life.... the parents never even showed up.

All we can do is pray, and we place his life in the Lord's hand. His will be done x

November already!

So I want to begin by informing you about our little girl who has spent 6 weeks in hospital - on Tuesday 25th she was finally allowed to come home! Although it is great to have her home it is also very upsetting. The MRI scans showed that part of her brain died, so she is partially brain dead. She can't walk, talk or drink or eat very well at all. It has been a very emotional time for everyone. When she was about to be brought home I told the toddlers and explained she wont be able to hug them or walk like she used to. When they greeted her, they kept asking me 'Where's the other Oarabile?? When is she coming back?'. It was by far one of the most emotional experiences I have faced.

But I am also thrilled to tell you that although the doctors can do no more, she is making great progress. In the space of one week she is already starting to move her legs and arms, and can almost roll from her back to her side!! She is showing no signs of speech, she is only able to cry or laugh.

We have also had anothr baby girl dropped off on friday just gone. Friday was my day off which meant I got the chance to go to Pretoria (because Chris goes every friday to the large supermarket and picks Fetsi up form his boarding school). I looked around some shops and brought some lovely Biltong and Fanta Grape! A very south african snack! When Chris picked me up from the mall we also got KFC as we had still lots to do - it was a welcome treat also!

We then travelled through the 'nice' part of Pretoria to get a good view of the Jackaranders - they are trees that bloom during late October/early November and are the most beautiful purple leaves! It is quite a sight because they almost every street in the city!

But as we were driving home Chris got a phone call from Mama Catherine. The polce has just dropped off a 2 month old baby but Mama Catherine already has 72 children and she does not have the facilites to cope with children under 1 year yet alone any more children at all. So she dropped the baby off that afternoon.

When the baby arrived we didn't know the gender or name of the child. So we had to wait till the baby woke up till we could take the nappy off to see if it was a boy or girl! To our delight it is a baby girl! The next day we found out some more information, including her name and we now know her mother is a sixteen year old drug addict, why the police took the child from her I dread to think.

So to take you through the children we now have -

A premature baby, now 2 months old,
A 3 week old boy,
A 2 month old girl,
A 4 month old boy,
A 5 month old boy
An 8 month old girl,
A 10 month old boy,
An 11 month old boy,
A 17 month old boy,
A 19 month old girl,
3 toddlers (one of which we are unsure of his d.o.b.)
A 9 year old boy,
A 10 year old boy
An 11 year old boy
A 12 year old boy
A 13 year old boy,

So as you can imagine with just 3 volunteers here it is incredibly busy. And the amount of bottles we have to make is unreal! But the children are as great as ever. The toddlers - better known as the three little pigs - are as funny as ever. I'll quote some of their recent words!

During story time
Mark: 'So, Why didn't David get eaten by the lions?'
Tsephang: 'Because lions eat impala.'

When we had some visitors.
Chris: 'Tsephang, where is Auntie Maggie from?'
Tsephang: 'Germany.'
Chris: 'And Auntie Gemma?'
Tsephang: 'England.'
Chris: 'And where are you from Tsephang?'
Tsephang: 'The playroom.'

There are many more hilarious things these boys come out with but I cant think of any more right now! One of our little pigs, who is actually the oldest of the three, you would think he is the youngest. He has HIV and was malnutrised for his first 11 months and was the size of a new born baby. He is increidbly behind when you compare the children. We are currently trying to potty train him. I say to him 'Didi, do you need a wee?' 'No' 'Do you want to go on the potty?' 'Yes' 'Come let's go on the potty.' So he sits on it. 'Look Auntie - I poo!' So I take a look... nothing in the potty. 'Didi, the potty is empty.' 'Yes.' 'Do you need to do a poo?' 'No.'

Then 10 minutes later, wee and poo in his pants. This happens all day, every day. It is hilarious, frustrating and quite sad all at the same time!Communicating with him is so difficult, the only things he will ever say are either 'Look, Aeroplane!' 'Look, a car.' 'More milk... pleeeeeease.'

Im just trying to think if I have anything else to report... we now have elephants on the game reserve also. They were released last week, and the lions are roaming free and we have been told that within the first week they had killed 2 warthogs, 2 wildabeast and a bespock.

Last week we had an incredible heat wave where it was reaching 38 degree in the shade! It was actually a record for October, I think even Johannesburg reached mid thirties. But because we are higher altitude and in the bush we get even hotter. I was quite happy to hear that it doesnt get much hotter than that during summer. I cant explain quite how hot is it, especially when your working with lots of children. We have also been having the best thunderstorms ever! Last week on my day off in the evening I just sat at my window for hours just watching the lightening. Although it is so close, they often have lightening strike trees on the farm. It also means lots of power cuts. I love the power cuts in some ways because the lanterns we use are so lovely and I find it can be quite relaxing. ON the other hand it makes sterilising bottles so so difficult and we can't heat them up for the babies etc easily. SO makes the work load more! Yesterday we had a powercut form 6am till 7.30pm.

Any way, Ive just done lots of washing thats now on the line, and am about to play some guitar. Not really sure what else to do - it can get very boring now that there are less volunteers and we can't go for nice ong walks in the bush, or walk over to Derek's place to get food. But I'd rather stay on the farm than eaten by lions......

Love to everyone at home.

(As usual...wrote and went to upload this blog yesterday  to find the internet was down and just came back on this afternoon!)

Update I wrote on 21st October

So monday was alot more exciting than expected! In the morning Mark asked whether one of us volunteers would like to come and visit Oarabile in hospital that afternoon. Fortunately since Maggie had only come 2 weeks before she went into hospital I got the chance to go! So I was to work will 2 o'clock and then we would leave to go to the hospital which is an hours drive away.

But that morning we went for a nice long walk around the whole farm with the 4 toddlers and 2 of our babies and we saw 3 ostriches and a huge kudo! We thought that was exciting enough and then lo and behold Mark got a phone call from Darin who lives on the farm opposite. There had been a spotting of a rhino on their farm, so of course we all jumped into the car with the toddlers and managed to spot the rhino! Took a while to find him because they are so well hidden and we had to track him down, as you can imagine they soon move on. Got some great photos and videos of it!

Our little girl is still very sick Im sad to say, she can't hold her head up, move her legs, eat properly or make any noises. Although she smiled and laughed with me! She could recognise the songs I used to sing to her, and the names of the other children. She was being transported on wednesday to Pretoria hospital for the MRI Scan thank goodness! But she is being moved back today which we are all not happy about because 1) the hospital is a long trip when you have 16 other children to care for every day 2) she is not getting the care she should have, Pretoria hospital is a lot better.

Kirstin arrived safely in Belgium but sadly the host family she was due to be staying with have been very unwelcoming to her, so she is now going to have to find a new host family in Belgium. We are all trying to keep her spirits up because as you can imagine arriving in a completely new country, with no support around her and having to leave the family is a bit scary for her. But hopefully the Au Pairing Agency will look after her and find a nice new family who will welcome her properly.

Wednesday was my day of and we went to pick up a new baby - an 8 month old - a GIRL! We finally have a little girl to dress up! She's beautiful, all we know is that ehr mother never anted her from the start but her Uncle insisted she not be put up for adoption. I guess the mother had juts had enough! We also have a new born baby boy! Came to us last week only 4 days old (although he's bigger and drinking more than our premature baby who we've had in our care for 5 weeks! Crazy). He is also adorable.

But as you can imagine it is very very tough, we only have 3 volunteers helping with the childrne now and with 7 babies (4 babies under 4 months!), 2 one year olds and 3 toddlers it is madness. Every hour a baby needs a feed. We do have Mama Mina who is a local lady who works 7.30am-4am every week day. But weekends and evenings are the hardest when we have all of them to look after.

Please pray that we would get more volunteers! 2 people that Chris had in mind for next year but invited them to come earlier, because it is so crazy at the moment, have not been responding to her emails. So pray either that we would be able to cope, get another volunteer or more importantly that some of these beautiful children would actually be ADOPTED and go to families who want them!

We actually have Mark and Chris's granddaughter here today to help out, she lives and studies in Pretoria. She is a great help but obviously has studying and exams so can only come on odd days if she gets time. We get along very well, and she has invited me to a concert in Jo'burg in December so that's something to look forward to! At the moment I never get the chance to leave the farm - especially now the lions are here we cant even walk!

Oh and don't worry, I whave been taking advantage of having a beautiful swimming pool everyday! My hair is going turn into chlorine soon I think, but it wont stop me!

All my love!

October so far.

So, after a good night's sleep, Im now sat in a lovely new room , quite quaint and cosy, in a luxurious double bed, with a cup of tea beside me and a view of the bushland beyond my cottage. What more could I ask for??

Since last time I spoke to you, the pool has been up and running and since the older boys (Tsepho Nhlanhla, Tom and Kagiso) were off school for the week we had great fun in and out of the pool. Of course I could only go when I was on break from shift work but was still great. Their nephew Robert also came to stay for the week, who is ten years old, but we had lots of banter and laughter!

Im so excited to tell you that I had my first day out on Tuesday the 4th! Charlie, who comes from a near-by farm, agreed to take Kirstin and I to Gold Reef City. Johanesburg's big theme park. I have never been on a 'proper' rollercoaster, being strapped in and all, but I went on every ride! Even though it was school holidays the queues were only 10 minutes a time, and we went on the same ride over and over - one where you just get tipped up and down and get soaking wet!

That week one of our boys, who recently turned 2, was due to go back to his mother. She raised him for the first 11 months, but when he came to Tsepho Ya Bana he was incredibly undernourished and ill. Looking at pictures, you couldnt believe its the same child (which is a similar story to a couple of our boys here). But his mother didn't come to fetch him for a whole week, we were getting very nervous whether she was ever going to come, technically Chris and Mark has signed to papers over to him ont he 4th but he was still in our care till the 11th.

As I may have said before, Kirstin is off to Belgium for one year to au pair with a family. So that friday we had a braii for her and invited some of her friends over. It was a lovely relaxed evening and just stayed chatting outside till early hours of the morning. The next day I was on 6.30am start but the children were so well behaved for Auntie Gemma! And since some of the people stayed overnight it meant we als had some more helping hands, and a guy called Cameron for the boys to play with also.

That sunday I was also very happy to get the chance to go to church again with Mark and the older boys. It was a great sermon, it was at Constantia Park Baptist church. Its a very European style church (best way I can describe it).

Tuesday was my day off which was nice as Kirstin came to my room in the morning and said that two people we had met at the braii has invited us to come to Pretoria for an evening out. So again Charlie came with, and we met up with some new people. It was nice to meet some south africans my own age. Its funny out here because you either get the 'Africaans South Africans' or the 'English South Africans' so some are very similar in their ways to English people and some are very different.

That day I had spent most fo the day in the pool. We are able to take the three older toddlers in. Except on of our boys, doesn't like it very much and just cries and our other boy has really bad skin. So he cant go in water very much, and as you can imagine the chlorine is awful for his skin. But our third toddler absolutely loves it and jumps in the deep in even! Its so fun trying to teach him to swim and he's getting great. So he joined me in the pool on that tuesday.

That was also the day that Kamo got picked up from his mother, it was horrible saying goodbye but we know that it is much better for him. All of us, and the children, miss him very much. That evening when I put one of the boys to bed (he is about 16 months old and he and Kamo used to sleep next to eachother in cribs) started crying and crying. So had to keep rocking him to sleep.

This past week has been very busy as Kirstin has been packing to leave and on saturdya we had to say our final goodbye. It was very emotional because she's been my best friend ever since Ive been here, and she's even spoken about moving to England permanently so I know we will definately stay friends and meet up lots. She arrived in Belgium early sunday morning and as far as I know she said the travelling was long but the family seem nice.

So our last couple evenings we watched movies, all jumped in the pool with the older boys and all the other volunteers, and I stayed in her room one night and we were laughing and giggling till 2am! Again the 6.30am start was tough!

Now to tell you about our little girl, she is still no better. Luckily she is going THIS WEDNESDAY for an MRI, she is getting moved to a different hospital for 2 days to get the scan. Can't believe this is going to be her 5th week in hospital and she is still waiting for an MRI scan on her brain, meanwhile she is laid there not eating, not drinking, not talking, not moving. Lifeless.

Please keep praying for her.

Anyway I must now drag myself out of bed, these children need me to go make breakfast! We only have 3 days left where we can go for walks, because the lions get realised on thursday!! So I think I will be taking them on a nice long walk today!! Lets hope we see some animals!

Peace and love to you all.

Life of Late

Was going to post this last friday - unfortunately we had no internet since thursday so this is the first chance Ive had! The past few weeks have been lots of ups and downs I'm sad to say. I'll again pick up from where I left off but before I do I shall just warn you this is a very long post... yet again. You may want to grab a cuppa!

Wednesday 7th Mark and Chris had a new baby grandson born! I've seen pictures and he's a beautiful baby boy. That saturday morning Chris went and drove up to stay with them for a week and got to have a bit of a holiday!

It meant we were all quite busy with doing nights shift every evening, we did 2 nights each between Kirstin Amy and I. But that saturday Kirstin and I had the chance to go for a big braai down the road at Sean's farm. A couple of Kirstins friends were down from Jo'burg for a holiday so we all got together with people on the other farms.

It was great to have an afternoon off, we worked 6.30am til 12.30 in the morning with the children and then spent the rest of the day at the braai. We even got thrown in the pool, its madness because it was the first time they used the pool since winter and they thought the water was freezing! When I told them I am used to Bournemouth beach they understood why I stayed in there for a while, whilst all the other jumped out.

We then went on a game drive with about 7 of us. It was awesome we saw giraffe only meters away, and he even started walking around showing off to us. The sun was setting as we went to the lake nearby, where they have hippo's and even crocs. Sadly we didnt spot them but maybe one day! Then we spent the rest of the evening by a big bonfire, drinking and eating and having lots of laughs! My first big social evening in South Africa!

But now to tell you the bad news. We have had a lot of sickness the last few weeks, all but 1 of the children have suffered. Some had fever for some time then recovered, other having sickness and diahreaa. But when we have even our smallest babies (2-3 months) coming down with a fever it was getting quite worrying especially with Chris away.

The little girl we have here went down ill friday the 9th so Mark took her to the doctors on monday because we started to get worried. That evening I was on night shift again and the whole night I could just hear her wimpering and struggling to sleep. She was so floppy and would not respond to anything. Neither eating or barely drinking.

Then by the next day Mark decided we should get her checked out at the hospital, luckily I got to go with her. I cant share all the details about her individually but she is still in hosital to this day, and has been transported to a bigger hosiptal about 2 hours drive from here. She has had brain scans that the doctors said show some abnormality but they need to wait for an MRI. BUT the hospital is not a private hospital and the MRI machine is not working! Because she is not detoreorating they are not treating her as urgent - yet she is a very young girl that is still not responding to anything and is being fed by a drip!

Please pray for our dear little girl, wish I could share more information for you all but as you can imagine she is in a critical state and needs our prayers that the Lord will heal her. We are trying to seek some other help, we need to get her moved to a private hospital where you get proper treatment out here, yet the because of the cost it is not possible. So we may look at trying to fundraise some money for her, which I will update you all on asap.

Chris arrived home last thursday the 15th, and by friday we had a premature baby! He is unbelieveable, he is 5 weeks old and yet only 3.75 pounds. We don't know how premature he was when he was born but he is still very small. We were a bit worried to bring him home when we have so mch sickness going around, so please also pray for his health.

Last friday 16th me and Kirstin had the day off together which was nice and we got to go into Pretoria to the Kollonade shopping mall. We had a lovely steak and chips for lunch! The first restaurant in 2 months, and so cheap! It only cost £10 for a huge rump steak and coca cola!

I got to go to a lovely church last sunday with Mark, Chris and the 4 boys. It is a church plant from Constantia Park Baptist and was great. The service and worship was great and then afterwards you all sit and have a discussion on the sermon and our thoughts which I think you'll agree is such a great idea to hear peoples experiences and share. It is mostly white congregation. I feel very fortunate to have experience 4 different churches so far, 2 black South African and 2 mostly white congregation. But since Ive only been once to each its hard to say which I will go to again.

This past week has been great - on monday Chris was having a busy day going into Pretoria. So there was no-one to home-school Nhlanhla and when Chris asked which Auntie he wanted to teach him he asked for me! So that was nice, and I said to him if he works well then I will take him across the road to one of the lodges for pizza. And thats exactly what we did! It was great. Also meant I had quite a relaxing day (although he has health problems so can be quite difficult to control.)

Thursday and Friday night I was on night shift. Friday was very difficult, I stayed up late with the older boys playing cards and then watching Narnia but two of the babies were up most of the night and had to do 6 different feeds. So luckily I got a nice lie in this morning! I keep thinking how easy its going to be when Im a mum - only 1 or 2 children! Im getting used to looking after 6 toddlers and 5 babies!

We've also been trying to keep up to date with the World Cup Rugby! I am determined to buy an Original Springbok Jersey, although they are rather pricey! But everyone goes around wearing them - rugby is definately South Africa's sport! Sadly the channel we have only shows the SA matches so I havent got to see much of England playing so I am not ashamed to say I have been cheering on the Africans!

Our premature baby is still doing well and healthy and one of our other little boys who just turned age 2 is due to be going back to his family very soon. We dont know what happened to his father, but his mother is very young and the family could not help support her financially so he arrived here last year very sick and suffering from malnutrition. Fortunately he will be going home to his mum now, as the family have finally decided to help. We will miss him very dearly! He is beautiful.

Another exciting thing is the swimming pool! For the last weekend we have been empting the pool from the dirt its gathered over the winter. Kirstin and I started with 2 buckets and gradually all the older boys all came and helped and a couple other volunteers. We were there most of sundayafternoon, whilst I was on a 'break', and finished empting it! Now the cracks need filling and we need to scrub it clean but should be up by next week! Canny wait!

Oh almost forgot MORE exciting news. We now have lions on the reserve! 6 at the moment, 2 more are coming. They are in 2 prides. Elephants will also be following them. But yet its bitter sweet. In some ways - LIONS. I mean how awesome is that, we can actually hear them soon and they could walk past my cottage! Madness. But then its sad because we can no longer go for walks, not just in a selfish way (because as you have guessed I love going for walks on my break, in the bush, past the waterholes etc.) but we can no longer take the children for walks. Most days we like to go for a wak with the toddlers, and they love spotting the Kudo and Impala and Ostriches, and we saw a baby Giraffe with them by the dam the other morning! We can't even take them on our farm because the fence only goes around the houses and cottages. The lions are still being 'introduced' to the reserve so we have 31 days left before we have to stop leaving the gate. We also like to stroll across to neighbours farms, Joanne and Darren who live across the road love us bringing the children over, and Tamboti (the restaurant and lodge across the road) where I took Nhlanhla for pizza and us volunteers sometimes go for a drink.

But on tuesday we did get to go with Mark, Hans and Gerrie, Kirstin, Nhlanhla, Tom and the three toddlers to go see them! Because they are in an enclosure to start with which is at a local lodge all the local landowners get to go and visit them for free! The toddlers were petrified of the safari truck but once they were on they loved it! We saw 4 lions, 2 male and 2 female. They were beautiful and the thought that they are actual wild animals that have just been brought over from Botswana and will be released soon is crazy!

Today is my day off and me and the four older boys had a lovely treat today! School has broken up for 2 weeks, and Mark had promised the boys he would take them to Pretoria for a treat sometime, the boys asked me to come and so I managed to get today off. We went ice-skating at the shopping mall and then got burger and chips! It was so much fun, and I didnt fall over once, to the boys disappointment - they were looking forward to seeing Auntie Gemma fall flat on her bum. I also brought a lovely Springbok Jersey, woop-woop!

Anyway I have rambled on for more than half an hour, and this has probably taken an hour of time your time, so I shall stop talking now! (Oh sorry one more thing to say - I may be staying a few more months, its in discussion that I may stay a further 2-3 months!) Love to you all and hope everything is well back home.

I hope to update you all about our little precious baby girl very soon, lets pray its good news but if not, she is in the Lord's hands.

Mama Catherine's Visit

It was a few weeks ago I was telling you that I was going to visit another orphange run by Mama Catherine. And (as I say very often in these blogs) its was quite an experience, one I wont forget in a long time.

So I went on my day off with Joanne and Darren and their two children. They are a couple who stay across the road on Mark and Chris son's farm, they are an American couple who emigrated a couple months ago to start up a business. Yet when your working with 'South African time' you never know when anything will get done so they are still waiting for the plans to be set in place.

Joanne and Darren have known Mark and Chris for many years and have visited this area countless times and whilst they are waiting to get the business started they help out a lot at the orphanage.

The orphange itself is different to Tshepo Ya Bana in many ways and sadly not in a good way. They are in much more of a poverty state and have around 60 children. They range from ages as young as 1 years to early 20's. Im not sure on the exact amount of children there at this moment in time.

But so we arrived around midday and took some balloons with us to blow up as I was told the children absolute love balloons! They all speak Africanse so I couldnt speak with any of the younger children but the older girls I could talk to. They learn English from an early age at school, so it was great to be able to talk to some of the older girls.

Most of them were absolutely enthralled when I told them I was from England and just kept stroking my hair and complimenting me, which was so crazy. But it was nice to try and talk to them about life at the orphanage, most of them dont have much aims in life because they are into their late teens and still at this orphanage yet finished schooling.

But we sang some songs: Beyonce and Rihanna etc. and they adored it.

The younger children loved me even more as soon as I took the balloons out of my bag, sadly I only had about 20 balloons so some were left quite unsatisfied. But some of the children had such a sadness in their eyes, three inparticular did not let go of me. They were just holding onto my clothes or wrapping their arm around my legs and wanting me to pick them up constantly. Crying out for love.

You see, the orphanage works from local support from churches and contacts and largely runs on donations. They have lots of Mamas working there, I saw around 20 older African women there yet they are not paid. It is in such a poverty area that the people come and work to get a meal and food daily. So these workers actually do not care for these children in any way, practically or emotionally. Me and Joanne had just arrived as visitors but we were the only ones playing with the children, interacting with them, helping feed them. We were just in complete shock that these women are here to help in order to recieve food in return, yet they were sat drinking tea the whole duration of our visit.

That is one of the main issues that is happening at Mama Catherines.

So after playing with the children and the older girls for an hour or two, it was now lunchtime for everyone. Yet as soon as we started to grab some tables and chairs all the older children disappeared and it was just the children ages 8 or younger left. So we had around 20/30 young children with no supervision trying to feed themselves. It was horrific.

There was no cups for water and no bowl to wash their hands in. So firs and formost me and Joanne got a big bucket for them to wash their hands before they sat up. Then we noticed thta there were around 4 or 5 children just able to wak (so no older than 14 months) sat trying to feed themselves. All the children eat with their fingers as that is typical African, yet these young children had absolutely no Mamas helping them or showing them what to do so we grabbed them and started to help feed them.

After most of them had finished we suddenly noticed that there was one of the 1 year olds drinking the dirty water from the bucket we put out to wash their hands. Immediately we pulled him away and then noticed that none of these children had been given cups and there was no water or taps in sight.

So Joanne grabbed a cup for this little boy and a bucket of 'clean' water. Before I knew it they were running up to me drinking 3 or 4 cups each, having to take it in turns because we could not find any more cups. Children as young as one years of age drank 4 large cup fulls of water in one go.

How long had they been without water? We had no idea when they were last given the chance to drink.

The main problem we noticed when we were there was that these poor children do have lots of things... bed, blankets, plenty of donated clothes, food on their plates and taps for water. Yet they have no actual care. The older children disappear and dont help the younger children, and the Mamas and Papas who are there to work sit down on chairs and talk.

It was a very eye-opening situation as you can imagine and I cant write all the things I experienced there but this was the main thing I wanted you all to hear about my first visit to Mama Catherines.

Joanne came yesterday to Tshepo Ya Bana and I spoke with her briefly and she said that Pete (Mama Catherines side-kick if you will) has asked after me saying when can I come again. Its clear they need all the help they can get for these poor children sakes. And even last week there was news to say one fo the 7 year old boys had died. Mark and Chris attended the funeral, all anyone knows is that the boy began with a fever and by a couple hours he was gone.

If you are a believer please pray for this orphanage. Pray for Mama Catherine. Pray for these children. And pray that I may get another opportunity to visit and help in any way possible.

(Hope this hasn't been too much of an essay to read!)

Week 8

Hey all,

Week Eight has begun and it seems like yesterday I was checking into arrivals nervous about being stopped and told I couldn't enter the country or something crazy!

So to pick up from where I left off, last saturday was a pretty full on day and in the evening me and Kirstin were going to go back to the cottage, have a drink and chill to a nice movie. Well our plans were changed when we had supper and put the toddlers to bed, then all of a sudden we had a power cut! So we thought, 'Oh well, we're all in for an early night!' Since its quite a regular thing we had lots of candles lit which was fun and then all of a sudden Mark gets another phone call from Derek to say he's doing another night game drive! And we were welcome to join! An offer, again, that we couldnt refuse.

So we went with Kirstin, Tom and Hans and Gerrie (one of the older boys and the other volunteers). It was great saw lots, I cant remember all the names but some of which are zebra, wildabeast, porcupines and others.

Sunday was also great because I got the chance to go to church again. We have a guy here called Dennis who has been coming consistantly since Tshepo Ya Bana started and he's here for 3 weeks and goes to a church called Tempa Community Baptist Church. So I took the opportunity to visit another 'real' South African church and experience a township church. It was great, the people were so welcoming and friendly and I had such a conviction that these are my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. The music was incredibly loud, yet in such a small and crumbling building. The worship was mixed languages and also the preaching. You often find the people out here will mix English with their own language so it was quite difficult to follow the sermon.

That afternoon was straight back to the children and a busy day. Monday Amy arrived back from Cape Town. Her boyfriend Sam had been visting her here and then they went to spend a week in Cape Town sightseeing and visiting. Sadly when she came home on monday she was very 'lovesick' as we said! She spend Tuesday in bed and even Wednesday was in and out of her room, so we were short staffed last week because poor Kirstin also had an operation to have her wisdom teeth removed. The operation, thankfully, went very well and although she was in a lot of pain for most of last week she is now back on her feet and off the painkillers.

So as you can imagine last week was quite intense with the children, some times the children know that you are stressed or tired and will play up to that (as children often do!) but every day they make me smile. Koki, Tshepo Didi and Oarabille kept making me smile when they would persistantly come and give me kiss, although when Tshpang gave me a kiss it was rather sloppy one on the lips! But nonetheless they are all so full of love!

Today we even started to potty train Tshsepo David. He is the oldest child we have and yet looks a lot younger (I think I mentioned his situation in a previous blog, was malnurished for the first year of his life and is HIV posititive.) so he is quite far behind where a normal child would expect to be. But we are about to try and potty train him and today was the second day and juts before nap time I thought I would give it a quick go to see if he could sit for a while. And lo and behold it suddenly runs to me screaming (I thought he's got stung by something or seen a snake....) but turns out he's been to the toilet! So that was great, although Im sure we will have lots of accidents to come - as many mums will relate to!!!

On friday our new volunteer Magdalina arrived! She is 19 years old and from Germany. She will be stayiong for 6 months also, and leaves in March. Its great to have another pair of hands, especially as Kirstin will be leaving for Belgium this month to be an au pair. She is a lovely girl, and her English is pretty good, although I do have to share my room again which I was not looking forward to as much Im not going to lie!! She is busy learning the children names and settling in but Im sure will be a great help here!

She had a few days off to just settle in and is now on shift duty so we are all helping her to 'learn the ropes' around here! I took her for a walk on the farm too to show her our plot and we also saw some animals which was nice for her. Its crazy to think 8 weeks ago I was in her shoes!!

Yesterday I didnt go to church but was nice because we got the afternoon off from 1.30 til 4.30pm. So me Kirstin, Dennis and Magdalina went down to Sean's cottage just down the road. They are the ones with the quad bikes!! They were having a big braai with friends and family we went for an hour or two and chatted... and of course go on the quad bikes! I decided I did not want to be ridden so drove it myself! It was awesome, driving on the quad bikes in the bush in the glorious 30 degree sunshine!

For the last week or so we have had temperates in the late 20's early 30's and been eating our supper outside, although it is still very brisk in the evenings so we wrap the toddlers up in their coats and blankets!

Its nice now to think there will be me Amy and Maggie here now till next year and also Gerrie. So it means now we will have a nice lot of hands to help out and the children don't have people coming and going, atleast till early next year. Tsepho David still picks up a barbie doll we have here and calls it Auntie Melissa who was here for 2 months not long before I came. Its sad to think the affect some of the volunteers have on them, and then they disappear again. Ive been praying lately about whether to extend my stay just for a couple months or so, please pray for direction. I would love to visit Cape Town so am also about to start thinking about how I can do that.

I hope to speak to you all again shortly and if you have Facebook I will be trying to upload a few more pictures for you to all see.

Blessings and love xx

First Things First

First things first, I would like to say sorry for being so rubbish at updating this. Its been quite a hectice few weeks as you are probably used to me saying!

Well the thursday just after my last blog, I went down with a high fever and feeling very unwell. Luckily the next day I managed to get taken to the doctors, who was really helpful and only cost 200 Rand (Just short of 20 pound) and gave me antibiotics and other drugs because I had gone down with another bad throat infection.

So after a couple days rest by the sunday I was back on my feet again. By this time Saskia, my roommate, and the other volunteer from Holand had to say goodbye to us all. As she drove off in the car, the children just all had sad, blank faces!

Then the week after Amy's boyfriend came to visit here for a week and now they are spending a week in Cape Town. So it was nice to have another face at the meal table and the older boys loved playing with an older guy.

Last friday was my day off and went for a run on the farm, and all of a sudden an Ostriche comes out the bush running at me, then froze and ran the other way.Considering they are meant to be very quick, they look hilarious when they run. On my day off I also did lots of cleaning my bathroom, and washing - not so fun! But I got to speak to my whole family on skype!

It was so lovely, they were having a big barbeque for my baby cousin who just turned one years old! It makes me very sad to think I missed out, and got quick emotional, but they are all well and healthy and was lovely to talk!

But sadly after telling my parents that i was finally back to good health, I then went down ill again on monday. So have spent yet again another 3 days in bed, and on some more antibiotics. Sadly because of the glandular fever my immune system is completely wiped, but Mark and Chris keep assuring me when the summer comes and its less dry and dusty it will be much better.

Its quite crazy to think it has only rained here once so far, in my 6 weeks of being here!

But unfortunately it was the worst week for me to have a couple days in bad, because we now only have 2 volunteers and myself (Amy is on holiday for a week in Cape town). So it means you are alone for 2 hours at a time with 6 children, and sometimes even the 4 babies (though we do have a staff work monday to friday to take care off the 4 babies).

Today has been very hot, you really notice the heat in the day now. Its getting into late 20's early 30's, but everyone keeps assuring me this is only winter - wait for summer. So Im getting a little cold feet (excuse the pun!) but it lovely to be in the sunshine everyday. Although saying that, two weeks ago we had a bad couple days full of storms and lightening. One evening there was an incredible storm and the lightening filled the sky - I even crept into Kirstins bed because I was a little nervous which is very unlike me! But they are very different out here as you can imagine. But Mark tells me they get 3 times worse, and one time lightening hit a tree just outside the fence and has killed many animals and cattle before.

But it meant we lost power for a day, so that was fun trying to feed everybody because we had no microwaves or anything so couldnt even make a sandwich because we keep stocked up on bread in the freezer so couldn't even defrost the bread to eat! Im told summer this is a common occurance. But the thunderstorms are mesmerizing!

Ermmm, what else has happened... oh...

Last night we got the chance to go on a night game drive! The gentleman on a farm across the road called Derek runs a lodging and restaurant, and does game drives around the local farms. Me and Kirstin went for free! (Kirstin is Mark and Chris adoptive daughter) She herself has never been so that just shows how rare it is to get the chance!

So we hoped on his big safari truck, in the freezing night air and Nhlanhla (one of the big boys) came with us. There was 3 other people who live on local reserves and another couple. It was amazing we left about 8.30pm and got back at 11pm. We saw virtually everything but Rhino's!!

Wildabeasts, Impalas, Jackals, Zebras, and beautiful baby boy giraffe! He was beautiful and so elegant as he walked through the bush at night. We just each held a huge torchlight to search for them ourselves, so we had to shout 'Stop!' if we saw some eyes. Derek even stopped over a local river, and we all sat and drank hot coffee, which was so nice as it was so cold! The dry dusty weather makes your nose and throat so dry its horrible.

Today we had some local visitors from the Prestige School, which is the same school the big boys go to. A class are taking it in turns to ceom in small groups and visit for a few hours. Its nice to have them to play with the children, but it also makes thing a lot harder because they children go crazy, we had Koki sleeping in the lounge, Kamo falling asleep on someones lap, Lebo (8 months) was crying his eyes out anytime anoyone came over because he doesnt like strangers so you had to hold him all day. So made our work a little harder!

Its only me and Kirstin in the cottage and the moment, and we were warned yesterday by Mark and Derek that Derek and another farm opposite had a break in. Intruders trying to cut the electric fence. Though Im told they didnt go in the house, just stole things off the property that they could sell. So we are being extra cautious to put things away and lock the door at night. Especially when my bedroom window is 10 metres from the fence!

Anyway its time for my break to end, earlier I was just sat outside in the sunshine listening to music but could only stay for 10 minutes as its so humid and the sun is blazing! You have to be very careful!

Apart from that the children are fine and enjoying the walks and sunshines, we are still trying to get one of them to walk - he's a lazy boy!

P.S. We hope to get the swimming pool up and running in a couple weeks - cant wait!!

P.S.S Just realised I haven't updated you on my visit to Mama Catherines and explaining all about what she does. Will do that hopefully in the next few days - and show you a couple pictures if I can get it to work!

Microflights and more!

Hi all!

So its already monday, time seems to fly here! Already commencing week 4 of my time her!

Last time I updated you was on wednesday, and Im not sure if I told you or not but later that dayw e had another little 6 month olf girl dropped off! She was absolutely beautiful, her mother and father were seperated and couldn't work out an agreement so decided for adoption. That evening I got to give her lots of cuddles to settle her in, but it turns out the next day her parents came back to pick her up. Somehow they must have come to an arrangement and decided to take her back!

So that was quite a whirlwind!

Thursday was my day of and I went for a big long walk for over 2 hours in the big wide bush. Got a little lost I must admit but saw lots of animals. When I saw imapala I was trying to follow them, although they are so quick they kept running off, somehow they led me back to our plot so I could find my way! Managed to also get qwuite sunburnt in the process, the African sun is beautiful!

Later that day Saskia and I were going on the microlight! So we left at around 4pm and drove over to the place. The guy who runs it is actually a believe, so during the whole flight we were having a great conversation about the bible, and our testemonies!

The flight itself lasted about 20 mintues and we were flying witht he sun in our eyes! I saw baby Giraffes, lots of Impala and Kudo, loads of Zebra and even 2 lots of Rhinos! There were 4 Rhino and as we went closer to ground they started to stampede! Then we later saw 2 Rhinos a mum and its baby sat sleeping on the ground! Incredible! And it only cost 300 Rand, which is around £30! Im hoping to do it again before I leave!

Friday was spent again with the children. But it was a lovely day as we had a Dutch family come to visit all afternoon who had recently adopted 2 girls from Tsepho Ya Bana! They were a lovely family and helped out with the children, and the toddlers were so enthrawled to see the two girls back they were playing and having loads of fun!

Saturday was a great day. I did the early shift so had a nice break off in the morning, so popped to Hammanskraal with Mark to pick up some bits. Then in the evening the older boys ahd put the tent up! So Kagiso, Tom, Nglanclan, Saskia and myself decided we would stay in the tent that night! Us volunteers chilled in the cottage for a bit then Saskia went out and joined the boys!

It was so much fun, I felt like a little kid again having a sleepover! I get on really well with the older boys, since getting the guitar started again Kagiso has started to learn some songs with me including 'The Lazy Song' by Bruno Mars because he absolutely loves that song! We were giggling and laughing for about an hour before finally dropping off to sleep!

Sunday I was up early for morning shift (trying to creep out of the tent without waking everyone didn't work so well!) then went to the African Church which is where Mama Joy (one of the cleaners that is employed by Tshepo Ya Bana) attends.

It was what some may call a 'real south african church'! We arrived around 9.30am and we commenced by going around and hugging every individual in the room before starting in song worship. It was such an incredible experience, the people are so loving and friendly. As some of you may know I am not the 'hugging' type!! But it is so normal in this land to greet people with a huge hug! Maybe I will come back a changed girl!

3 girls then moved to the front and began to sing, some were in Africanse and some were in England, and some even combined both! But the different voices and harmonies were beautiful, everybody lifting their arms and hearts praising God! The only instruments were people who had brought their own tambourines!

Then they took an offering and then we were led in a sermon. The preaching was fantastic, and the congregation are such a family, people start almost joining in and one elderly lady came up at the end to say somehting. She was speaking in  Africanse and the preacher tried to translate, but I didnt understand a word of it! Thought he congregationg were in histerics!

The rest fo the day I was back on shift wiht the children. When I had an hour break, I joined in witht he older boys and Uncle Hans as they wer eplaying football, or should I say 'soccer'. It was great fun!

We actually have past volunteer here for one week caleld Auntie Melissa, she is here with her brother from Holand. She was here about 2 months ago, and has been travelling around SA and has come back fr one week. It has really thrown the children off and they are a bit misbehaving and things because I think it is hard for them to understand why she has come back when she said goodbye.

Its so sad, whenever we hear an aeroplane the children go crazy (they love them!) But they relate any aeroplane to past volunteers, they believe that thats where the go to for the rest of their lives. Sot hey will look up and see an aeroplane and shout 'Auntie Wendy!' or 'Auntie Melissa!' and they keep saying to Saskia - 'You go in aeroplane'.

Its so sad, and makes me want to stay longer, although I am here for 6 months Saskia has only been ehr 6 weeks and leaving already!


Last night we had a great night, since its a Public holiday on tuesday the boys dont have school today or tomorrow. So we decided that we would doa  pizza and movie night with them at the Volunteer cottage. So there were us volunteers, the 4 boys and Auntie Melissa and her brother. It was greta fun, and nice for boys too! We even tried pizza with Banana on it!

Today is my day off as I plan to go to visit another orphanage near by. The lady who runs it is Mama Kathrine, so thats what we call it. I will be going with a local couple who have just emigrated here from the USA, they are a lovely fmaily and waiting to start a business here to in the meantime they visit local orphanages and help with the children etc. They are due to pick me up in about 40 minutes so I will elt you know how I get on!
Im told Mama Kathrines is a lot more basic tha Tsepho Ya Bana, Im not sure they even have running water.....

Speak to you shortly!!!!

Gemma

Trying to Upload Pictures

Ahhh sorry everybody, I just spent 1 hour this morning uploading about 20 pictures, and then the internet went :(

I dont have time to try again, but tomorrow is my day off so shall try again tomorrow!!

Might as well update you on my last few days while Im here! So yesterday after I updated my blog we all went and made pancakes for lunch! Special treat - my profile picture is a picture taken yesterday with 4 of the boys!

Then this morning, after making their breakfast I took the four toddlers out for a big long walk. Its great because at the moment on the game reserve we can roam around as much as we like. They are soon to be putting elephants and lions within the game reserve which is sweet and sour. It means obviously we could have elephants on our doorstep and lions too - but we will no longer be able to go for walks beyond our electric fence! Which will be such as shame.

This morning on our walk we saw a very big ostriche, a very quick impala running away from us (I told the boys they had to be quiet - they wouldn't listen!! ha) and we also saw some really cute wathogs walk past... ugly but cute things they are.

Friends have also been asking me lots about what the food is like here! I have to say it is great! We all share a meal every evening with around 15 of us. Chris is a great cook, and because she has to make the food stretch she's always cooking stews and large dishes. We had a lovely buttnersquash curry the other day that was delicious. They have a lot of butternut squash and pumpkin. In South Africa we also have a ridiculous amount of peanut butter, the kids request it almost every lunchtime and Chris made a Western dish which was like peanut butter chicken stew! Very bizzarre.

I eat my own lunch and breakfast in my cottage, so its simply cornflakes or oats for breakfast, and then just bread for lunch. Gets a bit boring!!


As I told you yesterday we have a new baby boy here so in total we have 13 boys and just one girl. I will go throught heir names for you:

Our 5 big boys:
Kagiso,
Tshepo,
Tom (the only easy name!)
Nglanglan,
Fetsi,

Our Toddlers:
Tshepang,
Koketso (or Koki as we call him),
Tshepo David, (Or Tshepo Didi, or Didi)
Kamo

Then our 1-year olds:
Orebelle (our only girl!)
Tshwarelo

Our babies:
Lebo
Lehtlogonolo
Neo (pronounced Nao)

As you notice we only have one girl, Im told that that is quite usual in Africa, or near here anyway. When girls are given to husbands, the husband has to pay the family, or in effect buy her as a wife. So families, particularly in the townships are more likely to want to keep the baby girls as it will later provide some sort of income. Whereas boys would not. Its bizarre because in England and many other countries it always seems to be the opposite, historically boys were more wanted to carry on the family name!

But it just shows what these families living in poverty have to deal with.

We cherish Orebelle our little girl here, shes beautiful and has the best sense of humour out of all of them! I hope to attatch a video soon of her laugh. It is great, she has this sily giggle!! She is a bit of a flirt though... going up to all the boys to kiss them!

Uncle Hans (One of our other volunteers) is our handyman, he is here with his wife and she hels with the children. He has made little tools for the boys and things for them to play this! Brooms, sweeping equipment and even a wheelbarrow! The children always watch the Papa's as they garden and clean the premises and always want to join in and help! So Hans has made some great toys so that they can feel they are helping!

As I said, I will try again another day to upload some photos - sadly the internet connect is quite bad so it takes so long, please bare with me.

Hope your are all well, Im told its been lovely weather! Enjoy!

Week Two's Tales

Hello again everybody!

Sorry for the delay in updating my blog! I'll take you through my past week if thats ok!

Tuesday was another day of fun witht he children, in the evening we had our usual Bible Study. Except yet again it was quite eventful! Mark got a call from a local guy 5 minutes before commencing our study. He called to say that one the families employed at the local 'childrens village' (it hold about 60 children, and is a large complex ranging from young babies to 20 year olds - just shows how much there is a need for children care), the family had been evicted.

I wont go into too much detail into what had happened, but basically it was a man called Christian, his wife and young child aged 4. They are a christian family, and had a disagreement with the owner of the children's village and one of the children there had made false claims against them. The problems that  orphanages face is that children can make claims against workers, so we have to be very careful. Unfortunately this family had been told they must leave by the owner and needed a place to stay.

So they were driven here as we had a small room in one fo the cottages fro them, and Mark and Chris told them they can stay as long as they need. An absolutely horrific situation they are under, but praise the Lord because they arrived just as Mark was leading out bible study. And the Lord was present with us in a miraculous way, we had a great time of study and prayer for them. Though they had just been forced to leave not only their job, but home too, they were full of faith. Amen.

So Christian and his famnily were given a bed for the night, they managed to then make arrangements for the next day to go and stay with someone they new. Sadly, Christian actually managed to overturn their car on the journey, they were all rushed to A&E but were all fine. Please pray for them, they are going through such a horrific ordeal it is hard to comprehend or understand.


Wednesday was my day off, I spent it relaxing, went into the Prestige College to pick one of the older boys up who had been complaining of stomach cramps, and I also managed to get their old, unused guitar up and running! Its was such a blessing to sit outside in the sun with the guitar and sing praises, with the children mesmerized and wanting to join in. We are hoping to maybe spend some evenings singing together which will be so great, one of the older boys wants to learn too - so that may be another role here for me!!

Thursday evening, Kirstin (Mark and Chris's daughter) had to be taken to her sisters house who lives in Pretoria because she is spending a week in Durban with her Auntie. Mark, Saskia and myself travelled in the car that everning to give Mark some company. One thing about the roads here is that they are absolutely dead straight, but some are also very badly lit, some have no lights at all. So it is incredibly easy for people to fall asleep at the wheel, so Mark was grateful for our compan.y. It also meant I got to see a little more of Pretoria, and saw Mark and Chris' daughter's home. Which, again, was lovely.

Friday, sadly, I started to feel a bit unwell. My throat was awfully sore and I started to get a thumping headache. I spoke to Chris and said I would just go home to my cottage to sleep, so dont worry about making portions for me for dinner. Her and Mark looked at me and just said, 'would you like to go now' and so I had to put Baby Nolo  and his bottle down and go straight to my cottage for a big sobbing session and sleep. I was frustrated because I couldnt do the work I was meant to be doing, and hate being ill away from home.

I was so pleased I managed to get hold of my mum on the telephone for the first time. It was lovely to be able to talk to her and she reassured me that if I am ill, I must concentrate on staying in bed and getting better. So all saturday and sunday was spent in bed. I didnt move. Sadly I did vomit a couple times during the night. But it turned out to be ANOTHER case of tonsillitus.

(If you know me well - you will know that whenever I am ill it will always be tonsillitus!)

Mark and Chris didnt particularly want to take me to the doctors so she gave me some herbal tablets, and some strong aspirin which cleared up my fever.

Yesterday I managed to get back on my feet a little and worked about 5 or 6 hours with the children, and today I am also back on my feet as yesterday I went to bed around 6 oclock to get some good rest for today.

Yesterday we also had a social worker come by to see one of the babies called Lebo. At the same time they dropped off another baby. I dont know if you remember, but when I arrived we had a little baby girl called Neo (pronounced Nao) who was adopted to an africanse family. Well this new baby is also caleld Neo - this time a little baby boy.... he is 6 weeks old! So sad to hear that only 6 weeks ago his mother gave birth to him, and yet was found on his grandmothers doorstep a few weeks later and consequently put into our care. He is beautiful.


One of the volunteers I share a room with, called Saskia, she sadly leaves next Wednesday (It will be very emotional I can tell!) Me and her hope to get the chance to go on a Microlight on my day off on thursday!!!! So very excited! We also plan to all go for a meal before she leaves, and have the older boys up to our cottage one night to make pancakes and watch movies!!

Again my love to you all,

Any questions email me at glhayward11@gmail.com

Gemma

The Bush Fire and more.

I thought I would put up a few pictures fo the bush fire that was near us on thursday last week!

So Friday was my day off but it was quite hectic! Kirstin, one of Mark and Chris's daughters had a blackout the night before and has no idea what happened but was out for around 10 minutes. So Chris, Kirstin and myself went into Pretoria before having to pick up one of the boys from boarding school. Chris dropped me off a shopping mall to look around whilst they took Kirstin to the hospital to get her checked out as she had a huge bump.

Kirstin ended up taking abuot 4 hours, they did lots of brain scans, chest scans and bloodtests and she was even put through the 'Donut Machine' as the boys call it! Turns out the doctors couldn't find anything, praise the Lord.

So it meant they picked me up from the shopping mall around 3 oclock, we quickly grabbed groceries and came back. Because we were running so late Mark had to pick up Fetsi from school.

Saturday I was on early shift again so started at 6.3am and in the evening us 4 volunteers decided we would go out to a show that Sean and his son Charlie (our local neighbours) were going to. So we each took turns to go back to the cottage to get ready whilst looking after the children and eating. We went to a circus show about 40 minute drive away. It was quite a weird place that we went to, unless you go into Pretoria they don't have many places for you to go for evenings. It has childrens amusements and a gambling centre.

The show was also quite enjoyable, not quite my cuppa tea shall we say! But then it was around 10.30 and they took us to an Africanse kareoke bar in Hammanskraal. As I said before you are limited to a choice of abot 3 or 4 different places safe for us to go to, for instance we drove past many townships and it would be suicidal if we were to get out the car anywhere amongst it. It's so sad that racism is still happening, and to see it first hand. Even when I was alking around the shopping mall on Friday people would turns heads to me because I was a lone, english, white girl.

We didn't get home from the kareoke bar till 12.30 and because I was attending church on sunday it meant I had early shift. So 5 and a half hours sleep later I was up with the babies!

We left for Pretoria with Mar and Chris (who run Tshepo ya Bana) and the 5 older boys who age between 9-13. Mark and Chris attend Constantia Park Baptist Church, a church John and Yvonne Temple attended for a long while. The people there knew that someone was coming from 'John adn Yvonne's church in England' so I felt quite famous!! People were very friendly and welcoming and the church service was very good.

They actually have sunday school and an adults teaching class at 9.00 till 10.00, then tea and coffee then the usual service at 10.30 for all, so that no teachers or children miss the sermon which makes a lot of sense.

I worked the rest of sunday afternoon and had to have a ncie early night on sunday!!

Yesterday was enjoyable - Saskia, Amy and myself took 4 of the toddlers to get ice-cream at our local restaurant/lodging park. It is only a 5 minute walk from Tshepo Ya Bana so is ideal (I also hope to go one evening for a meal - nice to get out of the farm for a little while).

The children were so so excited to go get ice-cream it was so much fun, although on the walk back I had to carry Kamo, he is only 2 and was so tired, falling asleep on me almost!

Anyway for now I shall say goodbye,

Love to you all. And my prayers go out to all my friends at the Christian Camp in Wales!! Missing you all, have an amazing week.

Gemma

Weekend

Hello!

Its Saturday morning now, its been a little while since Ive had a chance to properly sit down and write what's been happening!

Well I will start by telling you about Sean, the neighbour I spoke about in my last post. Wednesday afternoon we suddenly saw police cars and Seans car driving very fast past down the road. The tenants he had had actually been stealing furniture from Sean but more than that - they had been advertising the cottage online to people and taking deposits! There are about 3 or 4 people that had paid a deposit to the tenant and they had been told that they could move in within the week!

So Sean could now report them to the police and they were removed off the property! Sean is obviously still very upset as he has lost months of rent pay and also other people have lost their deposit money.

But Praise the Lord he answered our prayer which were for the tenants to be completely removed from his home! Sean called us to say thank you to all of us who were praying in the Bible Study on tuesday evening for him for he believes it was a direct result from our prayers. Amen!

Thursday was quite an adventurous day! Because the weather in the winters here is dry and yet gets warm and sunny in the daytime, bush fires as you can imagine are very frequent! Usually August, as Im told, are when most begin because August it starts to even warmer towards summer but is still very dry.

Yet thursday, Mark and Uncle Hans saw a sudden fire and smoke just in the distance. So Mark, Hans and al the Papa's went straight onto the truck and filled it with as much water as possible and drove straight there. Everbody in the area all come to help, because if it is ever your farm you want all the help you can get! So the men came back very late with black hands and very tired! Mark then took me and a few others in the car at about 9 o'clock at night to go see the ruins, it was very dark and the fire was just dying down and the few people left were leaving to go home. As you can imagine there is only so much you can do!

Then that evening I managed to skype my parents which was lovely as it was my mums birthday! Very sad I couldn't spend it with the family, but we chatted for a good hour or so. I also then spoek to Naomi and other friends Jackie and John so was a very late night for me! But Friday was my day off so I didn't mind.

It was about 11.30pm when I came to the cottage and Kirsten got out of bed to help me lock the door (you must always lock everything thing out here especially at night!).

Next thing we know, Kirsten comes into my room in the morning to sayu that she had a blackout just before she got back into bed, and has a huge bump on her head and can't remember a thing. So obviously Mark and Chris were worried and wanted to go get her checked out at the hospital for there was no explanation, and it wasn't just a faint.

Chris always goes into Pretoria on fridays to go collect one of the boys (he is the only one who attends boarding school from Monday-Friday) so at the same time we went into Pretoria to get Kirsten checked out. Since it was my day off Chris gave me the option to get out of the farm for a bit and see one of the shopping malls while they visited the hospital, then afterwards we would get the groceries and then go to the boarding school (we then must be back in time for about 4oclock because they need to car to take the staff home).

Chris dropped me at the shopping mall at 11oclock, but it truns out Kirsten was having ECG's, blood test, brain scans, chest scans and everything! The hospitals here are very efficient. So they ended up not picking me back up till about 3pm, so we ha to quickly grab some groceries but Mark had to travel to collect Fetsi from school because otherwise we would be too late coming home.

Praise the Lord Kirsten is fine and they couldn't see anything wrong, but if it happens again she must go back immediately.

So my day off was quite adventurous again!

Then last night Mark got his telescope out to show us some of the stars! In winter it is incredible clear skies, and because we are in the heart of the bush there is no lights to distract. I can now say I have seen SATURN! It was amazing, you could se the rings so clearly! You could also see the milky way and the 'scorpion'.

Oh! And I almost forgot! Remember last time I told you mark took us to see a lone giraffe? Well yesterday morning while on the road to Pretoria - we saw 4 giraffes!!! One was a baby suckling on its mum! I was so pleased I had my camera on me!

Well Im due back on duty soon, been up since 6 on early shift so keep yawning!

Love to you all, and a special mention to all my amazing friends who are off to CCIW today (Christian Camps in Wales)

Have an awesome time and tell me all about it when you get back!

Till next time!
Gemma x

Bush Life

Hi everybody!

So Ive been here a couple days now, and trying to get into the swing of things at TYB!

Baby Nao was taken to her new Mama and Papa today, so we now have 13 children which makes a big difference! We work on shift patterns here, so for example, yesterday I worked 7.30-12.30pm then 1.30-4.30 then 5.30 till whenever we could get them all off to bed! It is pretty full on days, and some toddlers have naps and bottles at different times of the day so still learning all the routines!

There are 2 other girls volunteers, both from Holand and Kirsten (Mark and Chris' adoptive daughter). There are also a new couple from Holand who are helping more with the keeping of the building, i.e. building cots and clearing storage etc.

Yesterday I had my first bible study, Mark led it and there were 8 of us. We are working through the book of Acts and had a small time of prayer for one of our neighbours. he's in a terrible situation at the moment. He is called Sean and works as a farmer. He rents his main house out to tenants, and his wife recently left to go to Scotland where he hopes to join her in emigrating over there as soon as possible.

Sadly, his current tenants have been more than trouble. They were rushing Sean to move in and refused to show any Identification or pay rent. He reported them to the local police and it turns out he is out on bail for Fraud.It also transpires that his father was a convicted pheodophile, and raped and even murdered young girls. So he is trying desperately to get them out, but in SA it can take up to 200 days. So not only can he not emigrate yet, but he is not getting rent money and of course there are fears of what these people are capable of doing. Please pray the Lord would remove them from his home!

Back to a more happy note! The day before yesterday, me and Sashkia were on a quick break when Mark called us over and said he saw a giraffe in the bush. So we rushed in the car and went down the path. We saw around 20 impala, a Zebra and a beautiful Giraffe! It was incredible! So surreal to see such wild animals you only ever see in the zoo or on television! Sadly I didnt have time to grab my camera, it was also getting late and the sun was setting and they were so well camoflaged!

Anyway, my break is about to finish to must get back to work!

My skype is all up and running 'gemma.leanne.hayward' and would love to talk to any of you!

Big South Africa Love!!

Gemma

Safe Arrival

Evening everybody!

I am writing this in the freezing cold wintry evenings of South Africa. Wow, this day has finally come!

My mum, dad and best friend Georgina drove me up to London Heathrow yesterday and had to say a tearful goodbye! The plane boarded and flew off on time, and Praise the Lord we arrived at the other end safely. (Although the gentlemen next to me suddenly had to throw his dinner back up 1 hour before landing, so the last hour was not so good.!)

Mark met me at the pick-ups and we drove into Hammanskraal to grab some milk for the babies then came to Plot 94 Klipdrift!

Within my first hour of arrival 2 local guys had come over on their Quad Bikes and offered to take us to go to the game reserve and look for the animals! Tshepo Ya Bana itself is right in the heart of the game reserve so we are right in the middle! We saw lots of different wild animals - warthogs, antelope, impalas, ostriches and even meercats!! I tried to get some photos but was difficult when your in the bush on a quad bike! We went for around 2 hours in the afternoon then I was given a couple hours to myself to unpack and had an afternoon nap!

The weather is glorious sunshine in the day at around 20 degrees, but its very very cold in the evening!

There are currently 14 children here, one beautiful little girl called Nao, and is around 6 months old, is being adopted on Wednesday! Already sorry to see her going so soon! Ive been introduced to all the children - yet it will take me a while to grasp their names, shamefully!)

Well, for now it is goodbye, but will update you all soon!

Love
Gemma.

Packed at last.

So its now 3 hours till I leave my house in sunny old Bournemouth.

Sadly I have had to get a new email address as my old one was hacked into this week. So I will now be using glhayward11@gmail.com.

I had an amazing evening last night, we had a big leaving party with all my friends and family from Moordown Baptist Church. As expected, the rain started 10 minutes before people began arriving, but fortunately I have a lovely friend who helped us put up a big gazebo! My 'masterchef' dad cooked us a simple barbeque and my dear friend Naomi made some beautiful food too!

We had up to 30 people come in and out throughout the night, and soon whipped the guitars out and begun singing a huge array of songs. By 12.30am my parents thought it wise to bring the party inside, don't think the neighbours were best pleased!

This morning we begun packing at around 11pm... (quite last minute people I'm ashhamed to say) but 2 hours later I am all done.

I will be driven up to Heathrow at 4pm and then board the plane at 8pm, due to arrive at around 9am in Jo'burg (SA time) tomorrow morning.

Here are some pictures from yesterday!

Speak to you all soon and thanks for following!

Yours,
Gemma.

The journey is about to begin...

Evening all!

So I have just created this before I leave for an awesome adventure in South Africa. Please use the 'follow' button below to get emails when I give updates on what I am doing.

I have heard about these blogs from one of my amazing friends who is travelling around the US and NZ!

Its less than one week now till I leave, at 8pm on Saturday 16th July I will be boarding a plane on my own. I will be volunteering at a small Christian orphanage for a planned trip of 6 months. Yet I am going to take each day as it comes. I will be flying to Johannesburg and then travelling to the bush just north of Pretoria where I will be based.

My email as you can see is hayward.g@live.co.uk. This will be my main, and virtually only way of contact. I also have a skype username of 'gemma.leanne.hayward' if you ever want to see first hand where I am!

Love and blessings,

Gemma x