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