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