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!)