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