South Africa 3 - the rest of week2!

Tues 22nd
Tuesay was cool we sat in more meetings about the fundraising and then we prepared for Phil's birthday which was on Weds. some ppl shopped and then baked a FOUR TIER CAKE (i kid you not - i would put a pic on but i haven't got my camera with me so it will have to wait to go on facebook. Much hilarity while we tried to organise it and keep phil clueless (specially as he has most of the keys - luckily i keep hold of the car keys :-P)
Tuesday evening sat up very late playing card games - alot of witty banter and general idiocy going on, great fun!
which was a little silly considering our wednesday morning schedule!

Weds 23rd
Went to Northdale Hospital at 0530 - its about half an hour from PG - i won't tell you how we got there coz the family will probably freak - all i will say is that travelling on the back of a pick-up is jst as much fun as it looks. (sorry mum and dad!)
We buttered bread and cooked soup (all donated from various sources - i believe the soup actually came frm the states!) and then distributed it.
The hospital was the worst poverty we've seen so far - though (compared to a lot of things i've seen previously in kenya) it wasn't as bad as it could be.
It makes you appreciate the NHS!
Got back to PG about an hour late (0900) so grabbed a bite and headed out to esther house (which is onsite) which is the sheltered accomodation for women and children.

Esther House was different from what we were told to expext - in terms of no one really intor-d us we were left to jst spend time with the ladies there.
there were plenty of very lovely children to keep us occupied and there was a volunteer team who are jst heading back to california as they've been helping at PG as well as other places as part of their uni course. So there were plenty of ppl there and there was lots of singing and dancing going on! :D
What we hadn't realised was that the America team were saying their final farewells and so when it came to us saying goodbye all the women were pretty down.
I think this brought all the feelings from the morning and any homesickness ppl in the team were feeling together and lunch was a sobering affair - every1 was feeling down (myself incl) and no one felt like talking.
After lunch one of the team disappeared and our afternoon activity got cancelled because of an emergency in the community project we were supposed to be visiting.
So after a much needed group prayer sess - in which i realised jst how many ppl were properly missing home - every1 felt a little better equipped to decide what to do next.

Jonno, Hannah, myself and Phil headed out with Becky to Howick falls to get a clear head while Abby, Jenny and Izzy spent some time relaxing(and sorting out the birthday prep for Phil!!)
However, the car never made it to Howick Falls as the oil pump started packing up, instead, we went to one of the bigger shopping malls in PMB!
Shopped a little and bought some board games (Jenga and MONOPOLY - oh yea!) for the team to use!
and had a really nice ice-cream with oreo pieces for just over a pound! It was soo nice but felt a little ill on the way home as it was rather large!

Spent some time doing the team report that has to go in on Friday (my excuse for keeping Phil occupied while the last minute touches to the surprise were done!)
and then it was time to start the celebrations!!

All was well - ALOT of food was eating then the power went off coz of load shedding so we lit candles and collapsed on bean-bags in a comfortable silence to try and digest food!
Slept sooo well!

Thurs 24th
Up very early again, this time to go to Edendale Hospital - in the more African dominated side of town (whereas Northdale was in the Indian dominated side)
Met a team of volunteers frm NCF church who were also helping and who were all rele gr8 to get on with!
Had to leave the hospital early - so didnt stay as long as before - still got a feel of the kind of area we were in tho which was cool!

Came straight back to gateway on our awesome transportation as mentioned earlier and dived into assembly for the younger half of Gateway Christian School. They all hero-worship their headmaster (Pastor Sinatra Mantemelou - think i mentioned him before?) with good reason!

Found out a bit more about our trip to the water park which we are all majorly excited about. even if its going to be completely tiring!

Then the lady who manages the school admin told us more about what we would be doing if we chose to volunteer in the school.
Think I will be involved (defintely maybe) but there a lot of people in the team who are very eager to work there - whereas there are other places that i'd also really love to work - so thats kwl!

I also met Geraldine, John Koch's sister(for those of you who don't know John he is a member of Christchurch who is moving back to Cape Town within the next few months!)
Had a really brilliant discussion with her and hope to be in more contact soon. also met a girl (i believe her name is Cindi) who someone in V.Water sponsors. Am going to get to know her better so that i will hopefully be able to thank them on her behalf when I get back!

In the afternoon we went into the hands and feet project, which is a very new project run by only a handful of volunteers which collaborates with the projects in the community and collects, stores and distributes donations from one of the accomadation blocks in the prison which hasn't been rennovated at all really.

There is a lot of sorting work to be done so we helped with that - which ws very satisfying albeit we were very tired and it was very dusty!

We're going out to visit one of the worst of creches in the community next week (week starting 5th May) which will be challenging but i'm looking forward to seeing for myself the kind of extremes that everyone is always talking about. Because, although we have been to the hospitals going to the communities will be a different experience altogether.

Then a much needed shower...(well i wasn't going to get up in time to have a shower before leaving at 0530 was I??!)....before going to listen to R.T Kendall. He gave a sermon on tithing and 50 odd ppl gave their lives to Christ!!
In a word.
Amazing.

so many different things that i hadn't thought of before - i could have listened to him for hours (though a few more hours sleep beforehand would'nt have hurt!)

Friday 25th
I went to Rob and Debbie's house instead of going to chapel as they came and asked us on Thursday afternoon if we would like to house-sit them and their dogs while they were all away for the weekend. We all jumped at the chance; so I went to their house to get the low-down on how their house worked.
and boy, was there a lot to remember! Codes and gates and dogs and all sorts of things! but by the end of it i was pretty sure I had everything sorted!

We spent most of the rest of Friday at the botanical gardens which is a place of extraordinary beauty. We spent some time individually wandering; thinking, praying and generally enjoying the sun.
We then met up again with Becky(team co-ordinator) and discussed as a group where we each thought it would be good for us to volunteer.
That was a good conversation to have, we don't have any more a timetable than we did before but we have more of an idea about where we might be heading.

For me. because i can drive i want to do some work for the community care project which spends a lot of time in schools and homes educating and caring for people who are at risk or who have HIV/AIDS (which is basically everyone)

I would also like to do some IT work in the admin because, even though I'm not the biggest IT geek in the world I've realised that i know so much more than most of the Gateway staff that I would love to help them develop that side of things.
The schools IT room has been abandoned because of lack of funding, lack of computers and software and because of teacher:pupil ratios sinmply being too high. I would love to help out there, but i think i should try and walk before i start running. So that's a we'll see for now!

A bit of time at the school on thursday afternoon when they do alternative activites would be a lot of fun. and some time spent with the ladies and children in the sheltered accomadation would be brilliant. but i'll have to wait and see how to fit that in!

On Friday afternoon we packed and mooched around as we didn't want to go to the house till after load shedding (which ws 1530-1700 here and 1930-2100 jst five minutes down the road where we were staying - brilliant!)
Rocked up at their house at around 9 and acquainted ourselves with the two labradors that they own, Charlie and Buzz (lovable and exuberant but annoying!!)- the getting there and unpacking was no where near as stressful as i thought it was going to be!
We watched Narnia and then chatted abit before bed.