South Africa 15 - It feels like home, and it knocks me out.

Tuesday 17/06
This was the first of our assessment days at a school called Fundokuhle. Hannah, Abby and I were all fairly nervous and apprehensive - as we sort of had a plan - but a lot of the time we were going to be making it up as we go along!

The morning started well with everyone being up early in order for us to have a team prayer huddle before we went out! As we had to be at CCP at 0715 everyday to be able to arrive at the school on time!
All in all things went a lot better than I had expected - we got all the assessments done ahead of the time we had scheduled and the children loved the games and things that were planned. I was in Grade 8B with Thabile and Themba. Lots of fun had!

The only slight problem was that the other school children went slightly mad when they saw that we were taking some sandwiches into the classes that we were working with.
This meant that in all the other schools we were exceptionally careful to hide the food to prevent some of the hassles and stresses that developed from that issue!

After the school assessments we had a pretty early finish from CCP I went home and got POST! More chocolate from home :-P yay! (i should clarify that the second reference to home was my British home rather than my South African one - weird as? huh!)

Then cell group as per usual. Good prayer sess and all that!

Wednesday 18/06
This was the second time at Fundokuhle - this time assessing Grade 9's (tues was gr.8). The second day was much harder as there were far more children in need and crying out for help. Abby and Hannah both interviewed children with traumatic cases; and there were a lot of children from that day who require intervention.
Having said that I now have a friend in Gr 9B who is seriously lovely and smiley!

In the afternoon we had a meeting with Rob(one of the managing directors of CCP - absolute legend..) and Di (intro-d many times on this blog....fundraising head of Gateway) to make sure that everyone was clear on the CCP moving-out-of-Gateway situation. Hannah, Abby and I were pretty clear as we've been involved in several meetings at Bethany House - but some of the other guys were a little confused by some of the things that they'd been hearing. It was a cool meeting, at one point I thought it might go on for several hours - as both Di and Rob can talk for England (though I suppose South Africa might be more appropriate!)

Then in the evening we had Kylie and her friend who had been visiting her from the UK over for homemade pizzas - a lot of fun! But unfortunately I wasn't the greatest of company as the two early mornings and assessment days had really taken it out of me!

Thursday 19/06
This was the first assessment day at Georgetown Secondary School, with the Grade 8's. I spent alot more time doing assessments as I became more confident in what was expected; unfortunately translation was a far bigger barrier than it had been at Fundokuhle - and so I needed a support worker or a member of the CCP Youth Group (also known as GOLD - Generation Of Leaders Discovered - Love it!!) in order to actually complete the assessments.

Its really tough to think that a lot of the 13 and 14 year old kids won't be able to have a well-paid job in the future because of their poor English - the support workers and youth were great at pushing the children to at least try and understand English - because in the long run not having adequate English skills ultimately continues the cycle of poverty.

After the assessment day Hannah, Abby, Ru, Jules and I headed out to Mugg&Bean for some good food and some chill out time. Tiredness beckoned rapidly!....

Friday 20/06
The boys went to a prison ministry with an evangelist(yes, that's her full time job!) from Eagle Christian Centre (ECC) which we attended as a team a while back. It turned out that they couldn't get into the prison so they went to a hospital instead and managed to get themselves into the paper(albeit as Phil Fital-Singh and John Cartala) but hey!

Meanwhile we went to the second day of assessments at Georgetown - for the Gr. 9's.
There was a far lower turn-out than the day before which meant that we finished even earlier!
I also left early with Rob, Hannah and Abby in order for us to get the letters to Zamazulu school in time for the assessment day the next week. I got out of the car at CCP to go to the loo while the other two got the memory stick - and ended up being left behind(!) so I got down to some serious counting of numbers for the admin side of things!

In the afternoon I headed out for a chill-out to the Botanical Gardens with Nai, Ru, Jules, Phil, Jenny and Izzy. Much sleeping/sunbathing! We also went to Liberty Mall and got down to some serious planning for Hannah's birthday the next day, which went on long into the night. Unfortunately I became zombie like pretty prematurely in the evening so hit the sack early!

Saturday 21/06
I rose a little later than usual - but was conscious of all the plans for Hannah's birthday so it wasn't too late...I was greeted on my way to the shower by an over-exuberant Hannah who had just opened her parcels from home. She got a few grunts that may have ressembled the words 'Happy Birthday' and went to wake myself up!

We had bananna pancakes made for us by the bananna pancake man himself (Jonno) and a few 0chilled out hours later we were on our way to the Botanical Gardens for a picnic.
Lots of fun, much music and a silly game with an orange later we were back at Gateway.

Four of the girls headed to a nicely decorated cell for birthday facemasks, the clutch cable on the car snapped, Jonno, Phil and Kat get stared at by many passing cars as we ponder how to get ourselves out of the predicament we find ourselves in.....

Car predicament is eventually partially solved (in that we are no longer stuck on the road) we phone someone else and get them to buy party food for us.
Kat gets to her facemask and the boys set about decorating the admin block for the party.

A few hours (and a lot of glamourising!! :-P) later there is a surprise party for Hannah, much surprise on the birthday girl's behalf, lots of playing of pass the parcel, musical chairs and too much food in general....
Abby is ill in bed with bad cold :S we missed her.

Sunday 22/06
Over night on Sat I slept in Hannah and Izzy's cell as Abby was worried about disturbing me and I was going to Carter School (which is where an offshoot of NCF church meets) early the next morning as our cell group was on the tea and coffee roster.
Was exceptionally weird not to be in my own bed.

After tea and coffee serving at Carter we all (minus Abby and plus Naomi) went to the Botanical Gardens for the concert in the park that was being held.
Lots of lovely music, company and food.

Got a bit bored by the end of the afternoon of sitting and listening - but it was fun!
Was also very wierd as I could count on one hand the number of black/mixed race people present. Seriously couldn't get used to being surrounded by so many white people....it hasn't happened for a good two months now!!

That evening a lot of general bumming around was done - aswell as some watching of Mulan - I was beginning to feel rather ill with cold at this stage - just as Abby was getting over hers!

Monday 23/06

Abby spent a day in bed, recuparating and trying to be in good health for her birthday the next day.
There was alot of stapling to be done at CCP to get the registers for the other three schools which were still to have assessment days.
V.long team leader prayer sess - about nothing and everything under the sun - probably not aided by the fact that I was in a tired and rambly mood!

Bridget Jones's Diary was watched (or not watched in mine, Phil and Jonno's case!)
Abby's birthday planned!

Tuesday 24/06
I was ill as anything - but still persuaded my body that it should be dragged out of bed...this persuasion plus Abby being set on her birthday treasure hunt over breakfast = us being late for CCP and Ru's devotional :S

After said devotional we had a meeting to plan the Zamazulu assessment day taking place on Thursday as the Gr8 and Gr9 days were being merged into one day which = a lot more organisation required for things to run smoothly.
Then CCP Youth rocked up in the afternoon so we spent some time teaching them some cool games for them to be teaching the children, while we pull them out of the classes to do one-on-one assessments.
Then came back to Gateway to admire all the nice things that Abby had unwrapped after completing her Maths-themed treasure hunt.

In the evening we headed out to cell group - was good fun - but I had a hacking cough which made things a little less comfy for me and a little louder for evryone else!!
Needless to say I did not sleep well that night!

Wednesday 25/06
Decided to stay in bed in order to attempt to be better for the Zamazulu assessment days for which I was needed for. So I got up late, showered, had lunch, felt knackered enough to go to bed again.
Did not much at all afternoon - skipped the meal that everyone else went out to with two new volunteers from Northern Ireland onsite (well as of Sunday there's three of them...)
Cooked some pasta and sauce (yum!)
Later got chastised/laughed at for cooking about 4x the amount of pasta I needed (pasta salad the next day...) but in my defence cooking is not as yet my forte (not enough practice..) and I was ill so my brain was hardly in gear!!
ho hum!
Slept ok though!

Thursday 26/06
Zamazulu assessment day!
A lot of fun! Out in the sun!
Good times all round, even if I did have three kids cry :-(

I got cough medicine :D I think everyone in the cell block was bored of me having coughing fits while trying to sleep so Phil&Jonno took pity! They were also threatened with many things if they forgot to get some but that's a very minor detail.....

Hannah went and had some chillout/sleep over time with Nai!
We got pizza. I went on Skype - and stayed up late trying to make myself feel tired/stop coughing.
I failed and spent alot of time having more coughing fits while trying to sleep :S

Friday 27/06
Went to prison ministry (for real this time!) with the other girls - I found it far more difficult than I had originally imagined - and my throat felt constricted the whole time. It was rather strange - may just have been spaced out from cold/lack of sleep but it was a challenging experience - trying to talk to immates through cell bars and find a way of making sense to them. The people we were with were full of passion and just talking at them/prayering over them/with them. Just all felt a little overwhelming and really wasn't sure what to say or how to feel.
I'll try it again some time - but not too soon! lol!

After prison ministry we came back and I had a chilled out afternoon - Jenny and Abby went shopping for some things and I had an early night(i think!)

Saturday 28/06
Lie-in - very quiet morning. Walked(!) down to Mac's coffee shop with the girls - about half hour walk - five minute drive.
It was soo good to walk!
Came back - there was food being given out to refudgees onsite that the boys were helping with - which apparently got fairly hectic - with people fighting about food! But it was all over by the time we were back!
Went to the house where Jules and Ru are staying and had a braai and some good time with the children they were babysitting for!
Good games of sardines etc!
Late night back - we were all shattered!

Sunday 29/06
Early start to go to PCF with Hannah and Nai - some, erm, interesting(!) God channel clips watched!!
Back for lunch
Had Kylie over for a farewell meal - all very posh (and very filling!)
Went to NCF with Kylie and Dean - sermon was good but a little rambly (which I'm familiar with of course - but didn't really help in this situation)
Then back to the prison for carrot cake(!) and banter - up late!

Monday 30/06
Just spent the day packing and chilling.
I got to dash as we have half an hour till we leave for the airport and I'm not entirely sure that I'm ready!
What I am ready for though is some chillout time and fun filled banter in Cape Town!

We're planning:
Table Mt
Cape Point
1 Thessalonians
Robben Island
Food
Much sleep and even more banter!

Should be good!

We fly back on the 9th and go for a long game weekend on the 11th
so I'm sure I'll have a fun-filled blog the week after that!

Peace out! x

South Africa 14 - lagging behind a little

Wednesday 04/06
Went to the feeding scheme early early - nearly missed it tho coz I set my alarm too late(good work huh!?) then started work late in the I.T. room late simply coz I was feeling pretty unmotivated and tired, bit of a bummer!I then went to Russell High with some CCP people in place of Abby who helped Izzy with a music lesson. It was pretty cool as I actually did some informal teaching and taught them a game which was fun....this school isn't on the list of five schools that CCP is actively working with because its a private school and doesn't strictly need some of the services which they provide. But you can't go wrong with HIV education, especially not in South Africa so..
Then later on that evening Naomi, Jules and Ru came round and we had pizza together. Lots of story swapping, especially regarding Oasis team stories - as Ru and Naomi were on the Oasis 2006 team of 10 people - lots of laughs!

Thursday 05/06
I did the bible-bit of the devotional time at CCP - which I was more than a little scared about. But inspiration about words to say to fit the story I wanted to tell hit me at breakfast time. Basically I gave a short part of my testimony, which I've always been rather nervous about sharing before. It was well received and I have since had a separate but randomly linked opportunity to minister to someone else through my experience. I was so happy for the rest of that morning.
And spent the afternoon typing registers!

Friday 06/06
There was a presentation at chapel about the newest tourist developments onsite - PG is being put on the map as part of the initiative to trace the journeys of some of the famous people who were caught up in apartheid.
Its pretty cool as they are looking at PG and the projects under its umbrella being self-sustaining so that the fundraising that Di (and many others) spend time doing will no longer be necessary and can go to other projects.
The plans are ambitious but doable with the funds which have been fundraised and the savings that have been made. Apparently plans have been around for an age - but this is a real time of change at PG - both inside and out (as in aesthetically).
Its such a privilege to be here at this time, well, to be here at all really!

The day at CCP was a prayer meeting for those working with those in the community affected buy HIV and those who are infected/affected by the virus. Unfortunately I wasn't in most of the meeting because I was helping with the lunch preparation, but the small part of it I was in was pretty radical; really enjoyed it - and the time spent playing with the children who had come along afterwards!

In the evening the girls went out to watch Prince Caspian and Jonno, Phil and I headed out to NCF Youth. Also a pretty rad time! Felt pretty overwhelmed by the time I headed to bed that night!

Saturday 07/06
I really don't know where to start with this epic of a day!
I guess the beginning would help!
OK, so we headed out to Tala Game Reserve one very fine and sunny day with Kylie, Naomi, Ru, Jules, Caleb and Ellie-Jo. Minus Jonno and Cedric(our car) we had had several car issues (well we continue to have major car issues...) and so Jonno volunteered to stay behind, despite several insistences that there would be room for one more!
We had a braai and swam in an exceptionally cold but chlorinated pool.
I seriously have never been in quite so much pain after jumping into water; it was like being stabbed numerous times! Stayed in for around 20-30 mins by which point i was numb/warm and needless to say it took awhile before I actually felt like I had feet still attached when I got out!!
Once we had exhausted the options of swimming, sunbathing, eating, playing Uno, reading, toasting marshmallows etc we piled back in the cars and went on our very own game drive!

We started off in a convoy but I was in Kylie's car and we turned back shortly after following the other car down a track which was a little more than our little VW City could handle. For us, after a hairy three point turn on a bush track and some good directions later(we did have a map..) we saw lots - the highlight of that being scarily close to a rhino (completing my BIG FIVE - o yea!).

While gaping at send rhino we got phone calls to say that the other car was MAJORLY stuck on that same track they had gone down a long while earlier. To cut an almost four hour long saga short it took two safari trucks and a 'monster' truck to pull the car out of the mess.
Absolutely miraculously everyone was fine; albeit tired, hungry and overwraught. The car required nothing more than a good clean.
I use the word miraculous because you're not supposed to go down that bit of track in a normal car and survive. Four rangers have died in the last two years while on that stretch!
I am still astounded that nothing worse came out of that day - hand of God right there.

Sunday 08/06
After a considerably later bedtime on Saturday night than we had planned we got up fiendishly early on Sunday to do the childcare at PCF once again - as they once again wanted the sunday school teachers in the service.
It was also the coldest day I believe we have had - I wanted nothing more than to stay in a cuddled ball all day - wet and cloudy aswell!!
Anyways, we did a sketch about Moses and the Israelites defeating the Amalekites (Ex 17 i believe) under the banner of the Lord. Script very well written by Hannah - and Jonno made a brilliant Moses!
The time went very quickly - we didn't have time to do the some of the things which we were planning which was annoying! But better that way I suppose!
After church we hit Mugg and Bean with friends from PCF - including Naomi, Ru and Jules to continue to recover from Saturday's escapades!

In the evening we went to NCF - once again I greatly enjoyed the service and they had lots of the youth being baptised in their indoor full-immersion. There have been alot of baptisms lately!

Once we were back home we managed to short the power in the admin block - and I didn't help by flicking the main fuse switch off!!
So we had an early night (only to find the next morning that the main switch was upstairs in the admin block! hehe!)

Monday 09/06
Monday involved a whole lot of admin and a whole lot of cool God stuff...
We had d/v at CCP - awesomely long as it always is on Monday morning
The rest of the day was spent typing lots more Zulu names and..
and our very own team d/v was pretty inspiring that day aswell!

Tuesday 10/06
Lets just say I had a mini memory collapse on that day as I can remember zilch about what actually happened!
Well, apart from our insanely cool cell group evening which consisted of much encouragement and inspirement(yes I am well aware that that is not a word :-P) and made me feel happy for much time afterwards!

Wednesday 11/06
Feeding scheme as per use, I love feeding scheme - I can't think of many better jobs to get up to do at 0530 (ok, so that might be a slight exaggeration - but the principle itself still stands!)
Found it difficult to get started after getting back - then was prevented from starting research by Phil's keys being temporarily looked into someone else's room....
Did eventually get some research done before heading off to have lunch in the blazing sunshine (i know - what an utter slacker!) with alot of girls :-p at this awsum coffee shop just down the road!

I chatted to a guy from PCF who has done some work in the school IT room previous to going to Cape Town to do graphic designing at uni. Helped me think more realistically - and I am once again re-evaluating my role in the work to update the room.

Then had a phone call from Hannah - very stressed over in CCP. Essentially some big-wigs in Pretoria (capital of SA - for those of you who are not geographically minded) decided that their definition of an 'orphan and vulnerable child' had changed to include more people. this meant that all our hard work over the last week or so had to be edited and added onto majorly, in order for the school assessment days (taking place the next week) would reach the children it was designed to reach.
So I raced over to CCP to do much re-evaluating, counting and typing - the boys (bless their cotton socks :-P) came to lend a helping hand.
And we took typing home to make sure all the lists were done for the next week (as it now turns out some of them have come out wrong anyway simply because some of the info the schools gave us was a little out in some way - but hey! lets not focus on that frustrating fact too much!)

That evening I went to the PCF prayer meet with Naomi, Jules and Ru nad we had a meal with those three + Kylie! Much fun and too late a night had by all!

Thursday 12/06
Everyone at CCP went to Fundokuhle(one of the schools) to give out letters - asking those we had identified to be at school next week while the rest of their classmates had time off. The Oasis girls stayed behind to answer phones and do more admin.
In the afternoon we began to earnestly plan some of the activites to be done with the kids on the school assessment days - which was slow but eventually productive work!

In the evening I did some shuttle runs within the prison walls - felt so good to finally do a bit of exercise listening to some tunes while doing so - even if I did get mocked/copied by all the children who live in the cell block!
Helped Hannah Montana make some roasted veg - whilst bouncing along to more tune-age and tidied my room/cell for the first time in quite some time (sound familar?? :-P) Unfortunately for me, fortunately for others I cannot leave tidying for as long as I could at home - simply because we do actually need to be able to open the cell door/get into bed everynight!!

Friday 13/06
Chapel as use.
Meeting with Debbie about all things CCP - the history of.
Much soaking up of rays while painting hearts for the simple gospel message we relay on the school assessment days
Organised Zulu bible verses, also for assessment days
Was going to go to NCF Youth but was bushed so didn't - and spent time being lazy and chatting on Skype instead!!

Saturday 14/06
Most exhausting Saturday I have had in quite some time! We dug up half of the 'volleyball court'
that belongs to the school to renew the sand and make it more of a sandpit (well, I fear the clay may stop us digging it too much deeper...)
We had no wheelbarrow to transport the earth being dug up across the field to the 'earth heap' so the most of the morning was pretty strenuous with the amount of heavy bucket lifting that went on.
Abby&Jenny were out doing the 'weekly' shop and made a scrumptious lunch to restore carb balance and the afternoon seemed better - though my back cracked pretty well by the end of it all!

We spent the evening at a reallly nice house which Ru and Jules were house-sitting in for the weekend! Much relaxing fun, a meal cooked for us - and i had a realllly nice shower.
I really cannot imagine a better ending to such a hard day!

Sunday 15/06(Father's Day)
More digging (specially so that we could share some banter with us and shake their heads at us for missing church :-P in all fairness we were doing God's work!)
Out to Liberty Mall for a lovely lunch in celebration of 2months in SA! EEEK!
I finally got my camera sorted (after putting the battery in the wrong way round after re-charging - and a whole series of other annoying sagas which made my camera life a little stressful for awhile - but its all sorted now :D)
Went to NCF - nother brilliant time
Then went to Ru and Jules borrowed house again :D
Watched Hot Fuzz :D :D
and BBC News - which was incredibly weird and I was soo annoyed when they spent 10mins talking about Brown and Bush and 2mins talking about the awful floods in Japan.

Monday 16/06 - Youth Day = Bank Holiday
Biiig lie-in :D :D
Lots of time spent fiddling about with computers - trying to get internet to work properly and ending up installing a lot of anti-virus to weed out alot of things that had crept on.
So, so, so sunny :D
lunch and d/v outside
Hannah, Abby & I spent time talking and praying about impending CCP school assessment days as we were all pretty apprehensive/slightly scared.
Went out to Spur for a meal
Our other borrowed car died....
I should explain the car situation.....
Basically....
Cedric (our team car - green Opel/VW Corsa) has big gear and steering issues which render him unsafe - but PG has no money with which to fix said problems.

So, Team Wildcats borrow Baba Zeph's car (Toyota Centra) to use. This is a good compromise - but we have not been shown how to fully turn off the engine and so end up completely draining the battery :S

Corsa and Centra batteries are swapped and we have car again! On tues night (which i have yet to talk about..) exhaust falls off (it was already broken) and we attach again with a lanyard (inventive or what!?)
so yeah!
there are now three different parties needing to use the same car
- Baba Zeph - who is generally a taxi for PG and who uses the car all the time normally
- Team Wildcats - who need it to ferry 7ppl to various pressing social engagements/go shopping/generally do anything other than be onsite!
- Nicky and Julie - two volunteers from Northern Ireland who joined us on Monday and who need a car to get to work everyday.

So yea, we need a new car - no one has any money for repairs of current cars -- let alone a new(i.e. secondhand one) cars are pretty similar in price to UK....

Shall leave you with that to chew on... I am finally almost up to date with blogging - its been so long! :-P
and I shall leave stories about school assessment days till another time as I have another school assessment day 2moro - and they equal being at work at 0715 (eurgh!) I do love them as I feel properly useful tho - so mustn't complain too much!

Peace out x

South Africa 13 - right here, right now

I'm going to be blogging for a very long time about the last ten days - I should really not leave things this long!
So, lets get going!

Saturday 31/05
We headed into Durban at about 09:30 to go to the beach - we went with Kylie (as it was her birthday) and spent the day on the beach just in front of Usaka (where we went before for the school trip).

The weather was gorgeous to begin with - I was quickly in the sea with all the other girls and the water was pleasantly warm, although there were hardly any waves to speak off - which was good for swimming - but I had been looking forward to admiring the surfers - which obviously didn't happen! We had sand in our sandwiches and a good time drying off before the clouds rolled in at around 2pm - so some of us got down to some moat building (with some over-priced beach goodies bought off a woman roaming the beach).

The scenery was beautiful and a good amount of reflecting was done by all of us at various points throughout the day....

I also got a marriage proposal from a man who approached me during afforementioned reflection 0time. A little scary - but he was at least respectful of personal space - which some people have not been. Also Hannah and Kylie spotted him and came to join me (i was sitting a little way away from everyone else) and we eventually shook him off - he would get full marks for persistency as he yelled 'I love you baby girl' at me as we walked away.
I can't do anything other than laugh at this experience to be honest with you!

In the evening we went to a restaurant which had been recommended to us by several people called Moyo. It was insanely cool! They came out and painted your face (see pic from previous blog) and then throughout the meal(we had the buffet and had lots of traditional south african (zulu) food which was soo, soo yummy) there were these three guys who would come over to your table and sing in harmony. Kylie got a rousing chrous of Happy Birthday (nothing to do with us of course...) and later on an ice-cream accompanied with 'In the Jungle'. Throughout the rest of the evening there was some foot-tapping chill-out music being played by a live band. The atmosphere was amazing. And despite the prices being slightly more on the English scale of living it is definitely one of the best, if not the best restaurant I have ever eaten it. Definitely worth a visit if you're ever in Durban.

Also just as a footnote to the whole experience I think I saw Tom Hewitt (of Umthombo) outside the restaurant with a group of young people - but I wasn't 100% sure and he moved on before I could do anything about my hunch....

We got back late that night - but it was all worth it - brilliant night out!

Sunday 01/06
What joy to have a very early start the next morning as we were running the childcare/sunday school for the 4-11's at the church onsite (PCF) which is moving offsite on the 14/06 - they wanted all the adults in the service to hear about the immenient move (including all the sunday school teachers) so we inventive and played a DVD (Over the Hedge for the record) which the kids loved and all stayed very quiet in (i think because DVD's are alot more of a novelty here. specially in sunday school!)

Then we had a lazy day in and Jonno&I stayed behind while the others went to NCF as we didn't have a second car to use and Dean couldnt give us our usual lift! Much letter writing done!

Monday 02/06
Monday was a hectic day at CCP - we essentially had a day long meeting (which I found it incredibly difficult to stay awake in.....I think my concentration span has most definitely decreased since I came to SA!!)
Benson and Rob, the project leaders told us that they had bought another property for Benson to move into so that CCP can move into Benson's house (which is currently being rennovated). Essentially (and I don't understand the ins and outs of this situation) CCP is moving out from the umbrella of Project Gateway and into the full ownership of PCF(which is the church helping to oversee at the moment).
PCF is also moving offsite but that's a whole other story.

This story about the CCP house blows me away.
The decision had been made in management for CCP to break away from PG and to leave the premises they have been using opposite PG. However there is no where immediately for them to move into - and somewhere within walking distance is needed so that the same client base can still easily access the services which CCP provides.

So Benson and Rob are both out looking for suitable houses to buy so that Benson and his family can move out of their house close to CCP.
On the weekend of the 30/05/08 they both find themselves being shown round the same house (they had been looking independently of each other). The lady asks them why they need the house so quickly so they explain that they are working as part of a church etc etc.
The woman breaks down in tears and explains that she knows that today is going to be a good day for them.....and phones the person who owns the house (living in Jo'burg) to explain that there is a third offer on their house which is R40.000 (2000 GBP) below the highest offer currently on the table but that they want to move in asap and the finances can be worked out...
The offer was ACCEPTED and the house was Benson's the next day!

A-Mazing!

So CCP is moving soon - although no date that I know of yet - before the end of July though - so we'll be walking a little further to work everyday before we leave!

In the evening we lazed around basically - I did get another letter tho (thankyou Larson!) which made my evening! :-P

Tuesday 03/06
Spent the day at CCP typing registers - they work with two classes in each of five schools - so we have to have a record of the children we're supposed to be teaching. About two thousand names in all - all in Zulu - interesting spelling with that task right there I can tell you!!

Sat and chatted out in the sun with Ru, Jules and Naomi which was really cool. They are really knowledgable in everything South Africa and (in the case of Ru and Nai) very knowledgable about all things Oasis!

We had combined cell at NCF that eve - got to meet a bunch of new, cool ppl outside my actual cell which was really fun!
Also worked on research for our hol to Cape Town which was a big bonus - and we actually got some decisions and things done (its all booked now so all is good!)

South Africa 12 - Post is the best thing EVER!

Seriously, it makes me so excited when I get post! I tingle all over. Even better is reading the letter invariably full of lovely things that make me laugh/cry/appreciate the new experiences I'm experiencing/miss home/want to chat to that person right then just to save my hand muscles when I'm writing back!

I'm spending a lot of time writing(and less time typing - as you may have noticed!) its arduous after a while - so bear with me - i have quite a lot to answer! But I do love working on the letter-writing skills...its a lot more exciting than writing an email - although that has alot of benefits aswell...

I should also mention that parcels are like birthday presents! Everyone was laughing at me when I was opening my parcel of insanely good-tasting chocolate(South African choc is tasteless), dodgeball tshirt and other marvellous items. I was bouncing around a little crazily! I can't remember if i blogged about the 'parcel experience' last time but can't be bothered to check to be honest with you. so if i did you will have to appreciate how excited I was about the parcel.....

Just quickly....this was ment to go at the bottom of my last blog but it won't appear for some inexplicable reason so I'm just going to blog it here as a bit of extra-ciricular(can you tell I've been in the school today?!) reading for those over-eager readers (also known as eager beavers...can you tell I'm well stocked up in the sugar department?....) who can be bothered to scroll down to the end of the last post and link up the text...

On Friday we're going to renew our visas (which could take some time - we'll have card games at the ready...) and then this weekend we're hopefully going to a beach in Durban! Though we have yet to fully organise that - so we shall see!

Peace out!

So that's that intensely exciting part of my blog lets move onto my hectic, hectic week (I had to get everyone to help me remember what on earth I've been doing....Abby is keeping a regular travel journal atm which is very instrumental in helping me match up the day with the activity!)

Tuesday 27/05

This was no ordinary day....it was in fact the Founders Assembly Day at Gateway Christian School!
This meant smart clothes, cheese muffins for breakfast(provided by resident cook at the school! YUM!), early start at work, much photocoping of programs and creation of photoboards and other random work.
The assembly was there to honour those who have worked so hard to make the school what it is today (9 years ago there were no roofs on the classrooms..things have come such a long way!)

They gave out awards to the founder of the creche which went on to become the school, the pastor who gave spritual guidance for many years, the man who was a long-standing principle before Pastor Sinatra(the current principle) and a couple of other people.

There were short speeches (praise the Lord that the long, drawn out prize days, which were a large and boring time of 'celebrating' exam results during my secondary school days cannot pretend to hold the attention of primary school children or cross a South African principle's mind at this current point in time!)

Instead there were some other little delights to surprise us! A choir singing worship songs in English and little children doing Zulu dancing which is AMAZE!
These little children(and adults do this aswell) kick their legs up over their heads - a bit like a super high-kick can-can and dance. A sight to behold...and the rhythms are amazing!
Then we sort of hung out for abit to serve food to the guests(transpires the food was self-service so we didn't actually end up being of much use!)

Abby and I went over to CCP to continue with poster making - didn't get much done but did make ourselves a to-do list with some tick boxes which made Abby happy to tick some stuff off....small things...... :-P

In the evening it was cell as usual. It was a little quiet as there are exams going on in schools and uni's (bit like England tbh) so less people came than usual (not that we don't double the size of the cell group normally......hum-de-dum........)

Wednesday 28/05

Abby, Hannah and I did the bible bit of the devotional at CCP - this was sort of scary but turned out OK.

For those who are interested we looked at
Galatians 6:9 and Ecc 3:1-8and tried to encourage the staff of CCP with the amazing faith and trust they have when they seek God and their dedication to their work - even when its the most emotionally difficult work that I can pretty much imagine doing.

I use the words 'we tried' not because our words didn't encourage them but because they immediately wanted to pray for and minister to us because we've given up our time, money etc to be there with them.
That was great, but a little hard to accept as we had all imagined that we would be able to minister to them not the other way round. We're still very British sometimes!

I spent most of the rest of the day (apart from helping in a brilliant music lesson with Izzy which involved an hour of trying to control/have fun with a group of 6-7 year-olds!) in the school I.T. room.
Just sussing things out with where I stand with the whole situation and where I want to go with it...the situation is a lot better than was initially expressed to me.
However the simplest thing to do would to be completely re-vamp the room, although there is the slight issue of no money!
Its a lot more difficult to look at the exsisting old and slow computers and find a way to improve the situation sustainably for the long term development of the children's skills.
I think even this at the moment is a little beyond my means; so i am simply trying to work out how best to spend my time and invest my energy so that I can make some kind of difference in how the children use and view computers.

It was weird how everyone had disappeared by 4pm - I almost ended up being locked in the alarmed school building because I was still working. People were congratulating me on a hard day's work - when - compared to some of my days(OK, most of my days) working two jobs (as I did for most of the first seven months of my gap-year) I had not actually done very much at all!

In the evening we headed out to watch the latest Indiana Jones film with Dean (our cell group leader) which I found fairly fun if rather inplausible but which everyone else informed me served only to slowly rip apart the I.J legend piece by piece (i have never seen any of the previous I.J. films...)

Also, for the first time since I've been here I had the cell to myself for the night as Abby and Jenny needed some deep and meaningful conversations so Abby moved into Jenny's cell(on the spare bed) for a night. which was a new experience for both of us. I found it refreshing for a while as I quite like having rooms/houses to myself every now and then but I did miss the companionship of our grunts and moans which normally punctuate our daily struggle to pull ourselves from the snuggly, warm depths of our beds!

Thursday 29/05

This was perhaps what you could call a 'normal day at work' but seeing as there isn't really a normal at the moment I'm not too sure what that entails - so I'll leave that to your own deciding!
Essentially, we went to Bethany House (CCP) did much poster making and register typing(to make everything official in the schools) and then headed back to Gateway for lunch - as we'd been lazy and not made ourselves sandwiches (we occasionally get lunch at CCP on Thursdays but there does not appear to be any method in lunchtime madness so knowing whether to make sandwiches or not can be a little hard to predict!)

Unfortunately when we got back to PG we found that there was some meeting of utter importance going on so we couldn't get into our food(yes, the food store is very wisely in the room which is sometimes labelled the 'boardroom' and more often than not is comandeered as the 'Oasis Team dining room')
so we sat and felt hungry in the sun for a while (what utter hardship!)
until we finally got in!

In the afternoon we had the 'standard' CCP de-brief which varies a lot from week to week. This week emalgamated into a random discussion about:

The discipline of children - hitting/spanking on a fairly regular basis is the expected norm and does, in most cases, appear to work fairly well, even if I do disagree with it on many levels.

Drinking - is definitely not the norm. There seems to be no middle ground in this culture! You're either teetotal (and hide whatever alcohol you use for cooking at the back of the cupboards) or you're a raging alcoholic with serious problems - this may be slight exaggeration but I did feel very stared at when I was talking about how in our culture there are some people who have mastered the art of responsible/sociable drinking! The question 'What is a pub?' seems to come up a lot when I'm talking to some people about the differences between SA and the UK - I hope that when I'm back the weather is nice to go and sit in a beer garden so that I can chill-out with a beer and good company and rejoce that TIE (This Is England!)
I also better understand the rule in Oasis code of conduct which doesn't allow us to drink while we're here; as if anyone did see us they would be likely to assume the worst.

Drugs - there were a good few stories coming our way from the most unexpected people! Hilarity and surprise where on the menu big-time!
Of course all of this did have a serious aspect aswell - but it was a good time to relax and have fun- which is part of the aim of de-brief!
Plenty of chat and prayer that night within the team which was cool. And I did some more research into our holiday in Cape Town. Which at that point was pretty much all over the place in terms of actual decisions!

Friday 30/05

We all went to a production at the school called Hooked on Books(instead of chapel - absolute sacriledge!!) - which was insanely cool. Run by a company in Jo'burg; it is a team of three theatre bods and they run some sketches from about six books to give the children a taster of some books to go and get from the school library.
Absolute and complete hilarity. They were brilliant! Costumes were simple and inventive, as was the 'stage' set. Audience participation, silly accents, singing, beatboxing and a few digs at the foreigners sitting at the back! The children were excited beyond all belief and we were in absolute fits of laughter!
From there we went to renew our visas at - well - wherever the place you have to renew your visas is!(rest assured that I wasn't driving!). All went a lot quicker than I think anyone of us had expected - and without glitches - so we should be legal for the extra month we require to be stamped in our passports!
Unfortunately Becky (our co-ordinator) was unable to renew her visa because she needed a medical, and when she went to the doctor she was diagnosed with anaemia. So she has to undergo more testing before they sign(or don't sign) her medical form.

After a slow lunch and much debating Jenny, Hannah, Izzy and I went out to Liberty Mall to do some errands. I bought a new camera to replace the one I misplaced/lost/had stolen there a couple of weeks back. The camera was good and the memory card exceptionally cheap in comparison to English prices. Unfortuately said camera failed to charge when I plugged it in so, erm, yea, it's going back soon for a swap. Bummer.

Incidentally I think this would be a good point to insert some photos which I should have put on the last few posts, for the benefit of those who don't have Facebook.....sorry that they're small - they took an age to upload!

Samke&I going over the edge
(below the wood was a sheer
107m vertical drop!)





Our assembly on.....hmmmmm....I can't remember what!

Izzy, Me and Hannah in the car on the way to Durban

Group photo when we went to a creche with Hands&Feet

Me with face paint on at Moyo Restaurant in Durban

Me and Jonno being weird while washing up!


Yeah!
Where was I? Oh yes!
After Liberty we went to the Royal Show (run by the Royal Horticultural Society - just the name made me feel like I was back in V.W. Community Centre!!)
This is a big annual event with lots of animals on show and stalls and tractors and big trucks and funfair rides. We were very tired by this point so weren't in the mood to be bowled over by the show. Had a quick look around and then came home.

After dinner Phil and I headed out to NCF Youth as everyone else was too tired. We made that fatal error of being on time for a youth group(!) and so ended up hanging around for about half an hour before things kicked off. It was mega-cool tho!
Worship was lead by a 15year old girl who was amazing(we didn't find out how old she was till afterwards) teenagers seem to be far more confident at a younger age out here - its a weird trend! Rather cool to see tho!
The 16-18 range have the enthusiasm of a group of 8-10 year old Brits - so brilliant! Phil&I chuckled with the humour of the situation - and I personally was a little sceptical of such enthusiasm at first. But quickly reminded myself of the exuberance that bubbles from most Africans/South Africans and shut my cynical brain off fairly sharpish to allow myself to enjoy the evening! Which I did do! In vast amounts!

I want to continue blogging all night but its just turned midnight and I was up at 0530 this morning(Weds) to do the feeding scheme at Northdale Hosp so I'm gonna call it a night. I have notes on what happened over the weekend(many, many cool things!) so I shall leave you with the suspense that the next time I blog(hopefully Thurs or Fri) I will be able to explain to you the wonders of Durban beach day and Moyo Restaurant.
And the miracle at CCP this week. I should mention that this is only one of God's miraculous provisions for all the projects and people here on a daily basis.
It really is amazing to be a part of!

I'm hitting the sack!
Peace out xox