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