South Africa 17 - boxes, boxes and more boxes

Sunday 20/07
I got up fairly early - despite a late night on Saturday - and spent the morning mooching around; generally just chatting with Abby&Phil.

Jonno, Hannah and Izzy went to PCF, which they thoroughly enjoyed and Jenny and Abby went and did the food shop.

Around lunch time(ish) everyone arrived back with Jules, Ru and Naomi in tow. After much procrastination and some debate six of the team (unfortunately not including Abby as the role of being team accountant beckoned) and the other three headed out for a picnic lunch.
We went to a local 'patch of grass' and sunbathed furiously under cloudless blue skies! Consistently really nice, sunny weather is something that I am going to miss soo much about living in PMB :-P



In the later afternoon Melinda, Naomi's flatmate came down to join us and we had a great God-time&encouragement/building up session.
Really blew me away - I have so much to think about - just from those few hours...I can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon - ever!

We headed back to Gateway where Abby had very kindly made dinner for us.....we also then sorted out the seminar room, which was strewn with the results of our creative labour over the weekend, so that it could be used for meetings on Monday.
I phoned home - and talked to my grandparents for the first time in approximately three months - that was really nice. And caught the end of Coyote Ugly, which Naomi had lent us! Really amazing day!

Monday 21/07
A packed out devotional time at CCP started the morning - all the support workers were there as well as some previous members of staff and support interns. Very cool meeting.

Hannah, Abby&I tried to work out if we could productively do any more work on the posters, which we couldn't - so set about tidying the upstairs room.
It was generally a fairly unproductive day! I spent the later afternoon playing a card game with Ru, Phil, Juls and Hannah which was an interesting mix of card game and getting hideously soaked with water! Brilliant!


That evening we had Ru and Juls round for dinner and Jenny, Izzy and anyone else who was feeling creative got down to painting backdrops for the school show.
I called my other grandparent and much fun was had comparing English and South African weather (and many other things besides!)


Tuesday 22/07
Another quiet morning at CCP which was hugely frustrating as we knew that CCP had to be out of their current premises (Bethany House - across the road from Project Gateway) by next Thursday and we were aware of just how much work needed to be done (that wasn't currently being done....) to make that happen. Despite the fact that most of the assets are being left behind..

I don't know how/can't remember how much I have said previously about CCP's move; the current situation is that they are moving from Bethany House to 14 Loop Street - literally a three minute walk away. 14 Loop Street used to be one of the managing directors (Benson) of CCP house. He moved to a house the other side of town (you may remember my ramble about the offer for a house being accepted despite it being well under asking price....that was the house that Benson and his family have moved into)


CCP is moving out from under the Project Gateway umbrella and fully under the guidance of PCF(Pietermaritzburg Christian Fellowship) to make way for another project to be run out of Bethany House. There is a lot of other things that have happened alongside - in terms of decision-making etc which happened before we arrived, needless to say CCP has changed hugely in the past year.
You may be wondering where this leaves Hannah, Abby and I in terms of our volunteering. Rest assured that we will all be serving out our last three/four weeks in this amazing project. The question of whether future Oasis Teams will be given the option to volunteer there is a question yet to be answered. I certainly hope so!



Back to our Tuesday morning.

Late on in the morning Debbie came to talk to us and review how our making of posters was progressing. It was certainly a positive meeting, with over 50 posters (and counting...) to be made before we leave....nothing too challenging obviously!
This provided us with plenty of motivation for the ensuing afternoon!

In the evening it was Ladies Night at NCF Church. Hannah and I got a lift with Nokes (from our cellgroup) and the other three girls stayed behind to paint another backdrop for the show.


The boys went out to watch a 'manly' film with the men of the cellgroup and ended up walking out of the film (Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay) because of its rubbishness!

Ladies night was brilliant and alot of laughs and a heck of a lot of chatting :D



Wednesday 23/07
I had been unsure as to whether or not to attend feeding scheme on Tuesday night but found myself dozing fitfully from 0400 onwards on Wednesday morning! That sort of made my decision!
Feeding scheme was alot of laughs - which it isn't always(!) considering you get up so early! A brilliant new song was invented by Jonno, Phil &I based around the Zulu word for free (which we use on a regular basis while dishing out the soup) 'Mahala'. I would share the song but won't for three reasons:
a) It would be hideously difficult to explain properly over the internet
b) It doesn't really have a tune
c) It is quite possibly the kind of thing that is funny early in the morning when one is serving up free soup!



Phil did a brilliant job in speaking/praying with the outpatients - a job normally taken by other volunteers.

Upon return to Gateway I showered myself and prepared for a day of work with machines of a computerical nature. Abby dashed across from B House to declare that I was desperately needed at CCP. Being not so clothed at the time I asked her to give me a ring when they needed me.
I made the people who were expecting me to be working with machines of a computerical nature aware that moving matters at CCP were set to take priority on my day and waited.
And waited

and waited


Turned out that they had more than enough people at CCP as the Jules, Nikki and Gillian from the Northern Ireland team were more than happy to help out.
I did do plenty of work with the machines of a computerical nature, just different work from that which I had had planned in my mind.

In the late afternoon I went out with Nokes for a good old natter and then returned back to Gateway and mulled around doing cool, random, probably team-related things. Before going to bed and chatting with Abby till 1am about nothing and everything!



Thursday 24/07
Needless to say I needed some serious willpower to get out of bed the next day - it was fun(not!)

All of the normal leaders at CCP were away so we spent a hectic morning trying to make sure that everything happened as it needed to.
I think it eventually happen(!) but not after rather alot of stressing, running around and eventually sitting around and waiting on our parts.


Hannah & Abby had turns driving the Condor (Toyota 4x4) dropping CCP staff at the schools to do lessons, I would have done so had we been making three journeys in it!


After a while waiting for everything to work it self out we finally got started on our job for the day - to move food/drink parcels from the cabin outside CCP into a red bakkie (pronounced buckey aka a pick-up :-p) and to Loop Street to be carried into the house.

Our borrowed bakkie looks a little like this (but a little more old and battered)

It was a lot of fun to drive (Hannah's an expert, I'm pretty rubbish as I can't clutch it properly and Abby's somewhere in between - much, much better than me though!)
It was exhausting work to be lifting and carrying rather heavy boxes around - but we did feel properly useful whilst doing so, and spirits remained high as we roped in the staff of CCP to form chains to make carrying the boxes easier and were shown how to carry boxes on our heads - no mean feat that!
Hannah&I also spent some time moving a freezer in the bakkie for Esther House (who the bakkie belongs to) which was fun!

In the evening we said our farewells to Juls who had been volunteering at CCP and staying over with Rob, Debs and the rest of the Ng-Yu-Tin clan as she was heading back to NI. Very sad.

Needless to say, I was shattered after such a physically demanding day and was in bed by 2130!! I cannot remember the last time that happened!!!

The rest of the week's blog is in progress but I have to run so I'll leave it for now!
Peace out x