South Africa 11 - falling over cliffs, emotions and other miscellaneous objects...

well, well, well...blogging has become secondary to everything else that's going on here!! For a while I was worried that it was going to become that thing that I always did on evenings, weekends etc - but true to my very good good intentions I have cut down on internet hours. Everyone else on the team would probably scoff at that (I have gained a reputation as being addicted to chocolate, sleep, the internet and talking too much...) - but if you're my parents (or my laptop) you would be impressed!

Here is the lovely run-down of my past week!

Tuesday 20/05
Spent most of the day at CCP driving around trying to find/dropping off/picking up posters to be laminated. Much fun....man at the shop wouldn't barter a price for us as an NGO if we laminated 50-odd A1 posters with his business...so we are still looking to see if we can find a cheaper place anywhere else to try and ensure that CCP are going to be budget for all the cool posters we want to make them!
Then cell as usual. Challenging, yet good fun! It felt like an entire week had passed already by that point! I was quite ready for another weekend! Alas, it was not the weekend and Wednesday rolled on in.....

Wednesday 21/05
Did an assembly with the entirety of GCS(Gateway Christian School) all 247 kids watching....featuring myself, Jenny, Izzy, Jonno and Phil (while Hannah and Abby went for their first combi driving experience - or should I say non-experience as Zamazulu(the school) cancelled the lesson and I don't think the combi has started since!)
The assembly was ALOT of fun (even though we all thought that it was pretty much going to be a shambles) we all had a letter of 'PEACE' on our fronts and I have never heard such a loud version of 'alleu, alleu, alleu, hallelujah' in my life - it was truly deafening!! and Hannah and Abby even got there in time to video the song!
The rest of the time was spent at CCP doing posters, sitting in HIV community support volunteers meetings and running to answer the phone(as everyone else went to continue the volunteers meetings at the school!)
Got feedback on the IT proposal I made for the school - and will definitely be there on Wednesday all day to start off things in that department - which makes me happy!!
Wednesday eve was brilliant - we had a girly night in with Kylie(from the school of fashion) - ate much, much, much choc fondue =D, watched a (rubbish) girly film(Her Best Move) and stayed up very late to let the boys in after their marathon footie watching sess (man u vs chelsea). Lets jst say Thursday morning = v.v.difficult to get up!!

Thursday 22/05
Abby and Hannah were both feeling pretty rough on Thursday so after sitting through some meetings Abby went to sleep off her cold. And while Hannah stayed around for a little while longer to help me with some more poster-age she left shortly before the weekly debrief(the first one we've actually been around to attend!) so it was just me - answering questions such as "what were the successes and challenges of your week?" - the answers to which were "laminating"(check out my exciting life!) and "getting used to working with Hannah and Abby"(perfectionists :-P)
don't remember much else about Thursday.....stuff happened?

Friday 23/05
Me&Hannah headed over to CCP(after the ever awesome time in chapel and having a quick chat with Becky) leaving Abby recovering frm her cold on her day “off” which I am assured was anything but – but at least she wasn’t running around CCP with us!. Friday may aswell be the weekend in SA! No-one really appears to be in work and if they are at work - they are not doing much work. So we did some work; bought some stationary and then tried to make more posters without the necessary card (there had been no card available at the shop we went to and we didn't have time to go to another shop (bearing in mind that CCP is currently operating on 1 car and many people need picking up from various schools and churches at varying times!).

Friday night we headed out for some much needed time away from prison walls and had dinner and watched a movie (what happens in Vegas….ignore the reviews its hilariously funny!) with tommo(absolute gangsta!) who goes to our cell group/NCF!

All great fun – except that was the last time I had my camera – and despite going back to the cinema twice and leaving my details with the security people – it is no-where to be seen :’( Cue much more money spending :S simply because it would be an absolute tragedy not to take any more of my own photos on this trip and secondly because I’d want a camera when I got back to England anywys – and chances are its cheaper out here.

Saturday 24/05
ABSEILING! Need I say more?

107m is a long way down – I was very nervous before I started (I was in the last pair of ppl to go – so waiting did get rather dull and irritating) but as soon as I started doing it I found that I was fine. Even the first look down (which everyone had documented as the worst part) was surprisingly OK – I just sort of thought ‘OK – that’s how far I have to go – lets give this a go’

How impressively hardcore of me!

Unfortunately there was more sitting in the harness than there was ‘walking’ backwards (there’s no weight going through your legs) as there was extremely little grip on the rock and with no weight through my feet it was exceptionally difficult to keep my legs at a parallel angle to my body! Some practice is needed if I ever intend to repeat an abseil experience (though something tells me that any experience after this will pale into insignificance!)

I had a little difficulty doing down in a straight line as I was sat a little off-centre in my harness (or at least it felt like it!) and so I kept swinging to the left into my partner’s rope which left me spending a lot of time trying to go in a straight line and keep my legs on the cliff – until I gave up trying to abseil properly and just sat back and enjoyed the view of an 107m waterfall crashing into the lake while lowering myself down – which was a whole lot easier! Getting into the boat at the bottom was surprisingly easy (even if there was some sogginess involved in the process!)

The climb back up to the top (which I had conveniently forgotten about in my eagerness to actually get down) was rather arduous. Beautiful scenery but more time was spent climbing over rocks and focusing on how not to trip over rather than admiring the view (we knew the rest of the group would be eager to get home by this point so did not linger to admire the scenery – not that I had a camera with me to document anyway!)

There is a slight black hole in my memory regarding Saturday night – I think we watched a DVD – not very sure though!

Sunday 25/05
Was going to go to PCF – but woke up still utterly shattered so decided to go back to sleep – weekends are the best!

Wandered around a little while after brekkie and then got invited out to lunch at the mall by Dean (cell group leader)

That was fun – and I had my first clamping experience – in that Dean got his car clamped while we were having lunch because we hadn’t been able to find anywhere to park so had found a nice square of pavement (which reminded me of the parking situation when working with the NHS…..) I was very glad that my first clamping experience was not mine own – and found it pretty funny until dean argued the charge – so it got doubled(!)

When we came back from lunch I had a splitting headache so went to sleep for approx 2hrs – which pretty much cleared it up – but I promised myself I would get more sleep!
Church on Sunday eve was pretty awsum and as usual I stayed up far later than I promised myself I would!

Monday 26/05
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on a Monday morning! Who? Me? Never!
But surprisingly enough Monday morning was enjoyable. Getting up wasn’t that difficult :O

Very intense devotional time at CCP followed by more stationary buying and epic poster making (in relation to the last days of the previous weeks in which we had not been able to make half as many as we had planned due to lack of supplies.) this new burst of productiveness made me feel a lot more motivated and useful than I have done in a long time. Don’t get me wrong, I love being here and serving and working. But this culture is soo different it was nice to be able to measure our work by our own, far more comfortable, standards! Not better standards (even though we might occasionally think so!) just different standards!

The rest of the week has much in store; GCS’s founders assembly tomorrow (no idea what that entails but we’re helping out with refreshments afterwards!), school’s IT room on Wednesday and nothing too hectic planned on Thursday as yet! Hopefully we’ll be passed to drive with CCP soon as this will expand our list of roles and responsibilities (even though they only have one car – we’ll be praying and hoping that we can still be of use and that they would be able to source another vehicle soon)

On Friday we’re going to renew our visas (which could take quite some time – we’ll have card games at the ready…) and then this weekend we will hopefully be going to the beach! In Durban! Though we have yet to fully organize that – so we shall see!

Peace out! xox

South Africa 10 - Life @ PG

So, now that we're working the week is simply flying past. The days are long - and as always I feel tired until about 2100 but then can keep going for absolutely hours at that point. The 0630 mornings are becoming a little harder everyday; but amazingly still a lot easier than getting up at that kind of time in England has ever been which is a definite positive!!

Here's a summary of my week and a bit! Sorry it's been so long - I just feel rather anti-social to sit down and type sometimes - so will definitely be trying to keep things shorter!

Monday 12/05
Went to CCP for the day with Hannah and Abby - staff meeting 0800-1100. They always start with worship and d/v (devotional) time - best thing ever! Then a lot of nitty gritty as they have recently begun procedings to break off from Project Gateway's umbrella as they are getting very big(there are other very complicated reasons for this move - but we are only just starting to brush the surface of what our role is in the organisation let alone in the bigger 'politics' of these things - so we're waiting and seeing. i don't think it affects us as volunteers - and that's the main thing at the moment!)

We also got our 'timetable' (i use this phrase very loosely!) for the week and i think (my memory is a little hazy at this point in time!!) that abby and hannah went to Georgetown Secondary while i was going to Nontiwele (no idea if that's the right spelling!) to teach the children about HIV/AIDS.
I jumped into the combi that was taking us and they drove off; and despite my polite musings that i was sure we had left someone behind (the guy who had told me which car to get into hadn't followed me) but they continued insistent that everything was fine(i mean i was a newbie after all!)

It then turned out that we were going to a church creche first and then onto the school so that was interesting as I saw a large, understaffed creche in a very small space for the first time (hence the falling in love with a month-old baby in the previous post) and as the meeting was conducted completely in Zulu and wasn't translated I have no idea what was going on! Whatever was being talked about was certainly sobering and challenging for the staff - and as this was my first day part of me thinks that it was easier for me to stay in a cloud of fuzzy misunderstanding!

From the creche we went onto the school. At the school the lessons are also done nearly solely in Zulu to make sure the learners(students) get the best understanding of what is being said - which is fine - tiring to stay alert-looking after a while tho!

Tuesday 13/05
I spent alot of time in the same school observing the facilitators from CCP interact with and teach the children. It is so tiring to be in that environment for essentially the whole day because I found I was continually checking my behaviour, how people were responding to me (and the others) being there, feeling slightly(!) out of place because of being white etc etc. Indeed, by the end of the day I found myself surprised when I occasionally looked at my hands and discovered that I wasn't black!!

Wednesday 14/05
I asked to spend the time back at Bethany House because I wanted to see what I could do practically to help rather than spend time being driven around and observing lessons which were beginning to make me feel rather useless (not that I told them that - I know it was very important for me to see and try and understand where the staff of Bethany House work for me to be of any use at all!)
I made a start on re-doing some of their informational posters about HIV/AIDS which they take into the schools with them - as they normally just write out info out on flipchart paper and take it with them.
Hannah, Abby and I have been working hard on that since then - and although most of my original plans were scrapped because Abby is an absolute and complete perfectionist(i know she won't mind me saying that coz that was the reason she used to change them all in the first place!) - the posters are really taking shape! And, although we seem to spend far more time on them then seems relevant (proportionally) we are hoping to be able to laminate them so they will last far longer and be far more useful to the staff in the long-term.

While I was doing that Hannah and Abby were having a more detailed tour of the community work of CCP - so that I sort of feel that I should've jumped on the combi that morning - but I found out more about the history of CCP in a meeting that Rob (one of the overall managers/facilitators whose house we looked after for the weekend a while back...) did - so I was gald that I was there for that.

Thursday 15/05
We spent the day at CCP doing posters; followed by a light lunch with the staff - which was a lot of fun and laughs! Then we had a 'debrief' session which was supposed to be serious but the 'stress-relieving' game we played at the beginning (Zip-Zap-Boing for those of you who are interested..) turned into a full on tournament which eventually turned into a dancing/singing session followed by an in-depth discussion about marriage/men/family (all the male members of staff had wandered off by that point..)
so we stayed chatting for awhile and then came back to Gateway - where we found Becky and the tourism dept in a flat-spin as they had had a last minute booking from 19 pastors to stay in cell accomadation that weekend. And also that the Jo'burg Oasis team were coming to stay for the weekend because of the escalating violence in the Jo'burg townships prohibited them from working in their usual projects.
Much fun was had looking for random keys in the large disorganised pile of keys in the office(which is our to-do list for sorting....)

Friday 16/05
After a hectic four days we had another day 'off' from our respective projects and met up with the few members of staff for the fledgling projects onsite (Hands and Feet) who collect and distribute donations to other smaller community projects in need and run the hospital feeding schemes etc.
We went out to one of the creches in one of the nearest townships(Edendale). Unlike Thandi's creche which we visited with Di, Edith and Becky a couple of weeks ago this creche had not been done up and painted by previous teams. There were 20-30 odd children between 0-5years in one of two small rooms which this woman had on the side of her house. They had virtually no toys or stimulation and some of them were quite scared of the cuddlies and various other toys which we took with us. We also took some food and some blankets as its now getting 'cold' in the winter(i will never get to used to calling this weather winter!!)
It was fun to play with the children but it was incredibly difficult to begin to process the conditions in which were doing so. The room was small, dark and the smell took some adjusting to! The children seemed to be less apprehensive of us than the children at Thandi's creche which was the opposite of what I was expecting but lovely nonetheless.
We were there till lunchtime and we had lunch given us by the staff of H+F when we got back to PG - which was difficult to accept as they had spent most of the time telling us how their over-stretched staff situation was exacerbated greatly by a shortfall in funds at the moment.

Spent some time on the computer and then had a very long and rambly conversation with Kylie (working in the Gateway School of Fashion) which lasted literally several hours till the Jo'burg team arrived after being rescued by Hannah and Phil from driving into a township!
A huge amount of lasagna had been cooked so we mainly just ate and chatted for the rest of the evening - till the majority of the Jo'burg team headed to bed after a 7hr odd drive and we were in bed not too long after.

The weekend 17/05-18/05
The weekend was different to how I we had planned - but alot of fun. The Jo'burg team headed out to the beach very early on Sat. The Wildcat Girls followed into Durban (more specifically Gateway Shopping Centre) several hours later. With some brilliant driving under pressure from Abby!
I wrote about Gateway Shopping Centre in my church magazine when I was writing about my pending trip to SA a couple of months ago as a method of contrast to the type of work I would be doing and the environment I would be working. And boy, is Gateway Shopping Centre different.
Its absolutely HUGE. Hannah, Izzy and I spent basically the entire time on one floor! Didn't act do that much exploring of the centre which I now regret, but at the time I didn't think doing one floor could possibly take that long!
I didn't buy much but spent a lot time jst soaking everything in - can't say that it'll be one of the things I can say was the greatest use of my time out here - but it was alot of fun to spend time with the girls and to at least see the 'largest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere' which I feel I would have 'missed out on' had I not gone - even if in reality that wasn't quite true!

Saturday evening we gave the boys a present and a card as a thank-you for letting us have the car to go to Durban and back(no, we didn't think it would make it either :-P good old cedric!)
and spent some time chilling out before a late bed for me - because I was 'too tired' to actually go and get into bed!!

Sunday morning we said goodbye to the Jo'burg team early – hoping and praying that they will stay safe despite escalating violence in the city - as we went to church with Edith and Irene (older members of the Project Gateway crew, surrogate grandmothers to everyone and anyone - including the Wildcats and general legends/local celebrities).
They took us to ECC (Eagle Christian Centre) which was an experience and a half! Exuberance isn’t quite the word! The worship was pretty awesome and the preacher was a bishop from Lesotho who loved to keep his congregation awake (the loudest sermon I think I’ve ever listened to!) and yes, everyone else on the team loved it when I jumped due to the noise level going from quiet to loud very quickly….you know what I’m like!!

We all shook a lot of hands and hugged a lot of hugs, everyone was so welcoming!! Although I feel I should be getting used to that by now!

We have in fact been invited to their outreach event in a couple of weeks time because they were so impressed with us(may I add that we did nothing other than what most normal Christians do when they visit a new church – which is generally sit there looking nervously excited and join in as best they can!)

After a three-odd hour service we headed home for a ‘make-your-own’ lunch and a few of the hardcore shoppers headed out to do yet more shopping while the rest of us took a bit of time for chilling out/general headspace. I sat in the sun and read =D. Sunday was the first day I truly missed home – because of one of the songs we sang!! And so that was unusually tough because I had gotten used to the idea that I really wasn’t going to miss home very much at all. It was all fine – just had to be conscious not to wallow and sit around thinking about home too much!

We then ran the childcare for a special service which was going on at PCF – some amazing things happened in that meeting – which we were unfortunately not able to be in – but we had a rather chaotic time keeping 20-odd kids of a rather large range occupied for the best part of three hours – was a little insane at times – but all good fun!

Monday 19/05
Spent most of today at CCP – another brilliant devotional this morn and then time spent simply making some more posters/typing up lesson plans for the staff. Then a meeting about our holiday and what we want out of it with Becky and some general chill-out time!

This week I think we get to start driving vehicles at CCP – which scares me somewhat – but just want to get it over and done with really!
Have also set aside some time to really spend some time in the school IT room – looking forward to getting my teeth into that!

We are also going abseiling this weekend down an 100 and something foot waterfall this weekend in a town about 30-60mins away which I am really looking forward to!

Hope alls well

Peace out x

South Africa 9 - Thief

Yesterday I went out to creche run by a church and sat in a meeting that was done entirely in Zulu - so I had no idea what was going on!
The highlight of the morning was holding a one month old baby from the creche. She was a tiny scrap of life; light, warm and cuddly with the most beautiful face! I wanted to sit there forever.

On the way to a school to do a HIV/AIDS lesson I couldn't stop thinking:
Are her parents still alive? And if so, how much longer might they be?
What will happen to her in the future?
Does she have a future?
Does HIV already limit how long she can live?

I wanted to run back and scoop her up and take her far away from the reality of a packed out creche with no where near enough workers/volunteers to look after the number of children there.
And yet I knew that I couldn't and that I never would.


Occasionally one of the workers swaps into English when they're teaching the children; at one point later on that day one of the workers said that HIV "steals, kills and destroys"

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John 10:10

HIV is the thief.

South Africa 8 - a country of extremes

Tuesday 06/05
We headed out to "Thandi's" creche in Edendale with Becky, Di, Edith (head of the rural house industries - she has become the team's surrogate grandma - she's absolutely amazing - and is running by far the longest exsisting project at Gateway - as all the others have chopped and changed with times and funding!)
We were driving a car that still belongs to Gateway but which another staff member (Zephy) normally drives. At first it felt like luxury with something like power steering - but it soon transpired that the gears were very difficult and the bite point was very, very low - compared to our normal caar where the bite point is exceptionally high. So there was alot of stalling and non-smooth gear changing on my part. The immobilser also took awhile to get figured out so we remained very inconspicuous when our car alarm went off numerous time when we trying to start!
Anyway, the drive was OK - I had my first tries at driving off-road and up (and down) very steep mountain sides. Brilliant fun and rather stressful! Thirsty-making work, A-Mazing views.

We bought crayons and took them with us - we also had colouring-in pics. When we got there all the children were lined up and sang and danced for us. The boys headed out to the garden to help plant some plants. Us girls went to do some colouring with the children and then played with them. It was far too hot to be outside, but it was so much fun to play with the children - so small, cuddly, ticklish, fast runners and absolutely loved our cameras! I'll get round to putting these pics onto Facebook sometime soon!!
It was our first taste of what a community(township) looked like - and our first glimpse into the reality surrounding the poverty in SA. Surrounded by such amazing, panoramic mountain views with such low quality housing and roads. Heartbreaking.

When we left at around lunch time we were all hot and tired, but the guys were suffering alot because of working so hard in the heat so high up.
When we got back Jonno, Phil and I sat in a meeting for the donor marketing and public relations meeting (DMPR) and listened to lots more stuff regarding how the department works and what needs doing. Phil and Jonno have got very stuck into the admin work - I dread to think how long their to-do list has become in this week alone!
At the end of this meeting I headed down to the school to spend some time with the children in the after-care scheme - the other girls were down there - everyone was playing on the jungle gym (a wooden playground basically) - I stayed down there for about an hour and a half; everyone else drifted off during that time because they were feeling the heat and we were all tired.
When I finished at 4 - I was heading back up to the school and was met by the other girls who were making get-well cards for the boys who had crashed out. The girls headed out to the supermarket to get some medicine for Jonno who was burning up and had suspected flu. Phil was being stubborn and refusing to get into bed though he looked pretty rough.
By the time it came to organising getting to cell-group Jonno was in bed; not going anywhere anytime soon and Phil was wandering around admitting to "feeling worse". We had bought them medicine, soup bowls (our bowls are glorified plates), chocolate bars and despatched the get-well cards to them - signed by many, many ppl from around site!

After a fair amount of discussion Abby kindly volunteered to look after the boys and make Phil go to bed soon and us girls headed out with Dean to cell group. Dean was amazed to hear the lengths we'd gone to to look after the guys and veto-ed from being ïll"by being informed that we had no sympathy for man flu!!
Cell group was good - the prayer and worship sess was amazing - all us girls were sure the guys weren't gonna be sick for much longer! There were less ppl there than last week - was alot of fun, good chats were had and some very yummy food was eaten!
When we got back Phil had wisely gone to bed and Abby had been an Ab-star and cleaned the kitchen until it sparkled!

Wedsnesday 07/05
Despite our best efforts to keep both boys resting in bed Phil was up fairly early and Jonno followed a little while after. Jonno, Phil and I spent the day in a fundraising training session run by Di. Abby and Hannah went over to Bethany House and went on a schools visit in the afternoon and Izzy and Jenny spent the day in the school. Jonno had several naps during the day which was cool but Phil seemed to be almost over it! :D
After the fundraising session I spent a couple of hours sorting out the photo discs which I've taken on as part of the work which needs doing in admin. It's repetitive work - but nice to do in the afternoon as it doesn't require too much brain power!
Then in the evening we headed out to Becky's house to watch a film called 'Faith Like Potatoes' amazing stuff (i'm in the process of reading the book which preceded the film)
Check out this review(although don't read all of it unless you want to know the whole story):
http://www.joymag.co.za/mag/3-2006/3-2006-angus.php
and Angus's website:
http://www.shalomtrust.co.za/
In the first week we here Angus Buchnan (author of the book) held an annual conference on his farm called Mighty Men - 60,000 people attended. Insane!

Jonno was alot better in the evening and it was a while before we were back at the prison due to the amount of chatting, table football and pool being played!

Thursday 08/05
I spent the day in CCP with Hannah and Abby - we spent the morning in a training session on giving lessons to high school(secondary school) students about sex. Much hilarity was had, and we all learnt something, which we were not really expecting!
Then in the afternoon we headed out to two schools (Abby and Hannah at one and I at the other - of course we were all with a team of staff from CCP).
Again we were out in the communties; however the school I was headed out to had cancelled all the afternoon lessons for Sports Day which they hadn't told us about (apparently the schools regularly chop and change the timetables without informing CCP so this is a frustratingly common occurence for the staff)
Because I didn't get to go to the school in Imbali I went out with Rob(overall manager of CCP - whose house we lived in a couple of weeks ago) to Georgetown High School where Abby and Hannah had been for the afternoon. I sat in a meeting with the principal about continuing the teaching with the children and making the school a centre for VCT counselling (compulsory counselling before having an HIV test) and HIV tests.
The school buildings and resources made Gateway Christian School look like Buckingham Palace - and I am forever re-evaluating the way I look at things.

Finished work at 3 because there was a staff only meeting so came back to PG and sorted some more CD's and spoke to Mrs Bennett in the school about the two afternoons a week when I will come in and start looking at the IT room and teaching some of the children how to play some board games.
Went to a prayer meet at NCF at 6 with Jonno, Phil, Hannah and Izzy while Jenny and Abby wanted to stay here and chillout.
Came back and had dinner and then watched Cars on DVD -- although only Phil and I "watched"it to the end as everyone else drifted off to bed - i say "watched" because I think we were both more sleeping through it than watching it!

Friday 09/05
Went to chapel on Friday morning and then discovered our car (the one we were using as a temporary replacement) wouldn't start. The start motor was turning over(making a very unusual noise) but the engine wasn't starting. Much activity commenced. Jumping leads were used and we got the white car started from the green car's(our normal car) battery. However there is no reason why the battery should have been flat coz we didn't leave the lights on overy night and the battery is only four months old! When the white car did start it wasn't running very well so the tyres were pumped up on the green car(which was the problem making the car unsafe) and we used that one instead (so nice to drive with gears that I can find without too much hassle again!)
We spent the majority of the day at a feeding scheme run by Life Ambundant Ministries in Edendale. We spent the first hour or so chopping and peeling onions, carrots and potatoes which we had bought and taken with us. Because there were eight of us; Pretty (the team's assistant) was with us as she can speak Zulu, we finished preparing the vegetables pretty quickly and essentially sat around for approx 3hours (apart from the odd stirring job) until all the people came to collect food.
There weren't as many people there as we thought there would be - and they appeared in dribs and drabs - and hearing some of their background stories made for some serious reflection time later on....
I helped to serve out the pap(made out of mealie - and well, not much else - has the texture of playdough and doesn't taste of much). It was BOILING hot - and I made good use of my families seemingly genetic trend of burning themselves and had a very painful thumb by the end of the session.
Had my thumb in cold water for about half an hour when we got back - and it now doesn't hurt at all - but the time I was very worried!
We spent the rest of the afternoon recovering from the heat and sun and I spent yet more time sorting CD's! We went down to the youth group at PCF and there was another DVD session about relationships and sex (me, abby and hannah are going to have heard an awful lot on this subject by the time we are back in England!!) We unfortunately missed the beginning worship sess as they started early (unheard of here I tell you!) and I was pretty gutted about that!
After that we all headed out for a meal as we'd prepared enough food that day!
Brilliant fun was had - I managed to jump and laugh hysterically alot!
Then we headed back with very full stomachs and hit the sack. hard!!

Saturday 10/05
Lie-in! YAY! well. if 0915 counts in your book. it would never normally count in mine, but I was so refreshed to have almost three hrs extra sleep!
Rather disjointed morning - until we finally made the decision to go shopping. I wasn't going to go until everyone else decided that they would and i decided I'd rather not stay here by myself so I went and brought a bigger bag to carry my stuff around in and some very cool PJ's. Was very, very busy at the mall and rather tiring and stressful to be around. And while some of the team were in their element. Several of us were bored easily! So after food and delibaration I drove some of us back and then Jonno headed out to pick up the more hardcore shoppers who weren't quite ready to leave when we were!
So, it is Saturday evening and I am not too sure what we are doing this evening, we need to plan out all the exciting activities we are going to do in our remaining 14 weekends(?!) and start thinking about the things we want to book for our two week holiday! fun times!
We've also managed to not track down the person who is currently in posession of the laundry room key so we're in a slightly interesting position clothing and underwear wise but hopefully that will resolve itself soon!

I'm still trying to get my head around being able to drive 10-minutes in one direction and ending up at the gate of an exceptionally large house with a pool, tennis courts and fully equipped rooms and then driving for another ten minutes and ending up in front of a shack with a tin roof which is lucky if it is supplied with electricity or running water. Obviously that is a slight exaggeration as it often takes more than ten minutes to reach the more remote areas...but the principle still applies.
I find it hard to deal with - as are other people on the team - but then that's one of the challenges of coming here from a very priveledged background and all of the Oasis teams will be dealing with it in one form or another.
One of those things I was hoping I'd prepared for, but in reality you can never truly prepare for things like that!

Can't wait for Monday morning(!) when I go to the weekly briefing at CCP and find out what I might be up to this next week!
Also looking forward to my church services 2moro!
(Did I mention I could quite happily stay here for a lot longer than is currently planned :-P)

Peace out x

South Africa 7 - the working week begins(almost!)

Saturday 03/05
You know about the day, the evening was alot of fun - we went to the cinema for a late night showing - which was very fun - a very large quantity of cake was consumed beforehand! *


*Starbucks may not have made it to SA yet (praise the Lord!) but Mugg&Bean should definitely break into the UK market - their cakes are insanely good - and HUGE as well - I might stick a photo on sometime - but then you would all realise what a fattie I'm being at the moment - so maybe i won't!!*


Sunday 04/05
I went to PCF (the church onsite) in the morning - brilliant times - so chilled out and a completely different experience to NCF - far more multi-cultural which is brilliant!

Then we went out with Dean to the big mall near us for lunch @ Spur - my first steak for a long time :D
Then our almost-weekly food shop (we go shopping fairly regularly for all those little things that always get forgotten!) with Hannah, Jenny and Izzy while the other three came back to Gateway - as Jonno hasn't been feeling too well (I've managed to pass my cold to Izzy and Jonno it would seem :S)


We were back just in time (after a slight detour onto the highway....my mistake!!) for Jonno, Izzy and I to go to NCF for the evening service - was brilliant - felt more and more like we have actually found friends there :D

Monday 05/05
Well; we thought we were going to be starting our projects this morning - but that hasn't quite happened(!) things seem more concrete in my mind - but that's just becuase we're talking more about time-scales now - and are sort of starting to get things done!
I will be spending the majority of my time in the community care projects - as well as helping with admin (on the IT/computer side of things) and hopefully abit with the kids from the school aswell as hopefully getting their computer room closer to being usable (i didn't think i'd been doing that at first - but its been suggested to me several times - so I'm going to give it a go and see how far I get!)

Jenny, Hannah and Izzy are working to produce some movable display boards with the info about Gateway and the projects which is currently on the seminar room walls. So they're busily researching and budgeting that!
Unfortunately Jonno is not feeling so good - i think it might be something like the flu - but he's very good at not moaning so I'm not too sure!
The car has gone to the mechanics as there are some things that need fixing - so is strange to not have a car.
Abby went driving for the first time(as she's been pretty nervous about the whole thing) this morning -she went out with Hannah who is very good at navigating us round P.M.B - I'm not so great at that atm - mainly coz it takes me quite a while to get a journey embedded in my memory - we're all getting there tho.

From all reports Abby did very well - and will be volunteering alongside myself and Hannah at Bethany House - which we're all very excited about :D

Heading out to a creche 2moro - and then off to a fundraising course as part of our intro to admin (its mainly Jonno, Phil and myself who are looking to be involved in the admin in some aspect or another!)
All very exciting!!
Peace out x

South Africa 6 - good, relaxing, frustrating times!

So, we didn't exactly get to Howick on Thursday as it rained in Howick - so there wasn't exactly much point in having a picnic. So essentially we didn't do much.
Nothing much on Friday either - although we have been out a couple of times on shopping trips and one unorganised late night cinema trip!

That's been fun in the sense that we're not really under pressure to do anything. No one has been onsite at all really, most people are on holiday and making the most of it! It's also been incredibly frustrating as these last two days have felt like an incredibly long time! We're all looking forward muchly to Monday - with some apprehension - but we have all got some kind of vague idea where we will try to head out to on Monday morning - so hopefully all should go smoothly!

On Tuesday we are going out to one of the creches in the townships and on Friday we're going out to help out with a feeding scheme at a community centre - which will take up most of the day. So while this week isn't going to be a full week of work in our projects its still going to be pretty hardcore!
I think now thursday and friday are over its alot easier to look ahead to next week and really enjoy the weekend.

This morning (saturday 3/5) the guys cooked pancakes for us girls :D even though we ended up having long lie-ins because of our cinema visit last night! It was so nice! They were so great about it and even spent some time encouraging us girls - such gentleman - when they want to be!
joking :P
We also had a really great devotional time together as a team which was challenging but ended on a really upbeat note and has made me feel reallly positive about the week ahead.
I think that its starting to hit home for a couple of people that we're not here for a holiday but here to work.
For me, that hasn't hit yet, I'm not entirely sure that it needs to (we shall see)
it's been interesting!

we've also decided what to eat and what to do 2nite - which is unexpectedly organised of us - considering our pattern over the last few days!

So this week is looked forward to and hoped for.
Let's hope things run smoothly!!

Peace out x

South Africa 5 - I love Usaka!!

Well, I was going to apologise for putting such alot of detail in my previous two blogs. But my parents seem to be enjoying the detail (even though I'm not sure I'll write about riding in the back of a pick-up again anytime soon! :-P)

I am however limited on time today as I have to turn the computer off in 20mins to stop it going crazy when the power cuts out in 30mins.

Cell group on Tues eve was soo much fun. we didn't end up having a bonfire because several ppl are ill (i myself have the misfortune of trying to fight off a cold!)
We had worship and bible time (Deut 32:1-13 the fatherhood of God) and then mass pudding eating sess :D followed by a game of 30 seconds (the SA version of Articulate) many hilarious moments. and embarassment on our part as we don't have a clue on some of the more South African things that we had to describe!
The best moment was probably when one of the SA guys tried to convince us that "The Wanderers" was a cricket ground in England (it is in fact outside Jo'burg!)
closely followed by Izzy's description of Jerusalem as "the place where Jesus was born" pure classic!

We were all pretty tired by this point as we had been up late with Abby the night before - thankfully Dean got us home pretty quick!

Weds 30th
Today was the school trip to the water park in Durban (Usaka - pronounced Oosarka-or something close to that!)
Unfortunately Abby couldn't make it because of resting her foot and absolutely insisted that none of us should miss out; so we're planning another trip when her foot is better.

Let's jst say nothing like this trip would ever be attempted in the UK. 240-odd kids, four coaches and no more than 20 adults (7 UK volunteers included) at a busy waterpark. I have no idea how it worked and how we didn't lose anyone!
After a nosy journey on which I heard everything from Rhianna's "Umbrella" to some pretty awesome Zulu numbers and plenty of dancing (did i mention that the South Africans aren't particularly big on seat belt awareness?!)
we arrived. 240-odd wristbands later we, or rather they, were let lose.

The kids were given pretty much a free-rein - as were we - it was a very safe environment. We spent the morning together as a group of volunteers doing all of the slides and flumes (aside from two that we simply didn't have time for) including a slide with practically 90-degree angle drop(which turned out to be something of an anti-climax simply coz it happened so fast!)
Sooo much fun!!
Then lunch, which was done on Tues eve, and then spent the afternoon splashing in the pools with the kids. pretty cold unfortunately as it went cloudy.
A much quieter journey back and it was all i could do to keep my eyes open to follow the conversation the deputy head of the school was engaging me with!

Needless to say, I am looking forward to bed this evening. It was so nice to be doing something different, with the added bonus of it being so much fun at the same time!

Tomorrow we are going to Howick for a picnic with Dean followed by a film, i think! as its another public holiday.
Friday we were planning to go to Durban beach. But we may have to rain-check that one for another time as we want Abby to be included!

Peace out x

South Africa 4 - the weekend.....here comes an epic!

Saturday 26th
Was sooo nice not to be woken up by an alarm - for anyone who knows me, you will know early mornings simply are not my thing so even after two weeks I begin to need a decent lie-in....i hope the rest of the team will be able to cope with that! :-P


So the day started at me for 1100 - which really isn't the start of a day at all but the start of an afternoon - so yea.....
the rest of the team was out sunbathing, reading and Phil was watching some brilliant SA rugby (yea, yea i know.....but these guys know how to play a decent game.....unlike some of the international British games I've watched recently!)


We basically mooched round and chilled out all day - not much was done. nice showers had, much sunbathing by our resident sun-worshippers (jenny and abby!), reading, eating, sleeping.
All those good things!
Oh and of course I did have the first phone conversation with home - which was really nice -especially knowing that it was relatively inexpensive because of the genius who invented Skype!

At around 7 we all went out to Nando's with Kylie(who is also from the UK and working in the Karen Millen Fashion School onsite...) had a very nice meal which reminded me of many good times sat in Nando's in Britain with different groups of very lovely ppl! :D
I managed to set the alarm on the house off as we were leaving because the keypad is a long way from the door (relatively speaking) and I wasn't quite quick enough in the locking up! Luckily the large barrage of info i had been given on Friday helped out and after a quick phone call reassuring the security company that I was not a burglar(!) we were good to go.

So when we got back from Nando's to have a marathon game of MoPo (slang for Monopoly) with Kylie and I was so relieved not to have set off the alarm when we got back that I completely forgot to close the gate at the end of the drive! About 4hrs and a game later (me and Izzy won!!) we went to say goodbye to Kylie and realised that the gate was open and that Buzz (the older one who normally doesn't run away wasn't there!
Cue worry, driving around in the dark, very, very apologetic phone call to owners (who kindly told us not to worry and to stop driving around at 0100 as it wasn't particularly safe) and eventual strongly worded argument to stop the dog lovers from roaming the streets.

No-one really slept, lots of silence and prayer. At 2ish Jonno remembered he hadn't put the gear lock on the car (added security measure) and walked out to find Buzz running past the gate.
Much celebration and all-round relief!

Sunday 27th
Sunday morning a couple of people went out to PCF really early (well they left at 0845....) considering we hadn't been in bed till about 3 in the morning...
I got up around 11 again
swimming was attempted - but the water was freezing - so that didn't last long!
Another day of mooching around and not doing very much :D
Had a pretty amazing BBQ(or braai) meal and then went to NCF
Fairly uneventful except Jenny got food poisoning from the chicken she cooked and I was woken at 0430 by the biggest clap of thunder i have ever heard in my life - and lay there for an hour jst listening to it - and watching the flashes of lightning - triple flashes at times - trying not to be blinded by the light!

Monday 28th
Yesterday was wierd, packed up and left the house as tidy as poss. Came back, found that 60 eggs have been donated to us (which makes a grand total of 72 as we had already bought 12!) we have managed to eat 20-odd already!!
Lots of reading and quietness. I think its fair to say that everyone sort of wishes we were able to start work properly this week - to stop drifting around the site. but at the same time it gives us more time to adapt into our changing team dynamic as we shift from being on our "best behaviour" to being more normal - which is good but inevitably leads to some tensions; nothing abnormal just one of those things to be aware of and sensitive towards as we do life together, I'm hoping it won't last too long!

In the evening we had a good session of Monopoly which I lost pretty badly due to leaving the game to talk to Dad who was bored while doing the VAT return(! second to a VAT return - I don't know!) therefore I was not the one rolling the dice - and i had the mishap of being more or less bankrupted by the time I got back!
This unfortunate incident was unfortunately overshadowed by Abby telling us at the end of the game that "I don't know why I'm laughing but I think I've broken my ankle"

Basically she had fallen down a couple of stairs in between our room and the seminar room (one of many oddly shaped and uneven set of stairs onsite) before we had started playing monopoly.
The lump(s) on her foot were now rather large so we got some frozen peas(these later turned out to be open but no-one noticed/cared at the time) and got her foot elevated.

And then the fun really began. (It was 2330 our time)

We phoned our Team Co-ordinator (phone off), our cell group leader (no answer), our UK Oasis contact (no answer and no response whatsoever on the emergency number). Finally we got directions to the nearest private hospital from Di - who is on the South Coast at the moment!
Jonno, Hannah, Phil and Abby all went to the Hospital (on Payne Street!!) and Jenny went to bed as she was still recovering from the chicken incident.

Abby was seen very promptly and was discharged home with crutches, strong painkillers, a bandaged foot and instructions to come back tomorrow morning for an X-Ray (this has now been done and there is no break. Brilliant stuff!)

I guess Monday and Tuesday have sort of blurred into one - but at the moment nothing that exciting has happened yet, please don't let this be famous last words!
We have a cell group bonfire night 2nite (plenty of marshmallows :D) so we might need to take extra special care that nothing unpleasant happens.....gas masks anyone?
and have a large packed lunch to prepare for the trip to the water park 2moro.
Bring on the supermarket....I am continually surprised by how much food seven of us manage to eat!

There isn't much to say to end this except - we promise to be careful the next time we crack open the Monopoly....

PS - We did eventually get hold of our Oasis Uk contact(Lisa) and she is going to try and find out why we couldnt get through on the emergency phone as it was on all of last night.....so don't panic!!

Peace out x

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.

There is a blog coming....

BUT LOAD SHEDDING KEEPS GETTING IN THE WAY!
its annoying me
where has the week gone??

South Africa 2 - gimme the keys

Friday 18th

We went to the morning chapel service for the staff of project gateway which was brilliant - our first full-on experience of zulu worship - absolutely fantastic - so loud and joyful and there was some english mixed in!

we were all dressed up smart to create a good impression - which was a good thing coz we got asked to come to the front to be introduced and prayed for! got lots of postive feedback afterwards so it was all worth it!!



Then Becky showed us round PMB city centre which was dirty, bustling and full of interesting monuments - like a lot of cities!

Found a lovely tea-room(!) in the art gallery and so had late elevenses there!

then came back and attempted to cook before the power cut coz of load shedding (1600-1830)

we managed (just!) and played some Uno in the dusk/dark - which was good fun as we were straining to see what colours or cards were!!



Then we went to PCF's (the church onsite) youth group and watched a dvd about relationships
DVD was brilliant; the kids were sooo excited to meet us and more zulu worship :D
We also actually got an early night so that was nice :P


Saturday 19th

we were up early (left PG at 0730) to go team building

we went into a forested/bush area and did some silly team games. then some hardcore trust games (falling backwards off a 3ft wall to be caught by everyone certainly challenges you!). then coffee, then a wires challenge and a blindfold challenge. in pairs one person blindfolded the other guiding just with touch or just with voice. then lunch. then another blindfold challenge but with the roles reversed.

then a swing challenge

the challenges are pretty difficult to explain but were pretty exhausting. As was walking through the bush. so needless to say we were all completely shattered when we got back

i was absolutely covered in dirt, a shower has rarely felt so good!



That night we went round to Sheelaghs for pizza. so wierd being in normal size rooms again, felt a little strange&slightly scary!
i have become incredibly used and comfortable with the confines of a cell!

we played a few board games with becky, samke (becky's assistant who also came team-building), Umtogo(the site manager) and kylie (who is from england helping out in the Karen Millen school of fashion which was started here in January!)

Then came back home and crashed out - all of us had very wierd dreams and woke up with our bedsheets all over the place - was funny to compare stories!

Sunday 20th
We went to NCF church at 1000 - Dean (the guy who heads up the cell group we will be joining) helped us out with lifts and finding the church. The church is very much like a lot of churches in the western world - and is aimed at a completely different demographic than that which PCF aims at - the worship is abit hillsong-like and there is no zulu worship (which to begin with was a tad disappointing)
tho there is something nice about not having to be worried about the culture and how we will fit in - it is a large church but once we get to know the cell grp i think we will all feel far more settled.

The rest of Sunday was spent chilling out and relaxing - we were all still tired frm sat - and it was chucking it down sooo much - we didn't want to go outside - the rain&thunder was so loud on the iron roof of the church that they cut the sermon short coz no one could hear - even when the preacher was miked up!!

and we then went out to NCF in the evening for a music event which they hold every couple of the months with a short msg -- its a type of outreach i think!
the event was great - even more like hillsong than in the morning - but we were all very aware that hannah wasn't feeling very well (she's back to being fine again - just needed to catch up on some sleep) and so headed back early.

Tho Abby, Phil, Jonno and I all stayed up pretty late playing cards (i'm definitely hitting the pillow early 2nite!)

Monday 21st
We have spent most of the day in the monthly meetings that the admin dept have with each project to get feedback on everything....so interesting - and so much to be done! still haven't decided which project to be a part of - but listening to the reports gives you more of an insight into what is going on and which areas of need there are (apart from the very stark financial need that comes from every project) i have a feeling i will be doing a heck of a lot of fundraising when i get home.

I drove to the SuperSpar with Abby&Phil this afternoon to do a big shop for the rest of the week - its pretty amazing how much food seven ppl eat in one week! but is equally amazing how cheap the majority of things are! We were aiming for the Spar which is closest to us but ended up at another Spar nearer NCF - not entirely sure if this was the one the person who gave us instructions was aiming at - but we got there in one piece and without driving into any dodgy areas so thats good! I am gradually getting used to non-power steering and beginning to enjoy the africa driving experience even if our car has very little acceleration at all&there is a rather interesting squeaking noise emanating from the bonnet - we have a car!!!

Wedsnesday and Thursday we are heading out to the feeding projects at two of the local hospitals at 0530 - so we're going to be pretty shattered on friday when we make final decisions about which projects to work on (we are doing visits to projects on weds and thurs during the day)

On Thursday evening R.T Kendall (look him up on Google if you've never read any of his books) is coming to preach at NCF church due to a mix-up on his teaching schedule in Durban and we are all going to go. Its pretty wierd that we're in South Africa going to listen to a teacher who used to work in London! but not turning down the amazing opportunity!

It has not rained today but has been persistently cloudy (and dare i say it; cold! :S) we are told things should be back to 'normal' tomorrow - all i can say is: I hope so!

Feels so strange that we will only have been here a week 2moro - it feels like so much longer than that! am so settled!

Peace out x

South Africa 1 - what will they say when they find out I'm a Jesus freak?! :D

OK! so now i have carved out a little more time in order to blog!
Here is my journal to date!

MONDAY - TUESDAY(15&16/04/08)

Had a bit of a hectic day packing and the like but my day really started in the afternoon/evening when I got to Heathrow



- Team Wildcats all met up with family in tow; much hugging and holding back of tears on my part (if I'd have started I wouldn't have stopped!) and much thinking how surreal all of it is.

- check-in and boarding was uneventful - with one heck of a holy huddle before we got on the plane! humour as dad and i realise that he didn't actually give me the keys for the padlock for my suitcase!


Our plane >

-Then a long,long flight (10hrs 30mins), only an hours sleep - plenty of dozing tho! Jonno got a lot of sleep - this was annoying as he was very alert the nxt night! Virgin have upgraded their entertainment systems and there were LOADS of movies and songs to choose from! i watched Juno(which is surprisingly good), the Bee Movie and an episode of Without A Trace.




- we arrived at Jo'burg rather tired and slightly disorientated. approached a guy nr the check-in desks to ask which check-in we needed to go to. he grabbed one of our bags and said he was upgrading us to business class(he didn't) and ended up asking us for 20 quid each (by then there were three of them hassling us all at once). Needless to say we ended up being fleeced - very embarassing, slightly hilarious in hindsight and most definitely not happening again.

- despite this experience the flight to Durban was pretty awsum as flights go. nice food and really great views over the surrounding area as we very slowly descended into Durban airport. Unfortunately I had put my camera in my hand luggage and therefore couldn't photograph :S
Here's one from earlier on in the flight:

- Nice drive to PMB on highways which make Kenya look like Europe; there was a constant comparison to Kenya going on in my head. there is a only a minor culture shock compared to Kenya so far, tho we haven't been into the local township areas yet - so have yet to see the harsh reality of life for most ppl.


Was very tired when I got to Project Gateway. Though was hugely excited - and had been since descending into Durban. Couldn't belive that we were/are actually here!

- The rest of the day was a complete blur; tried to remove padlock from bag using Phil's pen knofe - this took agges and i was nearly there when a very lovely guy (who's name i forget - like a lot names i''ve been told since i got here!) turned up with these huge metal cutter and had my padlock (and Jonno padlock which had been crushed so he couldn't do the code) off in 3seconds flat! Phils penknife may be slightly worse off for hacking through a couple of mms of metal!

- we had an introductory meeting with Becky(Teams Co-ordinator), Di(fundraising and admin lady and all round genius), Lorne(absolute legend with a big heart for God), Sheelah(having us round for pizza on Saturday(need i say more? :D) and Mbkosi(sorry for spelling - he works in admin - haven't seen him much since)
Unfortunately not a lot of information from this information came anywhere near sinking in as i was a little too tired.

- Finished unpacking (i'm sharing a cell/room with Abby - and am ironically enjoying cell life!) and did my photo wall (BIG SMILES) missed everyone lots - but in a healthy way!

- Had our first dinner cooked for us by a woman who works in CCP (community care projects) and had a fun, very giggly evening(sleep deprivation) felt like midnight at about 8pm! lol!
Played one of the slowest games of Uno ever! (Phil's fault for dealing 13 cards each!)

Loving being here. Can't believe its happening and can't w8 to get started.

WEDNESDAY (17/04/08)

Felt a little homesick this morning but it quickly passed. Had a cold shower coz the warm water hadn't warmed up yet, it was nice and oddly refreshing. Breakfast was nice and chilled out and we had a discussion with Becky aboout our timetable for the next two weeks (third week is made up purely of public holidays and a day trip with the children of Pietermaritzburg Christian School to a water park on the beach front in Durban) In the fourth week we will have decided which projects we want to get involved with and we will make up our own timetable!

We visited Pastor Sinatra Mantemalow (originally of Zambia and who speaks seven languages!!) who is the principle of the school and he gave us a really brilliant session of teaching and discussion around Acts 17:24-31 and Matthew 5:13-17. He was full of wisdom.

We have also had an invite to go to his house for a classic Zambian meal (incl cow's intestine, and chicken head and feet....needless to say we're considering this invite cautiously as we will be expected to eat what is given to us..)

We also got to talk to some of the children which was awkward - as it was initially in Kenya. They were very eager to know when we were starting work. which is a slightly tricky qu as obv we haven't worked it out yet! But am looking forward to getting to know them and def to the waterpark trip!!

Becky then showed us around the Project Gateway site as it is quite big and told us abit of the history - which is incredibly interesting. The prison was built in 1862 (that building is derilict at the mo but plans are in the pipeline to turn it into a museum as it is the equivalent of a listed building and would be a good source of income because of tourists.

There are rumours that Nelson Mandela spent a couple of nights here on a transfer here - but there are no official records as most of the prisoners were not being kept here legally.

One of the guys who now works here used to be held here as a prisoner and escaped once (no mean feat!) before being put in the high security block. Amazing; definitely want to hear his testimony!

The building we are living in was built in 1892

and the building with all the admin, our kitchen and dining room was built much later on (1930ish)
we found out that our dining room was at one point used as the gallow room (there are the outlines of the space in the ceiling where they were hung and the outline of a pit in the floor for bodies!) and the kitchen used to be the post-mortem room
Needless to say i think most of us almost wish we didn't know that!

After the tour we had lunch and headed out to go shopping(becky had bought some food for us prior to our arrival). We went to Scotsville Mall (about the size of Egham High Street but with two storeys and more parking)
Driving is interesting. I didn't drive on Tuesday but did drive 2day(weds)
We are driving a vauxhall corsa with a little hatchback. The clutch is heavy, there are some suspicious squeaking noises after a recent repair, when you push down the clutch to the floor and then turn the wheel you can feel the steering axel with your toes! and there is no power steering so it is incredibly difficult to maneourve - but all in all a pretty fun experience!

We spent an age in the supermarket working things out, and ended up buying alot but didn't spend as much of our weekly budget as we thought we would, we are going to have far more than enough in the weekly food budget! Things that cost 3-4 quid are considered pretty expensive out here!

After our shopping trip Pastor Jabu (pronounced Jar-bu) who''s the overall pastor of Gateway gave us a talk about culture which was good and helped us all to understand that we need to be quite careful and take our time to understand how things work because even though the country is far more westernised than many places in Africa we still need to be very careful not to ruin our witness - though we will inevitably make some mistakes! we are human after all!

We then attempted to cook for the youth worker from NCF - the church that will be discipling us (as opposed to PCF which is onsite) and two of his friends who he brought along with him.
However our tuna pasta bake turned out rather stodgy due to being unable to accurately measure anything and not having much experience of cooking for 10!
The fruit salad was more of a success although the ice-cream was a little more like cream as the freezer decided not to work properly (it has since sorted itself out properly!)

At 1930 the electricity went out for one and a half hours - this is scheduled power-shedding; as there are not enough power stations to power the entireity of the country so there are scheduled localised power outtages - this affects us for one anda half hours Tues, Weds, Fri and Sat - at different times. The only really annoying ones are the one on Weds and the one 2day which goes out 1600-1830 which is normally when we would cook dinner and we are out at PMB youth group at 1830 so we having a late cooked lunch.

We sat around and chatted for a while in the dark which was alot of fun.
Went back to our rooms around 10ish but me and Abby ended up sitting up till 12ish chatting about lots of stuff - mostly deep stuff - but some pretty random stuff aswell - well, this is me we're talking about!

THURSDAY (18/04/08)

We spent the morning at Bethany House (just opposite the prison) which the headquarters of CCP, sitting in on a workshop morning for the staff who teach HIV/AIDS education in schools. Started off with some awesome worship songs - few zulu one english - just so amazing to be a part of - gets your mind in the right place and makes you realise how naturally gifted the African ppl are at singing!

It was a long and heavy sess - very open about everything and discussed alot of things - not overly relevant to us - but good nonetheless.

Learned some shocking stats

Kwu-Zu Natal (the province of which Pietermaritzburg is capital) has the highest rate of HIV infection in the WORLD

and in a class of 50 children about 5 will be being/have some experience of sexual abuse.

seriously sobering stats.

Then lunch and a talk from Di Milford about the history of SA - which has opened a lot of questions and discussion

its all very different when you're here to when you're reading it on a info pamphlet thing.

Had an awsum meal last nite

mainly helped by bananna pancakes and chocolate spread for pud!!

I have literally been typing for ever

I hope you are not all too bored.

I doubt I will have time to write this much normally

we shall see

there are many other important things which may be prioritised over this!

I LOVE the sunshine

its the best

even if the evenings are short (its dark around 1830) and fairly cool.

Hope alls well

Peace out

SOUTH AFRICA

I love this place its amazing!
I will be writing an essay of a blog soon but don't have enough time rite now!
can't wait to tell you all bout what's happening!

but for the meantime we are here safe (have been since mon)
and are eating well hehehe

more soon
xox

Just a little aside

I love LOST!

This is jst a little bit of fun!

Which Dead Lost Character Are You?

More on Lost. Created by BuddyTV

FIVE DAYS TILL SOUTH AFRICA!!!

So cool!

A) I am now officially 19 (OK, well i might have to wait till 2130 this eve for the actual officialness to kick in but.....)
Seriously wierd and makes me wonder where on EARTH the past year has gone - i mean, i blinked and i feel like i pretty much missed it!!

B) So that I can stop sounding so overly-freaked out by the minor detail of my age (how am i ever gonna cope when i get to 50 and other age-related milestones??!)
Check out this cool trick.........when it says phone number it means your home phone number.....

1. Grab a calculator. (you won't be able to do this one in yourhead)

2. Key in the first three digits of your phone number (NOT the areacode)

3. Multiply by 80

4. Add 1

5. Multiply by 250

6. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number

7. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number again.

8. Subtract 250

9. Divide number by 2

Do you recognize the answer??!

Back from Training

So, I've had a week (well, almost a week) meeting up with the group of people (7 ppl in total) who i will be living and working with the next 18weeks and getting some much needed information and preparation for the trip.

I cannot believe that I only met them on Tues - feels like I've known them for so long!!
They are: (in alphabetical order) no favourites :P

Abby
Hannah
Isabel
Jenny
Jonno
Phil

Affectionately known as 'Team Wildcats (who knew that I'd find boys that were as obsessed with High School Musical as the Gilbert brothers!! seriously, there'd be no stopping them if i ever introduced them to each other! I thought that the Gilberts were complete nutters for being so into HSM - turns out they are just a few nutters out of many!!)
There will be a photo of all of us as soon as our teams co-ordinator puts them on facebook and I can nick one!

I sort of wish that we could have gone to SA straight from the training - coz we were all pretty psyched and excited.
But i know that we all need the extra prep time to pack.

I've discovered a lot of things about SA and the things that we're going to be doing which have majorly changed what I will pack.
Mainly the fact that we can buy clothes pretty cheaply out there - therefore i will pack fewer clothes and more important items such as chocolate (yes the title of the blog may have changed, but i am still the same raging chocoholic as i always was :P)

I finished my job at the hospital last Thurs (before Easter) that was really wierd coz I didn't realise quite how much of a routine I had gotten myself into - or the number of ppl I will actually miss seeing everyday! They gave me some rather lovely pressies and it was all a lot of fun!
I am glad that i do have these two weeks for head and packing space!

Still working with White Lodge till the Wednesday before I go because I love the little boy and his family - and will have a harder time saying goodbye to him and his family. Hearing about the work of the Oasis Thailand team (working with disabled kids) made me wonder how much the facilities would differ for the children out there and what challenges that would present. You look at it a completely different way when you've actually worked with children in those sorts of situations I guess.

I am absolutely loving eating chocolate again - and i have two easter eggs to eat before i leave - so all is goooood!

There are so many friends to meet up with before I go - tis insane! and the time is gonna go so quickly!
At the same time as that sucks - i can't wait to get out there and learn more about the ways i react in dfferent situations and getting stuck into the experiences that will shape the way i think about the rest of my life!

All in all a pretty unique and exciting time coming up!
Bring It On!!

open up the part of you that wants to hide away

I think all of the blogging community whom i am in contact with have been very lax in their blog-keeping recently

as have I.

but quite frankly i have missed it....so

where have i been since the 11th of August?? (a whole 7month and 3days ago...what?)
the answer to that is - ALOT of places...

Results have been recieved, cried and laughed over (personally i think it takes quite alot of skill to fail ALL three chemistry A2 units and still get a D!)

Taunton 3 has been attended with many laughs, more tears, bare jokes exchanged& amazing times had...

Much time wasted lounging in the sun and on facebook before finally securing two jobs - one at St Peter's Hospital in mid-september (which meant life unfortunately stopped feeling like one extended summer holiday)

and the second job a couple of weeks later at white lodge (and yes, it did take them the best part of two months to interview me and actually start me in the job!!)
Ironically I am now coming towards the end of my time working. I finish SPH next week and WL later on in april.

SPH has been fairly boring but is good to see how a hospital actually works& have met some pretty decent people - and some not so decent - but no need to go into that! lol!

WL has been rewarding - getting to know two beautiful boys and their families and caring for them, pushing the limit of my patience sometimes!!

Aside from work, I have:
Seen Paramore in concert twice
Had a pretty decent Xmas
and a pretty fabby new year!
also, a pretty lovely valentines day ;D
carried on helping out with church youth group and all the challenges that has thrown my way
spent ALOT on phone credit
had great times on Youth Leadership Conference(Chorleywood Week B) and Taunton3 reunion!!
Not visited half as many people at uni as i sed i would!
Carried on planning for the big trip out to South Africa which i leave for a month tomorrow (eeek!) and havent done half as much as i should have done! surprise surprise!

O yes, i have also applied to university (after much debating, soul-searching and generally stressing about what course to do...) to do occupational therapy - can't be bothered to explain it if you're not sure what that is - please wikipedia it!!
Got three offers - coventry, plymouth and cardiff and am 99% i will be going to the mighty cardiff!!

So, gap-year has been unarguably one of the best years of my life (so far!) and the best coupla months are still to come!

I would like to hear anyone arguing against the benefits of not having to do homework when you finally get home in the evening(two jobs....)
the worst thing is knowing that i'll have to back to doing "homework" next yr!


Looking forward to next week - finishing one job which will free up far more time to hurriedly get myself organised AND mark (teeter) is coming back to the UK - will be so great to see him again!

Not too sure how to end this post as it's been so long - just to say that - this blog will soon be undergoing a face-lift to prepare for it being my main method of communication back home while I'm away.....don't see the point of having two blogs!!

and will be blogging alot more in the coming months!
peace out x

barely waking

i was going to save my nxt blog for the announcement of ze examen results but i realised that such a large announcement after nothing at all whatsoever was going to be a complete anti-climax
so i decided to save you the climatic anti-buzz
yes sirs

i realise that i sed tht i ws goin2blog lots abt my African experience
but time and a shoddy internet connection got the better of me
i cannot believe how INSANELY fast this summer is going....one second it was stretching vastly and luxouriously out in front of me....and the next i am drowning in job application forms and interview offers!

such is life

back to the point....the rest of Africa was a complete amazement of fantasticness - wouldn't change it, kinda want to be bac there, can't wait to be ther nxt yr (yes, that's right folks - i hv been accepted onto a charity-run scheme for april-august next year; in either uganda or south africa, i have yet to decide....this makes me very happy - even tho i need a huge amount of monneys before then.....)

and now i've lost my train of thought!
woo!

if yous want to see the fotos of africa then see my facebook - if you don't know me on facebook then add me, if you don't have facebook then you're a loser, basically.
but nevermind - i'm sure you'll get over it!

i can't be bothered to recap the last couple of weeks of what I've been up to (and also can't remember it!) so
in a nutshell i have:
driven to and frm merlin's house a couple of hundred times
ripped an old pairof jeans
seen the simpsons movie Twice
seen shrek 3
been lazy to the point of contemplating sloth-conversion (i.e. converting into a sloth)
watched alot of friends and shipwrecked (because these are the only two things worth watching in the morning when you don't have digital)
lost monopoly
won cluedo
shopped
visited grandparents
applied for jobs

you get the picture
(i dont have a job yet - waiting to hear from white lodge about an interview - st peters are waiting for me to finish filling in a health form - but i'm trying to delay that so i can hear from white lodge first -coz i'd rather work ther! ooo aren't i jst the epitomy of a cheeky monkey :P)

i miss my friends from school
it is very wierd not going to start a new school year in sep (specially as i'm not starting uni either)
but i'm beginning to warm up to the idea!

i think that's all for now folks
hope that gives you a nice little catch-up to sink your small pointy teeth into
actaully i should probably mention
i have a minor eye infection due to other peoples (who shall remain nameless) using my mascara and making it all bacterial and horrible!
i also had a random allergic reaction this evening to nothing (apparently! or at least i can't isolate the source!)
so this evening has not been brilliant for me as i am now nice and drowsy frm the piriton tab i took to stop the senseless spread of itchy rashness all over my body!!

i am off to taunton on mon - for the best week of my year (altho this year it has a lot more to compete with it has to be said!) so i am hoping (and have everything crossed) that i will be all bettered by then!!

much love xox

Come To Kenya - we've got lions

Ok so i'll admit i haven't actually seen any lions yet (but hopefully will when we go on safari at the end of next week!)
bt its all to do with a song from a dofe expedition which i wasn't on(!) and my trip to the forest of dean with team rattling phelgm (nice name huh!!)

i will have to blog about tht trip later - more specifically - when marion has typed up the journal - so tht u can do more laughing and i can do less typing!
also my head is filled with my kenyan adventures!
so yes

the flight to nariobi (i can't spell) was long, uneventful and sleepless (which was a shame as it was an overnight flight...)
i watched lots of films - two of them being
'i think i love my wife' - as boring and predictable as the title suggests
and
'bridge to terebithia' - which will forever bring back memories of mrs adams and was also spectacularly boring

we got delayed at the domestic airport in nairobi so i became very familiar with their plastic seating and slept for an hour or so
then flew in a fairly rickety old plane to Malindi airport
and got picked up my a taxi to drive through to Watamu - where our hotel is.....the drive was half an hour or so along a v.straight and pot-holed road.....it was wierd because it felt surreal due to sleep deprivation - and because it looked exactly like it does on the tv screen (funny that eh!!)

then we arrived at the hotel and i was immediately on a huge guilt trip. this place is 5-star coz the hotel we originally booked is undergoing refurbishment and so the company we booked with is meeting the extra cost :D
this means an AMAZING environment - with a 7km stretch of beach less than a minutes walk away - and the service is fantastic - you get hot towels which are covered in essential oils before each meal - which is one of the nicest things ever! - and people practically falling over themselves to help you out.

this hotel is completely westernised and luxuourious - which is brilliant and wonderful - but when there are people 2minutes walk from you who have nothing it makes it harder to deal with (and so it should methinks!)

i then did the boring thing of unpacking and sleeping and reading - then was afternoon tea (unfortunately no scones!) and finding out our itineary for the rest of the hol.
then more sleeping and eating and sunbathing (tho it gets dark at about half 6 coz we're at the equator - which is kinder scary - since that = winter in britain)
then more sleeping, and, later on, eating.
then bed (with plenty of mosquito repellant and nets protecting me)

Then 2day we ate (any one else seeing a theme??), swam in the pool (sea was a bit choppy due to strong wind - yes i know i'm a wuss!)
sunbathed, read,
ate
and then headed out to the orphanage where we are helping out for the next week and a bit. had a tour round the home and the school which is built in the grounds (their smaller classes total 6o-70 kids to one teacher and their largest is over 100 - this means their smallest class would be like having the entire swps sixth form in one room having the same lesson done by the same teacher -- personally i would love to see Jordan or Powell attempt that one!)
Met a few of the children (and tried and failed to learn names)
Had one v.cute 3/4 year old (who was about the size of a 2-year old) called Samwell (or Samuel - cant work out which one is correct!) cling to me which was very nice (until it got annoying! lol!)
Helped make chippatti's for their evening meal which was rele fun
Then chatted to an australian volunteer who's been there for a couple of weeks found out that she spent six years in art school/uni doing fine art and is also a qualified nurse and has been travelling for the last two and a half years and has no thoughts of settling down anywhere anytime soon - which is cool but i don't think i would ever be the type of person who could do that!!
Then back to the hotel - been thinking lots of deep thoughts about life and all that - but i shan't bore you with my partially formed new ideas - maybe another day

Its pitch black outside (i'm two hours ahead of you guys) andi have to dash coz its taken me quite awhile to type this (this is definitely not one of the easiest keyboards i've ever used......and dinner is in 30mins and need to smarten up - also have ALOT of face-booking still left to do (70 emails - crikey!)

the meals here are so incredibly lovely that the smaller portions diet that i was going to put myself on after eating constantly in wales is gonna have to wait until i get home as i can't possibly not eat this food - lol!

hope its not still raining in England :P
till the nxt time!