Some of my lovely boys, ready for the long holiday! 
View from the top of the hill by the church, the cliff in the distance on the right is where we live.Inchanga Primary closed for Christmas today and there was definitely an air of 'end of term' excitement in the playground when we arrived this morning. They celebrated the last day with a Mass and First Communion for about 10 pupils and we popped up to the church to see the end of that. The church is a little further up the hill with amazing views over the valley. (see photo above) There's even a huge window along the side of the modern church building giving a wide and inspiring viewpoint over the valley below, inspiring praise to our Creator God, no doubt!
However, this end of term is twinged with sadness as one of the orphans in Grade 4 was tragically swept away in a stream during the most torrential rain on Tuesday night. We've had 4 major thunderstorms over 4 consecutive evenings, but Tuesday was much worse than the others, with what felt like hurricane winds, rain, thunder rolling round the hills and almost constant lightening for 2 hours as well as powercuts. Some parts of the valley still haven't been reconnected. Some of the children found themselves in trouble when the storm started and one girl sadly didn't make it. They found her body yesterday.
The storms here are impressive and because we live on top of a mountain, we see the lightening strike places in the valley and all around our property. They really do make UK storms seem a bit feeble! The storms can last up to 2 hours, sometimes longer. During the major storm on Tuesday evening we had rainwater gushing off our roof and creating a flood around the house and even dripping in through the living room roof!! But that is nothing compared to the devastation that it caused in the valley. Not only was that child killed, but driving past one of my children's houses today, it looks like large parts of the mud wall have been washed completely away leaving huge gaps in the wall and probably making the house unstable. Zulus are understandibly terrified of storms and you can understand why.
The roads are eroding too and the road to the school is getting pretty bad. As I'm looking for a car right now I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that I need something bigger than just a car. I've hired a car for 2 weeks but after that I need to get something better. However, funds are extremely low for a car and at the moment I can't afford anything decent, except to rent for longer, which is expensive and counter-productive. Please pray for the provision of a vehicle. I've seen a reasonable one for 65000 Rand, which is about £5300 but would be perfect for the work here. It's absolutely essential that I get a vehicle somehow, so I know that God WILL provide, pray that He does so soon!! (and if you are part of that answer to prayer, please get in touch!!)
We wanted to give my 40 orphans some porridge to take away for this week. However someone else had donated food for all 300 orphans and so we're keeping ours for next week as they had enough to carry today. I gathered my kids together though and am starting to recognise them. The problem at the school is that there are lots of orphans and I am only working with some of the most desperate. I had several more children come to register with me today so we could be feeding about 50 next week. We'll see who turns up!
