- taking many many thousands of photos of building sites and football pitches, with small and big children running all over the place. I'm now an expert on the perfect moment to snap a soccer game to portray the intensity of concentration on the players' faces. I've also documented from start to (nearly) finish the building of a new house, changing rooms and toilets and a preschool roof.
- the walk from the beachfront to Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban - especially pre-Nigeria v S.Korea when me and Steve's Dad Derek enthusiastically joined in the chorus of vuvuzelas whilst Steve and Geoff Burns tried desperately to disown us by walking 10 steps in front of us and Mike and Sean hid 10 steps behind us. ;-)
- discovering the hotel served Starbucks coffee ;-)
- watching the BBC reports on the internet and realising how much of a difference the new house will make to Russell and Precious and the kids. The BBC took our home here and shared it with the world (well the UK at least!) See how amazing it is here!?!
- driving the media team around the valley and introducing them to the wonders of rural Africa, although Andrew Swanson's smelly socks in the back of my car after he gave his trainers away at the deepest point in the valley is a memory that both me and his wife are desperate to forget!
- the highs and lows of the England games, watching with the entire Lionsraw team on the beach front, in the pool bar, in the hotel bar... (sorry, did I say 'highs' of the England games??)
- welcoming 40 or so team to help feed my kids on a Tuesday morning and watching the faces of kids and adults alike as they shared a moment together.
- Shakira, Waka Waka, dancing and celebrating the greatest show on earth.
- The sense of National Pride for the South Africans having hosted a near perfect World Cup, after so many doubted beforehand! Well done Mzansi! 'Football Friday' has now evolved into 'Fly the flag Friday' as from this week.
- spending time with my children in the school and also in the valley near the new preschool building. This holiday has taken me to deeper relationships with my children, as we've laughed and cried together.
- knowing we have made a difference to Sanele's family by being there to help them in a moment of need.
There is so much more than these few snippets. As I said before, I find myself exhausted this week and am taking it a little bit easy for a change. I took lunch in to my 40 kids on Tuesday and managed to catch up with 30 of them, which is good. It was the first day back and some of the them would have lost track of time and not remembered to turn up! As Steve's car is currently being fixed (again!) the boys are needing to be dropped off and picked up from their building sites and I'm still taking lots of photos of their work for Lionsraw. That's ok, though, I love photography and am constantly looking for a good shot.
Tomorrow I'm taking Brian and Thad, 2 American guys who've been staying with us before, during and after the Lionsraw Project, to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve, one of my favourite places in the whole of Africa. We are hoping to see at least one big cat this time. They return to the USA on Saturday and a sighting of a lion, leopard or cheetah would end their stay perfectly and make me so happy in the process. I'm looking forward to a day off and away from this area, although the main music for the road trip will be none other than the World Cup soundtrack...
Ayoba!
