TRAILBLAZING IN SOUTH AFRICA

new blog !

2011-03-29T18:02:00.001+01:00

Hello!

I've been back in the UK for a few months now and it's time to start a new blog, which will be more about my life in the UK rather than Africa, however there will be updates on what's going on in SA from time to time!

If you'd like to continue following my adventures go to...

http://justprincesscaroline.blogspot.com/

See you there! Caroline xx

JANUARY 2011 – FINAL NEWSLETTER

2011-01-17T11:20:00.001Z

BACK TO THE WINTER

Just before Christmas I bade farewell to the Summer heat of Durban and arrived back to temperatures of -9 in the UK! A bit of a shock to the system!

I had a good time catching up with my family over Christmas and enjoyed the snow briefly before it all melted. I hope to see people this coming year and catch up with you then if possible.

In this final newsletter I’ll detail what happened at the end of my time in South Africa and look forward to what 2011 has in store. Happy New Year!

END OF YEAR @ INCHANGA PRIMARY SCHOOL

Victoria from the sewing co-operative managed to get the rest of the uniforms for the 20 children to me just before the end of term and on the last day of term I distributed them along with food parcels for each of the 40 orphans.

Fikile the new Project Manager, and Mr Mkhize helped me to organise the children. It was a good opportunity for Fikile to explain to the children that she is taking over from me and they were sad to hear I was leaving but excited that she will be taking care of them from now onwards.

As we had decided not to feed the children each week I’d put together a food parcel with extra food in it plus stationery that will be useful for next year. About 30 of the ‘40’ were there to receive this and the rest was given out to other needy children.

It was sad to say goodbye but I know I’ll be back to visit them one day and Fikile will work hard to make sure they are looked after. Thanks again to Maureen from Our Journey,inc for providing the uniforms. The children were especially pleased with these.

SIYATHEMBA – WHERE HOPE BEGINS

Since September I have been going regularly to visit Mlu and Goodman, 2 ex-GGA young men, in the township in Pietermaritzburg to give them basic food items and to check on their welfare. At the end of November it became urgent for them to move out of their lodgings. As we looked around an exciting opportunity arose to purchase a small government-built township house for them to live in. Using some of the money from the sale of the Hilux (see over for more details) I arranged with them to buy this one-room breeze-block house which is part of our Siyathemba project that I wrote about last time.

Goodman (20) and Mlu (18) are now living in their new home and are very excited about it. They’ve already made a start on clearing the small plot of land to create a vegetable garden. Steve will keep an eye on them next year and there are various other people around to help out if need be.

This whole venture has been God-ordained and directed from the beginning and all came together very quickly in my last month there. Pray for these young men as they settle into independent living in their own home and for protection and further provision of jobs and finance for future training.

‘For I know the plans I have for you, (..) plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’‘ Jeremiah 29v11

Church@GGA – YOUTH ALPHA

Once we dealt with the distraction of the Apostles Church, the Youth Alpha Course got underway and was a runaway success. 30 children participated and each one benefited from it. At the end of November they came up to our house for the Holy Spirit Day and we baptised 2 of the children in the pool which was a joyous occasion. In particular the children appreciated having the opportunity to ask hard questions and also the space to receive prayer and be listened to. Many of these children will be starting boarding school in January which is new and exciting and so church@GGA will have a different dynamic. Please remember them in your prayers and also pray for God’s continuing provision for God’s Golden Acre as a whole.

What’s happened to the Hilux?

The plan to sell the Hilux to Russell and Precious fell through, but we all agreed this was a God-incidence as the house for Goodman and Mlu came about just around the same time. Instead I was able to purchase the house for the boys and get them kitted out with basic household equipment as well as blessing Russell and Precious with a donation. As they have just got married (see below) they were exhausted and also desperate to visit Cape Town on honeymoon. When I suggested to them that they use some of this donation for that purpose they were filled with excitement and gratitude and I think a trip is being planned. With so many kids living in their home a time away for relaxation and refreshment is well overdue!

RUSSELL AND PRECIOUS – THE WEDDING WEEKEND

Russell and Precious’s Wedding was a 3 day affair. We started on Friday afternoon when the first goat and cow were slaughtered. I had to take photos and it was a bit gruesome but also fascinating to get an insight into local ways of doing things. Saturday was the White Wedding. We were expecting about 20 people to turn up at our house for the service but ended up with well over 120! Steve and Mike, in their over-sized shiny silver suits, performed wonderfully in the wedding dance. Our outfits on Sunday went down well too with the boys in traditional skins and me in the Zulu beaded skirt and top. It was an exhausting but joyous occasion and I was pleased I could offer them lots of photos as a gift of memories for them.

FUTURE PLANS

Back in the UK I’m applying for Children’s Ministry jobs in London as that is where I feel the Lord is directing me to next. I’ve thought about living in London for a while now and it will certainly be different from the valley! Whilst applications are processed and I await news I’m using my time productively to write a book about my time in South Africa and a testimony to God’s faithfulness and provision. I really sense that now is the time to write this, while I have little else to distract me. Pray that the motivation and focus that I have currently for that will continue and I will see this project through. Pray also for someone to agree to publish it too.

Bob’s visa was denied on Christmas Eve, which was frustrating. He is reapplying and will come over to visit as soon as he can get it sorted. I was upset that he couldn’t meet my family and friends over Christmas but am comforted by an inner peace that tells me this is somehow all in God’s timing and eventually, at the right time, he will arrive here. Continue to pray for us and for direction as he would like to move here and work. Especially pray for the right work for him, he has his own business and would like to continue something along those lines.

Finally, a huge thank you for praying and supporting me during this past year in South Africa. It’s been an amazing time of experiencing God’s love and sharing it with the children and people of KwaZulu Natal. I’m constantly surprised by God’s attention to detail and provision for our needs. I have a very real sense of completion of my ministry over there, even though the work still progresses. Although I shall go back to visit as often as I am able to, I know that my time of living there has come to an end for the moment.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR INVESTING IN GOD’S KINGDOM WORK IN KWAZULU NATAL.

Much love from Caroline xxx

Back in the UK

2011-01-12T13:43:00.004Z

Quite a change from the South African summer!

After 13 months in South Africa working for Grapevine Foundation I've moved back to live in the UK. It was sad to leave but also I felt a great sense of closure and completion. It was exciting to welcome Fikile onboard to take over from me as Project Manager and I know she'll do an amazing job and be a real blessing to the children at Inchanga School as she already knows them.

The church@GGA came to a natural pause as well as we completed the Alpha course and a loit of the children went to visit relatives for the Christmas holidays. Many of the older children will be starting a new adventure at boarding schools in January and the church on Sunday mornings at GGA will have a different dynamic with their absence. I know God will continue to meet with those children and volunteers and to bless them as they meet to worship, pray and learn together.

I'm just writing my final newsletter now and I'll get this on here as soon as I can. I'm currently staying with my parents in Warwickshire and had a lovely Christmas catching up with family and friends. Now that January is underway and people return to normal life post-Christmas I find myself in a period of waiting for the next adventure. Whilst seeking employment I'm also taking time to reflect on the year that's past and to look for where God is leading me this year. He's brought me back here for a purpose and all will be revealed very soon. Despite my current unemployment I remain positive that something big is around the corner!

End of term

2010-12-11T09:56:00.002Z

Another term is over and Christmas is fast approaching. Thanks to a donation from CMA back in September I was able to go out and buy all sorts of things to give to the children for a Christmas Food parcel. As well as a little bit of food to help them out, I also put in a new pencil case, and some pens and pencils to start them off next term.

As I'm leaving soon we decided not to feed the kids over the holiday. Instead we've reminded them that the 1000 Hills Community Helpers next to the school give out food daily during the week so children can go there.

A lot of my '40' were in school on Thursday. It was the offical last day of term and most children come back to receive their reports. Attendance in the last few weeks has been sparse, with only about 50 children from the 1000 pupils turning up at school.

It was sad to say goodbye to the children and staff but I'll be back to visit in the future...

wrapping up and continuations...

2010-11-30T15:46:00.004Z

By now you should be aware that I am leaving South Africa on 22nd December and am returning to live in the UK. I resigned from my job with Grapevine Foundation thinking that I'd have to leave all my profiling and documents at the school until someone else came along in the future to pick it up again. However God had other plans and within a few days of me resigning, one of the teachers from the school came forward to take over as Project Manager! God is good.

Her name is Fikile Nxumalo and she works in the management at Inchanga Primary School. She's been watching me for a while and wondering whether to get involved but the time is right now. I've already had a meeting with her and I'm confident that she's the absolute perfect person for the job. She speaks Zulu and excellent English, she knows the kids already and can visit them at home without the need for an interpreter!

We are so excited about the way God has moved in this situation, it's yet more confirmation that He is moving me on and moving the next person in. My job has been to introduce Grapevine to the children and then get Fikile interested and excited about it, just by going about my work.

It's nearly the end of term and I'll be saying goodbye to the children next week with a final food parcel for the holidays. Please pray for Fikile as she takes over and for the enthusiasm she has for helping the children to grow and grow as she gets stuck into her new role.

Russell and Precious's Big Day

2010-11-17T06:52:00.002Z

After many months of planning, Russell and Precious's Wedding weekend extravaganza was finally upon us!

Final frantic preparations were taking place on Thursday, even at our house, the 'church' for the White Wedding part. Some of the young men from Russell's were dispatched to help make the garden lovely and they worked hard alongside Steve and Mike to clear and burn all the garden debris. Friday was just as chaotic with any spare vehicle being sent left right and centre to move marquees, chairs, wedding clothes and the like. In the midst of all of this one of Precious's brothers had his car stolen in central Durban, so that added to the stress!

The fun was officially timetabled to start at 3pm on Friday when the first cow was to be slaughtered. However, the poor thing didn't meet its end until gone 9pm! Even for Zulu timing that is late!! Before that, at Precious's mum's house they had to slaughter a goat and then inform Russell's house that it had been done, this gave the go-ahead for the cow. I missed the goat slaughter but the rondavel in which Precious was hauled up absolutely stank of dead goat by the time I got there! Poor Precious and her ladies had to sit in there all night. I was glad I could travel, as photographer I had to go between the 2 sites. They offered me some freshly boiled goat, but I politely declined!

One of the main events on Friday was the moving of the 'Wedding Chest'. This is a huge polished cabinet with a lovely elephant decoration on the front. It was moved from Precious's house to Russell's on Friday night accompanied by a lot of ululating Gogos. It featured in Sunday's traditional rituals.

Also, at midnight, Precious had to smuggle herself somehow into Russell's house. If she managed to do so then all the men there had to give her money. Sadly for her she was spotted. I missed this as I had to get home for some sleep. Steve and Mike, who stayed in the valley the whole weekend, also appear to have missed it - I think the excitement caught up with them and they were asleep. The rest of the wedding party however stayed up all night.

The problem with staying up all night is that you are quite tired the next day. So when I turned up on Saturday at 7am ready to party, everyone else was already a little worse for wear! Thankfully it was a beautifully sunny day (unlike the forecast - ah the power of prayer!). Once everyone was ready, the main bridal party - couple, 4 bridesmaids, 4 best men (including Steve and Mike), and the flowergirls and pageboys - all set off for Durban for photos on the beach.

We were only running 2 hours late for the service at our house. By the time we got to our house it was quite crowded. Officially only about 20 people had been invited to the White Wedding service in our garden. Unofficially, another 100 Zulus had turned up. They were hot, hungry and desperate for a glimpse of the happy couple. Apart from the rude women who helped themselves to food out of our fridge, everything went smoothly. (thankfully for them, they only stole juice, fruit and bread, if they'd started on my chocolate, it would have been a different story...!!!)

The procession then travelled from here back to Russell's in the valley, with cars beeping their horns and veering all over the road. Everyone they passed waved and cheered. At several points they stopped the vehicles and various people got out for a bit of a dance. None of this dancing compared to the first dance (video on facebook) which far surpassed all other dancing of the day. The entire bridal party danced into the reception tent. I can't really describe it, it has to be seen to be believed...

With the White Wedding over and done with, Sunday morning arrived with cloudy skies and the traditional outfits for Umabo. Having been to several weddings now, I'm noticing a change in atmosphere on the Umabo days, it's much more relaxed than the white wedding. I think the Zulus just do their thing on these days and enjoy it.

I'd hoped to miss the second cow slaughter, scheduled for 6am, but no, it happened at 11.30am, just after I arrived.

Oh joy. Yet more brutality and blood.

It's totally gross and then strangely fascinating. Once the animal is dead it just looks like a huge piece of meat and the butchering is rather interesting.

The photos are still gross though!

Mike and Steve were in traditional Zulu Skins (see above pic) and I wore a Zulu outfit too, slightly warmer than theirs. The Zulus were delighted to see us dressed like this and lots of people wanted photos with us. The traditional cermony comprised a lot of dancing, singing and parading round with sticks and shields for the men. The boys joined in and blended in very well. After all the backward and forwarding, they were officially married the moment Precious did a runner from the field and Russell headed off after her. Then suddenly it was all over.

The heavens opened shortly after this and I decided to make a move, given that all the houses were now full of hungry Zulus awaiting their beef curry. Mike and Steve stayed on and reappeared only yesterday, so their wedding experience lasted a lot longer than mine, although I still reckon I'll remember more than they will ;-)

A great weekend, all in all, crazy, chaotic but full of fun times and good memories.

Now there's just the small matter of about 1000 photos to edit...

My newsletter - December 2010

2010-11-11T12:19:00.002Z

I've finally worked out a way of getting my newsletter onto the blog!
Below is what I sent out for December 2010 - lots of changes as you'll see.

END OF AN ERA AND FRESH CHALLENGES
After much deliberation and prayer, I’ve made the decision to move back to the UK in December, just in time for Christmas. Read on for more information…

SCHOOL UNIFORMS
Maureen Ahern, from the American charitable organisation ‘Our Journey, inc’, contacted me earlier in the year with the offer of school uniforms for 20 of the orphans at Inchanga Primary School. She visited South Africa in October and made this happen. I selected the 20 most needy, most of whom were from my ‘40’ children, and measured them up for new shoes, dresses or trousers and shirts. A local sewing co-operative in Swayimane, run by a lovely Zulu lady called Victoria, were given the task of making school dresses, grey trousers and white shirts for the children. They are finishing them off as I write.
A few weeks’ ago, Maureen and I went into Pietermaritzburg where she purchased shoes, socks and school jumpers for the children. Unfortunately, Maureen couldn’t come into school with me to give these out to the pupils but they were overjoyed to receive the new items and eagerly put them on. Thank you so much for this donation that takes the worry away from 20 carers for new uniforms for the new school year!
A couple of shoes were the wrong size and needed to be swapped. On the way to the car, I noticed another one of my ‘40’ who was wandering with no shoes on at all. I asked her what size she was and she said ‘2’. Amazingly, that was the very size I was about to swap so I gave her a new pair and went off to buy another pair in the shop instead. She was very happy but didn’t put the shoes on immediately because she was too busy showing them off to her friends!

SIYATHEMBA – WHERE HOPE BEGINS
My sister, Liz, and our friend Anita spent 2 weeks here in September. They were here to spend time with some of the young people from God’s Golden Acre as Anita’s family sponsors several of them. During this time it became apparent that some of the older young people needed encouragement and assistance with the next step as they looked to finishing school and making the transition from care to independent living.
We’ve been looking into ways of facilitating this and founded ‘Siyathemba’ to make this happen. For the past 2 months I’ve taken food regularly to 2 of the older boys – Mlu and Goodman – who have been moved to live in a township but have hardly any food and nothing to do all day. It’s not an ideal situation. Pray for the right direction for these 2 boys as they consider their options. Pray for protection as township life is much different from residential care, especially that they wouldn’t be tempted into alcoholism or drug abuse (cannabis use is rife in all townships).
We are seeking ways to help these young people to make the most of their education and complete any training they can do for a better future. Please pray for the future of Siyathemba, in its initial stages now, that the right people would come onboard and it would benefit the young people over here and be a source of hope and encouragement to them.For more info please email me at siyathembadirector@gmail.com

‘Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come.’

Jeremiah 33v3

‘For I know the plans I have for you, (..) plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’

Jeremiah 29v11

Church@GGA – YOUTH ALPHA

This term we’ve been doing Youth Alpha with the children at GGA. This has been amazing so far and we still have a few weeks and the Holy Spirit Day left to go. When I returned from the UK we had initial troubles from a group from a local Zion Church who had moved in to take over the Sunday services. Google them to find out more, but basically they believe in a mixture of Christianity and Zulu tradition, which is not Biblical. It took a lot of prayer and discussion to get them to leave the children alone. Praise God that the children recognised immediately that what they preached was false. Pray for the management at GGA, that they would stand firm in their decision that the church@GGA is Anglican and Bible-based. Pray against these people returning when I leave in December. They are still loitering now and the children need good solid Bible teaching and not to be confused. Alpha, in the meantime, has been well-received and in the first week all of my group of 11-14 year olds prayed to become Christians. The Holy Spirit Day is set for Saturday 27th November. Pray that nothing prevents that from happening and for an awesome time together. In total over 30 young people are doing Alpha in 2 groups.

CHRISTMAS FEEDING PROGRAMME 2010

I will be co-ordinating a food parcel for the ‘40’ for the end of term in December but as I am returning to the UK there will be no feeding programme as such during the holidays. However, there is the 1000 Hills Community Helpers project next door to the school where the children can get food every weekday so this will help them.

RUSSELL AND PRECIOUS – SITHEMBAKUYE

The wedding of Russell and Precious is fast approaching – Friday 12th-Sun 14th November. Look out for pictures on Facebook, my blog and in my next newsletter! Everyone is working hard to get things ready and Steve and Mike have spent many hours practising their dance moves for their roles as groomsmen. I’ve decided to bless this family with the Hilux (or money from the Hilux sale) and we are in the process of arranging that. If they can raise the funding to cover the extra costs on the vehicle they can have it or I will sell it and donate a major proportion of the money to them to buy a different car. Russell passed his driving test recently and a vehicle would benefit their organisation and family greatly. Pray for the right way forward in this and that the Hilux would continue to be a blessing.

FUTURE PLANS

As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I made the decision on Oct 31st in light of my support and funding that it would be financially unsustainable for me to continue here. Therefore I shall be returning to the UK on December 23rd in time for a family Christmas. I have started my search for jobs in the UK, mostly in teaching again but I will consider anything. Whilst I am sad about leaving the many children here and having to return to the middle of Winter in the UK, I know that this is the right decision to make. I have had an amazing time here and met so many brilliant people who will remain forever in my heart. I intend to continue supporting people in whatever way I can from the UK and shall return here to visit at some point in the future. Pray for Micky and the future of Grapevine Foundation.

However, new challenges await me in the UK as well. I shall not be returning to the UK alone but with my new partner, Bob Okafor. I met him in October and it would appear that our meeting was no accident but a God-incident. He is currently living in Johannesburg but will visit the UK with me for Christmas and then look to relocate to the UK once I have a job and am settled somewhere. Pray for us as we embark on this new and exciting relationship and for God’s guidance in where to live, work and for visas for him. He is a Nigerian businessman, a strong Christian and we get on very very well!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR INVESTING IN GOD’S KINGDOM WORK HERE IN KWAZULU NATAL.

MAY GOD BLESS YOU MIGHTILY AS YOU SUPPORT ME AND THE CHILDREN OF SOUTH AFRICA.

Keep in touch!

Much love from Caroline xxx

New Uniforms - Part 1

2010-10-19T19:56:00.003+01:00

new shoes, socks and jerseys - how smart!

usual state of the kids' shoes!

Today I took 20 jerseys, socks and pairs of shoes down to Inchanga Primary School. This is the first half of a kind donation by a group from the USA called 'Our Journey inc.' School dresses, grey trousers and white shirts will follow in a few weeks' time. A sewing co-op in the valley are currently creating these for the children.

It was a blisteringly hot morning in the sunshine and yet the children were still happy to don their new jerseys and amazingly all but one fitted extremely well. Each child got a pair of shoes and socks as well and they were grateful for these. A lot of children have holes in their socks and worn-out or sometimes no shoes at all.

While I was walking back to my car I noticed that another one of my 40 was wandering around just in her socks and no shoes. I questioned her about it and she said she didn't have any shoes. It turned out she's a size 2, the exact size of one of the pairs of shoes for a child who was absent today. I was really happy to realise this and so was she when I gave her these shoes, I'll get some more tomorrow.

Thank you so much again to Maureen and the kind people in the USA who donated to Our journey inc to make all this possible. It's a huge help to these children and they look so smart in their new jerseys.

Preschool Opening Photos

2010-10-19T19:28:00.002+01:00

children enjoying breaktime in their new school building

very happy parents, Gogos and carers

children inside the new classroom!

A happy day

2010-10-13T09:21:00.002+01:00

Yesterday the children of Ehlanzeni moved into their new Preschool building as the 'Steve Davison Preschool' was finally open for business!

Steve, Mike and I joined George the Headteacher of Inchanga School, a few other staff, the teachers of Grade R and 1 and the parents and children to celebrate the opening. It's not the official opening (we didn't have a cake for a start... ) but that will take place in December. But the children were desperate to move from the draughty old community hall with its broken windows, holes in the roof and floor to the new building.

Whilst there's no electricity in yet and the windows were only finished yesterday, there are desks and doors that lock and there's water, so that's enough to start with. There's plenty of land to expand as well, thanks to the generosity of a local shop owner who donated the building and land surrounding it.

For the rest of this year there are 2 classes there - Grade R and Grade 1, for the first time yesterday they had their own space and classroom, before they were sharing. The joy on the children's faces and for the parents was obvious. The children had all arrived really early ready to learn. From January there will also be Grade 2 children learning there.

This school was finished off by Lionsraw back in the World Cup. It was great seeing the team work on it during the school holidays but that's nothing compared to the excitement of seeing the buildings in use! Steve gave a speech, as did George and several others.

This preschool is important as it's in a good setting. Before, the parents and small children had to walk up to 2 hours up a mountain to get to the main school. It's too much for small legs and also for the some of the Gogos to make it every day and as a result some children were just not going to school. This school is in a perfect place for them to get to. Having this school means these children will get the best possible start to their education.

NEW WEBSITE!!

2010-10-08T09:18:00.001+01:00

Finally we have our website up and runnning - take a look at

www.gvfsa.org

There are links from that to the givengain website where you can make secure donations to the work of Grapevine Foundation.

Have a look and let us know what you think! ;-)

A new pitch

2010-10-06T19:16:00.004+01:00

The Sports Trust (http://www.thesportstrust.co.za/) have teamed up with the Pavilion, our local shopping mall, to provide a multi-million rand state-of-the-art multi-sports pitch at Inchanga Primary School for the benefit of the whole community. Today was the opening ceremony.

Being a Roman Catholic School, the local priest started by blessing the pitch with a dose of holy water, then various guests gave speeches. The school choir performed as did a choir from another local school. It was a happy occasion.

The pitch will be used by local schools and also by clubs in the area and everyone is excited about the possibilities. This is only the second pitch that has been built in South Africa so it's a real blessing to the community of Inchanga.

Some photos from Visiting Liz's sponsor family

2010-09-27T21:41:00.002+01:00

Liz, Anita and Siyabonga with the family that Triangle supports plus a few extra kids

the food parcel we put together (larger than usual)

a couple of the kids modelling their new hats (thank you Grandma!)

New plans and opportunities

2010-09-27T21:16:00.002+01:00

Many of you know I've been praying for God to reveal His way forward for a long time now. Well, I think that He might be revealing some of the answers this week through Liz and Anita as they visit me...

Just over a week ago, Liz (my sister) and her friend Anita arrived for a 2-week stay. We've certainly packed a lot into these weeks and they are not over yet! (I'm planning a quiet weekend...) Anita sponsors several children at GGA and wanted to spend some time with them so we've spent a fair amount of time up there.

Firstly Church@GGA has been interesting. I returned from the UK keen to start Youth Alpha with the kids but we were greeted on the first Sunday back with a visit from a group from the Zion Church. That would have been fine except they were under the impression that they were going to run the church there from now on, which would not do at all. Google them if you want to know why... Anyway, after a morning with them, the children were upset and we were not too happy either. Praise God that the situation was sorted this Sunday and now we are back on track to start Alpha next Sunday, just a week later than planned. So far, 29 children aged 11 and over have signed up and it looks like it could be an amazing course. Please remember us in your prayers over this term.

We've also spent a bit of time catching up with a couple of older GGA boys who've been relocated to a township in Pietermaritzburg. It was great to see them and also challenging as they were already out of the food that had been given to them. Thankfully we had some food to leave with them and we've popped back today to check on them. It's obvious that their spirits are lifted by our visits and so I've no intention of stopping seeing them... In fact, plans are coming together to help them in alternative ways. More details to follow soon...

Also, Liz's church - Triangle in Ipswich - has been sponsoring a family in the valley of Mophela and today we arranged a visit to them. We collected the local community health worker this morning and took her with us as well as Siyabonga, Anita's sponsor child. Liz had been given some money to buy food for the family and we had a good time in Spar yesterday purchasing lots of different food to give them. I'd visited 3 years ago with my parents and I could thankfully remember where the house was. We borrowed a wheelbarrow from a neighbour and took the food down to the house. The oldest girl in the family was there and she was overwhelmed by the gift to them. It was a real blessing as today they were down to their last bit of food and she had been praying for a miracle. There are 6 people there including 2 small children and they were all grateful for the donation.

While we were there Anita and Liz got to pray with her and to encourage her. We also discovered they want some chickens and have built a chicken coop but couldn't afford them. So we set off to find a man who could sell us some and after a few enquiries we found some chickens. However, only kids were at home and the chickens were out wandering so we couldn't get them there and then, but we arranged with the CHW to collect them later on. Apparently chickens regroup in the evening and are easier to catch!

I'd brought along some woolly hats that my Grandma had knitted and the children were really excited to receive these. It was chilly first thing but then the sun came out and the hats were still on their heads. They will be useful when the cold season starts again later in the year. Photos to follow...

In amongst all this, we've managed to pack in a quick trip to the Game Reserve over the bank holiday and finally saw some lions. Later in the week the girls are treating me to a Spa Day which will be lovely and relaxing. We are having an amazing time but also we are quite tired. We've prayed together a lot and we know that God has brought us together for a purpose and for such a time as this. There will be many more good times together. I've also realised that my time in South Africa is not over yet and that I must stay longer and trust God to provide for my needs. It feels good and it's exciting to be a part of established and new ministries out here.

Please continue to pray for God to direct His work out here, and as I said before, there are very exciting new projects in the pipeline and I'll reveal more about it in due course...

Holiday Feeding

2010-09-27T21:08:00.002+01:00

This week Inchanga Primary School is on holiday. After several weeks of strikes there was a chance that this week would be taken up to make up for lost time. Then the Government decided they should close for holiday after all. They are only off for a week.

My sister Liz and friend Anita are visiting these 2 weeks (more about that in a minute) and they came with me to give the '40' kids some food to see them through the holiday. We went to Makro and bought the usual Maize meal, sugar beans, soya mixture etc and a few 'luxuries' such as a bag of cheese crisps each.

We went in to the school on Thursday morning and gave out the food parcels. Despite the crowd of eager pupils gathering round the car and pressing in for something, I managed to identify my '40' and we gave out a total of 30 bags of food. Not bad for the end of term. Not all kids make it in on the last day of term so I was happy with that. Unfortunately the rest of the kids had to be chased back by one of the teachers with a big stick and it was impossible to give out the rest as there was not enough. However, every orphan in the school would have been given a bag of porridge from another donation so nobody went home empty-handed.

I'll put up some photos as soon as my laptop is fixed. Yesterday it died somehow, I think the powerpack has broken but unfortunately it looks like you can't just buy a new one here in South Africa. Tomorrow my mission is to solve this problem... it's an urgent one as ALL my files are locked on there and I'm currently having to borrow Steve's laptop to update this (without all my photos ;-((( )

Sithembakuye - The new house

2010-09-17T09:57:00.002+01:00

We said that Russell and Precious would not be able to keep out of their new house once we left the country and we were right! It was great to see yesterday what they've done with the place.

Lionsraw built this house from nothing and they still need to link up the electricity, water and put in the kitchen and bathroom, but apart from that, it was almost ready for moving in.

The Sithembakuye family have moved in, although some of them are still sharing beds until they get new bunk beds at some point in the not too distant future. The nice people at Pentravel came to paint and are coming back to finish the job soon. Everyone is overjoyed at the new place and the kids especially are excited about their new rooms.

Up till now about 12 kids were sleeping in a very small room and it was extremely cramped. Look at how many teddies they have for a start! ;-) Now these kids are shared out in 3 rooms with the boys having their own room for the first time in their lives. It is awesome to see how this new home is turning out. No one can be more excited or happy than Russell and Precious themselves, you can't wipe the smile off their faces these days!

Best of British...

2010-09-16T19:43:00.005+01:00

Despite the ridiculous set up at Birmingham Airport, where you have to pay for a trolley now if you want one when you collect your baggage, which was extremely irritating after 15 hours of travel, I had a great time in the UK. I spent most of the time meeting up with family and friends and trying to chill out and also think about my future. It was a busy but happy time.

To begin with, I went down to Cornwall with my parents for a week of complete 'holiday'. The rain didn't disrupt too much and we had a lovely time visiting several National Trust gardens, the beach, St Ives and discovering some really fantastic food places too. I'm liking the 'Great British Food' industry that has sprung up and developed over the past few years. Particularly good were the meals at Trevaskis Farm outside of Hayle. We also loved the jacket potatoes at the cafe at Trengwainton National Trust Garden. Try it and love it too.

Back in the Midlands from Cornwall and it was time to catch up with many friends. Kath, who I met in SA, came down and we had a very enlightening time at Warwick Castle. It never ceases to amaze me how the people who run that place can alter it every year so that it's still interesting! The jousting was good. (see photo). I mean, what's not to like about grown men in medieval costume playfighting on horseback? There was the usual pantomime atmosphere in the park as we enjoyed that show. The powers that be at Warwick have also totally redesigned the 'Edwardian Weekend Party' Exhibit so that it doesn't just introduce us to the characters but now gives us an in depth look at all the scandal of the day as we now know who was messing around with whom. It was quite shocking to realise that morals seemed to go right out of the window during weekends like those. However, I must have seen that exhibit over 10 times and this is the only time I've actually remembered any of the names! (And that's why HEAT magazine is so popular... I guess ;-) )

I managed a trip to London to see friends there and enjoy a few meals out in Covent Garden, which was great. We also had some excellent dinner parties at home with various couples who have supported me over this past year. I spoke at a couple of churches and it was great to see so many people at my tea and talk at St Paul's in Leamington.

My village church had a cheese and wine evening, which was brilliant fun and I even won something on the raffle (Gotta love raffles!). Mum and Dad took me to their Folk Dancing group as well and that was surprisingly good fun, and thankfully I didn't dream about square sets afterwards!

Thank you to all the people who donated money to me during my time in the UK. It was great to meet up with so many people, to catch up with old friends and to make new ones.

Back in South Africa!

2010-09-15T20:09:00.002+01:00

It would appear the strikes are over, at least for the moment. We arrived back in South Africa this evening and over the next few days I can find out what's been going on. First of all, though, I need to pack and most of all I need to SLEEP!!

Everything seems ok at the house, apart from the heat that has built up over the past month which makes sitting here quite unbearable. No critters in the house though, which is great!

and the strikes continue...

2010-09-03T15:16:00.002+01:00

Apologies for my absence, I am in fact currently on holiday in the UK and enjoying a relaxing time of catching up with family and friends. I return to South Africa on 15th September.

Meanwhile, in SA the strikes continue to cripple the country. I received a phone call from the Headteacher of Inchanga School this week to inform me that the 'stay away' is still continuing. They had hoped that a resolution would be reached this week but it appears that this is not going to be the case. The schools have now been shut for over 3 weeks. All this takes its toll on the children, who actually want to be in school and come every day to see if it might be happening!

Pray for a resolution to be reached and for good talks between the Unions, government and all involved. It's not just teachers and schools affected, also hospitals are being assisted by volunteers and army medics as the staff there 'stay away'.

After the exuberance of a glorious World Cup, the mood of the nation has been brought down with all this action. Issues certainly need addressing and let's hope and pray that they are addressed and resolved as soon as possible.

Kids' Club - more penfriends

2010-08-10T17:48:00.003+01:00

Today most of the government-run schools in South Africa were closed as the teachers went on strike over pay issues. We're awaiting to see when they will reopen but it doesn't look like a resolution will be reached very easily.

In the meantime, many many children will go hungry as they are used to being fed at school. It's really unsettling for them as they don't know when they'll be back in school for breakfast and lunch, not to mention the education that the kids are missing out on.

Let's pray that the government listen to the public servants and this strike doesn't cripple the country, as is extremely possible at this time.

Ekhaya - home visits

2010-07-29T12:19:00.006+01:00

Finally on Monday I managed to start visiting the homes of my children officially.

I took a teacher from the school as interpreter and general bodyguard and went with 2 sisters to visit their home. Their carer was at work so I couldn't get certain information but it was good to see where they lived and to find out a bit more about them.

The girls live in the area not far from the school which is about 10 minutes walk across the soccer field. The whole area there is a minefield of illegal electrical wires and they live about 3 houses away from where Sanele was killed. Right outside their home there is a post with electrical cables up high and a red wire obviously tapping into the power, blatently on show. Some people have got official electricity whereas others have lost it because they didn't pay their bills. maybe it's these people who are stealing it. After all, they have the power boxes in their houses and it makes it easier to just tap into what is all around them...

Anyway, where the girls live there are all sorts of houses. The view over the valley is incredible, but I expect they don't see that the same way as I do. To them it's just normal, the valley. I wonder if they ever pause to admire the beautiful creation laid out in front of them?

Most of the homes in this area are wattle and daub mud huts, like the Elizabethans used to build back in the day. Inside their home it might look a bit higgledy-piggeldy but it feels warm and organised. It's a proper home despite the somewhat rugged exterior. The girls sleep in the main room in a decent sized bed that they share and there's a small sofa, chairs and a kitchen area as well as neatly presented ornaments all around. There is no doubt that the carer is using whatever she has to give these girls a decent home, despite having very little. You have to look beyond the exterior poverty and see the love that is shared within this community. Some people just see a crumbling building but I see warmth, care and love. And this is all good.

Kids' Club - penfriends

2010-07-29T12:11:00.003+01:00

Kids' Club this term has been slow to get started for various reasons. I'm used to this and it's not a problem as I get to see the kids in the playground and out and about and am keeping up with them. It's taken a while to come to terms with Sanele's death and to recover from the sheer exhaustion after all of that. Then, when I arrived in school last week ready to go, the kids were busy preparing for school trip to Moses Mabhida stadium and that was the end of my class for that day.

Today I'm grounded as my car is being fixed, an essential service to get it back to perfect working condition again. Not a day goes by when I am not thankful for this vehicle and the generous donations that enabled me to buy it. It truly is a blessing from God and a reliable machine, despite outward appearance.

However, on Tuesday I managed to gather 6 of the younger children for a session and they started work on some letters to send to a school in the Isle of Wight. During the Lionsraw project one of the team members gave me some letters from his daughter's primary school and my children are preparing replies. Mostly for these children it will be assisted replies as they can't write much in Zulu let alone English, but the pictures that they are producing are beautiful (and I'm not just saying that because they are my children!)

Progress may be slow, but the end results will be worth it!

Sustainability

2010-07-29T11:56:00.003+01:00

On Sunday night in church a guy preached about taking 'good news to the poor' not just being about benevolence but about helping people be transformed and empowered in the situations they are in to make a difference. And this furthered my thinking on the topic.

There is a long-standing argument that food parcels are not the way forward except in an emergency, as they encourage dependence. Unfortunately in this area of the world, there are too many small children who have no food and would count as an emergency case. When I'm taking food into school and a small child says they are hungry I'm not going to send him or her away with nothing, but I'll give them whatever I have.

However, in the school where I'm working there are currently 350 children who have been orphaned and often go hungry. Given that this part of the country has the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS infections and poverty, the situation is unlikely to be solved overnight. There will be many children for many years to come who pass through this school and need help. On one hand the sheer number of children is overwhelming. Thankfully the school receives donations to feed these children twice a day during the school week. It's not enough, but it's much much better than nothing. Whatever we manage to raise and buy for the the 40 orphans with whom I work closely also gets added into this and it's exciting when we're able to make a real difference by giving a child some food.

Following on from this, and in discussion with the School Principal, I'm coming more and more round to the idea that it's not just about feeding the kids, but also about training and providing for the older children to help themselves. The smallest children, like in Grade R, can't go out and find their own food, they are dependent on whatever we can give them. However, the older children, from about age 13-18, they could be helped to help themselves. Many of them are managing a home outside of school as well as studying. Basic and essential skills could really benefit them.

So I'm in a researching phase right now. I'm thinking about projects such as vegetable gardens, or chickens, where the children are given a starter and training to look after their project and they then sell on the surplus of what they've tended and produced. There are many projects like this and I want to choose the one that would work best with my children. My thought is to set something up with perhaps 10 of my older children, mostly boys, and then if this works we could expand it for the rest of the orphans in the school. It's an exciting time as we look into the possibilities. If anyone has experience of these projects or can recommend anyone to help out, please get in touch. Otherwise, please pray for the way forward in this, that the appropriate projects can be found and established at the right time.

Ice cream!

2010-07-17T20:38:00.002+01:00

Last Friday I took one of Russell's kids over to visit her Gogo in the valley near Hillcrest and 4 of the smaller kids with Bo came along for the ride. They were super excited about being in my car and going for a ride and they loved pointing out the cars we passed en route to town.

On the way home I took them to Milky Lane for an ice cream. They were very excited and sat patiently round the table as I went over to the counter to order their ice cream. The shop is near the car park in a popular shopping centre and quite a few people were passing on their way back to the car. Many of them gave us big smiles when they saw a white woman with several cute zulu children eating ice cream. The kids loved the attention. Someone even gave them each a balloon.

The kids were so excited to get ice cream and Siyanda kept telling all the passers-by that it was 'imnandi' which means 'tasty'. They all managed to get faces totally covered in ice cream! It was lovely to make their day and spend time with them.

Mzansi, Thanks for making it Ayoba!

2010-07-14T14:29:00.004+01:00

The World Cup has come and gone and the third school term of the year is now underway. What a month or so it has been! To be honest, I'm still processing the many many things that have gone on over the long holiday. I think that's why I'm so exhausted this week. The photo is from the Fifa Fanfest on Durban beach just before the South Africa - Uruguay game, when hopes were high, vuvuzelas were on form and everyone was waving their flags high. It's also a bit of a blur, kind of like my life these past few weeks!

I wanted to write an account of the whole Lionsraw / World Cup experience, but I think it would take too long and I'll still be remembering things for a long time to come. Here are some highlights then instead (in no particular order):

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!

Sanele - photos

2010-07-14T14:10:00.002+01:00

with the other boys in my younger kids' club

cheeky little monkey, but always ready to give a hug and a friendly welcome

Sanele loved my hilux and everytime we saw him he tried to catch a lift

A sad day - Sanele's Funeral

2010-07-10T17:33:00.002+01:00

Funerals are always sad but today was particularly hard for the local community in Inchanga as we laid little Sanele to rest. For the past couple of days I've spent time with Xolani, Sanele's 16 year old brother, shopping for groceries and other necessary items for today's event. Yesterday we took Nonto, his sister, with us too. The family were extremely grateful for my help but I have to say a huge thank you to the people who are donating money to enable me to help this family at such a tragic time. People here often get funeral insurance to help but obviously at 7 years old, Sanele wasn't thinking of that yet. We are all truly grateful for those donations which have made today possible and brought comfort to the family as they are extremely poor.

Yesterday I took a CD of photos of Sanele to Kodak and let Nonto and Xolani choose the best ones for an album for Nonto to keep. They only had one photo of him previously and he wasn't smiling in it so it wasn't a true representation of what a cheery little boy he really was. The kids were amazed by the machine in the shop and the technology to see pictures of him on screen. Nonto also chose a nice little album to keep the photos in.

Today we headed down to the family home at about 10am. Sanele's body had been brought home yesterday afternoon and the family had kept an overnight vigil in the front room of the crumbling mud-hut home. This morning when we arrived I was ushered into the same room where the coffin was hidden behind a white sheet suspended from the ceiling. The Lionsraw boys came with me, there are 7 here at the moment, and they were escorted into the marquee tent hired for the occasion.

Nonto was, as usual, bucking the trend and refusing to wear her school uniform. Instead she had chosen the most beautiful sparkly pink dress and she looked beautiful. Watching her throughout the day I thought in a way how she is reflecting the place Sanele is in now, and although she shed some tears and is mourning the loss of her brother, maybe in some ways she understands he is in heaven. Many of Sanele's school friends and local children turned up too and a few of them came into the funeral service in uniform and performed a little song and dance dedicated to him. It was really precious but also tragic. Tragic too to think that quite probably this isn't the first funeral that these children have attended and it certainly won't be the last.

I had to take a couple of people up to the burial ground in my car and when I returned, everyone had moved into the marquee and the service had begun. A local minister from the Zion church was there and also the leaders from the Mosque that is situated in the same area. Pretty much everyone from that small area had come along it seemed. As I parked up, the lady in Sanele's family who was leading the funeral rushed over to me and told me I must say a few words. I was glad to be able to share with the family and community just how much Sanele meant to me and the boys and that we all share in their loss. It was a brief speech and thankfully I managed not to break down (although it was very close at the end). Others gave speeches after me including Xolani and one of Sanele's teachers. I understand enough Zulu to feel the love that these people have to him and I shed a few tears then.

A representative from the ANC came too and spoke about the electricity problems in the area of Inchanga. Again, I didn't follow it all, but I think Sanele's death has highlighted to many people just how dangerous the whole business of stealing electricity through illegal wires is. All day long I've seen them in the road and all around. Even at the burial ground there were wires going across the field. The women in particular were careful to point out where those wires were to the children to make sure they didn't walk on them. It is a huge problem and I hope that the local government will learn from this tragedy and do something to improve the situation soon. This being Africa though, nothing happens very fast.

At the end of the funeral service, a man came in and opened up the top of the coffin and everyone walked past and said goodbye to Sanele as they did so. He looked like he was asleep. Women sang beautiful harmonies as the congregation moved outside.

The funeral service actually brought a car back and transported Sanele up to the local burial ground. Lots of kids flocked to my car and I ended up transporting about 20 up there. As we drove round the corner the children started singing. On the way back they all sang the National Anthem, it was really special.

The burial ground is a depressing place, and today, it being Saturday, there were at least 7 graves being dug and small groups of people hanging around. As we walked the final few steps over to Sanele's resting place, the women's singing seemed to take on a different level of tunefulness and, standing there in the beautiful sunshine, there was a sense of peace and acceptance amongst the sadness. Sanele was buried with a beautiful leopard blanket that his brother had chosen, and several other items were put into the grave, some of his clothes and what we think were sweets too.

As we walked back to the car, the children all started to run to get into my car first. 2 of the smaller boys, who were Sanele's best friends, just wailed and were almost inconsolable, I just hugged one of them, there were no words. He understood the situation. Bless him, school will be hard next week. Sanele was a class prefect and always in the middle of any scheme going down in the playground. Everyone will miss him there.

I didn't take any photos today. I didn't need to as this will remain in my memory forever. However I will put some pictures of Sanele up when our internet starts behaving and lets me!

Today truly felt like a fitting tribute and good send-off to Sanele. Although we will acutely feel the loss over the next few weeks and months as we go down to the school and he won't rush out to meet us, we know that he is in a better place and it has been good to be able to help the family as well at this time. Please keep his family in your prayers, especially his sister as she comes to terms with having lost one of her best friends and playmate.

Rest in Peace, Sanele. Hamba kahle. xx

Sanele

2010-07-08T18:23:00.002+01:00

Last night I received a call that I never wanted to hear. On Monday Sanele, one of the children we are all close to over here and the first child I met from my programme, died suddenly and tragically near his house.

I went to his family's house today to find out what had happened and also to pay my respects to the family. The story is that he had been playing football with some friends just up the track from his house and the ball had gone over a wire fence into a neighbour's plot. Instead of walking round the one-sided fence, Sanele had pushed his head through the wire to try and retrieve the ball. Unfortunately for him, an illegal electrical cable was near the fence and not buried as it should have been and it was touching the fence. As Sanele put his head through the fence he got an electric shock that killed him instantly. He didn't cry or suffer.

News of the tragedy spread quickly and many in the community are devastated by what happened. The local newspaper ran the story and the police came to make sure the cables were buried underground.

Sanele was 7 years old. His home is right next to the school and him and his sister used to rush out every time we drove past to wave at us. His sister is 9 and hasn't really understood what is going on yet. Today, she rushed out alone to wave at me as I drove up there. He was the loveliest child who was always keen to hang out with us and shouted 'Auntie Caroline!!!' from the other side of the football field before dashing across for a hug almost every time we went to the school. He was the first child I noticed on the photo of the 40 before I committed to coming out here and I visited his home last August. Since then, both him and Nonto his sister have loved spending time with us. Steve, Mike, Sean and I all hold both of them very close to our hearts. The news yesterday was a huge and devastating shock and also to those from Lionsraw, many of whom had met him and loved him instantly too. He was that kind of cheeky kid who got in all the photos and gave out love to all who crossed his path.

We'll never know why God allowed this to happen and why Sanele's short life was cut short, but when I was praying about it late last night I felt the Holy Spirit say 'I've taken him home.' and I felt a real sense of peace about it. It doesn't make it any easier for his family. The funeral is on Saturday. I've spent the day with members of the family sorting out things for the funeral on Saturday. That's going to be a sad day indeed.

World Cup Holiday Feeding 4

2010-07-02T20:24:00.002+01:00

On 22nd June, Neil from Lionsraw arranged to bring a busload of Lionsraw guys up to help out with feeding the kids. There were 4 building projects for Lionsraw and a lot of the guys on that wanted to do something direct with children and as it was a day off for them, it was fairly easy to sort out.

I got down to the school about half an hour before the bus and explained to the excited group of expectant kids, making the most of a mix of Zulu, English and gesticulations, that a bus (steering wheel impression) full of white people was on its way to help them. The girl translating for me described them as 'abantu hlophe' which literally means 'people who are coloured white', which I found amusing as the word for white people is 'abelungu'. They were quickly shouting 'abelungu' however as the guys walked up the track to meet the kids about 20 minutes later and the kids certainly gave the guys a friendly welcome to their school playground.

I set up a production line for a few of the guys to cut polony, make sandwiches and make up some juice. In the meantime, others gathered with small groups of kids, or played with a football or frisbee. There was a good atmosphere as volunteers and children engaged in conversations about life.

There were about 48 kids turned up and about 40 volunteers, which was also funny to see. The children weren't in the slightest bit phased by so many adults though. The kids lined up politely and moved along the line collecting sandwiches, crisps, fruit and juice and were very grateful for it all. They sat down on the other side of the playground and scoffed the sandwiches and extra polony. When they'd all had one, I told Michael, one of the volunteers, to take the tray of extra sandwiches over to give them more. As he approached the children, they lept up and ran towards him to try and grab the food, such was their hunger. We managed to get them sitting in some sort of order and a few guys helped the rather startled Michael give out the remaining sandwiches.

There were also some children's books for the kids to take home, which the kids loved. I then gathered them together to get a group photo and one girl said she'd like to sing a thank you song for everyone. She came out to the front of the group and started a beautiful song. However, she must have looked up and seen the row of white people with cameras pointed at her and she got a few lines in and started crying. I think any remaining hearts that hadn't been touched by these children probably melted at that point. After a few hugs and encouraging words, she was fine again and has been a delightful girl to catch up with at every session since.

It was a great time together with the children and the volunteers, but it was soon over and the group moved on to their next appointment, playing football in the valley against Russell's boys. What a great experience though for a 'day off''. Thanks to everyone who came along and I hope you'll remember these kids for a long time to come!

World Cup Holiday Feeding 3

2010-06-28T16:37:00.004+01:00

On Friday 18th June, some of the Lionsraw team helped me out with feeding the kids. Norma and Ian wanted to buy some fruit and some stationery for the children so I took them off the day before to Pavilion to purchase apples, bananas, oranges and pens, pencils and rulers.

There were lots of children waiting for us when we got there and the Inchanga Team building the toilets were on hand to help. Debbie and Alexandra Flint came along to help and so did John Rochester who had all been working on another build project. We'd bought polony and bread to make sandwiches and also gave them crisps. Dan and his dad John Hughes, 2 of the guys from the Inchanga toilet build, had brought many bags of haribo and these were well appreciated by the children too! The children sat patiently while the food was prepared and lined up beautifully to receive their sandwiches and other food. I also gave them a bag of rice and a bag of sugar beans to take home.

A group of older boys had been playing on the soccer field next door and they mooched over to see what was going on. We managed to feed them as well with sandwiches which was appreciated. The boys sat patiently while we gave food to the others first, and they moved on afterwards without any trouble. Most of them are in Grade 9 and so would attend the High School down the road rather than Inchanga, but the number of orphans in this area is so high that I didn't mind giving them something.

After food, Norma and Ian gave the younger kids a pencil, pen and ruler each and for 7 lucky children there was an England top to wear too! At the sight of these, the older boys did look very hopeful and try to press forward, however I'd already worked out who would benefit from those tops the most and so the older boys didn't get a look in! The younger ones were extremely happy to receive the clothes and I've seen them being worn on several days since (although given England's poor performance this weekend, I wonder if they'll still wear them as much!!)

A big thank you to Norma and Ian for the fruit, stationery and tops and to everyone else for helping out!

Lionsraw - the continuing saga..

2010-06-27T21:47:00.002+01:00

I hadn't realised that I'd only written about Day 1 of Lionsraw Project and then nothing more. SO much has happened during these past few weeks that it will take me a few days to process it. As I write, half of the team are back in the UK and the other half are packing to leave tomorrow morning early, having been subjected to the sorry state of English soccer this afternoon!

There are so many stories that I will put up over the next few days/weeks, but I need to recuperate on my sleep first as I've been travelling back and forth to Durban every day and coming home fairly late to sleep up here in the mountains and then getting up to photograph builders, buildings, kids and soccer balls each morning. I've really enjoyed the experience but am looking forward to eating at home and getting a few early nights in and back to some semblance of a normal routine here.

So check back here over the next few days for more tales of passion and belief...

Lionsraw Day 1

2010-06-14T22:56:00.004+01:00

The day has finally come for the Lionsraw Project to officially start! It's taken 4 years of hard work to come to this point. As often as I can, I'll be writing some of the things I've been up to with the project as well as highlights from the whole event.

Yesterday 60 or so guys flew in to Jo'burg and got a coach down to Durban. They arrived in time to join in the fun at the first World Cup match to take place in the city and many had managed to get tickets to the game. The atmosphere was electric in the city and on the beachfront last night and even more so in the stadium. Germany's triumph over Australia didn't please that many England fans, but they enjoyed the experience nonetheless it seems. I can't comment as I arrived in the Lionsraw Hotel to discover it sold Starbucks coffee so I made the most of the evening restoring my decaf cappuccino deficiency and marvelling at the arrival of one of my favourite coffees to this province!

Today the guys were out to work early and another 60 or so arrived on the next flight, so now there are about 120 team out here for the projects. First thing this morning I took 2 of the guys who'd been staying with me down to Sethani soccer camp, which is the furthest away from us, about 30 minutes down some hairpin bends into the valley, right by beautiful Inanda Dam. It is a breathtaking view all the way down there and a real sense of being right deep in the valley. The team down there looked a little nervous but all seemed keen to get stuck in and reported back this evening that they'd had a great day with the kids from all around coming to play soccer.

After this I was assigned to look after Geoff, who is overseeing all the building projects. The rest of today I've been chauffeuring him around the 4 build projects and taking photos, with a trip to Build It in between to stock up on a few more tools. Morale at each build project is high, despite the buses taking a long time to find the projects this morning. It's difficult giving directions when it's a choice of 2 unmarked tracks in front of you! Anyway, they all got to where they should be in the end. I've lost track of how many times I drove the mountain bends on Old Main Road today though...

Finally this evening we all gathered in the hotel in Durban to watch the Italy - Paraguay match and I got a chance to wear my Italia t-shirt that I bought years ago for such an occasion. It was a great opportunity to meet new people and catch up with old friends and there was a great atmosphere there. After the match, there was a little 'upfront sitting on a couch discussing football and life' time which was amusing and rounded off a great first day nicely.

South Africa vs Mexico - pics

2010-06-13T12:39:00.002+01:00

My internet is so temperamental at the moment when it comes to uploading photos so sometimes the pictures might appear after the write-up. Here are a couple from the first match!

The World Cup Opening - a moment in history

2010-06-12T14:31:00.004+01:00

To mark the moment in history when the first World Cup was played on African soil, we went down to Makaphutu Children's Village to share the afternoon with the children and staff there. It was a great day, with good braai food and a multitude of noisy vuvuzelas.

My vuvuzela was nabbed by an eleven-year-old boy the moment I got out of my car, but that was ok as I'd prepared for that and had written my name in it just in case it wandered! We watched the opening ceremony on big screen in the little church there and it was very moving to see the different dancers and performers celebrating the culmination of many years' work.

The RSA-Mexico opening match itself brought so much excitement. Everyone was gripped with the action and when it got to half-time and the score was still nil-nil, there was visible concern on the faces of the guys watching. One of the guys who works there came out at half-time and said 'this is difficult, I must pray!' His prayers were obviously answered shortly after when Tshabalala scored the first goal on African soil for Bafana Bafana and the crowd went wild! The guy from before came running into the room with 2 saucepans that he was banging together with all his might.

Excitement and joy turned to brief disappointment when Mexico equalised, but there was happiness all around when the match ended as a draw, and the added bonus of France - Uruguay being also a draw made things even better, so the mood over here is still hopeful that Bafana Bafana will go far in this tournament. For us, it's the start of a month-long football celebration and it's been a great beginning, we are looking forward to everything that's going to happen over the next 4 weeks. Ayoba!

World Cup Holiday Feeding 2

2010-06-11T23:07:00.003+01:00

The baseball caps were popular and so was the food parcel.

This morning was my first attempt at taking food for my kids at school and in the valley. Also my first attempt at doing it alone as everyone else is busy with Lionsraw project.

I'd arranged to meet the majority of my 40 kids at school at 10am, but I was reminded of the fact that most kids don't have watches when I got a call about 9.15am saying my kids were waiting for me. Thankfully they waited until I got there. I was met by a few of my eager kids, with a few of their neighbours too, all children from the school but not on my programme. Good news for them, then, when half of my kids didn't show and I could give out their food parcels to these children who patiently waited around. I don't like to send hungry kids away empty-handed and every child got today a bag of maize meal, a box of soya mince, a tin of pilchards and some little juice powder. You are supposed to put it into a bottle of water and shake and drink, but most of the kids seemed to prefer to eat it like sweets.

Keith, from Lionsraw, had also given me lots of baseball caps to give out to the children and quite by chance I took them this morning, not realising that they were the perfect colours of Bafana Bafana, who opened the World Cup this afternoon. The kids were more than excited to get these!

Thanks Keith for making the children's day!

After waiting around for any extra kids to turn up, I headed down the Ehlanzeni in the valley to give 5 of my children the same food parcel. These kids live a long way down a big steep hill and 3 of them were waiting to meet me. They too were excited to see what I had for them and I also gave them a lift up the valley back to nearer their homes so that was a highlight for them!

All in all, it was a good morning and a great start to the feeding programme. I'm looking forward to checking in with the kids throughout this holiday and really making a difference in their lives. Thank you to those who have donated to make this possible, if you'd like to contribute, get in touch!

Animal transportation - the pics!

2010-06-11T10:59:00.003+01:00

Whiter than white!

peaceful passengers!

These pictures didn't upload yesterday (something to do with about 10 people all using laptops at the same time - the perils of having a houseful of guests and wireless internet!) But here they are now...

Animal transportation

2010-06-10T16:34:00.002+01:00

Russell asked for help this morning in collecting some goats from Camperdown. We set off in the rain to the farm where he selected 2 fine-looking goats which were then tied up and put in the back of my hilux. After the initial bleating they settled down in the back and actually travelled well.

He also put a big box in the back which actually contained 4 white chickens, although I didn't realise that till we got home. I thought it was actually sunlight washing powder, as it said on the box. They too, were quiet for the journey. In fact the chickens weren't that fussed about coming out of the box at Russell's either. Maybe they'd worked out they were dinner this weekend. One was assisted out and Russell ended up chasing it round and round my car and into the house, which was highly amusing!

The goats settled in quite quickly to being tied to the jungle gym. Their destination is Precious's mum's house as final payment in the pre-wedding handovers that go on in Zulu culture. The female goat was straight into a pile of wood and had a nice chew of that. The male goat was a bit more put out about having to travel in the back of a truck and took a little longer to settle. If goats allegedly eat everything, I wonder for how much longer the jungle gym will survive! ;-)

World Cup Holiday Feeding 1

2010-06-09T14:40:00.003+01:00

Happy to have some lunch, not so happy about the rain!

The end of term is here and the playground was filled with children in their coats and hats and scarves blowing on their vuvuzelas and generally making a lot of holiday noise this morning!

I took some food down for my 40 orphans for the end of term. As I was leaving from my house there was a man scavenging through our binbags at the end of the drive. I stopped to chat to him and then drove off but then decided to turn back and gave him a couple of pieces of fruit and a few bread rolls that were extra from the kids' food. He looked bewildered but thanked me and shuffled off to the next house's binbags. He can't have been more than about 20 years' old. We live on top of a mountain in a village of big houses and mostly inhabited by whites. He would have had to walk a long way out of the valley to get to our house. An all too familiar reality here in South Africa.

After that, I made my way down to the school where my car was quickly surrounded by eager children. There are many hungry kids in the school and there was no lunch today as it's the end of term. With the translation help of one of my older boys we managed to get the children I worked with into one area and all the other kids somewhere else, but it was too exciting for the children to see what was happening and they still pressed in to see if they could get something.

I took a basic lunch for the children today. They had a bread roll, cheese triangle, packet of crisps, orange and apple. It's not much but anything is welcome to them. The school also gave all the 300 orphans some morvite porridge and some future life porridge, both of which had been donated by other organisations. My children lined up beautifully and waited patiently afterwards for me to take the above photo. Halfway through giving out the bags the heavens opened and it chucked it down with rain so the kids were eager for me to take the photo and let them shelter! It's the first time it's rained here for a very long time and it was strange to see the kids all dressed up with coats and jumpers.

28 of the 40 got a bag today. The others were absent, but word of mouth will let them know when and where to come for more food later this week. I gave the leftover food to Mrs Msomi, who oversees the orphans and she distributed it to other needy children, so nothing went to waste. Although other kids were pressing in to see what they could get out of me, they didn't mind not having anything and just mooched off when told to disappear by a teacher!

Seeing all the kids' hungry faces, I wished I had the funds and the manpower to feed all 300 kids, but I can only do so much. If anyone would like to donate money towards feeding kids during the holiday please get in touch with me at grapevinemanager@gmail.com Food for them will come from various sources but I'll be feeding my kids at least once a week during the next few weeks. If you can't donate, please pray for them during this World Cup holiday. Pray for protection as they play, especially from traffikers who are reported to be lurking as the football brings the world here. As the weather turns colder, pray too for them to keep warm in their places of residences, many of the homes are simple mudhuts that don't cope well with rain and get damaged easily, with big holes in the corrugated roofs. This is a stark difference from the beautiful hotel rooms and guest houses that our foreign football fans will be enjoying over the next few weeks.

The World Cup cometh...

2010-06-08T16:33:00.003+01:00

World Cup fever is reaching boiling point here with 0nly a few days to go until the first match. I've finally managed to get myself a Bafana Bafana t-shirt and also an England one. This complements my Italy t-shirt that I intend to wear for their games (cos I might have been born in England but my football love was birthed in Italia). I also got a vuvuzela this morning so now I'm ready to be loud at the games!

Term ends tomorrow and the five week holidays begin for children all over South Africa. I've arranged to feed my 40 over that time and will put more up about that soon and as it happens. During the last week of term it's been hard to catch up with all my children as many of them have just not bothered coming into school for the last week of term. But the younger ones have been around, it's the Grade 6 and 7's who haven't made it. They'll all be back tomorrow I would imagine as it's the last morning and they might get some food.

My younger group has come on loads and are understanding a lot more English now. I taught them 'colours' in English a few weeks' ago and they seemed to understand everything. They especially loved colouring in a sheet I'd drawn for them, even if they did muddle all the colours up! The nice people at Orange donated some of those little toys which I gave to them last week and they loved them. Thank you Orange for the cute little black creatures!

Safari Saturday

2010-06-08T16:09:00.003+01:00

I might look gentle, but don't mess with me, or my tree.

Elephants are rapidly becoming my favourite safari animal. I've always favoured the big cats, but they are disappointing and are eluding me time and again, whereas the elephants are always on hand to impress!

On Saturday we took a quick day trip up to the game reserve in Hluhluwe-Imfolowzi with some of the guys on the foundations team for Lionsraw. It was their only day off and they had to get up VERY early to set off up North. It was a long day, but well worth it.

The day was spoilt slightly by a couple of accidents on the road up, we didn't see them happen but we were pre-warned on the radio at 5am that there were 'bodies lying in the middle of the N2' and, this being Africa, no attempt had been made to shield passing motorists from the horror of the scene. That stretch of the N2, heading to the new airport, has always been a nightmare as locals from Kwa Mashu and Inanda rush across a busy 3 lane motorway to get to work and shop and back. This isn't the first time I've come across an accident there but to see dead bodies so early in the morning wasn't pleasant. And to top it off on the way home we passed yet another accident scene which was equally distressing. This is the reality of what happens here in Durban.

Anyway, back to happier thoughts. Elephants! The guidebook for the park tells you clearly to maintain a distance of more than 50m from any elephants, who look like gentle giants but can in fact be very aggressive and cause damage to one's vehicle. Sometimes it's not so easy to keep that distance though, as we discovered again this weekend.

We knew there were herds around as the road was strewn with bits of tree that had been pulled off as the elephants crossed, and all around one area of the park the grasses were trampled down. The most telling sign was the large amount of dung on the road and the smell of elephants! I don't know why you always think you'll see animals in the same area on subsequent visits, but we returned to the site of our elephant viewings a few months ago but there were none there, just a solitary baby crocodile sunning himself on the river bank. However, they weren't far away and it wasn't long before we came across a huge elephant bull near the road quietly munching a tree. There were gasps of appreciation from our guests in the back seat, who were experiencing the safari side of Africa for the first time.

I always think it's amazing that these beautiful creatures, who watch you whilst munching grasses and seem so placid and chilled out, can, in an instant, turn into crazy monsters who will turn your car over and stomp all over you. But it happens. Thankfully not to us. The first elephant did move closer towards us, but only because there was a tasty tree nearer to the road!

Moving on we saw a few more elephants, but the best one was a mother elephant. As we turned a corner there was a huge elephant right next to the road and at the very moment we turned up, she was wrenching the top off a tree and making quite a commotion about it. Angela, who was in the back, got a massive shock and squealed loudly! Further investigation revealed a whole family of baby elephants behind Mrs elephant. She wasn't in the mood for being messed with and moved herself very definitely in between us and the young, who weren't that bothered by our presence. Just to make sure that we didn't do anything to her family she then moved slightly closer and we moved our car on fairly fast at that point. We reversed slightly to see if she was just munching a tree but by this point Mummy elephant had had enough of us and all it took was one raised elephant paw/hoof/foot(??) to see us on our way! It's brilliant how these animals protect their young. I wouldn't want to be a lion trying to get one of those babies. Not with that attentive mother around. I'd stick to warthog.

As usual, we didn't see any big cats, but we did see many many zebra, impala, wildebeest, giraffe and the like and also this time a family of warthogs who stuck around to be photographed instead of scrambling off at the sight of the car. Strange sightings include a group of donkeys (not in the guidebook), a solitary vulture and a hyaena who ran across in front of the car. On every trip a mongoose or springhare darts out from the bush and in again inmmediately and this time was no exception. We saw the usual white rhino up close and we were blessed with a whole herd of buffalo crossing in front of us, within 5 minutes of getting into the park. So, all in all, a good day for animal spotting. But my ambition to see a leopard in the wild still remains unfulfilled, so that will have to be for another occasion.

Foundations 3 - progress

2010-06-08T15:56:00.004+01:00

Sithembakuye foundations are ready!

A lot can happen in a week of foundation laying and good progress is being made by the Lionsraw boys.

At the end of last week the boys completed the foundations for Sithembakuye orphanage and had time to dig the septic tank and get that in place. It's now ready for the team to come and build up the house next week. The Lionsraw teams fly in on Sunday and Monday and will be straight into working hard.

The foundations are coming along nicely at Inchanga School for the new toilets block. A team from another local organisation Arauna Ark are doing these ones and they should be ready by the weekend for the team doing that build project to arrive. The preschool too is almost ready.

This week the boys are spending their time at Makaphutu Children's Village, laying the foundations for a Changing rooms block there. The Children's Village is in the process of putting a new sports pitch in and these changing rooms will come in very handy. Makaphutu is situated on a small hill overlooking the valley and is perfectly placed for events for children from the local community so many will benefit from this new building. At the time of writing, the boys are in the process of putting blocks into the foundations and the fun of laying a slab floor comes in a few days' time.

We've been blessed with sunny weather and no rain, typical KZN Winter. However yesterday it was blisteringly hot (my washing dried completely in about 20 minutes!!) and the cement mixer and sand etc was down a slope so the poor boys had to run up and down to get the cement into the right place - it was one of the most challenging days yet. Plus they had to do it in record time as the mixer was delivered 3 hours after it was due to be there! This is also typical Africa.

Today the sun has still be shining but the wind's come up more. This makes working conditions better, until a dust cloud is blown over the site. In addition they've had to cope with bushfires springing up around them. None of them too close to destroy their work, thankfully, but there was a lot of hot smoke around to contend with as well!! It all adds to the charm and fun of working in the valley.

Kids' Club - Water

2010-05-28T09:28:00.003+01:00

On Tuesday I only saw my younger group for half a session as some nice people from the water board came to do a special assembly to explain about 'Safe Water'.

South Africa has some of the cleanest water in the world and yet for a lot of people in the valley, there's no access to it. For instance, at Sithembakuye, they had running mains water which strangely stopped working when the water board were doing some work in the ridge in Botha's Hill. Since then they've relied upon the daily delivery by the water lorry who drives around the valley. For a family with nearly 20 people in one house plus a lot of little people in the day care centre, collecting water is a big job. At least there are enough people around to help carry it. Still, whatever the water board did to 'improve' the availability of water to the valley has obviously not been that successful. Someone's water somewhere might be sorted, but a whole stretch of the valley has been left dry, literally.

Anyway, Assembly.

The younger children gathered under a big tree and stood to hear what the water board lady had to say. As it was in Zulu, I only understood about half of it. I think she was explaining to them the water cycle and also which water you can drink and what to avoid. It's good they go round explaining this to children, some of whom might only have the choice of the river or the river as their water source. The river that runs through the valley is a very dark sludgy green colour. Lovely. And they wonder why people construct pipes to tap into other people's sources of water...

Lionsraw Building Projects - Foundations 2

2010-05-28T09:17:00.003+01:00

The boys are still hard at work with the Foundations. A couple of frustrations have set them back a little, but hey, this is Africa so it's only to be expected. They had a whole day of waiting for some sand to be delivered to make cement but as soon as that came they cracked on with filling the foundations at Sithembakuye.

The process of building a house is fascinating for the children there, who gather round to watch the boys' every move. There's a daycare centre which is open every weekday so there are always a lot of little kids around. The little ones have always loved jumping in the back of mine or Steve's car and playing in there, so to have a car around for the whole day is magical for them.

Another project is a couple of toilet blocks for Inchanga School and another local charity of builders are helping out to get that started. They've finished one hole for the septic tank and are onto the other one. For too long the school of 1000+ pupils has had 2 small (and very smelly) toilet blocks to use and these new ones will have lovely new flush toilets for the children to enjoy.

The other 2 projects are putting the roof onto a school classroom down in the valley, so that some of the younger children don't have to trek up a very big hill every day for school, and building some changing rooms at another local orphanage to go next to a new soccer pitch.

Despite the few hiccups so far, due to delayed deliveries, the boys are doing really well and making progress. It's also amazing to see my housemates get up so early in the morning - quite a shock to the system!! ;-)

Lionsraw Building Projects - Foundations

2010-05-20T15:18:00.004+01:00

tools for cutting grass -a machete - very effective albeit a bit primitive

Ephraim and Petrus at Ehlanzeni, having cleared the way into the school

The JCB clearing land at Sithembakye ready for new house

In about 3 weeks 140 football fans from the UK will descend on this area for Lionsraw Special Project to South Africa 2010. They will make the most of enjoying the World Cup but in between the Durban matches they will be giving something back to the community out here.

There'll be several soccer camps running around the Valley and also 4 building projects. The foundations team for these projects is here now and ready to start! Over the past month or so, the team here already have been getting things ready for them.

One of the projects is to build a new house for the Children's home at Sithembakuye. There are about 12 kids sleeping on bunk beds in one small room at the moment and they desperately need more space. The JCB came a few weeks' ago to clear some more land ready for the foundation digging. It was one of the hottest days of recent weeks and everyone was completely covered in red dust by the end of it. Still, it was very exciting for the kids to watch a digger in action!

Another project is to put a roof onto a primary school building in the valley in Ehlanzeni. There's an existing building structure which needs finishing to provide a school for Grades R-2 within walking distance of most of the kids's homes. At present some of the children take the long hike up the mountain to the primary school where I work, others cram into a community hall with one teacher and a lot of kids! In order to start work there, the high grasses and weeds needed to be removed first of all and we asked the local parents and community to help out with this. It didn't take 2 of them long to cut down the grasses that surrounded the building and that project is now all ready to go as soon as the team gets here in June.

I'll be writing more about these projects as they happen, and about the soccer camps. I'll be helping out the team by taking photos so there'll be much to report on! It's only 21 days now till kick-off....

Mother's Day Weekend

2010-05-12T09:42:00.003+01:00

making mother's day cards

Saturday - our beautiful and friendly waitress!

Mother's Day is a really big deal here in South Africa, with as much advertising and hype around it as the forthcoming World Cup (almost!). It was fun to spend a lot of this weekend with my children from GGA.

On Saturday I went to a Mother's Day tea organised by the Grade 11 pupils at a High School in Pietermaritzberg. One of the teenage girls from GGA was waitressing as part of her hospitality course and I went with a couple of German volunteers to be her guests there. We had to give her marks as to how she presented her table and served us. The morning was packed with mothers and grannies and everyone got a lot of presents and a lot of cake! Other pupils from the school performed poems, monologues and songs, all dedicated to the mothers. Another boy from GGA played his guitar and sang and performed very well. It was an enjoyable morning, which made up for the 7am start to get there in time!!

The pupils also praised the Home Economics teacher at the end of the morning. She'd co-ordinated the whole thing. It was quite moving to hear from some of the students how this lady went the extra mile and really took an interest in the children. If any of them had problems she'd even take them into her home to make sure they are ok. That's a dedicated teacher and one who is so needed in this country where so many children are needing that extra help.

Then on Sunday I went up to GGA to do church, but as most of the older children had been taken to the beach on a trip with the volunteers, I only had the smaller children for once. This gave me an opportunity to teach them some action songs, which they absolutely loved. Then we talked a bit about our mothers and the other people who care for them. Nearly all of these children have lost their mothers but none of them were upset about it on mother's day, they just accepted it and remembered the Gogos, Aunties and Volunteers who care for them instead.

Afterwards, the children drew pictures and decorated cards for their carers and one girl actually wrote 'Happy Aunty's Day' instead of Mother's Day. These children are grateful for what they have and it's lovely to see and to spend time with them. It was great to spend a bit of time with sponsor daughter too on Mother's Day, even if she is still a little bit small to understand it all.

Kids' Club - Tidying

2010-05-06T15:45:00.003+01:00

BEFORE

AFTER

My older kids were in the same classroom as on Tuesday. As a 'team-building' exercise, I got the kids today to take ownership and tidy the place up. There wasn't room for them all before anyway. The kids set about their task with gusto.

Every Friday after lunch the children are used to tidying and cleaning their classrooms so they knew exactly what to do and did really well at clearing away the mess. Most of it was just put to one side and I didn't dare attempt to sort out the mountain of desks, but we reclaimed a couple to use in future sessions.

School in SA is quite informal and various kids wandered in to help move things as well as looking hopefully at all the stuff. I instructed them not to steal anything and I think this was adhered to, although you never know! A couple of kids came to ask me if they could take stuff, but all they wanted was rubbish so it was fine! Even 'rubbish' can be exciting when you don't have much...

Kids' Club - Pompoms...

2010-05-04T13:59:00.002+01:00

check out the pile of desks behind!!

today was pompom-tastic!!

After several weeks off, due to various holidays, I finally got to reconnect with my younger group today. Their normal classroom is being refurbished still so we were put into a hall that is full of school stuff - mostly thrown in there! It was like walking into Aladdin's cave for the kids and I had to check all of their pockets on the way out to remove various chalks and pens that they were trying to swipe...

I only saw the kids for half an hour as they'd had samp and beans for lunch as a special, but it had taken longer than planned to cook and so lunch time ran into lesson time. The children quickly picked up on how to make pompoms when I showed them the craft activity that we are doing for a couple of weeks. Even the Grade R child was making good progress. There was a concentrated hush in the room as they focused on winding the wool onto the cardboard disks and all were amazed when I demonstrated how to wind on a new bit of wool and change colour. How great to be a small child and to marvel at something so simple! These children don't have many toys and I'm sure these pompoms, once finished, will be treasured and not trashed...

Zulu Wedding

2010-05-03T11:16:00.004+01:00

Umabo - Day 2 of the wedding, the bride throwns sweets out for all to catch!

Dancing out of the hall at the white wedding!

This weekend we were invited to celebrate Chris and Sissy's wedding, a white wedding followed by traditional Zulu wedding in the valley. Chris is well-known in the valley and it turned out to be quite an event.

On Saturday, we arrived at the hall where the white wedding was to take place at 9am, as it said on the invitation. This being Africa, nobody else turned up until at least 10.30am! Typical. There was a further delay when the bus transporting most of the wedding guests, and the man who was giving the bride away, didn't turn up until about midday. Everybody was good humoured though.

Soon enough though, the ceremony was underway, with many many speeches in Zulu. Thankfully they brought the food out at the same time so we could feast on the usual beef curry, rice, and beans and mayonaise mix (my favourite!), followed by ice cream, fruit cocktail and custard. To the Zulus this is special occasion food. Delicious on any occasion. I remain constantly thankful that stinky cow's stomach is not the food of choice for weddings!!

The highlight of the white wedding was the bridal party who danced their way down the aisle out of the hall and then danced back in to sit at top table. It was a cross between zulu dancing and line-dancing and was brilliant. All bridal parties should be made to dance in and out, it adds to the fun! I'll upload the video onto youtube.com soon enough. It was hilarious.

After the white wedding, everyone headed to the valley for the traditional part of the wedding. Unfortunately, being slightly behind schedule, the festivities didn't quite go to plan as it got dark, but before the light went completely, we all headed to a local soccer field and there was a lot of dancing by the bride's party, complete with girls in traditional beaded costumes which were more than revealing. The groom's party marched on to the field with their shields and sticks and gave an impressive display of strength. Part of the tradition is that 5 virgins are paraded in front of the groom in case he wants to choose one of them instead. These girls were clad in only a small belt of white beads and walked across the middle of the field in a line with their heads down as a sign of respect and submission. Not the kind of thing you'd expect at a wedding, it was a bit weird. But for the Zulu people, breasts and nudity are not a problem and so nobody seemed in the slightest bit perturbed by this display.

As we walked back up the hill to the homestead, I was grabbed by the mother of the groom and helped her cope with the steep hill. Once at the top, she insisted I accompany her to a rondavel where she went on and on in Zulu about how wonderful I was and how she saw me as a daughter. Thankfully her grandson came in to translate and to explain that I wasn't interested in being married off to one of her sons. Steve and I managed to escape shortly after that as the party was rapidly descending into a drunken frenzy of dancing and zulu beer!

On the second day, for the traditional party called 'Umabo', we decided that the 9am start on the invitation was perhaps 'African time'... We arrived in the valley at around 11am and already most of the people we chatted to were extremely merry. On this day, the bride brought presents to her new husband's family. There was a blanket, pillow and reed mat for each member of the family. The blankets were all laid out in the cattle kraal, and as the bride's people handed over each one, there was much ululating and dancing by the women. The older women came in traditional beaded costume with extra padding to make their hips as huge as possible!

Whilst this was going on, men hacked up 2 cows which had been slaughtered for the occasion. There were bits of cow everywhere you looked and hopeful dogs loitered around to fight with the gathering flies. The meat was cooked for dinner later, but we'd left before it was ready. It was morbidly fascinating to see all the parts of a cow left out to dry in the sun and to watch the men try to crack the scull with a blunt axe! Hmm, lovely. The smell was just of beef, but it lingered in my clothes long into the evening. It was interesting too to see a fresh cow's stomach, having given them to the school on a couple of occasions to feed the children. It looks as disgusting as it smells!

After the present-giving, the bride presented a new double bed and toiletries to her husband and he lay down on it. However, pretty much as soon as he did so, all the young girls accompanying the bride chased him off with sticks and he had to run pretty fast to avoid a beating! Then the bride took bags of sweets and threw them out into the watching crowd of men, women and children, most of whom had been enjoying the sunshine and copious amounts of beer. The sweets were soon snatched up and not a single one lay on the ground. The bride's party then trouped around the various houses and rondavels, singing and dancing and leaving a small broom at the door of each building.

Later on, several groups of locals turned up in traditional dress, either Zulu warrior costume or just multicoloured trousers and tops. They performed all sorts of dances and everyone rejoiced! It was a real sight to see and great to be a part of it. Everyone was pleased to welcome us there as this was deep in the valley and white people are always welcome at Zulu feasts!

Nobody was worried about drunk people, especially the older women. Several extremely merry women accosted us and even the Zulus couldn't really decipher what they were trying to say. We ended up giving one woman and her bottle of stout a lift out of the valley to Inchanga although she couldn't really explain where she wanted to go to! We helped her a little bit on her way and hopefully she got home ok, although she couldn't tell us where home was...

It was a great weekend and a real insight into the whole wedding thing in Zulu culture. I'm thankful that I won't have to see another dead cow for a while though! ;-)

Elephant-tastic

2010-05-03T10:46:00.002+01:00

For the Freedom Day Bank Holiday, we went up to Hluhluwe Game Reserve for a spot of safari. Steve's friends Jo and Chris were visiting from the UK and had never been to a Game reserve so it was a good opportunity to go.

As ever, my goal is to spot some big cats - lion, leopard or cheetah, I'm not fussed.

As usual, they were nowhere to be seen.

However, this particular trip was a good one for elephants. After the first hour of driving and seeing nothing, just as we were starting to get a bit disheartened, we turned the corner into one of the loop roads and came across a whole herd of elephants, big and small, about to cross the road in front of us.

Elephants are the most dangerous of the animals in the park, as there are more of them than big cats and they can turn your car over if they feel like it. The advice is to stay at least 50m away from them and not to annoy them. We were a bit close, and the car in front of us was closer still, and one of the big elephants was not too happy about us being here and made clear signs to stay put or back off to allow his family to cross. We were only too happy to oblige!

After that family had crossed and many photos had been snapped, we continued on to find another 2 herds of elephant wandering around the same area. A truly magnificent sight! Elephants are so big and so gentle looking, munching their way through the trees. They can run extremely fast if they decide to do so though and we didn't want to test them on that.

Further on, and back up the hillside, we looked down over that area to see a very large elephant completely blocking the little bridge that we'd crossed earlier, preventing any cars from proceeding. What those people couldn't see was that round the corner another herd was wandering up the middle of the road, maybe they got fed up of fighting with trees and fancied something firmer underfoot. It was fascinating to see the behaviour of these creatures, and to admire the way they watch out for each other.

Several hours later, and having seen lots of rhino, zebra, giraffe and warthog, but sadly no cats, we were losing light fast and headed for the exit. On the way out we passed an even larger elephant enjoying a feed on a little tree. This finished our elephant-tastic day off nicely!

Lesotho

2010-04-22T20:51:00.004+01:00

We had to take a few days off this week to go up to Lesotho on a road trip. I was definitely in need of a mini-break and the perfect excuse came up for it in trying to help Mike to extend his tourist visa as he's been 'grounded' by the volcano! By leaving the country and returning a few days later he could extend his time in South Africa without having to return all the way to the UK.

So Mike, Steve, and I set off with our English friend Kath to attempt the Sani Pass border from KZN into Lesotho. We made good time and the going was good until we got to the exit border from SA when the border police advised us we might not make it up the Sani Pass without a 4x4. However, they hadn't reckoned on my Hilux being 'indestructible' and, after a quick chat with a driver coming down the pass, we decided to attempt it anyway. The track was a little hairy in places but Steve managed to skillfully negotiate the hair pin bends. Once at the top we befriended an English guy who is travelling Africa by motorbike who had managed to fall off his bike twice on the same track! It was ok for us but for most of the winter the track is covered in mud and snow.

We stayed at the highest pub in Africa overnight, which was chilly as it's situated on the edge of a mountain!! After the tropical warmth of Monteseel, it was a bit of a shock to the system. The next day we travelled across the Maloti mountains to Botha Bothe which was a long drive through spectacular mountains. At pretty much the highest point, near an old diamond mine, my exhaust decided to split and from then onwards it was a noisy journey all the way home. We also passed the only ski resort on the African continent, it's all happening in Lesotho! It might be one of the poorest countries and be suffering heavily with the AIDS pandemic, but they still know how to welcome tourists (and skiers) to their land!

God looked after us and even provided us with a place to stay on the second night when we ended up without a clue where to stay. We came across a guest house called Naleli, in the small town of Leribe. The lady who worked there, Margaret, made us feel very much at home and proved how friendly the locals are! If you ever find yourself in Leribe, stay there! After a good night's sleep we crossed the border back to Free State and back home via the Golden Gate National Park.

Although we are all now much refreshed, unfortunately our mission failed as Mike was granted only another 7 days as there was no Home Affairs at the border. He's now trying to get home before he gets arrested, deported or something similar.. Pray that it gets sorted out, he only has a few days left...

T-shirts!

2010-04-17T10:50:00.003+01:00

Grapevine Foundation founder Micky and her new husband Klaas have made a flying visit to us whilst on honeymoon travelling round South Africa and they brought a selection of t-shirts kindly donated by Pat and John Hannigan from Wales.

We gathered my 36 of my 40 kids together at Inchanga Primary School yesterday to distribute the t-shirts. They all got one that fitted and so everyone was happy. It was great to see them all together as normally I have the smaller ones in one group and the older ones on another day. It was also brilliant to see the older boys helping the little kids in Reception to put their t-shirts on the right way round. They are good kids.

A big thank you to Pat and John for the t-shirts which will certainly be worn a lot, especially as it's still very warm here even though 'winter' is coming! ;-)

Easter fun

2010-04-08T10:54:00.003+01:00

My hilux also makes a good washing line!

fun at the pool

On Easter Saturday we organised a party for the children from Sithembakuye orphanage. Despite the few days previous being a bit iffy with the weather, Saturday morning was brilliantly clear without a cloud in the sky and very warm indeed. Perfect for a pool party. Not so perfect for the marshmallow eggs that we'd hidden in the garden though, which were in real danger of melting away!

The kids arrived and were straight into the pool, their confidence is increasing in the water with some of the littler ones being very brave and even splashing me! (not a wise move generally). A couple of the older kids are still a little shy of being in the pool but thankfully we didn't need to rescue anyone this time.

Sean's brother and sister, who are visiting at the moment, had hidden the eggs round the garden and the kids loved looking round for them. We have a big enough garden with lots of hiding places to make it a really fun activity. Afterwards they did stop to make sure that each child had found some and shared out eggs as necessary. This is what's so great about Africa, it's not so individualistic as other places, no one ate until everyone had something to eat.

After lunch, we played some traditional party games - pass the parcel, pin the egg in the basket and egg and spoon races in the garden. All the kids joined in with gusto and there was a really happy atmosphere.

The Gogos often come up and enjoy a fun day with the kids. However, on this occasion, the Gogo worked really hard instead with Russell as they had to do a lot of washing. For a few months now their valley has been without water and it's getting really hard for them to do washing each week. They are relying on a water lorry that comes round as and when, but when you've got lots of kids and all the washing for them to do, it gets a bit overwhelming. Our washing machines were going all day, but it was actually faster for the Gogo and Russell and some of the older girls to wash by hand in the bath! In the space of a few hours they'd washed and dried everything and definitely earned an Easter chocolate crispy cake before they took it all home!

Mermaids - Netball

2010-03-26T16:02:00.003Z

I've joined a local netball team run by Precious from Sithembakuye. Yesterday our team, the Mermaids, played our first match together against a team from Hillcrest High School. I last played netball 12 years ago at University and so I was glad that we weren't playing the first team from such a prestigious school! We hadn't had time to train together so it really was in at the deep end.

Thankfully for me, our team is very good on attack and my position is Goal Keeper, so I didn't see much of the ball but managed to defend ok when it did come my way. Netball is a big sport here for girls, but we also have to contend with the heat of Africa. It's supposed to be getting cooler now for Winter, but this week it's been super warm and sunny once again. Yesterday it was about 35 degrees!!

During the first half of the match, my opponent - the GS - was really rather short, and totally intimidated when she saw she was against me. It was fairly easy for me to put my arms up and totally block the goal from her!! They wised up to this and swapped to a taller player for the second half!!

We won 8 -1. It's the first match in my life where I've been on the winning side! Memories came flooding back of our College Netball team at Uni, where we were thrashed 40 -1 by Hatfield College and they never stopped fighting and pressing on for the whole game even though they were obviously going to win! The Hillcrest team were so glad of their 1 goal but we were extremely happy with our win. We were supposed to playing in a tournament this weekend but it's been postponed, hopefully to a weekend when it's not quite so scorching!

Kids' Club 5 - last one of term

2010-03-24T08:38:00.003Z

Hand prints poster - Grade R-3

It's the end of term this week for Easter holidays and I had my last session with the younger kids yesterday. Once more we moved classroom, this time we were in the photocopying room for the staff! But that didn't worry the kids. It's quite hilarious when I get there on Tuesdays, I have to go round and collect my kids and their classrooms are at opposite ends of the school so I end up going round like the Pied Piper, I collect some Grade 1 kids and as we gather more of the kids they hold hands and follow me round, it's so cute!

Yesterday I took their shoe sizes and wanted to get their uniform sizes too. However most of their clothes have either no labels or the sizes have faded so it's difficult to work out what size they are. I did measure their heights though.

Afterwards we did a poster with hand paints which they loved doing. They also loved the baby wipes I gave them to clean up with afterwards. But the highlight of the session for them was the hand gel I got out afterwards. The kids go mad for this stuff and I had to make them line up at the end to give them all a little bit on their hands as they went out!!

So, this term I've managed to get to know most of my 40 children and the clubs are up and running. I'm happy with progress so far. It's all looking good for next term!

Street Child World Cup

2010-03-22T09:05:00.004Z

Team India celebrate their victory at the Street Child World Cup!

All last week the world's first ever Street Child World Cup was taking place in Durban. We made it to the final day on Sunday, which also happened to be 'Human Rights Day' here in South Africa. I don't think that was a co-incidence. For the first time, these children have had a chance to be in the centre spotlight instead of forgotten and marginalised as street children so often are. The slogan for the World Cup came from a quote from a 14 yr old street child here in Durban:

'When they see me play football, they see me not as a street child, but as a person.'

Nine teams had been participating from England, South Africa, Nicaragua, Philippines, India, Tanzania, Ukraine, Vietnam and Brazil. The last 2 matches were due to be played in the afternoon. The first of which was South Africa vs Philippines. It was a good match and the presence of lots of South African supporters, complete with their vuvizelas and drums, made for a great atmosphere. South Africa eventually lost to the Philippines but it was an exciting match.

Then it was time for the final - India vs Tanzania. India won after some 'interesting' football. I don't pretend to understand all the ins and outs of football, I leave that to my boys to shout about. However the Tanzanian manager had a lot to shout about after one of their team got sent off for a tackle and then India scored on a penalty. I don't think the Tanzanian team were too happy to lose, but that was quickly forgotten as all the teams celebrated the end of what seems to have been a great week.

There have been some great stories coming out of the week too. You can read them on streetchildworldcup.org. They include the tale of a street child from Tanzania who had been traffiked to South Africa and had managed to escape and make his way to the Street Children World Cup where the team from Tanzania managed to locate his family at home and arrange for them to be reunited.

Sadly, even with all the awareness and media attention for Street Children this week, the Metro police in Durban were still going around rounding up any street children they could find and mis-treating them. There is a campaign to stop this ridiculous behaviour. It's thought that during the World Cup itself that the Metro police might round up all the children they can find before the matches start, ship them off up the coast somewhere and dump them in the middle of nowhere so that they aren't on the streets when all the fans arrive! The areas up the North Coast are really isolated and it would be difficult for children to make it back to the city without putting themselves at the mercy of truck drivers. Many would not make it back. Durban has several hundred street children and the local project working with them are trying hard to stop this round-up from happening. If you want to know more about them it's www.umthombo.org. On their website they chronicle all the dealings with the Metro Police and the latest on how the campaign is going. It gives a different perspective on a country preparing to 'Welcome the World' in a few months time.

Despite this embarrasingly awful behaviour by certain metro police, the Street Child World Cup has been a success. Keep your eyes on Brazil for 2014 for the next one!

Kids' Club 4 - coming together

2010-03-17T21:22:00.004Z

(above) the younger group - Grade R-3

(above) the older group with me, Sean and Steve

I've now managed to touch base with 38 of my 40 orphans and tomorrow I hope to find the remaining 2. Their profiles are underway and I'm adding information about them as and when I can.

Last Thursday I was pleased to see most of my older group. For some reason an extra 7 children turned up and it took some explaining to them, by me in English and then by the kids in Zulu, that if their name wasn't on my list then they couldn't stay. I feel a bit bad about sending them off but the reality is that I can only work with a smaller group at this time and as we start up and if I don't take a stand then all sorts of extra children will be sent up to my sessions.

It was great to spend some time explaining to the children my role in their school and home life and to get profile photos and start collecting information to build up a picture of how they live. Now that I have my Hilux I can start looking into visiting their homes next term. The teachers want to come too to see for themselves firsthand what their children live with at home. The children are really excited about our sessions and I think it will be a good group, some lively characters coming through already! However, when I was clearing up I realised that at least 10 of them saw fit to steal the pens, so I think we might have to 'discuss' that somehow in tomorrow's session!

Then on Tuesday this week I managed to get all but 1 of the younger group together. We had to change classrooms as there were workmen in my usual place. This change of classroom disrupted the dynamic and we were frequently interrupted by wandering children from the playground. I can do behaviour management in any language, by the power of a simple look, however I feel that I should increase my vocabulary for telling children off as some of them are a little bit naughty. However it's difficult to remain annoyed for long, they are so lovely.

Communication with this group is still tricky. I would say that their level of English doesn't really extend beyond 'How are you?', so my Zulu is rapidly improving. Being a secondary school teacher it's also a challenge for me to prepare sessions for smaller children, but though it's a steep learning curve, it's all positive.

After school on Tuesday we went to watch the football team play a friendly against the team from the school for the deaf next door. My 7-year-old twins S and N came with me to watch and it was good to spend some quality social time with them, even if they did fling their rucksacks at me to carry for them as if I was their long-suffering mother!

Hilux!

2010-03-17T21:03:00.002Z

I am so excited, not only to finally have my own vehicle (and thus bid farewell to an expensive hire car!) but also because of the way God answered my prayers about it.
Thank you so much to those people who donated money towards my vehicle fund - you know who you are! I'm really touched by your investment in this vital part of the ministry here and encouraged by your generosity. Now I can get to anywhere I need to be in the valley, and out again!

I spent some time looking for the 'perfect' vehicle for me here. For a while I've been praying for a Toyota Hilux as this is one of the few vehicles that can cope with the sketchy roads and tracks around the valley. However, for my budget there were few Hiluxes available and every time I phoned up about one it had already sold. I continued praying into what vehicle I should get and widened my search but this just got me a bit fed up. Fed up of looking into cars that had already sold or were not suitable for whatever reason.

I said to God 'I wish you would just show me the vehicle YOU want for me, or better still just bring it along!' I'm learning fast that sometimes God really does take my questions at face value because 2 days later it happened! I was supposed to be going out but I really sensed that I should stay in and let the boys go without me. Shortly after, my mechanic friend who's helping me look at vehicles turned up at my gates with a Hilux Raider that his son had decided to sell because they are moving away. He offered me first refusal at a decent price and took me on a test drive. It wasn't hard to see this was God answering my prayer - the vehicle is great - and it doesn't look too new, so troublemakers will be discouraged from stealing it from me!

Today was my first day with my new bakkie and I'm quickly getting used to being up high in a vehicle instead of being in a VW Golf that I've had for the past 3 months. So far so good. God promised me the perfect vehicle for me and He's come through big time! Hallelujah!! Now I'm just waiting to see what how He's going to answer my prayers for my future husband!! ;-)

Going deeper...

2010-03-08T15:12:00.002Z

Reflecting on the past few days, I'm beginning to go deeper in the ministry with the children entrusted to my care and prayers. And things are starting to happen, which is really exciting!

Last Thursday, the Grades 4 and 5 started to tell me a little bit more about their family situations. Every single child in that group have lost their mothers and most probably never knew their fathers. They displayed little emotion in telling me this, merely a 'Washonile' (She's dead) from each child. In a place where this is true for a third of the school population, it's not surprising that they don't display emotion.

One girl has only recently lost her mother, as she's left behind a daughter who is now 1. Their 17 year old sister is caring for the baby, this girl and her twin brother, at the same time studying at a local high school. I love all my children but this girl is particularly endearing and it was touching that she wanted to pray at the end of the session. She prayed in English and gave thanks to her heavenly Father for 'this wonderful life that you have given us.' Considering all that she has probably been through recently, to be able to pray that with such conviction and joy is an inspiration to others and a testimony to God's healing power at work in her life already! It's exciting that the kids want to pray by themselves as well!

And then on Sunday I went up to GGA, the children's home where I used to live and work a few years ago. When I was there before I led the church service every other week with the children. It was a privilege to minister to these kids then and even more so now. For a while now a couple of the teenagers there have been leading the services every Sunday and they asked me to come and help them. Now that I have a little team of helpers (namely, my 3 housemates!), we are keen to minister to these children in whatever way we can.

It has been so encouraging to see these young people leading their 'family' in worship, Bible study and prayer. When I left in 2008, I had given my Bible to N, who stood before us all the Sunday before last and shared confidently about God's love for the children. L, who had often pestered me for worship CDs, now plays the guitar and leads the kids in worship. When I went up the Sunday before last I was struck immediately by the hunger that these children have for more of God. The Holy Spirit was very much in evidence there as the kids prayed and sang and danced!

These 2 teens asked me to come and help them out. It's been a hard year for the organisation with difficult things happening and the children for the most part are unsettled and unsure of their futures. There's a general unease in the atmosphere when you spend time with the children. I wanted them to experience God's peace for themselves in the midst of unsettled times. I spoke on Sunday about where Jesus tells us not to worry, but to seek first the Kingdom of God. And then in 1 Peter where it says 'Cast all your anxieties onto him for He cares for you' and leading onto Philippians about presenting our anxieties to God in exchange for His peace. (Phil 4)

I'd had an idea of how to lead this into ministry, which must have come from God as it was so simple and yet very effective! The children sat comfortably with their eyes closed and hands outstretched and I prayed for them and asked the Holy Spirit to come and show them one thing that was worrying them at that moment. They had to imagine that that worry was in their hands. Then they let their hands drop as if to drop the burden they were carrying and released that worry to Jesus. Then they put their hands out again, this time to receive God's peace and anything that He might want to say to them. We then listened to a worship song of God singing His peace and His promises over them. Try it!

I have never seen these children so engaged and focused. Every single one of them sat entirely quiet and engaged with God at some level. You could see on their faces the release of leaving at least one of their worries with God. Some children repeated the exercise several times as we sat quietly. There was a reverent hush as they did this, some children just sat there smiling peaceful and one or 2 swayed gently as they were filled with God's peace. No-one wanted to share any testimony in front of the whole group as of yet but in chatting with individual children later on they all said that they felt so much better afterwards. There was a noticeable change in the mood in the room as well. I actually think that everyone in that room, from the 1 year old up to a visiting friend from Zimbabwe who must be in his 50's at least, came away with something more of God after that time. I'm so excited as it was all God working, I merely facilitated the idea that came to me and let God work. This is only week one!!

Pray that as I continue to go deeper with these children, teaching them and helping them to encounter God on their level, that He would show me the way forward and teach me what to do to lead best. God loves it when people get desperate for Him, forget about other things in life and seek Him and more of Him. That's what these kids are doing and the experience of God's presence and love can only get deeper and better!! Praise God!

new talents..

2010-02-26T10:39:00.003Z

One of the things I'm encouraging my 40 children to do is to come and chat to me about how things are going with them at school, at home or wherever.

I was very happy yesterday when one of my girls in Grade 5 stayed behind after the session and came over to tell me her exciting news. Despite the language barriers she managed to communicate to me that she's learnt this week to bend over backwards like a crab and to do the splits. She then proceded to demonstrate her newfound skill. Respect.

Kids' Club 3

2010-02-26T10:17:00.004Z

Don't mess with my Grade 1 boys...

One of the main skills you quickly learn how to use in Africa is the ability to be flexible and not to expect to make plans and stick rigidly to them. I'd planned a whole term's worth of sessions to do with my children, but have rapidly come to the conclusion that I need to hold lightly to these plans and to go with the flow of the school system here.

Last week's Thursday session was all planned and prayed into etc, but when we got to the school and I set up in my classroom, no children appeared. I went to investigate and was informed by the teachers that they were finishing school early so they weren't sending any kids to me that day! Upon further investigation it turned out that all the staff were going to the home of one of the teachers whose relative had passed away. I think it was some kind of memorial service. And at 1.30pm, exactly half an hour before the normal end of school, there was no bell, but every teacher left their classes, jumped into cars and in a flash they were gone! The kids got themselves together and headed off home.

This week has been more productive! I managed to get all but one of my Grade R-1 children together and tried a different tactic with them. We played matching pairs animals, a game they didn't really get! They loved turning the cards over but the idea of finding 2 the same was lost on them! Then we looked at animal noises and the English names for them. I'd found a children's book in a sale when shopping called 'Izilwane 100 zokuqala eziyikhulu' which cost the bargain price of R3 (about 25 pence!). For those whose Zulu is a bit rusty that's 'First 100 animal words in Zulu'!! This book proved to be a lifesaver with the children as they could match up the animals in Zulu with the cards. I'm amazed at how God provides even the smallest things. I'd got this book to help me learn my animals, and at the time I'd not thought that it could be useful for teaching English but it was perfect!

Grades R-1 can now do convincing animal noises, and name in English, the following...

Cat - ikati
Dog - inja
snake - inyoka
cow - inkomo
kangeroo - umlalaphansi

Unlikely to see many kangeroos around here, but seeing as one of the first zulu words I learnt was ufudu (tortoise) and I've used it since I've been here, you never know...

It was a fun session and the little ones have quickly got over their fear and are quite chatty now with me. In each session I'm taking pictures of the children for their profiles and am starting to collect information about them so as to understand what they have to go through everyday to survive and to have fun!

Whereas the younger group went well on Tuesday, the older group didn't show on time, but much later appeared on the soccer field just as we were about to leave! Yesterday I put 2 groups together to see how that would work and had children from Grade 1-5 together. It worked well. One of the main reasons is that it's not like in the UK when you get all your 5-year-olds in one year and 8-year-olds in another. Here the children are a variety of ages. In grade 5 I've got an 8-year-old and a 13-year-old. This is completely normal. Children might have started school late, or may have taken some time out to look after dying relatives, or not had enough money to consider coming.. there are many reasons for this variety of ages in each Grade...

Kids' Club 2

2010-02-16T14:38:00.003Z

Today it seems to be even hotter than usual. Everyone's flaking out, I think it's about 34 degrees C and sunny. Building up to a storm, no doubt... Anyway, that meant football for the boys was cancelled again so Steve and Sean came to help me with the Kids' Club instead.

I always knew that these younger groups might be a challenge and the Grade R-1 group only had 4 children today, all of whom were happy to throw the inflatable dice around. However they were too intimidated, I think, to say anything beyond telling me their names. These children have no knowledge of English at all so communicating with them will be difficult. They enjoyed doing the craft and decorating their treasure boxes though.

The Grades 2-3 were a totally different story. These children are the ones with whom I've spent the most time in the playground so far and they rushed in eager to see what might happen and quick to greet me with a hug. They were a lively group (see photo above) and they managed to understand what I was trying to teach them. I used a lot of Zulu with them and they seemed to get it! I really need to get learning some more Zulu though, it's annoying to be unable to say sometimes simply phrases... I'll get there!

Kids' Club 1

2010-02-11T14:51:00.003Z

Tuesday's Kids' Clubs didn't happen as I had the room but no children. A slight mix up meant that they hadn't been told. But no matter, it was so baking hot that no one was in the mood for being stuck inside a classroom and even football was cancelled!

Today, however, I managed to get the kids in the classroom and we are off! I had Grades 4-5 today followed by Grades 6-7. Communication was ok as they've been studying English for a while. In each session I talk mostly to them in English which helps their comprehension, and we started today with a little English language game as an ice-breaker. The first group went very well and, although the kids were a little quiet, they we obviously enjoying all the activities. The second group came a little bit late and I ended up with 14 children, just not the 14 children I was supposed to have! In a school with 300 orphans, even the ones who came are 'needy'. So I'll work with these children instead...

The main aims of these clubs are to get to know these children and to help them in whatever way I can. I've explained to them that I'm always available to chat and pray with them about whatever they need. I'm often in the playground with the Lionsraw boys so the kids have 4 of us to chat to at the moment. During the sessions we'll have lots of fun and do some games, craft activities, a bit of singing and a bit of teaching about God, plus opportunity for them to engage with their heavenly Father for themselves. In a Catholic school, all the children know who God is and I'm offering them a different way of communicating with Him in addition to the devotion they do through Mass etc. The children are super keen to do whatever and were excited to learn that God loves them and thinks they are great, which was today's message.

Using a method nicked from some Americans (which I'd already adapted to teach kids in the UK and now re-adapted into Zulu), we're making treasure boxes. The treasure box is a little box which the kids decorate with stickers and then each week I give them a little keep-sake and a verse of a Bible truth for them to put into their box to eventually take home. Each week they learn something new about how God sees them and it helps them establish their identity in Him. At the end of term, they'll get to take their treasure box full of goodies home with them and each time they feel down, they can get them out and look at the verses and remember the truths that are about them. It's a lot of fun and it's brilliant for remembering who they are in Christ!

Although I didn't get so far with the second group, we are on our way to fun and learning and I'm really excited about what God is going to do through these sessions. For those of you who pray, please pray for each of the 40 children who come and spend time with me, that this year would be an amazing transformational year for them as they encounter God and go deeper in relationship with him. They are hungry for more of God and that's always a good place to start...

Time out

2010-02-09T07:45:00.002Z

Just realised I haven't blogged for a few weeks. Here's why...

I got diagnosed with severe neck problem brought on by extreme stress. Doctors orders to chill out! The tension in my neck caused it to straighten completely and lose the natural curve that you are supposed to have. This caused muscle spasms which were painful and gave me headaches and shoulder aches etc. So I've been trying to shift that over the past few weeks and it's improving slowly. Trying to remove stress from your life is quite difficult, especially as most of it is outside of my control...

At the end of January I went on the Young Adults Weekend Away from my church. We drove up to the Drakensburg mountains and stayed in a Scripture Union camp called Glenhaven. The track to get in was somewhat muddy and the experience of being on the back seat (minus seatbelt!) of what could be the smallest car in the world, sliding and bumping our way into the site will remain with me for quite a while. The centre is really cut off from the world and by a beautiful river, surrounded by hills. It's quite idyllic.

The main activities for the weekend were tubing and rafting on the river and going over the rapids. I chose to be photographer and not to venture into the icy depths of the fast flowing river. I'm not the best swimmer and didn't want to get some bug from a foreign river either (although the water up there is quite pure and clear) But it was a good time to relax with friends and to make new ones.

I did feel a little bit old at times, most of the others there were early to mid-20s and I'm slightly older than that now! The antics on Saturday night (there always has to be some apparently) left me more than a little irrate... Apparently it's amusing to break into the wooden wendy house, where girls are sleeping, by leaping James Bond style through a tiny window, waking up said sleeping girls and shoving shaving foam in their faces!!! Cheap and nasty shaving foam at that! I was so annoyed I was ready to physically hurt the perpetrators if and when they came back.. (not so good for someone who is trying to de-stress!) In any case, the guys in question thought it was funny the next morning when weren't so happy with them. However, apparently, at about 4am someone in the boys' dorm shouted 'the girls are coming' and all the guys leapt out of bed and got scared. As far as I can tell, we were all fast asleep. So the fear is still there. We didn't have to actually 'do' anything... ;-)

I was refreshed by being in the mountains, but on my return my neck got worse and I had to wear a neck collar to help me relax! It's all got a little bit ridiculous. Thankfully the sun has finally arrived and it's too hot to rush around getting stressed and I am making the most of relaxing in the pool and a little bit of sunbathing, which is helping my situation.

Grapevine-wise, I've been continuing to sort out the land that was offered to us and making little progress. The problem is (and this is typical Africa!) I have to meet with the councillor and he answered his phone a few weeks ago and we chatted, he agreed to meet and told me to call back the following week, which I did. He was in a meeting and told me to call back 20 minutes later. At which point I got his answerphone and have had it ever since. I've been to his office and his 'helpful' staff tell me he doesn't have set office hours I just need to pop in and try to catch him. He never listens to his answerphone apparently, he's a politician. (that's what everyone else here tells me). So getting hold of this man is quite frustrating. In the meantime there's another bit of land near the school so I'm making enquiries about that one instead... the saga continues..

I've finally got my list of 40 children from the school. It took only a week longer than planned, and that was with me going in every day to encourage the teachers to hand over information. TIA (This is Africa). With all this going on, I haven't managed to get the kids together until today, but today I start doing Kid's Club with them. I've got 4 groups and the school has given me time during the day to see them. Today it's Grade R-1 and Grade 2-3, most of whom don't speak more than 2 words of English, should be fun! More on that later...

Water

2010-01-22T06:08:00.002Z

One thing I've been thinking about recently is water and how we should never take it for granted. I was so miffed yesterday because I didn't take my camera with me when we went down to visit our friends in the valley as I could have taken pictures of just how difficult it is for some people to obtain water!

Our friends have an orphanage and 13 kids live with them in a very small house. For about 4 months now their mains water supply has been erratic, mostly cut off, with occasional times when it's on... They have a big water tank in the yard and a smaller one too. They haven't not paid the bill or anything, the water should be free for them, and for everyone in the valley. There's a certain amount of water allowed for free.

So, a big water truck has been coming round to give them water. Yesterday it came around while we were there. It stopped up the hill from the house and we had to take big buckets (probably 20Litre capacity) up to the lorry to fill up. They have a bigger water container which they filled from the smaller buckets from the lorry and then decant back into the medium tank, via the smaller buckets, walking back and forth up the hill each time. Sounds like a lot of faffing around? It was. And the annoying thing is if the lorry stopped just 10 metres down the road at the gate, that would have taken a lot of stress out of it. And the even more annoying thing is that the lorry driver promised to stop on his way out of the valley and fill the big tank for them. But he didn't.

This is a family of 15 who obviously need water to wash, and drink and cook and all the normal things you'd expect. The water from the lorry is mostly used for washing, it didn't look that clean. Recently the people delivering water from the municipality have started asking for R200 cash to fill up the tank. That might not sound like much but it's supposed to be free and it is a lot when you have not much money and many mouths to feed. R, who runs the place, has been to the offices to complain about it, but it seems the complaints have fallen on deaf ears.

Spending time down there is giving me a local's view of the life in the valley and the everyday frustrations. Even the simplest of things, like delivering water, are subject to corruption. And what choice do they have? They need water to live.

Inchanga latest...

2010-01-22T05:55:00.002Z

A few days ago, I managed to set up our account with Givengain, check it out on www.grapevinesa.givengain.org
So far I've only put on the Home visiting programme and the Feeding programme. More will follow soon. It's also really easy to donate money through this website and it's safe and well-established.

The latest from the school is that the teacher responsible for the orphans is sorting out the names of the 40 most needy children for me to work with. When she's done that, hopefully by Monday, I can start to get alongside them. The way I'm going to do this is by going into the school twice a week and running clubs with them. On Tuesday I'll have Grade R and 1 for half an hour followed by Grades 2 and 3. On Thursday I'll have Grades 4-7 all together. These clubs will hopefully start the first week of February. We'll do some fun activities and I'll teach them more about Jesus and how much he loves them and give them an opportunity for them to encounter him for themselves. It should be VERY interesting to work with the smaller ones as their English is non-existent!! ;-) I love a challenge...

After a while, when I've got to know these kids better, I'll start visiting their homes. Some of them live right down in the valley, or right up on the mountainside, often fairly cut off from decent roads and it looks like I might have to walk a fair distance with them to get there. The teachers have expressed concern about how we might get there, but I really want to see where these kids call home so that will be an adventure when it happens! I'm still living in hope that we'll have a suitable car by then! Keep praying it in.. no sign of one on the horizon yet... I'll only visit the 40 to start with, and we'll go from there.

In addition, we're in discussion with the staff about them feeding the children on a Saturday. This would be for all the orphans in the school. Last year there were 300 of them, the final figure for this year has not been worked out yet but it will probably be somewhere in the same region as last year. This is exciting as the staff are getting themselves organised, all they need is some funding to get them going. If you'd like to help out, check out out givengain website!

As for the land that we're trying to get hold of for the Children's Village... it all seemed to be going so well when I managed to talk to the local Councillor last week, but then he asked me to call him back after 20 minutes and since then I've been put through to answerphone... Hmm, not happy... Politicians, eh... Now I'm going to have to go to his office and wait for him. It's in the middle of an area where few whites ever venture so that could be fun!

So, things are moving on and within a couple of weeks we'll be up and running...

First Day of School

2010-01-14T08:38:00.003Z

Yesterday all the schools in South Africa opened their doors to welcome back the children of this country with open arms... It's the start of a new academic year, along with the usual reports in the news of establishments without any equipment, overcrowding and disputed exam papers etc.

However, down at Inchanga, there were none of those problems. The first thing I noticed when I popped in at lunch time was that there were so many kids milling around and yet it was so quiet! It was like a reverent hush was over the place. I imagine it's the awe of being back in a place of learning, or the new experiences for the Grade R's just starting. Or maybe they were all just in shock at being back at school!

In any case, I managed to track down a few of the children on Grapevine Foundation's programme to say hello and check they are ok. We're still establishing who exactly is on my programme. I started with a list of 40, over Christmas that number of names went up to 100. Some will have moved up to High School and there will be new children joining the school right up to Easter who might need help. As there are over 300 orphans in the school, there's no shortage of kids to help. So next week, when term is underway, I'll be sitting down with the teacher responsible for the orphans and we'll work out who's on my programme. Despite the apparent confusion, there are still a few kids who I already know and so it was good to spend a little bit of time with them.

As I wandered around the playground, it was amusing to hear the littlest pupils gasp when they saw me and whisper 'umlungu' (white person) to their friends. These children live right in the valley and there aren't that many white people around, so it really could be a shock for some of them. (Incidentally, they are always fascinated by the veins in my arms, as they can't see them on their arms. Also, my fingernails seemed to be popular yesterday for some reason... ) A few of the children were bold enough to just come up and start talking to me, or touching my hand to see if I was real. Wherever I walked, there would be a small train of children desperate to be in a photo - they shout out 'shooter' which means photo/camera in Zulu (nothing to do with guns!) and then all pose. There's a fair bit of pushing around and shouting at each other to smile but it's usually good-humoured.

It looked like the majority of kids were happy to be back. For the orphans, school is a source of regular food and some of them can get their clothes washed too, so they would be especially happy that term has started. Children were chatting with their friends, climbing on the mound of gravel (supposed to be on the road but it's not been finished yet), scavenging in the rubbish pit for interesting papers, looking longingly at the soccer pitch or just cleaning up after lunch. The Gogos who sit on the peripheries of the playground to sell the kids little bags of sweets and crisps were back in force and doing a roaring trade already. Children were making the most of whatever they could find to play with, writing in the dirt with sticks or practising a bit of zulu dancing. School is definitely underway!

Newsletter Jan-March

2010-01-12T13:27:00.001Z

I've just put out my latest newsletter by email and also as a note on facebook. For some annoying reason I can't cut and paste it onto this blog anymore. If you follow me on this and you'd like to receive the newsletter but don't at the moment, please send me an email to:

grapevinemanager@gmail.com

and I'll get one to you!

Feeding the kids 4 - the last one before school starts!

2010-01-05T13:13:00.003Z

We were so busy today that I only managed to take ONE photo...

Today was the last time we fed the kids before school starts next week. As I had frozen the left-over beef stew from 2 weeks ago I added to that with potatoes, sugar beans and mixed veg. I ended up adding more frozen veg than I had originally planned as my fridge/freezer took a beating during an electrical storm on Sunday night and all my frozen peas had defrosted!! (one of the drawbacks of living on top of a mountain, we also had buy a new modem as that blew up, and most of my plug sockets have died!! Have to work out an insurance claim now...)

Obviously, word about the bumper week last week had got out as we arrived to 50 CHILDREN waiting for us, that's double what we have been feeding. We'd kind of planned on feeding 30 kids this week as that had been roughly the number we've been getting. A lot of kids on my original list returned today. I think that possibly they've run out of the food given them at the beginning of the holiday, or else they'd just heard there was food. In any case, I now have 100 children on my list to follow up. That's a third of the total orphans in the school.

However, the beef and beans seemed to go round and be just enough. They had some bread too and we had just enough lemon biscuits to give them one each. There wasn't enough porridge but they were incredibly patient in waiting and accepting whatever was given to them. I made sure that the younger children all got some porridge to take away, everyone in Grade 3 and under got some. They also had some apples and bananas so no-one went away empty-handed. Praise God that each child got something to eat and was happy!

These few weeks have been great to get to know the children a little bit better. When such a lot come it's difficult to catch up with each one, but some children have been coming regularly and I'll start off by following them up when term gets underway. From Monday, when they return to school, they'll be getting 2 meals a day (Monday to Friday) and we'll be looking into what we can do to help out with the other meals. Now I've got some thinking to do about how to approach the next stage of caring for these lovely kids.

Feeding the Kids 3 - Flint Family Special!!

2010-01-05T12:57:00.004Z

Getting the take-away food ready to hand out.

Mmm, polony sandwiches... ;-)

Ready to head home with heavy packets... Thank you Flint Family!!

The Flint family (from Lionsraw) helped out with feeding the kids last Tuesday (29th Dec) and generously provided all the food and drink for the kids. It was a veritable feast for them!

On the menu were polony sandwiches, which is kind of a pink luncheon meat with a label 'no pork' on the side of the packet (I guess that's for those who don't eat pork, but it does make me wonder just what it is made of!!), cold baked beans and mayo mix, crisps, apples and bananas, and milk to drink. To take home the kids had cabbage, onions, potatoes, carrots, soya mix, maize meal, porridge and more fruit. Seeing them heading off with their heavy bags was great. Some of them have perfected the art of carrying bags on their heads and set off like that.

27 children turned up, which took my total of kids on my list to 85. Each week new children turn up and we'll feed anyone who comes. We even gave some to a child from another school who was loitering and Neil managed to pray for him too.

For the first week or two the children had been quite shy and had just eaten, taken whatever we could give them and then left. This week they were a little more relaxed and chatty. My communication in Zulu is improving too and I managed to give a whole set of directions to them and they understood - hurrah! I can't wait to get back to studying more Zulu when customs finally release my box of belongings later this week (a month late - that's not bad for this country... but seeing as the majority of my clothes are also in the box, I'm looking forward to getting it soon!!)

Outside, as they were posing for a photo, the boys were telling me that they are going to call me 'umlungu', which translates as 'white person'. I told them to call me Caroline but little Sanele called me over and in Zulu said to me something along the lines of 'But you are MY umlungu'!! Sweet.

Everyone left happy and full. Thanks again to Neil, Debbie and Alexandra for all their help this week... Siyabonga Kakhulu!

Christmas Day 2009

2009-12-31T10:57:00.003Z

Russell and Precious marvelling at their new laptop!

The kids with Santa before they opened their gifts.

Fun in the pool!

Apologies for the delay, but at least I'm getting this in before New Year tomorrow!!

We've had a busy week with some friends from the UK who are out here with Lionsraw. The Flint family have been raising money and awareness all year for the work out here and especially for Sithembakuye Orphanage. They arrived on Christmas Eve and we brought all the kids, Russell and Precious (who run the place), and a couple of Gogos up to our house for Christmas Day for a party they'll not forget in a hurry.

The children had never been to our house and they were over the moon to see a swimming pool, and even more excited to be given swimming costumes and allowed in to play. Hardly any of them can swim but they enjoyed being in there. One of the boys got into difficulties in the deep end almost immediately causing Steve to dive in and rescue him, but that didn't keep him out of the pool and he was soon back in having fun.

The mist was moving in though and after a while we had to get the kids out of the pool and stick them in front of 'Santa Claus - the Movie' whilst the braai was cooking. Lunch was borewors, steak, burgers, baked beans and mayo mix (cold, but actually quite nice), salad and bread. It went down very well, as did the cake, ice cream and fruit for dessert. Every child finished what was on their plate and came back for seconds. Not a bit was wasted. No fussy children here!

Even small touches like letting off party poppers and pulling crackers were greatly enjoyed by the kids and they were very excited when Santa came in to give them all their presents. The whole group of children, with ages ranging from 2 to 17, got excited for each child as he or she went up for their presents. The joy in the room was almost tangible. However, nothing could beat the amazed reaction from Russell when he was presented with the one thing he'd been praying for - a new laptop. His old one had been stolen at knifepoint a short time ago and he'd been struggling to work without one. There was certainly a lot of celebration when he opened that present!

We'd taken Russell and Precious to ToysRUs a few days before to get a big present for each child (which was an adventure in itself!) and they also got lots of little presents from the UK. The brilliant thing to see was that each child shared their toys with others and also respected their own stuff. Even a few days after when we've been down to the Valley to see them, they are still excited at what Santa brought them!

To see the joy and happiness that this day brought to these children was quite overwhelming and the sense of euphoria and Christmas joy was everywhere in our house. It truly was an excellent day!

Feeding the kids 2 - Christmas Party

2009-12-22T10:08:00.004Z

It's odd doing a party at 10.30am in the morning when it's blisteringly hot.

However, not if you are a primary school child on holiday with nothing much to do...

Yesterday I cooked up a big vat of beef curry and we served that to the kids today, along with bread, juice and cake for dessert. I've never seen those kids get so excited as when I offered them seconds of cake! Today we had 22 children come to eat, and some of them were new so my total of orphans on my list is now 73...

After they'd eaten, we played Pass the Parcel (an essential at any party!). It took a little bit of explaining but once they'd got the hang of it they loved it. We have children from Grade R up to Grade 7 and they worked well at helping each other. The little boy from Grade R was especially excited every time the parcel came anywhere near him and he managed to open it twice I think, winning 2 lollies.

After this we gave out their presents. We'd got a small bag of sweets, a balloon, an apple (keeping it healthy!!), bag of crisps and a 'lucky packet' which was either Disney, WWE, Spiderman, High School Musical etc and proved to be very popular. Not hugely expensive gifts but they were well received and the children went home happy.

Thank you to all the people who donated money to make this possible. It's great to see kids get excited about life and I'm starting to build relationships with some of the children which will be a good starting place when term starts to visit them at 'home' and see how I can help them further.

African Sunrise

2009-12-20T11:28:00.003Z

People always say how awesome the sunrise is in Africa but up until this week I'd never experienced one myself. However, when we got in quite late from a Christmas Party on Tuesday we thought we'd stay up and see the dawn from the viewpoint (it's easy when you live on top of a mountain with a convenient 'tourist' viewpoint only a stone's throw away!). It's also easy because dawn here is at about 4am (so it's not really staying up all night..)

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the amazing sight, and it's true, African sunrises really are magnificent. We had the added benefit of being above the clouds with inspiring views over the Valley of 1000 Hills too. I really love living here sometimes...

Holiday Feeds - Number 1

2009-12-15T14:11:00.003Z

The kids at Sithembakuye enjoying the left-over porridge, watched over by the Gogo!

Steve and Sean giving out many bags of porridge at the school.

One of the kids enjoying his porridge, he'd even found a newspaper to read and was relaxing as if in a cafe!

Today was our first attempt at feeding the orphans at Inchanga School. I say 'attempt' as we really had no idea who was going to turn up, but we were prepared for about 40 kids. When we arrived most of the children were already at the school waiting for us and in total we fed 27 children today. However, a lot of these were not the ones who'd come to see me on Thursday and so my list of children has now risen to 65! We fed anyone who was there today, even managing to give some to the older siblings who had come with their family.

At the advice of George the Principal we'd prepared a vat of porridge for the kids, which seemed to go down well. In addition to this we gave the kids some bags of porridge to take home. This mixture has lots of added vitamins and minerals and keeps the kids full for longer, which helps when they are not sure when their next meal is coming from. Also, it's really easy to make and requires minimal cooking, just adding milk or water. Another donor had given many bags of the stuff to the school so this morning we gave the kids from that supply, which means the 40 bags that I've bought have yet again travelled round for nothing (I will manage to give them away eventually!!)

Next Tuesday we're going to get some meat and bread and make it into a Christmas Party for the kids. We're just starting to get to know them and a lot of them were a bit nervous about English people giving them food, but it's a start and hopefully through these feeds the children will get to know me a bit better and then next term when I start visiting them and working with them in the school the relationships will deepen and grow.

Having a bit of food left, we took it down to our friends' orphanage - Sithembakuye - in the valley near our house. The kids there appreciated it very much, and the Gogo was very keen to be in one of the photos I took, so I had to put that on here!!

Last day of term!

2009-12-10T12:01:00.003Z

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!

Christmas soccer fun

2009-12-07T07:55:00.003Z

Yesterday there was a huge party for 500 orphans at a local orphanage organised by FNB (one of the main banks over here). We went along to run a 5-a-side soccer tournament for the kids. I say 'we', I mean the Lionsraw boys - but they made me official time-keeper for the matches. This was a brilliant job because I got to use the emergency hooter thing and give everyone around me a shock every few minutes! (next time I'd like a megaphone as well, just for the fun of it!)

We got there early to set up and watched all the marquees and jumping castles being put up. This was a big event, they had about 8 inflatables there, 3 of which were waterslides and involved much soapy water and mud. As the kids fell off the end they created a lovely pool of mud which was gradually carried onto the slides as they rushed back on. But they didn't care, it was baking hot and sunny and waterslides were very popular. Good job too that FNB gave each child a towel as they arrived!

There was also a marquee with a talent show stage, another place for face-painting and popcorn, and several clowns wandering around, one of whom was on stilts and too tall to get into the shade of the marquees!

We had almost as many girls wanting to play soccer as boys, but with all the excitement of the other attractions (notably the inflatables), getting the rights teams ready and in place was something of an organisational nightmare - but we eventually got some kids playing and they loved it. They didn't get as far as playing for a trophy though, as the lovely people from FNB had yet more gifts for them and then they were all packed off home. But all in all, the kids seemed to have a fabulous day and it was nice to finally be out in the sunshine (instead of the constant rain of the previous week!).

Cow's stomach stew, anyone??

2009-12-03T07:51:00.004Z

I'm writing this from my new home in South Africa, surrounded by cloud. It was quite surreal to arrive here after leaving Birmingham at 2 degrees, where they had to defrost the plane before we could take off. After going via the heat of Dubai, I arrived to rain. However I was happy because at least it wasn't cold. The temperature is in the low 20 degrees C. Nice.

Yesterday I was straight into Inchanga School to see what's going on there. It was the Christmas party for Grades R to 3 (the rest of the school get a party tomorrow) and there was much dancing and loud music blaring out. Thankfully the rain held off all morning as the whole event was outside.

Lionsraw had donated money to the school to buy a cow's stomach to cook for the children, which is a special treat for them. A small group of Grade 1 and grade R children gathered around me as soon as I got there, including Sanele and Nontobekho (whose house I visited back in August) and they insisted on giving me a tour of their school. However when we approached the kitchen, even they commented on the ghastly smell coming out from there.

When it came to eating it the children had to line up with their bowls and most of them ate with their hands. The smell was kind of like really really smelly cheese, and thankfully the staff knew that we English people couldn't cope with hardcore stews like that so we weren't given any! Most of the children seemed to enjoy it, although a few of the littler ones didn't really want to have it. We managed to retreat away from the kitchen, and therefore also the smell, but when the kids gathered around us afterwards with little paws fresh from lunch, the smell came with them and lingered on my fleece long into the evening yesterday!!

It was great to catch up with a few of my Grapevine children. So far there are 40 children who have filled in a profile and with whom I will start working. They weren't all there though and I also came across a few other children who looked very much like they didn't have much at home. As it was a day when they didn't wear uniform, it was easy to see whose family had money to buy clothes and who was still in the usual outfit they wore to school every day.

Little Sanele, who I visited back in August, was doing well. Although he did tell me that he is still ill and then went on to say he'd had swine flu recently. He looked reasonably well and nothing stopped him from dancing away to the music later on in the party. These children don't have meat often and there was much celebratory dancing before they went off to have seconds.

Sitting with a small group of kids, overlooking some kids dancing and other ones having an impromptu game of soccer on the school pitch, with the sun breaking through the clouds, I remembered how much I love being in this place and how excited I am to see what God is going to do in this place and with these children, each one precious to him.

Yet more radio!!

2009-11-20T21:05:00.002Z

Well, it's all kicking off in radio land (in a good way!)

My interview with Tim and Marian is being repeated sometime on Sunday 22nd Nov between 1 and 3 pm on BBC CWR, so if you don't have i-player you can tune in and listen!

Also, on the 6th December on Saturday morning I'll be doing a live phone interview direct from South Africa to fill you in on how the first week has gone and what's happening down in the Southern Hemisphere. Am really excited about this opportunity and a chance to tell people in Coventry and Warwickshire (and further afield via i-player!) all about the everyday challenges, highs and lows of working with my wonderful children in Inchanga! I think it's going out quite early but I'll put it up nearer the time to remind you!

Grapevine on BBC CWR

2009-11-17T15:05:00.002Z

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/radio/bbc_radio_coventry_warwickshire/

this is the link you need to hear my interview this morning with Tim and Marian at Breakfast.

Fast forward to 10 mins before the end of the show and you'll get me!

Happy Listening - but be quick, it's only up for 7 days!!

Lionsraw on TV!

2009-11-15T16:37:00.002Z

Lionsraw (the charity with whom we are working closely for the new build during the World Cup 2010) are on BBC1 Inside out - but only the N.E. Edition...

Monday 16th November at 7.30pm

You can see it on Freesat/sky etc or on I-player

Check it out!

VISA!!

2009-11-10T13:30:00.002Z

Hurrah!

Without much problem and just a short hold-up, I am now in possession of a THREE YEAR VISA for working in South Africa! This is great news as it will mean I don't have to worry about renewing and can come and go as I like from the country for a while.

Praise the Lord and thank you if you were praying for me to get that sorted.

Back to South Africa!

2009-11-04T09:22:00.002Z

I wanted to put my newsletter on here like before but for some reason the computer won't let me this morning. I've sent it out to people via email and it's also on facebook, so if you would like one and can't get it via these routes (if you haven't received one via email yesterday you are not on my list yet!) then get in touch, send me an email to grapevinemanager@gmail.com and I'll make sure you get one!

In any case, I've booked my ticket and I'm heading back to KwaZulu Natal! I leave the UK on Monday 30th November and take a brief stop off in Dubai before flying direct to Durban and get there late afternoon on 1st December. The 1st December also happens to be World AIDS Day.

From there on in I will have 10 days until the end of school term in which to co-ordinate the plan for feeding our children over the holidays. My aim is to get them in to the school twice a week and arrange for a proper meal cooked for them and then to get them some extra food to take away to tide them over. Given that we don't have much money at the moment I'm not sure how much we can give them, but we'll use what we have and pray for a miracle that it will stretch to feed them all (God's good at expanding food miracles, it's about time we saw some more of it!)

I'm also planning to do some teaching for the children and some fun games and other activities so that they will be fed not only physically but also spiritually. They are quite used to praying and hearing about God, so we'll be giving them an opportunity to engage with God too as well as some fun crafts and learning about how precious they are to Him.

This will be happening until the new term starts on 11th January. After that I'll be working on assessing each child's situation and listening to their needs with the aim of meeting as many as we can through our further work there.

It's all exciting stuff and I'm keen to get back as soon as possible. In the meantime I'm off to get my visa sorted. Travelling to London this afternoon (with only an AA driving directions map and no Sat Nav - should be interesting!) and tomorrow at 9.30am I have an appointment at the South African Embassy to apply for my visa. I really need this to go smoothly so if you can pray for that to happen that would be great. All being well I should be in and out quickly and in 10 days time be in possession of the longest possible volunteer visa.

The rest of my time is spent sorting things out and trying to earn a bit of money as well. There are so many little jobs to be done, my 'to do' list spans over 2 sides of A4 at the moment and there's no sight of the end! It will all be done in time though I'm sure!

Nearly there!!

2009-10-19T15:25:00.002+01:00

Micky was in South Africa in September and managed to get together food for our children for the 10 day holiday at the end of the month because they don't get fed at school then. This is one of her pictures of the day she took that food in to be distributed at the end of term.

Notice the fog all around, this is more what I have to look forward to - it's not always wall to wall sun!

It was amazing to have Micky visit this weekend and for us to speak at a talk at my church about my trip to South Africa. A good time to inform people about what we aim to do and to share more with people as a group and individually, also for people to ask questions of me and Micky. It went well.

And, thanks for a generous donation, it's ALL SYSTEMS GO for me heading out there before Christmas. I'm hoping to leave the UK on 30th November, but have yet to finalise my ticket. The plan is that I will co-ordinate feeding these precious children over their long summer break which starts on 11th December. In my first 10 days out there I hope to arrange for cooks to come in twice a week to cook a hot meal for the children and to find extra food to sustain them in the other days when they are not fed. We'll celebrate Christmas and New Year and in addition to all of this, I want to provide more for them. Not just nourishing their bodies, but also their souls.

The plan is to give them food, and then some activities and a bit of teaching about how God sees them (precious, loved, chosen, children with a purpose and destiny in his family) and some ministry as well as a chance to play and have fun. All round good fun and nourishment! Jesus loves them and we have to celebrate His birthday too!

That's the plan. Pray into it for me. Also, if you have any extra cash around, please get it to us so that we can make this happen. It's cheaper to get stuff there so easier for people to donate money rather than other things at this time. Last Christmas holidays these children went hungry, for a whole 6 weeks! This year will be different for them. Praise God!

Help us make it a reality and thanks for supporting us so far!

Newsletter October-November 2009

2009-09-24T18:22:00.002+01:00

TRAILBLAZING IN SOUTH AFRICA
Project Manager CAROLINE HORN
Newsletter OCTOBER – NOVEMBER 2009

The Story So Far… an update
In August I spent 2 weeks in KwaZulu Natal, getting to know the children and staff of Inchanga Primary School, with whom I shall be working closely over these next few years, and also linking in with the Lionsraw team who are getting ready for the World Cup projects 2010.
It was also a good opportunity for me to catch up with old friends, to see the children from God’s Golden Acre, where I used to work, and to renew contact with local people within the community who could help us out in our new venture.
I took some food to the 40 orphans. The school also arranged for me to visit the home of 2 of the children with whom I shall be working – see later on for what I found…

The Vision of Grapevine Foundation
Inchanga Primary School (near Durban) is a popular & thriving school. Yet for 63 of its pupils, school is the only source of food & clean water. They come primarily to get breakfast & lunch, as they sleep rough in the surrounding areas. The few clothes they have are washed by the teachers & at the weekend they struggle to survive in harsh rural conditions, without any family to help them. Can you imagine how vulnerable they are to possible abuse?
Two years ago, Micky Bailey learnt about these orphans & set up Grapevine Foundation (GVF) to provide specifically for them. Over the past few years, working with some local people in Inchanga, she has raised money to bring food to these children.
In June-July 2010, a group from the UK (www.Lionsraw.org) will be embarking on various projects in the Valley of 1000 Hills. The biggest of their projects will be to assist GVF in building the first phase of the Children’s Village. There will be 10 rondavels (traditional African homes), with a foster mother to care for a few children in each house, using the ‘cluster foster care’ method. Future plans are to build a clinic, crèche & community hall, which will assist the community by bringing help just that bit closer to the people.

One in every 2.5 people in Inchanga is infected with HIV/AIDS,
currently the highest rate in the world…
10 000 die here every month.
Over half of our children are potentially HIV+

The next step…
I shall be returning to KwaZulu Natal as soon as I can raise enough support to keep me out there. If I can get back before Christmas 2009, then the challenge of the school summer holidays lies before me, as the children face 6 weeks of no school, but also no regular meals twice a day either.

My main aims as Project Manager are:

To go and see where each child is sleeping at night in order to establish the actual needs of each individual.
To liaise with the school social worker to make sure each child has a birth certificate and then has access to whatever grants are available.
To make sure any children who are unwell receive medical attention and also help out with transporting children to the clinic as necessary.
To assist in providing food for these children at the weekends and during the holidays.
To assist in providing properly fitting shoes and clothes.
To get to know each child and be a source of love and friendship to them, as well as helping them to make the most of their childhood. They are precious to God and He loves them so much, I need to tell them!
To ascertain which children need to move into the Children’s Village and which need support within their families.
To assist in the preparations for the new build of the Children’s Village in June 2010, particularly in finding good house-mothers.

Sanele’s Story
This is me with Sanele and Nontobeko, 6 yr old twins in our project. I had the privilege of being taken by them to see their house not far from the school. They are blessed to have their mother and 2 brothers living with them, although their mum only has one day’s work a week so times are still hard.
These children will need supporting within their family unit, they will not move into the Children’s Village next year. However, Sanele is not too well and is often ill so help with medication and trips to the clinic will probably be a priority with him, aside from catching up with him and his friends on the playground. He has the most infectious and precious smile and it’s worth anything to see it!

How YOU can help… This is what I need to get me there and make this a reality

I need to raise £2000 to get me out to South Africa. This covers flights, visa and everything I need to get my visa, plus relocation costs of getting some of my things out there. In addition to this I need £800 each month which should cover living costs.

If the Lord is laying it on your heart to contribute towards my work, please copy, paste and complete the section below and return it to me. I know that He has called me into this project, and I know that God chooses us to help each other to fulfil His plans.

Is He calling you to help His work and His children at such a time as this?

Grapevine Foundation also needs a vehicle, to enable me to reach these children, and funding for the new build of the Children’s Village. The new build is estimated at £100,000 and a vehicle would cost from about £5000 (second-hand) up to £30,000 (new 4x4). If you would like to contribute to either of these, either go to www.justgiving.com/grapevinefoundation or contact me and I will put you in touch with Micky who is overseeing these funds.

I need financial support to be able actually to get there, but I also need support through your prayers as well and, even if you can’t give financially to the work there, please remember me before the Lord as I am heading out to this exciting and challenging next season of my life. If God has laid it on your heart to commit to interceding for me, thank you, and let me know so that I can keep you updated specifically with anything that might come up…
_____________________________________________________________
Can you help? If so, please indicate below in which ways you are thinking of supporting me. If you wish to set up a standing order, I will be in touch with my bank details. Please indicate how much you think you could give and how regularly. I don’t know how long God plans for me to be out there but should you wish to put a date to review your giving (eg: 2 years) please let me know. Cheques payable to ‘Caroline Horn’. Thank you.

£10-£20 □
£20-£50 □
£50-£75 □
£75-£100 □
£100 or more □
specify amount: ___________

Monthly □
Annually □
One-off gift □

Please complete your details:

Name:
Address:
Phone Number:
Email:

Please return to me as soon as you possibly can (current address below).

Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions or would like any more information.

I would also love to come and talk about the project to anyone who will listen - churches, women's groups, school assemblies, classes etc etc. let me know and we'll book at date!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR INVESTING IN MAKING THIS PROJECT A REALITY.
MAY GOD BLESS YOU MIGHTILY AS YOU SUPPORT ME AND THE CHILDREN OF SOUTH AFRICA.

Deuteronomy 31v8

‘The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.’

Getting in touch, staying in touch!

http://trailblazinginsouthafrica.blogspot.com
Email: carolinehorn@yahoo.com / grapevinemanager@gmail.com
Skype: caroline.louise.horn
Address: 2 Cross St, Leamington Spa, CV32 4PX

God provides!

2009-09-14T14:15:00.002+01:00

So I've moved into my new and temporary abode in Leamington now, although there's still a fair number of boxes to be unpacked before I can see my bedroom floor!

Part of moving involved me working out what I needed in terms of furniture as my room was unfurnished. The only thing I needed to buy was a wardrobe and so I'd been eyeing up the wardrobe rails in the Argos catalogue because they involve the least amount of cash...

But before I could even set foot in a store, along comes an email through our church with offer of a wardrobe, desk and other furniture, all free!! Hurrah! And it all fits perfectly into my room too.

I was just reflecting on how God provides for my every need when the following verse dropped into my head:

Malachi 3v10b
'Test me in this, says the LORD Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.'

When I first expressed an interest in the furniture, I had no idea if it would fit in my room and was rather thinking that I'd have too many items to put in my room and that there would indeed not be room enough for it. Father God never lets His children down and He will provide even more blessings as time goes on. I'd been wondering how on earth everything is going to come to pass from my plans for the next few months, but this is confirmation that I need not worry as He knows what I need and will bring it along in His timing, never early and never, ever late!

some photos

2009-09-02T10:52:00.002+01:00

(above) Children at Inchanga crowd round any camera for a photo!

(above) with N and S at their house

(above) some of our girls queue up to get food donated for them.

Animals (of a domestic variety)

2009-08-26T08:12:00.003+01:00

Africa isn´t Africa without some animal stories... :)

At home we don´t have a guard dog (yet), but we do have 4 domestic rabbits who moved in to eat the grass and generally provide much amusement. Mostly because they actually don´t all get on with each other and 2 of them spend their entire lives chasing each other round. I´ve called them Mopsy (black and white), Flopsy (grey and always cleaning her ears), Topsy (tan coloured) and then there´s another black one that I am yet to name. Mopsy hangs around with Flopsy and everytime Topsy comes near, Mopsy goes quite literally psycho and chases Topsy off, not caring for any humans that might be in their path!!!

Their other favourite activity is taunting the 2 huge dogs that live nearby and can´t get at them. The more the dogs bark, the closer the rabbits lay themselves down in the sun near the fence as if to taunt the dogs! :)

We also had a rooster and some hens that wandered across our land. The rooster will attack if you get too close or try to hang washing out etc. When I was in bed the other morning he started crowing outside my window at about 4am and apparently I later commented to the Lionsraw boys that the rooster was going to die if he carried on like that.

Anyway, 2 days ago there were a lot of white feathers on the grass outside my cottage and all the way up to the front gate. Just under the orange trees there lay one very dead rooster.

IT WAS NOT ME!!!

Some animal had had a fight on its hands. Being English we didn´t really know what to do with the creature but before we had time to decide, something else had taken the decision out of our hands and the bird was gone.

The boys still think I am the chicken-killer though...

Visiting old friends

2009-08-26T07:40:00.003+01:00

Am writing this from Cape Town, I cannot believe how fast the past 10 days have gone. I´ve been logging all of my dealings with people and progress this week in a book and on Monday I had to just stop and write a list of things to do when I get back because I just ran out of time!!!

It was a great week for networking and for travelling round to see friends all over the Valley of a 1000 Hills, most of whom have expressed a desire to work for me and get involved with Grapevine projects, so when God provides the funding we´ll have no shortage of Zulu helpers.

The most fantastic thing about working in rural Africa is that when you have a question, there´s always someone who knows someone else, who can put you in touch with them. I´ve spent some time visiting other local projects and everyone is willing to offer help and advice.

On Friday afternoon, I took 2 Zulu friends right down to Maphepheteni to visit Mdu´s family. For those who followed my blog before, this was where I filmed a local choir singing and dancing. It´s a stunning drive down past Inanda dam and along some questionable dirt track roads peppered with rocks and mud. My Hyundai Atos did better than expected under pressure!

We stopped en route to chat to another friend of ours who used to be in YZW choir. He was leading a small team of young men building a rondavel (traditional Zulu round house). Only the night before had I been in discussion with friends about how we were going to get British volunteers next year to build rondavels when they had never seen them before, and here was our answer!! The boys offered their expertise in helping out so we´ll see if we can get them up when the time comes. According to them, rondavels are much easier to build as there is only 1 wall (it´s just round that´s all!)

Mdu is not well. He was really very ill at one point and now is slightly better but has something else. As the family lives miles away from the nearest taxi point, it´s incredibly difficult for him to get to the hospital as he could hardly walk at one point. Their homestead that was once incredibly vibrant with lots happening was eerily quiet and showed the beginnings of falling into serious disrepair. The goat pen had gone and so had the chicken coop, although the chickens roamed free over the land. There were no vegetables growing. There were only women, children and Mdu at home. It was hard to see them as they are, this is the reality of poverty, illness and lack of employment. Ironically Mdu had just got his truck driver´s licence a few weeks before falling ill, so his hopes of travelling the country and providing for his family were dashed before they really got started.

We couldn´t spend much time with the family as darkness was closing in and it was a trek back, but we left them with some food and I prayed with Mdu and his mother (who is also bedbound with a broken foot!). Please pray for healing for that family and that things would turn around for them. I´ll visit them again in January.

I also met up with my ex-boyfriend and he told me that his niece Nolwazi passed away last year. She was 7 years old. I´d spent Christmas 2006 with that family and will never forget Nolwazi leading the family in a song of praise and thanks for the gifts that I´d taken. She sang terribly out of tune but it was precious all the same!

So, since I left this area, some things have changed for the worse, and some things for the better. Some, like Nolwazi, have left us, and others have grown up and are making good progress, like the children at GGA. This is life, I guess, and the happy times far outweigh the sad moments. Through it all God remains constant and I´m more and more feeling lead to pray with people in the Valley as they share their story and to encourage them on their walk with Him.

Inchanga Investigations

2009-08-18T15:20:00.003+01:00

Yesterday morning Mike (from Lionsraw) and I went down to Cato Ridge and bought some bread, oranges, apples, biscuits and juice and headed to Inchanga Primary School to meet the orphans there. They came down to the playground to meet us, summoned from their various lessons, curious to see these white people who had come to visit them!

I'd taken a photo of them all along with me and they found themselves on it and wrote their names on it and then I gave each of them a little cross on which I'd written - 'Jesus Loves You!' and 'UJesu Nkosi' (Jesus is Lord), they loved them and eagerly wrote their names on them. I reminded them that Jesus does love each and every one of them and they must remember that whenever they look at this cross. It's a Catholic school so the children already knew this, but they liked their gifts as well.

The teachers distributed the food and it was well received. Then they selected 2 children who lived near the school and we walked down to their house to see what kind of living conditions they were finding themselves in. As it turns out, the children selected were the very ones I had identified from the photo as ones I wanted to find out more about.

The 6 year old twins, brother and sister, S and N, live right near the main road with their mother and 2 older brothers. It would appear that they are not complete orphans, but these 2 are both fairly sick and as the mother only has work for one day a week, they are still struggling. The little boy has been fairly ill recently and his brother told me that he had not been himself for a few days. When we first met him he looked sullen and miserable. However, after about 10 minutes of chatting to him (albeit in broken Zulu) and after taking photos of him and a bit of filming too, he suddenly warmed up and by the end he was smiling, laughing and hugging.

Their house is made of wattle and daub (the same as the Elizabethans used to make houses with) and the sunshine streams in through the holes in the corrugated roof. Great when it's sunny, rubbish when it rains! The 2 kids sleep in the same bed in the corner of their mother's room.

Someone came along and built new toilets for all the houses in that little area, but they omitted to dig the right pit underneath it and consequently the toilet is unusable and used just for storage. Instead, the kids and ALL the families in the area use a tiny shack of a toilet right next to the road that is crumbling and offers little privacy. I don't even want to consider how many bugs and bacteria lurk in there, not good for little children with compromised immune systems.

Back at the school it was lunch time and the kids in the playground eagerly gathered to be in photos or on film. I wanted to pray for S, as he's been ill, but it was impossible to get him on his own as kids just gathered wherever I went, so I got the kids standing round us to pray too and explained in Zulu, but prayed in English. What a privilege to pray with these children - they are so precious!

Oh, and some good(ish) news. The 2 children who died are not from our 40 children. Still sad that they passed away, but we are happy that it wasn't one of ours just yet!

Well, I'm off to enjoy what's left of the sunshine for today - it's still blue skies and warm but there's a vicious wind blowing! You can't have it all ;-)

Sunny South Africa!

2009-08-16T11:32:00.002+01:00

Well, I'm actually here! Good journey, despite embarrassing myself by crying at the end of the film 'Marley and Me' (ahem..) It's always difficult when everyone has their own TV so no one is watching the same movies on a flight.

It's sunny but cold, but then I'm staying on top of a mountain so it's going to be a little chilly in the evenings. Have spent quite a few hours with the children at GGA, which is brilliant. They are all doing well and Patches, my dog, has remembered me and follows me round site when I'm there.

My sponsored child, N, is getting to know me a bit better and it seems the key to a beautiful relationship is pants! I bought her some new baby knickers as she's potty-training and getting through a lot at the moment, and she insisted on carrying them round with her all afternoon. When we went for a walk, they had to be put into a little rucksack and come with us. As she bounced on the trampoline she turned round and shouted 'Where's my panties?' very loudly... hilarious!

I also went into Inchanga on Friday and met the Headteacher and one of the teachers who looks after the orphans in the school. Tomorrow I'm going into the school to meet the children themselves. Sadly 2 of our children have recently passed away though. More on the children in my next post, after I've met them and hopefully been to see where some of them sleep at night.

Back to South Africa!

2009-08-10T17:42:00.002+01:00

I'm getting packed and ready to head back to SA on Wednesday. Please pray for a good journey and that I'd recover from it quickly and get on with the exciting adventures I have planned... I'm hoping to meet the children in Inchanga and get some photos and footage of what their current situation is. I'll also be re-visiting my little friends at GGA where I used to work, am looking forward to seeing how they've all grown!! Finally, I'm heading down to Cape Town for some relaxation before flying back to the UK at the end of August.

Pray for protection for me whilst I'm out and about and for God's leading on everything I do. He goes with me and before me. At New Wine last week I was struck about how it's important not to run ahead of God and to let the Spirit lead. So I intend to spend time listening and observing where He's moving and attempting to walk in step with the Spirit over these next few weeks...

I'm hoping to find an internet cafe and report back from there at some point during these next few weeks, so watch this space for updates!

How YOU can help…

2009-07-30T11:51:00.001+01:00

Micky Bailey had an incredible vision from God to build the Children’s Village, Community Centre & Church. We are trusting that He will also give us the funding to make it a reality & to change these children’s lives for the better, so that they can live in a safe place with loving people around them. Currently, GVF is being branded & the new logo & website will be available shortly (www.grapevinefoundation.org.uk).

Micky will be based in the UK, raising awareness & funds. She is seeking to raise £100,000 to start with, but the project will need a staggering £1Million to complete. Phase One will be the Children’s Village with the aim to start building in July 2010.
She will also be trying to raise money for a salary for myself & for the purchase of a vehicle. We absolutely need a vehicle for this work to enable me to get around safely, to get to where the children are & to take them to a clinic/hospital when they get sick or hurt, or to take food to them. Without a vehicle, we can’t do anything as it is generally inadvisable to travel by any means other than a reliable car/4X4 in rural South Africa.

I need funds to enable me to get out to South Africa & then to live whilst I am there. I haven’t worked out the exact amount that I need per month yet (I will make enquiries whilst I am there as things are more expensive since I was there last!) but I also need an initial £600 for a visa deposit & about the same for a flight. There is a cottage for me to stay in but I’ll need to find funds for everything else. I am not permitted to take a paid job in South Africa if I apply for a volunteer visa. If you feel led to help, please get in touch.

In addition to this we need prayer cover, as South Africa is not the safest of places. I felt very blessed & supported when I worked there before, due to my supporters remembering me before God & praying for me & my protection. Even more so I will need this, as I seek to care for children who need a lot of love & care. Dealing with a terminal illness is never easy, yet it’s something that these children have to live with on a daily basis. We need your help to be more than conquerors in these trials!

Thank you for reading. Knowing that you are standing with us, through prayer &/or financial help, will mean the world to me & to these precious children as I walk alongside them…. no longer orphans, but dearly-loved children of God.

Getting in touch, staying in touch!
Email: carolinehorn@yahoo.com

The Plan.

2009-07-30T11:50:00.001+01:00

In August 2009, I had already planned a holiday to KZN to visit friends & children at God’s Golden Acre (where I worked previously). I shall be staying in the GVF cottage, in a village called Monteseel that’s situated on a mountain 810m above sea level with stunning views over the Valley of 1000 Hills. This is just 5 minutes from the school by car. I shall be meeting up with the school staff & the children themselves & I will discuss the progress of some of the children & also reassure them that of January next year I will be on the case full time to help where I can.
From September to December 2009, I shall be in the UK, living in Leamington Spa, seeking to raise support & funds for this new venture. I have no employment for September & so I will possibly do supply teaching for a term. This is very much a step of faith for me, trusting God to provide absolutely everything to see His work done in South Africa.
I hope to move out to South Africa in January 2010, at the beginning of the new Academic Year.

My role

2009-07-30T11:49:00.000+01:00

As full-time worker, my role would be to liaise with the local social worker to get the children registered & get them access to medications that they need. We also need to try & track down any of their family that may still be living somewhere in South Africa.
Working with the Primary School & other individuals, there is also potential for me to teach English & to develop a Children’s Club for them to learn more about how much God loves them. In addition, these children currently have no food at all at the weekend, a situation that needs to be addressed as soon as possible. Thankfully, Inchanga is only 15 minutes away from where I worked before & I managed to build up many contacts there when I was living in KZN a few years ago. My increasing knowledge of Zulu & of this area will be a massive benefit as I embark on this new & vitally important role within this project.

The Vision

2009-07-30T11:46:00.001+01:00

Inchanga Primary School (near Durban) is a popular & thriving school. Yet for 63 of its pupils, school is the only source of food & clean water. They come primarily to get breakfast & lunch, as they sleep rough in the surrounding areas. The few clothes they have are washed by the teachers & at the weekend they struggle to survive in harsh rural conditions, without any family to help them. Can you imagine how vulnerable they are to possible abuse?
Two years ago, Micky Bailey learnt about these orphans & set up Grapevine Foundation (GVF) to provide specifically for them. Over the past few years, working with some local people in Inchanga, she has raised money to bring food to these children.
In June-July 2010, a group from the UK (www.Lionsraw.org) will be embarking on various projects in the Valley of 1000 Hills. The biggest of their projects will be to assist GVF in building the first phase of the Children’s Village. There will be 10 rondavels (traditional African homes), with a foster mother to care for a few children in each house, using the ‘cluster foster care’ method. Future plans are to build a clinic, crèche & community hall, which will assist the community by bringing help just that bit closer to the people. A future feeding scheme for the valley will help around 2000 people a month with food they so desperately need & medical care for the infirm.

One in every 2.5 people in Inchanga is infected with HIV AIDS, so far the highest in the world…10 000 die here every month.

We hope that these children will be in their new homes by Christmas 2010. Before then, amongst other things, they need:

Birth Certificates
Properly fitting shoes & clothes
Food & water
Medications if they are HIV+ & need Anti Retroviral treatment (ARVs)
Love & opportunities to enjoy childhood

Over half of these children are potentially HIV+

The Story So Far…

2009-07-30T11:44:00.000+01:00

Just before I returned from South Africa in February 2008, I had a few conversations with a lady called Micky Bailey about me taking a position with Grapevine Foundation in South Africa. However, it became clear that it was not the right time at that moment.
Back in the UK, I spent a while teaching again in various Secondary Schools, an experience that I found extremely challenging, due to falling standards of behaviour fuelled by a widespread lack of respect.
At the same time I developed my leadership skills as COSMIC Co-ordinator at St Paul’s Leamington Spa, overseeing the Sunday morning ministry with 0-11 year olds. I also completed the ‘Growing Leaders’ course, during which it became clear to all that my ideal ministry involves ‘Children’ and ‘Africa’.
During July 2009, as my teaching job drew to a close, Micky and I got back in touch and it suddenly seemed that this might be God’s timing for me to become part of Grapevine Foundation.

Welcome!

2009-07-20T23:07:00.000+01:00

Welcome to my new blog!

I hope you find it interesting and full of challenging and inspiring information and wisdom, to brighten your day or to make you think...