The Month of May

Dear Faithful Readers,

I hereby promise that I will never leave it 5 weeks before I blog again!! I will make it once a week again, as it should have always been.
I am in danger of letting my life slip by as I'm not recording what I am up to, and I want to remember this whole experience in years to come...

I will try and recap on the major things that happened here since April...
HOUSE BUILD UPDATE: we had a really successful trip with the teenagers again to the house build at Mondlo/Vryheid on Tuesday 27th April, Freedom Day! This was a public holiday and so we could take the kids. The builder was in need of man power to help him get the roof fixed on [as the other workmen are not prepared to work voluntarily...understandably!].

So I drove the ancient Ford bakkie and Mlondi took the brand new Quantum. The boys in the back with me were quite annoyed of course, as the girls got to ride in the comfy mini bus with a cd player and cup holders for every passenger...for some reason the cup holders are considered a real luxury here at St Anthony's!
We arrived and I had the fun task of getting the roofing sheets from the house they were being stored at, down to the site. When I had driven from the builder's yard on the day we bought the sheets, two expert guys had tied them on very securely, and it had still be a hairy drive!

This time all we had were 3 ropes, myself and some teenagers...it may have only been 1km but that was the hairiest drive I have ever made! I managed to insist that we didn't transport all 18 sheets in one trip, but took 9 then 9. Unfortunately I didn't go to scouts so had no idea how to tie a knot, other than 'bunny ear' shoe laces...and scouts doesn't seem to be big in Zulu culture either. So to make sure the load was secure I had 3 boys sitting in the back hanging on to the 4.8m corrugated iron sheets with their bare hands! But this was in very rural africa so if anything had fallen off the only thing we might have damaged would have been a roaming chicken or a stray dog..there were certainly no traffic cops around!We only had to go down the hill which was a grass track and then round the corner to the gravel road where the house is.

Needless to say, we all arrived in one piece, as did the roofing sheets. The boys were really helpful and with the builder on the roof, they passed up the sheets and logs and got everything in place for the builder to then hammer in the nails. Within a couple of hours we had literally 'put a roof over 6 children's heads'...not bad for a day's work!!

Unfortunately the house has come to a bit of a standstill as it still needs to be plastered and have the doors and glass fitted. Hopefully we will make a plan to get down there and help the builder for a day again and get the house finished so that the two children can be in it for the June holidays which start on the 9th. I am still hopeful that things will get a move on in the next 2 weeks and that the goal will be reached.

Then, the next thing to happen of note was a few days later on one of the girl's birthdays. It is the one I have become close too who speaks English as her home language and so this makes it a lot easier for us to be friends. She was turning 18 and I wanted to mark it as a special day for her and so asked mum to send me a present for her. I had the idea of giving her a silver necklace with '18' on it, and mum found a perfect one and posted it out.

Her birthday was on a Wednesday and so I couldn't take her out to the cinema or anything. So I decided to buy a cake from the supermarket, but I hadn't really thought through how to give it to her. I knew that I couldn't go buying cakes for every child's birthday so I didn't want to make the others feel upset or jealous. In the end I planned just to give it to the girl and let her take it and share it with the girls she lives with.

But when I went to find her, she was with the rest of her cottage girls, so I ended up saying, 'girls come with me to my house, I've got a surprise'. I sat them down and told them that 'today is a very special day, because there is a girl in your cottage who has become an adult today'. The girl whose birthday it was suddenly realised this was about her and her face was such a picture. The others reacted so well and were so happy for her, and enjoying it themselves. I knew straight away that I had done the right thing. They started really cheering and whooping and singing before I had even revealed there was a cake! Then the screaming really started! She opened her present and was so amazed by the necklace, she put it on and has worn it every day since!

And so the impromptu party began! They put on music and were dancing and taking photos, it was so nice. My one error was buying a cream cake...as we ended up having a bit of a food fight...and I was the number one target for cream in the face!! I went to bed with hair smelling of cream and slightly sticky but feeling like the girls had all appreciated this chance for really having fun and it made the birthday girl feel so special which was the main thing.

Then...I think it was that weekend that I had helped to organise a weekend away for the teenage boys. We went to the youth centre again...the one with the broken windows, wood stove and terrible toilets? I was pretty anxious about spending 2 nights there to say the least...especially when I found out the only other female care worker going had flu and so I was going to have to go it alone!!

We were running on 'african time' as per usual, and so left St. Anthony's 2 hours late, just as dusk was falling. We took the old bus, swaying round the rural roads in the dark and bumping over the 15km of dirt road up into the mountains. When we arrived I was sent to find the 'crazy' nun, the funny german one with the big workman's boots? Remember her? She's quite a character!

Well she is now officially my favourite nun EVER! and that's saying something as I have probably met about 50 nuns since coming here. I don't know whether it was pure luck, or coincidence, or if this nun actually grew to like us after our last visit...but it turns out there are TWO youth centres...one of which was completed in 2002, the other [which we had in Nov] looks like it hasn't had any maintenance in the past 30 years!

It turned out that there were 2 groups booked for the weekend, and the others had drawn the short straw and got the old place. We had the run of a newly renovated barn with a huge hall, dining area, lovely kitchen, two shower blocks, an upstairs dormitory and I had a room in the visitors cottage. It was 5* luxury compared to what we had come expecting! It was a complete reversal of Nov when we came expecting a decent place and got a dump. Now we thought we had booked back into the dump, and got luxury!

The weekend went great from then on...the next day I did a workshop with the boys about talents and overcoming challenges. We did an exercise where they got to draw on rocks with chalk then carry them up the mountain, was quite a good team building exercise I think. The afternoon had it's share of drama...

The nuns at this place love their dogs, there are about 10 all together I think [dogs that is!]. I don't know if it is something to do with Africans in general...or just this part of Africa...but kids and adults alike are terrified of two things...dogs and swimming! Neither of these things seem to come naturally to them so unless they have worked at having a pet dog or swimming, they seem to have an innate fear of these 2 things. Just like in England we are naturally scared of snakes and dancing...or in USA there are scared of chickens [which haven't been deep fried] and exercise. ...You get the picture!

Anyhow, I was outside playing with the boys when 3 dogs came barking and running over to us and the boys freaked out! They were running round like headless chickens, making the dogs go even more mad. The 5 boys took off running and went into the safety of the church, shutting the door behind them as the dogs barked madly outside. I was laughing and laughing!! I just stayed still and told the dogs to be quiet and they were soon laying down having their bellies rubbed. One of them was a sausage dog..small but noisy!...one a german gun dog, big but beautiful...and then, the one which terrified them most, was a massive St Bernard..looks like a bear but behaves like a teddy when you get it to be quiet!

After some gentle coaxing I eventually persuaded the boys to open the church door and let me in...they reluctantly did so. I tried to explain that running or screaming would make the dogs bark so they mustn't do it. Either they didn't understand or else the natural 'flight' reaction was too strong but either way they ended up running and almost screaming back to the hostel.

Meanwhile, 3 boys who had obviously had pet dogs in the past, came over to play with them and were very calm and good with them. As we sat on the grass stroking them a different boy came running up to us. The dogs were immediately on their feet barking as viciously as before. The boy immediately stopped and looked terrified! I was laughing but telling him to calm down, it's ok, come to me. But the dogs kept getting closer and he started running away, fast as lightning! They immediately took chase, seeing it as a game, the little sausage dog was yapping at his heels! Unfortunately, the other youth group was just walking past and so 20 other teenagers were there to spectate and we were all in stitches at his reaction. We had almost never seen someone move so fast!

It wasn't until about 15min later when another boy came to fetch me and tell me that this boy who had run away...had been bitten by one of the dogs! I went and looked and found it really was quite bad! I felt so terrible that we had all laughed, I had no idea they would actually bite! We took him to the surgery which is on the site and got him bandaged up. Later that week he had to go for a rabies injection at the hospital. I guess the lesson is, a dog's bark can be as bad as it's bite...when in Africa!

The last outing to report was the weekend after when I went to the prison with one of the boys to see his brother and I visited my friend. We went on the Sunday after church and first went to the supermarket to buy the boys some treats like deodorant, soap, tooth paste, crisps and chocolate. The day before I had an idea that I could take this boy to see his brother and then go horse riding! There is a place with a small game reserve in Newcastle and it also has horses, we took the boys there for swimming and a braai in Dec. This boy had told me before that he like horse riding and that he was good, he had learned on the farms near his home. So I rang the stables from the car and was lucky to find that had a space free for the afternoon. So we visited our 2 mates who are also inmates, and then rushed back to the game reserve. We were so excited!

When we got there they has saddled two horses for us, a big white one and a smaller bay pony. I insisted on the big one as I thought I would be too heavy for the pony! The boy got on first and as soon as he was in the saddle I knew he had been exaggerating his riding skills!! He looked completely out of his comfort zone, he couldn't hold the reins and was trying to get the horse to move by flapping the reins, rather than using his legs! That didn't hold us back though!

A zulu guy took us out as our guide and he was on a very highly strung arabian horse that could hardly be controlled! My boy was also fearless and so within 10 min we were trotting across the park, chasing buck and zebra! When it came to cantering I could hardly breath I was laughing so much at the boy's face as he hung on, bouncing around in the saddle. The guide thought I was crazy I think, I could not stop laughing! It was so much fun, we cantered and galloped loads, saw all kinds of buck, wilderbeast and zebra up close...felt like cowboys rounding them up!

We got back exhausted but very happy and my boy has been asking ever since when can we go again!! I'm sure he will be a good rider with a bit more practice, he certainly has got good balance and a lot of courage :)

Anyway, that's enough tales for one blog! Sorry for the delay, I won't let it happen again.

Now the countdown begins...SIX DAYS UNTIL LUKE ARRIVES!
I am so excited for his visit, I have lots planned and so will keep you updated on our world cup adventures!

love to you all, missing you xxxxxxxxxx