Monday 29th April - Sunday 12th May 2013

The last two weeks of working at Ethembeni was a rollercoaster of emotions, tiredness and activities! Mornings at the Family Centre were spent planning our various projects, writing up stories of hope, spending time with the Aunties and running English lessons.
Our English lessons have been such a great success, we were able to run a 6 week course that covered everything from tenses to adjectives to formal and informal telephone conversations to opinions and everything inbetween! We had great fun with all the members of staff who attended and it was so putative and encouraging for us to great the improvement in their English levels.
Chloe, Esther, Ruth and I have also been hosting some Women's Nights. These ran at the Family Centre after work and were such a God send as we got to have fun, have devotions, worship, but also spend quality time with the Aunties. We had such a lovely time, and they were a great way to wind down each working week in Ethembeni. It also allowed the Aunties to relax and spend time together after the children had all left the centre.
Work on Grace Chapel Pre-Schopl was so, so rewarding! Chloe and I headed down every afternoon to add to our painting. Although the children were meant to leave between 12 - 1, when we got there at 1:30 there was always the same handful of little, excited faces ready to play and distract us from our work! They were the sweetest children, and although the English/Zulu barrier was at it's strongest, we really got to the children through playing, have cuddles and lots of laughter! They loved sitting watching us painting and always caused mischief! Chloe and I decided that we were like the Elves from The Elves and the Shoemaker fairytale, as would come after most the children had left and paint some more all ready for school the next day. We are so proud with how the preschool has ended up.
Home visits were one of the highlights of my week, a group of four ladies from our patients met every week, even if they weren't receiving food parcels. It was such a blessing to spend time with, and get to know these ladies. They are such an encouragement and really are beacons of hope, where so many people are giving up. Saying goodbye to those ladies was difficult, but I pray that they stay strong in their friendships with each other, and in their faith.
We spent the public holiday (1st May) in Kamberg, where we were helping Howick Prep School to take down one of the cycle villages from the Joberg to Sea cycle race. Each cycle village has around 500 tents that need to be taken down and then transferred to the following-but-one cycle village. Chloe and I manged to get our average tent taking down time down to 35 seconds! It was quite a long, hard day, but it was good fun to be part if it.
Chloe and I spent Saturday (4th May) over in Wartberg to watch Christina and Megan (and also a lot of our other friends from Youth) play hockey against Wartberg High. It was such a fun morning and afternoon. We ended up watching 5 hockey matches and 2 of the rugby games. That evening all the team and their host families were invited over to Linda and Wayne's for a braai and evening of games and fun. It was so lovely to be able to spend that time together.
On Monday (6th May) the whole team went up Sani Pass with Steph and Paul (Chloe and I's South African parents) and Linda and Wayne (Ruth and Esther's). Sani Pass is the highest passing point between KZN and Lesotho! It was right up in the Berg and the views on the way up were amazing!! It was breathtaking. We technically left South Africa as Lesotho is a seperate country. We also got to eat lunch at highest pub in Africa which was pretty cool! 
Our last day at Ethembeni was so sad, we have all learnt so much, been changed and grown so close to so many people there. We had a goodbye lunch where we got to see many of the Aunties and men for the last time. We were all presented with a second Ethembeni shirt which was so lovely. Each of our mentors also made us a goodbye card and we were each given a Zulu name reflecting us. My Zulu name is Nosipho which means "gift". After work finished on Thursday (9th May), Chloe and I went to visit Dudu (the lady we had stayed with for our first 16 days in Mpophomeni) to say final goodbyes to her and the children.
We had lots more goodbyes to say at both Junior and Senior Youth in Howick on Friday (10th May). We had all made a lot of friends, and as the guys at Senior Youth were similar ages to us, it was so hard to say bye to so many amazing people!
On Sunday (12th May) after church in the morning we headed over to King Shaka to drop Ruth off at the airport as she was flying straight home! This was one of the hardest goodbyes I have said so far in South Africa as we have spent the psst three months living with, working with and getting to know her! Chloe and I then said goodbye to Esther, Gideon and Eli as we were staying with friends of Chloe's before flying to Cape Town on Monday (13th May) and they are getting the bus down so we won't see them for a few days!
I shall try and continue to keep you updated and Chloe and I's next 4 weeks as we backpack our way around South Africa! It's going to be a very excting adventure for us!

I have attached some photos of our finished preschool! And one Clo and I as we left Steph and Paul's.

Lots of love xxxxxxx

Friday 26th April - Sunday 28th April 2013

We started Friday morning with a Staff Retreat at in Karkloof, at a small game reserve. We played some games, had some amazing devotions and worship, both in English and Zulu. It was just a lovely morning of spending time with all the incredible people from Ethembeni outside our normal working environment. After lunch at the retreat the team left and headed over towards Winterton in the Drankensberg. It took us about an hour and a half to two hours to get there. We weren't really sure what to expect about our accommodation... We had ben told to expect a Zulu experience, but I don't think any of us were w your thinking of rural Zulu! We were staying in two traditional, rural, Zulu beehives huts. We slept on the floor, ate around a single candle flame as there was no electricity and actually had a really amazing time!
We left early on Saturday and drove to the Royal Natal National Park (which took us about two hours). Because it took us so long to arrive, we weren't able to complete the walk that we had all been so excited to do! Tugela Waterfall is the second highest waterfall in the world!! We had been told told by the guide that it should be around a 6 hour hike to walk the 14 km there and back, but we quickly discovered that it was a 9 hour hike. Instead of managing to walk all the way to the base of the falls like we had wanted, we waked all the up the gorge and river that flowed from Tugela and turned around at the chain ladder we had to climb to continue. Although we didn't get all the way to the waterfall, we spent all day walking in the most beautiful scenery with the mountains all around us!
On Sunday we packed up and left early and drive towards the Heritage Site for the Drankensberg. We spent the morning there, ate lunch and then started the journey back to Howick. We managed to fit in time to dump our bags and freshen up at home before we headed down to HCC for the evening service.

Friday 19th April - Thursday 25th April 2013

Friday was our day off from work and so Clo and I spent the day speaking to people who were interested in Poppy. We also headed down to HCC early to have a team devotion before Junior Youth started. Spent the evening at HCC as we had Senior Youth afterwards, and then Clo and I brought Poppy back home with us for her final night!
A lovely couple came over to meet Poppy on Saturday morning, which ended with a happy - but slightly tearful (!!) - goodbye to our little puppy. We spent the early afternoon playing South African Monopoly with the family (sooo much more confusing then English Monopoly!) and then headed out onto the Midland's Meander with some friends in the late afternoon.
Had such a kiff service on Sunday morning, really enjoyed both the worship and then sermon. Caught up with friends after the service, and then Clo and I went for some quiet time out on the field. About 12:30 everyone returned to the Church as we were meeting there for Sarah's surprise birthday party. We drove down to one of the near by farms where we spent all afternoon chatting, braaiing and zipwiring into the dam! It was a lovely afternoon and we managed to get back to Church with time to change before the evening service.
Monday morning Clo and I both woke up really sick. We had awful coughs and were just feeling completely drained. Steph spent all morning making us cups of tea and giving us vitamins...and at the same time managed to make 30 litres of butternut squash soup for the joBerg2c cycle race!
Started Tuesday morning with a long team meeting to discuss the weeks plans and aims. Clo and I then started to plan our Video of Hope (for our Ethembeni Days of Hope Campaign). The afternoon was spent playing with the children, our crazy little charges!
We arrived at work early on Wednesday so that we could finalise our English lesson for the morning. We were ready at 10 for the Aunties, but none of them actually turned up until 10:30, as the Care Centre had reopened that morning! Our English lesson then both started late and over ran bu about half an hour! But it was so nice to see the Aunties enjoying the lesson so much. The early afternoon was spent with the younger children (lower primary school finish before HP and high schools) and then we headed home early as we still weren't completely better. Clo and I went to visit some friends in the late afternoon and we found out loads about where we were spending the weekend in the Berg.
Home visits were really amazing on Thursday morning. It's incredible how much a patient can change in just one week! So much life, laughter and love from the ladies this week and it was just awesome to see. I feel so inspired by these women, they really are a true tower of strength and faith! After home visits we had to pop into Howick to pick up juice and fruit for our Women's Night.. Once we returned we started to cut up all the apples, oranges and bananas. Esther and Ruth led a devotion for the Aunties as Clo and I went to collect the Zumba instructor (Mpophomeni is very confusing if you don't know it!) The Aunties loved the Zumba and were all so excited for next weeks! We then dropped the Aunties home across Mpophomeni and then up into the townships in the hills in KwaHaza and Ngwagwa.

Friday 12th April - Thursday 18th April 2013

Friday was moving day! We were taken over to meet our host families late morning. Clo and I are staying with the most amazing family! We are living in the flat about their garage, so we get to climb stairs everytime we go to our flat which is so exciting! South African houses are normally one storey, so having stairs (and a shower, and a washine machine and Western food!!) is such a plus. After we met Steph and the family we went to HCC for a meeting, and then stayed for Junior and Senior youth.
Woke up on Saturday morning and the first thing we did was shower! Definitely the small things we take for granted! Steph and the kids took us to Midmar Dam in the afternoon and we spent a lovely few hours geting to know them and enjoying the view, the dam is so beautiful! We had dinner in Pmb as a team with Sarah and Hilary at the yummiest Italian place! Was incredible! We went out to celebrate Hilary's birthday that had been earlier the same week.
We went to HCC on Sunday morning and had a lovely worship session, and the sermon was great. We went to a friends for lunch and had roast dinner! Was so nice, a lovely reminder of home! After lunch we came back to the church early and I skpyed my family and grandparents which was lovely. After Skyping, we headed back upstairs to Church for the evening service.
Clo and I were going to go for a run when we woke up Monday morning, by it was already really warm by 9. Instead we spent the morning planning some more pre-school and worked out the details of our first Women's Night. We walked into Howick (which felt so good as for our safety we weren't allowed to walk around in Mpophomeni). It took us about 45 minutes to walk to the centre of Howick where we met up with some of our team. Clo and I went to use some of our Women's Night budget to buy nail varnishes, removers and such things. We spent ages trying to figure out which colours the Aunties would like the most! After a few hours in Howick, we walked back home and spent time with our family.
Headed to work for 9, on Tuesday morning. Xolani was about to go on school visits to check up on some of our children from the Family Centre. Clo, Esther, Hilary and I went with him. We visited 3 different schools in Mpops, a high school, a higher primary and a lower primary school. We got back to the Family Centre just before lunch and so managed to eat before the younger children got back from school. Philo and Snow came and sat outside with us, and we sat with them as they tried to eat their lunch (being little they get distracted very quickly!). Some of the girls found us and so started to Zulu plait our hair - this has definitely got less painful as time has passed! Got home at 4:30 today as Clo and I were going with our family to Stuart's grade 5 Prep School Orienteering Evening! We had a family picnic on the field and then when it got dark we headed out with a map and torches to find all the clues! It was a really fun evening and we managed to find 37/40 hidden clues.
We were in work early again Wednesday morning, but weren't doing an English lesson until the afternoon as there was an important meeting at the Care Centre first thing. We had a really nice team planning meeting and devotion instead, working out what we were going to do over the next couple of weeks. After the meeting, Clo and I collected some ideas, did some research and got together some images that we wanted to use on the walls of Grace Chapel. After the children had left Grace Chapel we went over to start drawing the animals onto the walls. Some of the children aren't picked up for a few hours after the centre closes and so there was a handful of 2 and 3 years old playing by the side of the road when we arrived. They all came in to watch us draw and to chatter at us in Zulu. They are such sweet and happy babies! When we got back from work we spent early evening playing card games before dinner.
Thursday's and home visits always seem to come round so fast! Potentially because I love them so much.. We were picked up at 9 and drove to a lovely, local cafe where we meet up with all the Howick volunteers. We chat over coffee, catch up on the past week and have a devotion together before heading to Mpophomeni. When we arrived at the Care Centre we needed to split up all the food into the number of houses we would be visiting. It's is so lovely to go and visit the same ladies and families each week. Although there is a huge language barrier I really feel like we are getting to know each other. It's so hard to even try and understand what these women's lives have been like, but it is such a blessing for me to know that although each one is a single mum, HIV positive, completely reliant on charity due to lack of work, that they have given their lives to Jesus, and that they know Him, trust Him and love Him. The girls headed to Howick after home visits to get some juice and snacks for our Women's Night. Women's Night was a huge success! We did a devotion on beauty, and all we wanted to do wad simply remind each one of the Aunties how beautiful they were... They really enjoyed it, and all wrote down Proverbs 31:30 as a reminder! We had watched 3 chickens walk in at the start of the event... Turns out they were dinner!! So we had super fresh chicken and Zulu bread to finish up our lovely evening.

A few photos from the past 9 weeks!

Friday 5th April - Thursday 11th April 2013

The past week has been as hectic as usual!

On Friday we had the chance to go over to Durban in the pre-evening to watch the Sharks play at King Park. The game was really good, and it was so lovely to be out doing something as a team, and with friends! It was a lovely, relaxing way to end the working week. 

For the last 4 weeks that we have been living in Mpophomeni and this final week that is up and coming, we have been "self-catered". We have a weekly budget which can then be split between the girl's house and the boys. The first week we were living in our nice pink house, we got the weekly budget and we're able to go and buy ENGLISH FOOD! We were all so looking forward to the next 5 weeks of eating food that we could actually enjoy... and swallow! However, for the following 3 week we were back to Zulu food which wasn't quite what we planned. However, yesterday we managed to get the budget and so Clo, Ruth, Esther and I spent Saturday doing the weekly shop in Howick. We had a nice time to just chill a little, spend some time as just girls and talk about the week we had had and the week to come. 

Sunday was certainly a landmark in all of our lives... Londi invited us to her Church in the morning, as we usually go to the Church at the Family Centre. We are use to Zulu Church now... or so we thought.. The only word that was spoken in English in the whole service was "hallelujah"... and the service lasted from 10am to 1:40pm!! It was the longest service any of us had ever been in, and probably ever will be in! It was a really good experience, and although I don't think I will rushing back, I was so glad that we went. After the church service we went to see some of our friends in Howick (washed all our clothes and showered!!!) and had a braai and a lovely afternoon of fellowship before HCC in the evening.

Clo, Esther, Poppy (our puppy) and I were dropped in Howick on Monday so that we could buy and plan some more stuff for the pre-school. We spent the day planning out how we wanted the paintings to look, what colours we needed, what colours we could mix! And all trying to keep the price under our budget. It was a really productive day, and we got to go home and make bangers and mash for dinner! 

Tuesday morning was spent planning the English lesson for Wednesday morning, we sat on the floor in the front room of our house and spent ages trying to work out how we could cover everything we needed to cover, without sounding patronizing, or not pushing the Aunties hard enough! Teaching adults is much harder then teaching children, so at the moment we are all just learning as we go along! The Transform team (from England) had come over for a week, and so we filmed a video about our experiences out here, what we have done, how much we love it, and encouraging other people to take a Transform Gap Year and chatted to them for a while. After lunch, Clo, Esther, Hil and I headed over to Grace Chapel where we painted in the green hills on the wall and filled in the missing blue skies, it was so nice to just paint and know that what we were doing meant so much to the children and staff. Clo and I made dinner, and then drove into Howick to go to a bible study at the house of a lady from HCC. We met Esther there, and then all came home together afterwards. 

Wednesday morning is when we do our weekly English lesson. We start each English lesson by getting the aunties and male staff up on their feet and doing some exercise!! It's a fun way to start the lessons, and the aunties love it! The team were all doing their own thing on Wednesday afternoon, so when Clo and I managed to get transport we headed over to Grace Chapel and drew some trees and giraffes on the wall of the pre-school (will try and upload some photos soon!). We had to be at home and be ready to be picked up at 4:30 as Sarah was coming to get us to take us to her house. We spent a lovely evening at Sarah's, ate a  dinner, made popcorn and watched a film together. It was an early birthday celebration for Hilary as she was turning 20 the next day.

We woke up early on Thursday (Hilary's birthday) and tried to make pancakes, these failed and so we made her fried toast instead. After breakfast we went to Calabash Cafe where we met up with all the other volunteers from Howick to chat, chill and talk about the morning's planned home visits. Grant gave us a quick devotion and then the team all headed to Mpophomeni. There we sang "Happy Birthday" to Hilary and did some exercises, and had a devotion before we split into our teams and headed off to visit our friends and see how they all were. I went out with Esther and Zonky today as they didn't have a legal driver.. It was so lovely to meet all the families that Esther sees on a regular basis and so it was a lovely experience  Esther and  I led the devotions on Proverbs 3:5-6, and then after we had visited all the families, and delivered all the food we drove back to the Family Centre. We spent the evening in the house, packing and running around like headless chickens trying to make sure that we hadn't left anything behind! 

It was sad to leave the little pink house that had been our home for the past 5 weeks, and it was also sad to know that we were moving out of Mpophomeni, but we knew that it was time to leave, and time to move to Howick.

Tuesday 2nd April - Thursday 4th April - Zulu Holiday Club...

Tuesday morning started off with Esther, Gideon and I heading up to KwaHaza - a township up the hill from Mpophomeni.. We were told to expect 17 children, and when we turned there were 170 happy, excited little faces all ready for a fun day of games and learning about God! Holiday club was meant to run from 9-1, but taking African time into account the fact that the day started at 9 and didn't finish until 3:30/4 wasn't too much of a shock to us! The day was sorching hot and the children spent all day playing games out in the direct sunlight all day... this didn't bother them at all, but us Pommies and the American's were dropping like flies! The children had a great day and were able to play, relax and just be children for the day.. This sounds like a stupid statement, but actually some children are the head of their households but 13/14, and have the whole famy responsiblity on their shoulders! Being able to give these children a break is something that means so much to them and us alike.
Wednesday's weather was completely opposite to Tuesday.. it was freezing cold and tipping it down with rain (it even rains in Africa!) and so only around 50 children turned up. This actually made the day and the organisation so much easier as there ratio of adults to children was much better. We spent the day inside one of the schools on KwaHaza and played games, did devotions and chatted to the kids. Feeding the children is awlways a challenge as there are soooo many hungry tummies to feed!
Thursday was different again as the team were all together working on the holiday club in Mpophomeni playing games and teaching them about God again. The children on the holiday club in Mpops were children who I knew as many of them were children who come along to the family centre throughout the week. It was a lovely few days, ran off Zulu timing - but never the less it was great fun!

Friday 29th March - Monday 1st Aoril - Easter with a difference!

Easter was completely different this year then it has ever been, and probably ever will be! We spent Easter in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve with some friends from church and Hillary. The game reserve is well known for the "Big Five" (Lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo) and is about 4 hours drive from Howick up north. After game drives in Kenya I was expecting the same sort of scenery - completely bare and bright red sands! I was so wrong! It was all green, and lively and covered in bush. The views were incredible and reminded the whole team just how incredible God is! The world is the most incredible, beautiful place.
We were so, so lucky as we were staying in a completly private, hidden staff camp, 4ks off the main game drive!! It was so quite, and was perfect for seeing wildlife. The tents were stacked up on wooden platforms so that none of the animals could join us in ours tents at night. This was because the camp were we staying in only had an elephant fence around it (prevents only elephants from coming in) and was deep in the game reserve so the animals could come and go as the pleased. One night when we were sat on the grass by the campfire Esther suddenly shouted "hyena" and there was a hyena literally a metre away from us which was so exciting! From the campfire we could look over the river and regularly saw rhino, buffalo, buck and crocodile. The toilets and showers were in wooden sheds, and the shower was a bucket shower which was loads of fun.
The weather was so good and so this made the game drives so much more fun. We were up at 5:30am every morning to go for early morning drives in the hope of seeing something exciting.... On Easter Sunday morning we were blessed enough to a pack of African Wild Dogs which was so, so, so rare!! There are only around 20 in the whole park, so we were so, so, so stoked to see them! We saw loads of super cool wildlife like giraffe, gazele, impale, zebra, rhino, wildebeast, buffalo, crocodile, elephant, nyala, wild dog, terapin.. Sadly we only saw 3 of the Big five - missing out on lion and leopards.. but we saw so many rhinos, some so close we could practically touch them.
Driving home was sad as we'd had such a good weekend, but it gave us so much time to reflect on creation, and how lucky we all were that we are able to do these incredible things, and see so much of God's World!

Tursday 14th March - Wednesday 26th March

First of all, sorry for the complete lack of updates! Life here has completely laken over and so we hardly have 5 minutes to sit down and blog. I will try and cover the past couple of weeks now, so it will be slightly brief, but at least you will have an idea of what is happening.

Thursday 14th - Wednesday 20th March

This past week has been crazy for a few reasons... First of all we have had so much planning to do for various events that we are holding - english lessons, holiday clubs, stories of hope and encouragement, organising an exercise regime for members of staff, planning the pre-school and on top of that trying to fit in time to chill as a team and sleep!! Such a hectic time... To add to this on Monday (18th) Londy brought home a tiny, terrified, on deaths door 6 week old puppy... As Monday was our "day off" we spent it at the girl's house, planning the week and trying to nurse Poppy back to life. By the end of Wednesday we had a solid plan for holiday club (2nd-4th April), our first english lesson (26th March) and had worked out and planned what we were going to do with the pre-school. We also had time to see friends from Howick, which is such a blessing to us as we can relax, and rewind with them so that we are refreshed for the following day of work. Poppy is completely healthy now, and was taken to the vets on Wednesday (20th) morning to be dewormed, defleaed and to have her rabies jab, she is more than better and loves waking Clo and I up every morning at 6:30!!

Thursday 21st - Sunday 24th March

Thursday was our first South African Public Holiday (Human Rights Day) and because of that schools were closed on Thursday, and then everyone just had Friday off (TIA!). To make good use of the extra long weekend, friends of the team's from Howick invited us down to the coast to their beach house with them. This was the most perfectly timed break I think the team could have had! Having been in South Africa for 5 weeks by the Sunday, we were all compelely drained - loving ourselves - but so in need of some time off and some TLC. The Bank's beach house was in Shelley Beach, which is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Howick, south of Durban down the coast. The beach house was about a 30 second walk from the beach, and the weather was lovely. The time away not only gave us time to "recharge our batteries", but also to have some well needed team time, and time to just get to know everyone more.

Monday 25th March

Moday's are meant to be our days off, but due to the amount of work we have on at the moment, we are using them to do most of our planning for the week ahead. We headed to the library in the morning to finalise plans for english lessons and the pre-school. The morning was so well spent, and so we headed back to the house for lunch and used to the afternoon to relax and try to start planning our Ladies Nights. Monday evening we headed to Howick to visit some friends for dinner and chill out there for a little bit. The team have been invited up north to Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve over the Easter weekend with friends and so we managed to hear more about that and get a list together of what we needed and when we were leaving (4am on Friday!!).

Tuesday 26th March

Yesterday was spent focusing on the pre-school. In the morning we worked out how we were going to spend out time there. As the pre-school is for children aged 1-6, we can't do any work while the children are there. Like most schools and pre-schools in Mpops, they close before lunch (12:30ish) and then the children are fed before leaving. This means that we can't get into the pre-school to work until 1:30. We started yesterday by sanding down all of the walls. The walls are simply concrete with paint on top.. this means that they aren't flat at all, and have lots of bumps on them, so painting at a later stage would have been difficult if we had left them. Once the sanding was done, we sugar soaped down at the walls so that they were ready and clean for todays work!

Wednesday 27th March

Today was our first english lesson! It went really well, and the team worked so well together. We were unsure as to numbers, and level of english and so had planned compeletly blind - 14 people turned up, with a range of english levels. The lesson was a great success and they are all really excited for their next lessons - as are we! This afternoon we are heading back over to Grace Chaple pre-school to try and start the painting which is very exciting!!

I will try and keep you more updated in the following 2 months, but this is Africa so you may have to wait a little while! Happy Easter and have a lovely time this weekend! I hope that you are all well, and the snow isn't too bad....

Loads of love, hugs and kisses from a very sunny Africa!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Saturday 9th March - Wednesday 13th March

Saturday
Saturday was a nice early start... We all headed to the Care Centre for the Ethembeni Jumble Sale. Arriving at 8, there were already queues of men, women and children outside, so excited to get in! Clo, Est and I were placed on the "tills", so unprepared what would happen next. The gates opened and the people outside ran in, grabbing as much clothing and bedding as they could, they next came to us and threw the items on our tables. We had to add up so fast! It was much harder then any mental maths test we'd ever done at school... After 2 long hours, we ran out of clothes, shoes, bags, bedding ect. Clo and I sat outside and added up the morning's takings. We raised R3514.40 (around 260 pounds - give and take the exchange rate). After the jumble sale, we went back to the girl's house and had a well deserved sit down, and ate lunch before driving up the highway to Hilton for another Andy & Jenny Flannagan concert. The team left early as we were going to The Barn's house for dinner. We had such a lovely, lovely evening with the family, everyone here is so welcoming! It was nice just to be able to sit in a kitchen and chat, and join in on family time... and we got to shower (showers are very taken for granted at home!).

Sunday
Sunday is a relatively relaxed, chilled out day. It gives us lots of time to recover from the week and prepare ourselves for the following. Esme and Ann had us for lunch and we had bangers and mash! Mash potato is seriously under rated! It was incredible and something Clo and I had been craving for ages after we horrifically mistook pap for mash... I love HCC, the services are always so good, and I love the people there are so nice and amazing, so great to us "POM's".

Monday
Monday was an interesting day... Living in Mpophomeni means if there is no transport for us, or we don't have anyone to walk us places, we can't leave the house... Londy gave us Monday off to collect thoughts from the conference and give us the chance to have some girl time. However, we forgot about the whole no transport, no leaving the house rule, and so were stuck there all day! It's hard to understand the concept that it is for our safety and sometimes you just need to leave, but you can't. After a few hours of feeling like caged animals we realised we just had to go sit in the yard, or walk around the edge, or just sleep.

Tuesday
 The girls had such a great day today! We went to visit a preschool called Grace Chapel Educare Centre which is our first big project. The preschool looks after 180 children aged 1-6, and these children are taught by only 5 teachers. The building is small and dark, the walls are bare, cracked and concreted, and the children's school bags and jumpers lie on the floor of the corridor. We loved Grace Chapel, and we are so excited to work there and help them! We are going to fill in the walls, so they are crackless. The corridor is going to be painted by us, and will be covered in large, colourful murals of animals, safari scence and a large tree that will be made from the children's handprints. The toilets are bare and cracked - they will be transformed into a little underwater scence, with crabs, brightly coloured fish and other sea creatures. Wooden bars are going to be put along the walls of the corridors and the classrooms with hooks attached for the children's bags and jumpers.. This is all so exciting, but it will also cost money. Although Ethembeni can provide some money, they won't be able to cover the cost, so if you feel like you could help us to help these children and change the preschool please donate as little, or as much as you feel you want to! The link for our page is http://www.justgiving.com/transformsouthafrica every penny will go such a long way here!
After work, we went back over to the Barn's house and had our first proper South African brie! Was so yummy, and so nice to relax and chat with our friends.

Wednesday
Clo, Est and I worked from home this morning, planning the murals and working out what we would need. We are so excited to start the work in this school, and so the planning seems to be taking ages (when actually it's only been a few hours!). We are choosing the scenes and the animals, and trying to work out all the logisitics of how we will actually be able to paint with 180 little hands trying to help us! We have decided we will work in the afternoons, as the children leave after lunch!

Hope everyone is well, and the snow isn't too cold!!
Loads of love, hugs and kisses, Nicola. Xxx

Friday 1st March - Friday 8th March

Sorry first of all for the complete lack of communication this past week... I have completely settled into African life now so it's far too hectic for blog writing haha - will definitely try and do a little better!

Friday 1st March
Friday morning started interesting... the previous week Clo and I had somehow managed to removed the handle from our bedroom door. This morning when we tried to get out of our room, the pin had moved and the door was complete stuck... and we were trapped! We ended up climbing out of the window, running round the side of the house to try and fix the door. Winnie was sat on the porch and look at us with complete bemusement at the fact that we had had to climb out of the bedroom window. We spent the day in HCC basement, chilling and skyping ect, I had a lovely chat with Mum and Grandma and Grandad. Late afternoon we headed over to Sarah's new cottage, borrowed her shower and chose some clothes to wear to the wedding. After having a nice British cup of tea at Sarah's, we headed back to HCC for junior and senior youth.

Saturday 2nd March 
Today was wedding day! We headed up to the bride's house about 10am to start taking photos and filming and we didn't leave until 5:30pm! A very, very full on day of Zulu weddingness! The wedding procession down to the service was complete madness. The cars swerve across both lanes of the road, the horns blare the entire time and they keep their hazard warning lights flashing! In Zulu culture it is quite rare for people to get married due to the dowry situation, so when weddings occur they like everyone to know! The day was very long due to the fact that everything was in Zulu, they break into song and dance every 5 minutes and we had no idea what was going on! But it was a very interesting experience. We spent the night at Sarah's relaxing after the long day, and then headed back to Pops later on in the evening.

Sunday 3rd March
We started Sunday by heading to the Zulu church. The service was so, so good, Justice preached in English and the Zwe translated the whole sermon into Zulu, all the worship was in Zulu though, so we had no idea what they were about! After the service, we went to get Sarah and we went to Piggly Wigglys for the afternoon. We looked around loads of really cute, quirky little shops and had the most amazing lunch!! We came to the basement after Piggly Wigglys and had time to Skype which was really good, before heading to the HCC youth service. The weather has been so, so good these past few days!

Monday 4th March
We had today off to pack up our stuff as we were moving out and into our new houses after Durban. It was quite weird for Chloe and I to have to pack up and leave Dudu, Winnie and the kids! The team (minus Gidz) headed to Howich for lunch and had a Nando's. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking around the shops, relaxing and just enjoying each others company, the weather and the surroundings. Dylan was taking Eli, Gidoen, Chloe and I to his varsity's rugby  match on Monday evening which was really good. It was so nice to just be out and socialise in a situation that we are much more use to at home! Chloe aced beer pong and won loads of crazy prizes. It was a good break from working, and was just really nice to be our with young people and watch the game! Clo and I had a great night, and were braze enough to experience South African beer!

Tuesday 5th - Thursday 7th March
We headed to the Durban Tuesday afternoon for the mission conference. All 6 of us, Sarah, Esme, Grant, Londy and Zwe went and it was such a good few days! The venue of the conference was amazing because we could just sit out on the grass and enjoy the view of the sea and the city. The weather was so good, so we managed to sun ourselves in our tea and lunch breaks which was lovely. The conference was good, and it was really interesting to see how mission works all across SA, but also how many communities need so much help! The worship was also really good at the conference, it was Andy and Jenny Flanagan, and one particular verse really hit me hard...

"We are blessed to bless a world in pieces, we are loved to love where love it not, we are changed to be the change you promised, we are freed to be your hands O God."

Chloe and I stayed with the most amazing host family. They were so lovely to us, and had a beautiful house. We really enjoyed homemade, Western food (missed it so much!) and just enjoyed being able to sit out by the pool at midnight, and not even be cold, and star gaze, Skype, email, realax in a family environment and have a movie night! Love a good Bridget Jones (even if it's the middle of summer!). Don gave us loads of advice for holidays and activities to do, which was so helpful. We headed down to the beach on Wednesday night which was incred! Love the beach, the sea was so warm obvs because it was the Indian Ocean - so beautiful. The journey back to Howick was interesting.... it was largest T&L storm I have ever seen in my life!! The lightening bolts were huge, and so beautiful! We have all moved into our new houses now, so all the girls are living together (still in the township) with Londy which is really nice to be able to spend some girlie time.

Friday 8th March
Today has been our chill day at HCC... We had to do our team food shopping this morning, and then came to Chinwags (our fave cafe/coffee shop) for lunch and we sat out and enjoyed the weather. Esther and I hae headed up to the basement so Est can Skype and I could write this. The rest of the team have gone down to relook at the kiff (SA slang for amazing) painting of 3 elephants that Chloe wants to buy. We are heading to a youth rally thing this evening after junior youth which could be interesting because we have no idea what to expect!!

Anyway, I hope that this seriously brief update has given you an idea of what I have been up to... And I hope it's not to cold over there...

Lots and lots of love!!!!!!! Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tuesday 26th, Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th February

Tuesday

So after yesterday's interesting, stupidly late start, the boys decided to turn up early this morning - it didn't last long at all, they are loving the whole "African Time" business. Chloe, Esther and I spent the morning at the care centre with two of the student nurses, Jess and Steph. We were sorting out, and pricing clothes for the Ethembeni jumble sale. Once that was done, Jess and Steph taught us how to take blood pressure and we had a lovely morning chatting to them about everything and anything! Eli, Chloe, Esther and I then drove down to the family centre for lunch and stayed there all afternoon. Vernon, Jill and the band from HCC came down to the family centre to run an afternoon of worship and dancing with the kids, which was great fun. Once again, we were overwhelmed with the hospitality of Jill as she offered us her home anytime we wanted to chill, her washine machine and she was just so lovely! Chloe, Esther and I were dropped home about 5, and all the kids were in the street waiting to play with us. We introduced Esther to the kids and vice versa and they loved her, we had a great evening. Esther was picked up a couple of hours later, and then we had dinner, watched Generation's (our fave SA soap) and just relaxed.

Wednesday

The boys had returned to being late this morning! No surprises there.. Chloe and I got dropped at the care centre where we showered (you can honestly not understand how amazing this was!!!!) and then waited for Shelley. We headed down to the classroom for just before 10 with Shelley for anti-natal class! We watched an 1 1/2 video of how a baby develops from 1 day - birth, and I think it's fair to say that watching a rathe graphic labour - Call the Midwife had not fully prepared me for this - I am so put off having children for a while! We headed down to the family centre for lunch and played with the kids in the afternoon. When we were dropped home last night, one of kids told me he had a box of frogs - which I laughed at as I didn't really think SA would have a large supply of frogs - but I opened the kid, and he was right, he had a box of frogs.... Chloe and I watched the kids play last night, and then we taught the kids to stargaze! Chloe and I headed to bed at 8:30 last night, and didn't wake up 8 this morning - crazy sleeping!!

Thursday

This morning was home visits. This means that we go out with a volunteer from HCC and a care worker from Ethembeni and we deliever food to their patients. All their patients are HIV+ which is quite difficult to cope with as they are all such lovely people. We drop the food off and then Linda does a bible study. They love the bible studies, and today they told us what hope they get from them, and how they feel that they are born again each week and are excited for the week ahead. It's so great to see them so encouraged! We were all dropped at the family centre after our various home visits and we managed to have some team time which was so lovely. We are here all afternoon and then heading home later on, Esther is currently making lasagne for 12 people!! The weekend looks excitig as we are heading to a Zulu wedding on Saturday!!

Overall the weather this week has ranged from 34-38C which is crazy! But it's getting stormy now, so it will probably rain tonight, so tomorrow will be cooler!

Hope you're all well,
Sending lots and lots of African lovin' xxxxxxxxx

Friday 22nd, Saturday 23rd, Sunday 24th and Monday 25th February

Friday

The boys picked us up "early" on Friday as we were going to a church, in Howick, called Oasis for a soaking. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but we got there late - blame African time - and so snuck into the back. A lady was playing the piano and singing, whilst everyone else was just sat there listening and reflecting. The church was there to pray for and with you. After the soaking, Sarah took us to a farmers shop where we bought the most amazing food!! The food in the township is very different to what we are use to, so this was a God send! Sarah then dropped us off at Howick Community Church (HCC) where we had the chance to relax, Facebook, Skype and just generally chill. We had some lovely talks and caught some rays. We were there to help with the Junior-Junior Youth, Junior Youth (5-6:30) and Senior Youth (7-8:30). These were both really good, and many of the Senior Youth were a similar age to us, so it was really nice to just chill and chat with them. We had takeout pizza ordered for 6:30, which was incredible!! After Senior Youth we came back to Pops (the township), and chatted with our host families. Chloe and I's host family were waiting for us when we got back, so we played a couple of games of cards with them and then crashed in bed!

Saturday

Sarah picked Chloe and I up at 10(ish) - Sarah is English and so runs off English time, which is certainly refreshing! Sarah drove Gideon, Eli, Chloe and I to her house while we waiting for Esther and Ruth to finish up at the Lion's River breakfast. We suncreamed up (was lovely and hot) and headed into Howick Centre to a cafe called Chinwag's. I had a huge English breakfast and the yummiest chocolate milkshake, before we all headed to Karkloof Falls. We stopped at a veiwing point and took some photos of the main falls, before heading up the world's dustiest, bumpiest, most potholed road I think any of us have ever expereienced! However, once we got there, it was most definitely worth it!! We walked into the river at the top of the smaller waterfall above Karkloof Falls. Eli, Chloe and I then swam up river (against the current so it was major swimming) about 100-150m to some large rocks. We used the current to almost whitewater raft (with our bodies being the rafts!) back down to the top of the falls. Having witnessed some South African locals jumping off the top of the falls, Chloe decided to go wild and so Chloe, Eli and I jump of the top of falls!! The waterfall was around 20-30m, high, and so the drop was insane! The plunge pool must have been really deep, because none of us even came close to touching the bottom.. (Don't worry Mum, we checked about rocks and stuff first!) So crazy, was really, really good though. Esther and Gideon took some really good photos, so they will follow at some point... After the excitment of swimming all the water up the river, jumping off a massive waterfall and just generally having a wild afternoon, I managed to slip off a rock on the last metre back to the bank, fell on Chloe - who dropped Eli's flip-flop which floated off down the river - resulting in giving myself a fat lip and Chloe a bruise on her arm!! We headed back to Sarah's and had a South African Brie (for all you Brit's that is a BBQ), and chilled. Eli, Chloe, Esther and I then watched The Avenger's and had a lovely, relaxed evening.

Sunday

Sunday morning we headed to HCC and had such a funny service - in Africa it's acceptable to shout out and ask the preacher questions whenever you feel the urge! We had non-stop converstations over real tea (made Chloe and I so happy!!) about who we were, what we were doing, where we were from ect.. Sarah, Esther and I made macaronni cheese for lunch, and then we headed over to a lovely couple's house called Vernon and Jill. We were able to sunbathe, swim, table tennis, play darts, eat yummy food (popcorn and cupcakes was a first to eat while sunbathing!) and just chill and chat with them. They have told us we can pop over whenever we want some downtime and just some space to relax - such lovely people. Chloe and I then headed back down to HCC so I could Skype and then the rest of the team came down for the 6:15 youth service... At HCC everything seems to be followed be pizza, so after the service we chatted with the youth, lots of from Friday night, and ate pizza. After this, we were dropped back to Pops. The children were really excited and and gave Chloe and I the biggest hugs when we got back, we played with them for a little bit, and then we all went to bed.

Monday

Today had an interesting start.... Gideon and Eli told us to be ready for 8:30 this morning and so Chloe and I woke up at 8. We dressed, ate and got ready for the boys at 8:30 and then sat and waited.. and waited... and waited... it got to 9, so we rang them - no answer. We waited some more... 9:15 came so we rang again - still no answer. We waited even more and then called Sarah and she had no idea what was going on. Finally Eli called us at 9:50(!!!) to say "Sorry we used an English alarm clock..." We were dropped at the Care centre and covered some more folders with pictures so that they were more interesting for the ladies, Chloe then drove us down to the family centre, where wer started to plan the English lessons we are going to hold 4 times a week. We had a base for our lessons now which is great! We had lunch, and then I drove Chloe, Esther and I down to the petrol station where we got icecream!! Driving back was certainly an interesting expereince. School had just finished and so there were children (4-18) just all over the roads, they don't care about the cars, they are just so chilled. Dodging children and various livestock is always interesting. We had spent the rest of the afternoon creating advertisment for the internet cafe and hair salon.

Hope this brief update makes sense!!
Miss you guys,
Lots of love, Nicola. Xxx

Wednesday 20th & Thursday 21st February

So I thought that before I told you what we have done today I would explain about our sleeping arrangements. Until March 5th we have all been paired off and living with staff from Ethembeni.Chloe and I are living with a lovely lady called Dudu, her mother and two of her grandchildren. They have given up half their house for us and it's really amazing of them!

Tuesday night we played cards with them all evening. We taught them snap and spoons and they taught us five and ring. Last night there was a huge, huge lightening and thunder storm, and because the house has tin roof, the rain was so loud we couldn't talk. And to make matters worse the roof started to leak - lucky Dudu knew the spots and had buckets ready!

On Wednesday Chloe and I set our alarm for 7:30, and woke up at 8:30, Dudu then told us that the car would be there in 5 minutes - thank the Lord for African time!! We had 5 minutes to get up, dress and eat.
We then went with Tutu and Shelley to help run an anti-natal class, it was really informative and has put me off having kids slightly!

We then came to the family centre for lunch and have spent the afternoon at both the care centre and the family centre, me and Chloe drove (crazy here you have to drive round goats, cow, children and avoid the huge cracks and dents in the road). It was much colder on Wednesday, about 24C, so 10C colder then yesterday!!

When we got home last night the kids were waiting to play with Chloe and I, which was so lovely, we played cards and played with the ball. They are so friendly now we've broken the ice! They were both showing us their school work, and it was amazing because they write it all in English!

Today we went on home visits this morning, so we were split up with the Ethembeni workers and voulenteers and went round delievering food to the families who needed it the most. We came back to the family centre for lunch and then have played with the kids, had some team time and had a meeting this afternoon. Just had the world's riskiest shower at the family centre as the door doesn't have a lock... or close properly! Such a dare devil...

Hope everyone is okay and England isn't too cold, it's been about 28C today...

Lots and lots of African lovin', Nicola. Xxx

Day 2 - Tuesday 19th February

It's super hot here today - just spoken to Mum who said it was warm at home - warm being 9C!! Today it has been 34!! So it's been very, very, very hot.
Me and Chloe walked down to the family centre today and it took about 45 minutes, so we got to see the township and it is completely normal in Mpophomeni for cows and goats and horses and chickens and children to just run wild all over the roads!
Me, Chloe and Eli went near Howick Falls today to do some anti-natal visits, which was really good to see, and as the talks were in Zulu, we entertained the children with games and balloons so that was fun :)
We came back to the family centre this afternoon to sing and dance and play with the kids... we are getting to know them now, and are also starting to learn some basic Zulu - yebo!!
Currently sat at the family centre next to Chloe and Esther blogging away!!
Speak soon,
Lots of love, Nicola. Xxx

Day 1

HI GUYS!

We arrived safely yesterday and then had a 2 hour drive from Durban to Howick. The team have been partnered off and we are all staying with staff from the center. Me and Chloe are staying at the top of a hill and so have a great day of the township.

We went to the center this morning and met the team. We spent a lot of time playing with the kids today, and then went to visit Howick Falls and Mandela's capture point this afternoon.

The weather is very hot, with occasional, hot showers - so lovely rainbows.

I have my normal number and will be getting my South African number later on today, so feel free to drop me a text, 

Hope you're all okay and the weathers not too cold..

Love Nicola xxx

Less then a week to go! (6 days)

So, I've passed the "one-week-left" landmark and my prep has now gone from calm and collective to running around like a headless chicken!
I am packing, un-packing, re-packing and then un-packing again to check - for the sixth time - that I have actually packed this, that and the other!
For people who like the nitty gritty details, we don't leave Heathrow until 22:00 on Saturday, so I'll be around on Saturday to become an emotional wreck and to say final, final, final goodbyes! So please feel free to text or call me anytime between now and then for final chats and such.
If you want to have a little look at where we are working, then the link to Ethembeni's website is here http://www.ethembeni.co.za/ it's got lots of great information on it, so it might help you understand what I am doing properly!
Lots of love! Xxx

3 weeks to go!!!

It's all starting to hit home how soon I leave!!
So the past couple of weeks I have started to make sure everything is set and ready to go.... I have had two of my rabies injections, and have one more to go.
Crazy as it, I have already started packing (not sure whether through excitement or insanity!!) and so I have been going through my kit list and working out what I have left to get.
Luckily for me, I have a lot of stuff that I can reuse from Kenya - so it was just updating my first aid kit and buying a few extra bit's and pieces!
I also get to move my birthday forward a week, because I will be spending my 19th birthday in Dubai, and then flying from Dubai and landing in King Shaka, Durban! Certainly a birthday to remember.
That's all for now.
Lots of love. Xxx