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.
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