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.