Home, where is Home?

Well I guess I should write, I haven't for a couple months and the last time I blogged, I was saying farewell to Gateway Christian School. And now I am home and have been for 3 weeks already, eish!! Where has the time gone? But home I ask , where is home? Some say "Home is where the Heart is". Some people like my family would say my home is a small farm town in rural South Western Ontario, Canada. Yes, my small rural farm town is my physical home where I was born, attended local public schools, played on an community baseball team summer after summer for much of my childhood, and attended the same Mennonite Church since an infant, but now I have two homes, Canada and South Africa.

South Africa, a country known as a Rainbow Nation of people and cultures, with 12 official languages, extreme diversity of wealth and poverty and unbelievable breath taking scenery all wrapped up in one. I will miss this new home of mine. The people, my friends, how blessed was I to call them my friends. Friends who stuck by me during the hard tough times, but also for the fun times of parties and adventures. Yes, I was blessed to have experienced many amazing adventures, whether it was accompanying the school classes on day trips such as watching the children having fun feeding animals at Crafty Duck or hiking through the Drakensburg Mountains with church friends or maybe it was the night I spent at my friends home in a rural township and becoming a celeb.

Like I have mentioned above, South Africa is a very diverse country of wealth and poverty. Actually South Africa, is the wealthiest country in the continent of Africa, with the gold mines in Jo'burg, diamond mines in Kimberley and the other natural resources they are able to export. But the wealth live right next door to the poverish, literally. Informal settlements built up in many empty lots owned by the government right beside normal wealthy neighbourhoods, just so they can live a little closer to a job, to put food on their families plates and clothes on their backs. These situations opened up my eyes of how blessed I am of my home, and my up bringing. But I won't forget how much some people struggle for the basic things we take for granted.

I know I have ready missed my housemother Lucille, where I stayed, her bubbly personality, the twinkle of her eyes when she smiles, her warm big hugs and our conversations. Yes, our numerous conversations about work, family & friends back home and there, church news and yes God. I was also privillaged to have wonderful conversations with her daughter Lyndall whom I saw a few times during the year. She is very sweet and I will miss her and our few our conversations too! I know I never wrote much about my home situation, or the young girls I lived with. The girls, Lucille and I were always in and out all the time and sometimes I rarely saw them, except at breakfast and maybe the dinner hour when we would be making our own meals. So I will miss that physical house I called home, it was a very nice home and through my bedroom window I could get a glimpse of the rolling green hills that surrounded the city of Pietermartizburg.

Another of my physical places I would call my home would diffidently have to be Project Gateway. PG was a great place to work, even though at times I got bored and frustrated with lack of keeping busy, but I got to know my co-workers and they became my family, an unforgettable family of friendship and support! I won't forget these special people for they welcomed me in with open arms and created a home for me. A home where I learned so much about who I am and what I want to accomplish in life, but also gave me many gifts and a confidence to not quit, thanks Lorne, I miss you and your spunkiness. Some of my unforgettable times while working at PG, is their Friday morning chapel services; the songs, oh the songs, the awesome Zulu worship songs I can't forget, I won't forget or at least I will try not to forget them. One of my favourites is "Akekho ofana noJesu", which means Theres no one like Jesus.

"Akekho ofana noJesu,
Akekho ofana naye,
Akekho ofana noJesu,
Akekho ofana naye

Ahamba, hamba lutho, lutho
Afuna, funa lutho, lutho
Ajika, jika lutho, lutho
Akekho ofana naye."

Yes, I will miss you Peitermaritzburg, SA, my home; your rolling green hills, your people, my people. The beautiful all year blooming flowers, the fenced yards, the kombi taxis and their crazy drivers, market stands along the streets selling used clothing to sweets, smokes, dvds/cds, fruits, hot soft meelies (corn on the cob), and chicken kabobs cooking on the hot braai to the phone tables where you could use their phones for a cheaper cost instead of your own cell phone (no I did not use them, but they were everywhere). The 30 min walk to my MCC reps James & Joan, they were a great couple and I feel very blessed to have had them as part of my South African Journey. But lastly, I have already missed the sound of that darn tinkling bell of the ice cream men who walked the streets of PMB in hopes that someone was in need of a cold treat on an hot South African day.

Yes, South Africa I officially declared that you became a home to me for 11 months and you will always be a home to me for now and forever. And how I miss you!

My last goodbye hug with Lucille, infront of our home.

My fellow SwaLeSa 2009/2010 SALTers and I with our country Reps James & Joan.

One last dinner at their home in PMB, dressed in cultural outfits.

One of my last South African sunrises, Kruger National Park.

Salakahle (Goodbye/Stay Well) Gateway Christian School (GCS)

Well back on June 9th I finally said my sad goodbye to the children and staff at GCS. About every Wednesday and Thursday of the past 10 months you would find me in the school. These days were always my favourite days and I won’t forget my time there nor the staff who became a family to me.

The last week of school was a fun week with lots of activities. June 3 was pyjama and Hot Chocolate Day, and the staff and children dressed in their pyjama’s and bought a cup of hot chocolate. Late in the morning three university students came down from Jo’burg with a program called Hooked on Books and dramatized short excerpts from some children’s books that the children have been reading. It was quite fun watching these short skits and even better when they asked for some student participation and the students were dressed in some silly costumes and everybody loved it.

Friday June 4, I gave a farewell assembly for the students and staff. I had put together a short picture slide show of pictures I had taken throughout the year. But before I showed them those pictures I wanted to share a bit about where I am from. Our beautiful country of Canada I call Home! The children oohed and ahhed over the pictures and especially when the picture of my home taken in the middle of January with a huge bank of snow in front. These children have barely seen snow or even touched it. After this slide show of pictures of home, I had another surprise installed for the school. My little choir!
Every Thursday, for the past couple months the students have been participating in various clubs lead by the teaching staff for an hour at the end of the day. These clubs have been teaching Zulu dancing, art, drama, reading, soccer, singing, etc. So Mrs. Msimang, one of the grade 1 teachers has been leading the singing club and invited me to join her club one afternoon, so I came. Before I knew it I was standing at the front of the group of children teaching them 2 new songs. As I stood there teaching them it made me reflect back to my music teachers Mrs. Clark, Mr. Rowbotham, and of course Lucy, from my church back home. Never had I anticipated becoming a choir conductor here and had no experience leading one, but it was quite fun and always at the end of the hour I was filled with such joy and bliss that I hadn’t felt at work back home.

So my choir came up and the first song we sang was called “In the Bulb There is a Flower”. A song I was taught many many years ago at church. The children struggled with this one, and I struggled teaching it too, especially without a piano! I started the song by singing the first verse and then the children joined me back at the beginning and we sang though all three verses. The second song we sang, which everybody should be familiar with, is from the movie “The Sound of Music”, not sure of the title, but the song that teaches the names of the music notes (Doh, a deer a female deer ,etc), and it wouldn’t be complete without the hand note symbols (thanks Mrs. Clark)! The response us choir received from the students and staff was amazing and I was very proud of this little choir who were from grades ranging from grade 1 to grade 3.

And finally the picture slide show of my year spent with them. The kids, oh my goodness just loved it! I had included three songs sung by a South African artist, but by the middle of the second song you couldn’t hear the music, the kids just went through the roof with excitement and especially when they saw the Durban Soccer stadium picture, all you could hear were the 1/2 dozen or so vuvuzelas. Since it was a Friday, a lot of the children were dressed in soccer shirts and handful of vuvuzelas were brought to school in support of the up coming FIFA World Cup. Eish! They are loud! It was awesome seeing the kids getting so excited to see their faces or their friends faces up on the screen, they LOVE getting their picture taken.

The following week, the teachers had organized a Mini FIFA World Cup Day to celebrate the up coming event. And so each class representing a country dressed in country shirts, paraded in a short opening ceremony, performed the diskie dance and yes finally played small soccer matches against each other. Besides watching the games you could purchase sweets, have your finger nails painted, get a tattoo, purchase cold drinks, and food at the market tables that the classes had set up for a fundraiser event. It was a fun day had by all!

So Wednesday June 9th, finally came and I sadly said goodbye to the students and staff. Things I will miss will be the grade 5 teacher, Browne telling me full house each time I came by for his class attendance, or Melvin’s and Browne’s sense of humor, Thobile’s singing, Sharon’s comments of “Your mom will not make you out when she sees you!”, Kerry’s big jar of sweets and the very large roll of plastic book covering (you better not mail me the empty roll Kerry!), Beverly’s big heart for teaching her students to give to others less fortunate, Malanie’s Grade R class, Connie’s singing club, and Juli for her all her morning rides on the way into work. I won’t forget all the class outings, to the airport and train station with Mafiki’s grade 1 class, Butterflies for Africa with Cheryl’s grade 2 class, Crafty Duck with Malanie’s grade R’s and of course uShaka Wet n’ Wild day with 300+ students and staff, such fun and memorable days. The birthday parties for Rachel’s and Beverly’s daughters, and the other fun times I had with Kerry’s, Juli’s and Ps Sinatra’s families on various occasions outside of school. The night I stayed over with my dear friend Nokuthula (school’s receptionist) in her township and I became an instant celeb amongst her friends and neighbours! I will miss you GCS staff!

But lastly I will never forget Marge Bennett, a very dear lady who calls me her Canadian Daughter. She was so loving, caring and supportive to me and the first thing she always asked when I came into her office every Wednesday morning was how am I and how is my family back home doing? I will miss you lots, but like you have said “this is not goodbye”.

Thank you GCS staff for such an amazing year. A year of fun, laughs, tears, hugs, prayers, fellowship and mostly importantly an instant family of love and support. God bless you all!

Some random pictures

Oslo Beach (Indian Ocean), at sunrise June 6

Oslo Beach

FIFA Kick off day, Project Gateway Staff showing support for Bafana Bafana

My church home group I've been meeting with Tuesday evenings from chruch. Went to Umgeni Nature Reserve.

Burr, is it Winter yet? And FIFA 2010

Well my answer is yes, winter must be here, and it is freezing in the mornings, well not 0 degrees C yet, but getting closer and closer. Last week on my way into school, I would gaze over at Juli’s vehicle outside temperature gage in her dash and the temps read anywhere from 7 degrees to the coldest of 5 degrees. Burr, now I say it’s getting a little nippier!

Well it’s no longer May, but June now, can you believe it? Six weeks I’ll be in Akron and seven with my family, Yipee! Well maybe I shouldn’t get too excited yet; I still have lots of goodbyes yet to say in the next few weeks! I have already said goodbye to the school teachers since the school has now started their winter break. Their winter break is five weeks this year instead of the normal three due to the FIFA World Cup.

Yes the world is here somewhere, and all of you I am sure are getting lots of tv coverage reports of the Cup. Me I’m not too excited about it, actually its sorta making me feel a little blue. I’m not a real big sport fan, yes I’ll watch a bit of hockey here and there, but never gotten too serious into all the teams, games and the stats, so why would soccer be any different? PMB doesn’t play host to any of these big games, and the closest stadium venue is Durban.

The rest of my fellow SALTer’s and James & Joan all have tickets to see at least one game, but me on the other hand I do not. Am I disappointed? A little bit yes, but life moves on. There are other fun things to do and see before I leave. The people here have been getting excited for months, and since about the start of the 100 day count down, President Jacob Zuma, declared that every Friday would be Football Friday and people were to purchase a yellow and green Bafana Bafana shirt to show support of their South African team. Besides the sea of yellow and green shirts on Fridays, and especially the last few days, people have been blowing their Vuvuzela’s, attaching South African flags to their vehicles, and learning the Diskee (not sure of the spelling) dance. I have had the pleasure of watching the grade 5 students perform at school a couple times.

So why all this big hype? I guess it’s exciting for this country and something new. What I have been pondering over the past year about FIFA, what’s going to happen once it’s over and the all the soccer fans from around the world go home? There is going to be an influx of revenue flowing into the economy for this period, having created job creation in preparing the cities with new and better roads, updating and touching up stadiums, and businesses hiring extra staff to handle the extra customers. Hotels, and accommodations will be or already filled and tourist attractions will be steadily busy with these world soccer fans traveling across the country taking in other fun activities. All this is great, but what about afterwards when everyone goes home? How long will these jobs last for the citizens here; which has enabled them to put a roof over their family’s head and food on the table. I am afraid that it will end on a sour note and lots families will go back to struggling for the basic necessities.

Another concern that has been addressed at school is creating awareness of human trafficking. This is already a problem here in SA, and many children and adults have been snatched from their homes and force to work in sweatshops and factories, or in domestic homes, never seeing their love ones again. There is great fear of this activity during this period of the FIFA World Cup and last week the grades 5, 6, and 7 students watched a very serious video about the scariness and about being careful during this time of when the world comes to South Africa.

I just want to conclude that I wish all the world teams the best of luck in winning the FIFA Cup. All of you will probably see more TV coverage than I, even though I am living here. The TV in my home is not connected to any channels, but today businesses are closing early to allow the people to watch the opening ceremonies and the first kick off between South Africa and Mexico.

Signing off and Mach Gut….

Go Bafana Bafana Go!!

May Highlights

June 10th



Well I thought I should share about my May highlights, actually May was pretty busy with lots of fun and exciting things so I will try and make it brief, but no promises. May, has come and gone and it is well into June already with only 3 weeks of work left. Wow!! Time is flying when you’re having fun. Hehe!!!

So to start off with my first highlight which would probably have to be my friend Siphokazi’s wedding which was May 1st. My dear friend Sipho, was transformed into a beautiful bride, walked down the aisle and said I do to her dashing and charming husband. After the wedding ceremony and meal they quickly dashed off to their new home up in the Mpumalanga province. I hope someday I will see her again, she has been a great caring friend to me and I have long since missed her at work.

My next highlight would have to the following day after the wedding, where my friends Becky, Cath, Liesel and I wondered around Pietermaritzburg Botanical Garden and walked through the avenue of trees and rang the bell. It was a fun afternoon, but I didn’t find the Pietermaritzburg Rose, I had thought was there.

Next would be the parade of various little café’s I visited with staff at PG around the city of PMB. My favourite would have to be Rosehurst which Mrs. Bennett treated me to a goodbye lunch. The place was very pretty with various small shops and the café out the back in the rose garden. I am certain that my uGogo would have enjoyed a good cup of tea and a short little roam around the rose garden.

One of the Becky’s titles here is a PMB official tour guide. So we finally took a couple hours one afternoon to park the car and wonder down the old streets of downtown PMB. I haven’t had the best opportunity to take snap shots of the downtown yet since I am usually by myself and don’t want to take my camera out and become a target to get mugged. So I snapped away and she spoke of the old buildings and statues, wondering into buildings that are rich with aging architecture and history that are catching fire and burning down. Stopped and took a picture of the largest red brick building in the southern hemisphere (city hall, which also contains a large organ), and of course can’t miss taking Ghandi’s picture. It was great fun afternoon, thanks Becky!

My next highlight would certainly have to be spending a nice evening over at my friends Liesel’s place where the next day we visited the African Bird of Prey Sanctuary just outside of PMB. It is a very nice bird sanctuary where another friend of mine and I watched a bird show and afterwards roamed around the various cages of birds, vultures, owls, eagles and hawks. After getting home from the exciting morning I had a brief break to relax and then headed out over to Becky’s place for an evening braai.

My last highlight would have to be getting transformed into a Zulu woman on the streets of PMB. I was out with one of the Zulu teachers from school in search for a Zulu skirt to bring home. I finally found a vendor set up on the sidewalk with her table displayed in traditional Zulu skirts, hats, and jewellery. Before I knew it was wearing a skirt, a hat, a necklace, bracelet, and ankle bracelets and the African people were stopping and leaving a friendly comment. All I could do was just smile and enjoy the moment.



Well anyways it is getting late and I must get to bed.



Signing off and Mach Gut….

What does the Crystal Ball say about my Future?

May 17, 2010

Well I have officially been living in SA for nine months already! I can hardly believe that! Sometimes I think back to when my fellow SwaLeSa SALTer’s and I arrived those 9 months ago and how excited we all were to finally step foot on African soil, South African soil, that is! It has been a good 9 months, many good memories of adventures, laughs, tears, hugs, near death experiences (flying bricks!, I must be a brick magnet, lol), friendships, sad goodbyes and the list could go on.

As I sit here pondering what to write thinking that I had lots of ideas on my walk home from the MCC SwaLeSa office today, and yet I draw to a bit of a blank. Actually those thoughts I want to blog about, but for a later blog entry. I want to blog, I want to write something, something interesting, something thought provoking, something with passion and charisma or something inspirational. Hmm, what to write, what to write!!!

So here I go, I think I’ll write about my unknown future; my future that only God knows “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, “plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11.” One of my goals this past year was to figure out my future; to figure out what am I good at? And what do I want to do when I get home? I don’t want to work the rest of my days working behind a Tim Horton’s counter asking, how may I help you and what size of coffee and how do you take it? Regular? Double double? Triple triple? No, I need something better, sorry Tim Horton’s fellow co-workers and coffee friends; making and serving coffee isn’t my life career!

When I came out here to SA I thought I would be working in an office behind a desk doing various admin office tasks. Well I guess I do work behind various desks! My days at the MCC SwaLeSa office I’ve been working on writing up journal entries and reconciling bank statements, and putting together MCC SwaLeSa’s liabrary, so a bit of office work. My days at Project Gateway with the DMPR (Donor Marketing Public Relation) department I have found some admin work, and also at Gateway Christian school also some admin work, but all together not what I had expected. This has caused me some frustration at times. I would like to say I have enjoyed working here, so please don’t think from what I’ve written that I haven’t, it just been a challenging year working at three different locations every week! A number of years ago I was enrolled in a business program and I thought that my future was in business; business of some sort like Inventory Management! And then my country reps offered me this SALT Admin Assistant position and I felt that yes God is reaffirming this career avenue I had so long ago started. But the last number of months, actually I don’t know how long, I have been giving this a second thought.

Then one day at school I sat in for Melanie (Grade R teacher) for a few minutes, holding up a story book and turning the pages as the students listened to the story of Jonah and the Whale from a CD player. Afterwards I asked the children a few questions about the bible story. Melanie returned and as I wandered back to Mrs. Bennett’s office I came to a different understanding of my unknown future! I excitably shared this with Mrs. Bennett, how enjoyable and fulfilling those few minutes with the Grade R’s was. The next thing I knew, Mrs. Bennett and Melanie arranged an opportunity for me to spend a good hour once a week in her class. You must be thinking how can spending those few minutes make such an impact? Well it isn’t just that one experience; I’ve had other brief moments of interaction with the students. And I’ve also had someone else here whispering into my ear I should go into teaching. So now I’ve been analyzing my purpose here in SA, and my future back home. I am a little unsure about being a teacher, but possibly an Educational Assistant (EA)?!?! Maybe God brought me here to show me that business isn’t my future plan, but maybe working with and helping children learn is!

So where do I go from here? What is my next step? My sister Kristine, kindly had her college mail me a Niagara College program course book and I’ve read through the Educational Assistant program and I ask myself, can I do this? Am I capable of achieving this career? This is where I get stuck!! So, I will end here for today with these pondering questions that only God knows the answer to. And so I ask all of you to pray for me as I decide this career option.

Signing off and Mach Gut ….

April Showers Bring May Flowers

May 1st, 2010

Well April showers bring May flowers, is the saying back home at this time of year. But I here in SA I haven’t heard the saying yet! Well the seasons have been changing, but not into Spring like back home but it’s now into Fall and very soon Winter. I have to admit I do miss the warm mornings from summer, but not the hot humid days and now it’s back to dressing into layers again. Mornings and evenings are nippy, but gradually the day warms up and layer by layer you are forced to peel off your layers, until evening when it becomes nippy again. I am unsure about the winter months and how cold it will get. Homes do not have central heat or furnaces nor are the house structures insulated, but some homes you may find fire places! I have been told that in some areas of SA, you can find snow during the winter. It almost seems wrong to say that it snows in Africa! My friend Juli, who teaches grade 3 at Gateway Christian School, has family who lives in Underberg and they experience snow there, but Juli has never seen the snow actually fall!

During the month of April I went to Port Elizabeth and Cape Town as you already have read, but I also had some other busy fun weekends too! A week after my return home (April 17th) was Project Gateway’s first Car Boot Sale. You might be wondering, what is a car boot sale? Well back home we have garage sales, but here they don’t have those but have car boot sales. Those wondering what a car boot is, well it’s what we call the car trunk back home! So we posted posters advertising this fundraiser event and people called and booked a spot in the car park; they came and set up tables of their goods for sale or arranged the boot of their car with their goods, hence what a true boot sale is! Selling goods from your car boot! We had all types of goods being sold, from a lawn mower to cupcakes, to homemade jewellery and clothes, to yummy Indian Samosas to used books, to Tupperware to everything and anything we had it! Since I work with the DMPR (Donor Marketing Public Relations) 2 days a week I helped in planning and creating some of the posters, as well as helped to calculate out the car boot stands and put together an information stand for Project Gateway. It was a great day and the weather co-operated beautifully!

Besides a Car boot sale that weekend Felicia and Andrew were spending some time at the Alty’s so between Friday night and Saturday afternoon and evening I spent time with them. Sunday that weekend, one of the guys from my NCF home group had our home group and I over to his home for a wonderful braai. It was a great weekend but I was tired by Sunday afternoon I and finally crashed for awhile before 6pm church. Monday the following day, which is my MCC day, where I am always busy writing up journal entries, reconciling bank statements against receipts and trying to get their MCC books into a working library. Andrew and Felicia reappeared back from the Kombi rank, a little bit later after I arrived to James & Joan’s for work. I soon learned that the Durban taxi’s and public transport were on strike and they couldn’t return back to their city! What else is new! Strikes seem to be a norm here with the municipalities’, if it’s not a garbage worker strike it’s something else!

My MCC library work consists of inputting the ISBN number off books into a computer program and if the computer program doesn’t know the dewy decimal number, then researching and deciding the book’s dewy decimal classification numbers myself. Next it’s inputting the dewy data into a computer program, printing off labels and labelling the books; this has taken me forever!! I am still not quite done, but slowly getting there. I have discovered some interesting books that maybe in the next short while before leaving I’ll get better chance of flipping through them.

Over the last long while at school, I’ve been helping Kerry in the Library with covering new books with plastic covering to protect and help to keep them nicer longer. When I’m not covering books, I’m going around with the attendance clip board, printing off soccer pictures for teachers, and typing up worship songs. But for the last little while for about an hour on Thursdays, I have been spending time in one of the grade R classes, reading to the children, singing songs, teaching them a game or just wandering around the classroom helping them with their work activities. I find the grade R learners really sweet, but sometimes find it challenging since their English isn’t very good yet and it’s sometimes challenging to communicate with them.

The following weekend (April 22-24) was also quite busy, but fun. I spent three nights in a row watching three different movies in three different theatres (Thursday – Skin, Friday –Date Night, and Saturday –Kick Ass). Friday I tagged along to uShaka Marine Water Park in Durban with the school (tones of fun sliding down the slides with the kids), stayed the night in Durban and so I ended up spending two fun half days with Felicia and Andrew, and then finally home again Saturday night after catching the movie Kiss Ass, with some friends from England & Belgium. Saturday after returning home I finally learned about my Grandma’s failing health, but I didn’t realize she was going that quickly until the Monday.

The last week of April while my family was planning and attending the funeral arrangements for my uGogo was very hard. I so wanted to be there, even though I told my family before I left home I would not be coming back if she passes. But you never realize how hard it is to be away when someone passes and you can’t be there. Your mind and spirit are home, but your body isn’t. I had wonderful support from my friends at work that I know it will be hard saying goodbye in a couple months since they have been here for me during the hard difficult times! I officially have eight more weeks of work left and eleven more weeks left here in South Africa, and twelve more weeks until I see my family!!

Signing off and Mach Gut….

Ode to my uGogo

This past week my family and I have been saying sad goodbyes to a very wonderful lady, my uGogo. My uGogo as I will refer to her now while I’m still living in South Africa was probably one of the most influential persons in my life. She was loving, caring, supportive, creative, and most importantly a woman of faith who loved God.

Last month one of my fellow SwaLeSa SALTers, Simon in Lesotho, Grandfather passed away. In his blog entry as he reflected about him, he spoke about his grandfather hands, if I were to reflect on my uGogo’s hands I would have to say she had firm, gentle ones, but they were the softest of all.

Being so far from family during this difficult time has been very tough. My family have been really great and kept me up to date during her last hours of life and the funeral details. I have been very blessed by them and by God for allowing an unexpected blessing. During her final hours, she was given morphine to ease her pain, but doing so it perked her up and with that, my loving family gave me one last unexpected blessed conversation with her. It was a tough one, but I am so forever thankful to them to have been able to give her my last goodbye and an “I love you Grandma”.

So over the past two days I have been going through my mind reflecting all of my precious memories of her and here is what I complied and e-mailed home for her bulletin program.

“I have so many wonderful memories of my uGogo that it’s hard to write them all down. But if I had to pick a few, one would certainly be a childhood Christmas present where she had sewn Kimberly and I homemade Barbie clothes and I felt so tickled and special to have these wonderful clothes for my Barbie’s. But not only did she sew us Barbie clothes but also Cabbage Patch clothes, doll bedding for doll beds that Grandpa had built, clothes for us girls but she was also crafty in knitting us all wonderful warm sweaters, hat & mitten sets and beautiful crochet afghans!

uGogo was a wonderful cook, and made so many delicious meals. Some of my favourite foods that she made would have to have been her everything in the fridge soups, to the best darn chocolate chip cookies, to banana birthday cakes, to yummy lasagne, to homemade bread, and the list could go on.

One of my favourite pass time activities I spent with her was getting out her Triomino’s game. uGogo’s favourite game was Scrabble, but I enjoyed playing Triomino’s with her the best. Every time I filled in a circle of Triomino pieces she would say “You little stinker” since you earn a lot of bonus points.

Usually while we played the game I would often put on one of her Christian CD’s. uGogo, loved to sing and I also love to sing. If I could chose one of her favourite songs it would have to be “What a Friend we have in Jesus”. Another memorable memory I have of her was during a Sunday morning worship service at her church and she leaned down to me during a hymn and told me I had a beautiful voice! I can’t remember her exact words, since it was so long ago.

uGogo, was always there for us granddaughters growing up, even though she was a 35 min drive away there was nothing stopping the many phone call conversations. One particular phone call that stands out in my mind was made after I had walked unknowingly beneath a wasp nest and was stung. Mom wasn’t home at the time and Katherine’s first response was to call uGogo for treatment advice. uGogo was a very wise lady and always knew what to do in any situation.

One of the many other things that uGogo and I had in common was that we both are the youngest siblings in our families. Growing up uGogo hated being called “The Baby”. And I clearly remember one day, someone clearly called me those dreaded words. The next thing we all heard was her clearly stating “Don’t call her The Baby”! I don’t think I was called those words to my face again at least not in her presence.

uGogo loved God, and was supportive in us girls getting to know him as well. I can still remember sleepovers where we picked out a bible story and after being tucked into bed she would read us the story, and conclude with a prayer. The last day I saw her, back in July, I had a few moments where she was able to comprehend that I was leaving for a year of service with MCC’s SALT (Serving and Learning Together) program. She asked me what she could do for me, and then asked if I would like prayer. If there was a problem about something she would say “Just pray about it”. It was her and Grandpa who gave me my first violet leather bound Bible filled with pictures.

Being so far away in south Africa, during this time is very hard.  I didn't anticipate this happening. Ah shucks”

So in conclusion, I thought I would like to finish off with these beautiful lyrics of one of her favourite songs:

What a Friend we Have in Jesus

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry ev’rything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh, what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry ev’rything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged take it to the Lord in prayer!
Can we find a friend so faithful, who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our ev’ry weakness take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden, ‘cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Saviour, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer!
Do they friends despise, for sake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In his arms he’ll take and shield thee thou wilt find a solace there.

Grandma's Obituary

As my uGogo would say to us in departing, "Mach Gut". 
Mach Gut everyone, Mach Gut!

Flying Bricks & His Eye is on the Sparrow

Part 1 of Port Elizabeth & Cape Town Holiday

My long days of planning, booking and excitement of visiting the Cape finally arrived and on April 1st I finally boarded my Citiliner bus for Port Elizabeth, my first stop of my holidays down to the Cape.
I left Durban at 5 pm, 15 minutes behind schedule; Africa, does anything ever happen on time? When I planned this bus trip I had planned on an overnight ride down to PE which was due to arrive there at 6:45 the following morning, what I didn’t anticipate was arriving 4 hours late, which made my 14 hr ride into an 18 hr ride, eek too long!!
You now must be wondering why was I four hours late and what does flying bricks & His Eye is on the Sparrow have to do with the delay? Well about just over 2hrs into the trip, I heard a big bang and discovered that a brick was thrown from someone in the ditch at the front of the bus which ended up puncturing a small whole which lead into a large spider crack into one of the driver’s front windows. About a minute or two later after the front window was hit, I heard a bit of a commotion from behind me and noticed that 3 of the passengers were standing up in the aisle of the bus. I soon realized that another brick was thrown and smashed a window. “Welcome to Africa”, I was told by near by passengers! The people were calling to the bus driver to stop the bus, stop the bus, but the driver did not stop, but called the local police and we pulled into the nearest community where we ended up waiting for 2 hours outside a police station for a replacement bus from Durban. What I learned from this experience was that the people in the ditch throwing the bricks were intending to have us pull over to examine the damage and in the process hi-jack us to rob us of our money and cell phones!
After I safely arrived at my backpackers in PE, ate lunch, finally checked into my room, I decided to walk down to the beach front to check out the weekend festivities. There was a Splash festival going on and I decided to wander through the vendors lining the beach front to see what they were selling and then decided to take a walk down the pier. As I started my decent down the pier my ears perked up on a very familiar song. “Why I should I feel discouraged, why do the shadows come, why should my heart feel lonely and long for Heaven and home. For Jesus is my pardon, my constant friend is he. His eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me. I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free, for his eye is on the Sparrow, and I know he watches me.” There was a stage set up across from the pier and there was a guy singing Christian songs to the crowds of people at the festival. My fellow LMCer’s who are reading this, may remember that was the last song I sang at church before I left. Wow!! How much reassurance did I need from God after what I went through the night before on the bus? Yes God I’m listening and I know you are watching me like you watch the sparrows!! If I could sum up my experiences with God for the year I would have to say he kept me safe from flying bricks!
Anyways continuing on, later that first night at my backpackers I met up with some of the others staying there and one of the guys tried teaching me how to play pool. In future if you need a pool partner, don’t ask me to partner up, I’m truly am not gifted in the game! The following day was a full day of safari adventures, starting off with touring around Addo Elephant Park where I spotted my first black rhino. The black rhino is rare and I think there are only 5000 of them left in all of Africa! At Addo, I saw a Cape buffalo, lots elephants, hartebeests, kudus, and warthogs. This region of South Africa has been experiencing 8 to 9 months of draught and the week before they had some rain which the elephants had gone into the wooded area to find more water, and we were fortunate to see a big family of them running for a waterhole near the road.
After Addo, our driver drove us over to nearby Schotia Private Game Reserve, where we enjoyed a nice cold lunch. There I said goodbye to the young German’s who I had spent the morning with over at Addo and met up with my new group of Europeans from England, Holland and again Germany for my next safari in Schotia. Here we traded in the tour bus and climbed aboard a 4x4 safari truck. Schotia is a smaller park but still filled with lots of animals and it was here that I was keen on seeing lions living in a more of a natural habitat. As we trekked through the park we came a cross blesbuck, crocodile, white rhino, giraffe, hare, hartebeest, hippo, impala, monkey, mongoose, springbuck, warthog, wildebeest, zebra, and of course lions. Seven lions to be exact, which we were entertained when they started prowling in on some impala and when they couldn’t catch one for their dinner they started sniffing out the nearby zebras. My ranger Malcolm was more concerned that the lions would go after a baby giraffe that was about 6 weeks old. We all stayed there for supper which was included in the day and we were served a wonderful meal. As we headed out after supper we noticed the hippo was out of the pond and also sighted a few other smaller animals, including the hare. How appropriate for it being the eve of Easter! It was a fun filled day, I got quite a few pictures, but disappointingly my camera battery died but I still manage to get a few loin pictures before it went completely.
Signing off…
End of Part I, stay tuned for Part II

The Mother City (Cape Town)

Part 2 of PE & Cape Town Holiday

Easter Sunday I boarded the same bus I originally left Durban on at the start of my journey. The following day after the brick incident the bus windows were replaced and it was road worthy again. This bus journey was only 12 hrs in length, but a good part of the route traveled through the beautiful Garden Route and the Little Karoo of South Africa. Where on the one side you have the beautiful Indian Ocean to look out at some of the time and the other side was a massive mountain ridge, it is very beautiful breath taking scenery to travel through! I finally arrived into a windy Cape Town just after 8pm, Easter Sunday night and discovered the Easter Bunny had left me sweets on my bed.
During my 6 nights, 5 days in Cape Town I stayed at the Ashanti Green Point Back Packers. It is a really nice place with friendly staff and it’s also a pretty new location; where I spent a lot of time in the evenings mingling with the other guest from around the world. Most of the travelers I met during the week either at Ashanti or my day tours were mostly from Europe, such as Holland, Sweden, Germany, and Belgium and then also from England, Wales, South Korea, Brazil, Australia, Canada, USA, Nepal, Thailand, and from the Islands of Madagascar! I think I got them all!!
My first 2 days I traveled around the city on the City Sight Seeing Bus. This is a really great way to tour around the city. It is a double decker bus and the top part is open, and you receive ear phones to listen to an audio guided city tour of the city as you drive down the streets. As you travel along, you are able to hop off and then back on at any of the route stops. So Monday I took the Blue Bus, which was the mini Peninsula tour and I first hopped off at the Kristenbosch Botanical Gardens, which is located on the other side of Table Mountain. It is a very beautiful place with lots of flower beds and the mountains make a beautiful back drop against everything. Mingling throughout the park besides people, were guinea fowl birds, lots and lots of them. It was very beautiful and I kept myself busy photographing lots of different plants and different varieties of the Nations flower, The Protea. The next stop I hopped off at was at Imizamo Yethu, a township built up where it used to be a garbage dump site. Next and after that I hopped off at Camps Bay where I dinned at a beach front restaurant. Camps Bay is a very posh/wealthy beach area and the homes are very expensive, it is here that you can get a beautiful view of The Twelve Apostles. A long mountainous ridge which consists of about 17 mountain peaks in a row. That pretty much sums up my first day of Cape Town.
Tuesday, the following day I took the red bus route and stayed within the city hopping on and off at various points along the route which included a market where you could by African crafts and souvenirs, I spent a bit of time browsing amongst the different booths. The sellers are very eager to sell you their things and will try and barter a good price with you. Afterwards I made my way to the Castel of Good Hope where I did a very quick and brief tour of inside the grounds, since I was eager to get to Table Mountain, the weather was good and it was finally open for tourists. Weather plays a big roll in whether it is safe to travel up the World Famous Mountain! It is so beautiful and breath taking at the top and you can see quite far out on a clear day.

A top of Table Mountain

Wednesday, was my wine tour out to Stellenbosch, Paarl, and a couple other nearby wineries. The Winelands are another beautiful area to explore in the Cape area, set a little bit back from the coast, but not too far away and still nestled in amongst the mountains. The wineries had just harvested the last of the grapes off the vines; but it is fall here and the leaves have started to turn brown, which help to enhance the already beautiful scenery; and soon be for we know, it will be winter. My favourite winery out of the four would have to be a tie between my first and second winery. The first winery also included cheese tasting and also had a bakery where you could purchase fresh baked bread. The second winery I enjoyed the atmosphere, and the presentation of tasting the wines. It was another great day of my holiday!

When traveling to Cape Town, a must on your to do list is to drive around the Peninsula, and stop at Hout Bay and visit Seal Island and see all the seals, Simon’s Town & Boulders Beach to see the oh so cute Jackass (African) Penguins, Chapmans Drive for a spectacular view of Hout Bay, bike down to Cape of Good Hope and hike over to Cape Point where the two Oceans meet (Indian & Atlantic). This is how I spent my day on the Thursday, touring around the Peninsula and it was fantastic, even though I was pretty sore and stiff by the time I reached Cape Point! But it was so worth it!! Along my travels in the Peninsula I saw blesbuck, ostrich, little furry dassies (look like bunnies with little ears), eland and finally some baboons along the road side going back into the city.
Friday was my day to visit Robben Island, wander around the V&A (Victoria & Alfred) Waterfront, and meet up with Chantale’s , (my good friend from home) cousin, Vanessa, who is spending a high school semester in Cape Town. Let’s just say that the weather wasn’t in the cards for me and my Robben Island tour was cancelled due to unsafe water travels over to the island! Drats, if I ever get back to the Mother City it will be a must! So I ended meeting up with Vanessa earlier and a couple of her friends and we visited the Two Oceans Aquarium. The aquarium was neat and we saw a variety of different penguins getting fed, other neat and cool sea creatures and of course the Great White Shark! Afterwards we just wandered around the waterfront. It was a pretty good last full day in Cape Town and I feel pretty accomplished that I was able to do most of the things on my to do list.
Saturday morning I flew back to Durban, but almost missed my flight! Can’t seem to get away from a little bit of excitement and stress on the traveling from one city to another. I am now back to work in PMB, and probably no more big travel plans until I leave in July.
Cheers and I hope you enjoyed reading about my holiday down to Port Elizabeth and Cape Town
Signing off…

Late But Not Forgotten, March Update

Like I titled this, late but not forgotten, March update; I had intended to post an update before I left for holidays but didn’t get there. So my apology to all my readers following my blog and wondering what I did in March.
March started out with busy beginning with the first week. The first Saturday I went to a function at my friend Becky’s church. Her church hosted a “Taste the Nations” night where home/cell groups picked a country and made food dishes and dressed in that country’s style of dress. So amongst the country’s represented where Mozambique, England, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Thailand, USA, India, South Korea, and Afrikaans and Zulu representing South Africa. Some of the dishes I didn’t try since I wasn’t too sure about them but did enjoy food from the Indian, Thailand, England (apple dessert yum yum), Mozambique, Afrikaans, and the USA (fried chicken & corn bread) tables. I didn’t end up trying very much of the African foods since I met up with a very lovely Canadian family from Vancouver. After a while the people started to form a circle and music was soon heard, a violin, guitar, a couple small drums, and someone else shaking a noise shaker. As we stood listening to the music, the gentleman with the shaker (Webster) started pulling people into the circle to dance with him. And as he pulled people in one by one, it wasn’t long for him to tug on my hand and as soon as I put my bag down I joined in on the fun.
After the food, music and dancing we made our way inside for a short program of worship singing, skit, and some cultural sharing. It was a great night and I had fun, even though I didn’t get to finish trying the different foods, it was still a good night.
The Tuesday following the weekend I was invited home for the night with one of my friends from Gateway Christian School, Nokuthula. Nokuthula lives in one of the townships on the outskirts of PMB called Azalea, beside Imbali, with her parents and two younger brothers. To get to her home we had to travel on kombi’s and her kombi rank is an underground location which made me a bit nervous following her through the dimly lit area to her queue line to wait for a kombi to arrive and hop on and find our seats.
Once we finally arrived in her township we walked down her streets to her house which is built of concrete blocks, it doesn’t look like much from the outside, but once you step through the door into the family/lounge it is pretty nice inside. I find that when I drive past these homes, you don’t have any idea what the inside of the house is like. I had no idea of Nokuthula’s place and I found her home very homey and comfortable. Her family had electricity and indoor plumbing which includes a shower and toilet, but the water tap is outside on the house wall, and all the normal appliances we have back home including fridge, stove, microwave and washing machine I found inside. Before we ate dinner we took a little walk down to the store to buy some cold drink and as we walked through her neighbourhood, her neighbours would comment “Nokuthula, why didn’t you tell me you were bringing a friend home, I would have swept up nicer” or “I would have worn a nicer outfit” or “When she’s done at your place can she come over to mine?” I felt like an instant celebrity walking with her to the store and back! I had a lovely time with her family, and I might go back for another night if I have time.
A couple days later, I went with the school principle’s wife (Audrey) and a group of young Americans and Belgium’s out into the rural community and did like an outreach day helping people suffering with TB, helping to sweep their floor in their homes and washing blankets. The first home we stopped at, the man with TB was just diagnosed and had just started his meds so we had to be careful by wearing a mask on face and wearing gloves on our hands since TB is very contagious. We traveled to a few other places where I learn how people in the rural setting try to generate income so they can help support their families. Some of the ways the try and generate income is by growing produce that can hopefully be sold to a local consumer, selling air time for cell phones or maybe investing in purchasing folding chairs to be rented out for wedding or funeral ceremonies. It was a good day and it made me appreciate what we take for granted back home.
Probably one of the best highlights of March or maybe the whole year was when two of us LMCer’s finally met up. Yup, I mean after months of waiting and waiting to finally see a familiar face from home, it finally happened. Jeremy arrived in PMB!!!! Jeremy and his CMU Outtatown program stayed in the cell accommodation building for 10 days. We did spend a little bit time chatting and catching up on our experiences and realized that we both experienced similar things on our travels. One of my most memorable moments of his time here in PMB was joining his group for a traditional African meal prepared by some of the staff at Project Gateway. Some of the food that was prepared for us was, soft meelie (corn on the cob), potato, cooked spinach, steamed bread, beans and most interesting and challenging chicken feet and heads! I couldn’t convince myself to try the head but manage to try a foot. Jeremy on the other hand tried both and everything on his plate where I didn’t. Not enough time to finish it. After the meal we were treated to some African songs and games outside in the car park. The 10 days flew by and I had to say a sad goodbye to him as his team boarded their bus and followed James up to Swaziland to see what MCC is doing there. It was a great time, but then it was time to start getting myself ready for Cape Town.

Signing off....

Stay tuned for Port Elizabeth and Cape Town highlights.

Living in SA, My Thoughts & Opinions

There have been a couple topics that I struggle to blog about. I have made attempts to write them but I seem to fail in getting my thoughts down the way I want to, grr! I want to share these things with you and I know you would all be interested in them; my opinions of these matters of South African and its reality of living. So I will try my hardest to give it another go.

South Africa is a very beautiful country and I have experienced many incredible adventures exploring its landscapes, animals and people. I absolutely love the nature here; it’s just so beautiful and stunning. But there are other items of this country that make me sad, and even sadder. One of these sadder items is Apartheid, my opinion on this matter is that it was a very cruel period in this country’s history, but it happened and now they are still struggling with its after affects.

Growing up in a Mennonite Family and church, I am a pacifist; I don’t believe in fighting but would rather work to avoid conflict and develop peaceful resolution. How the black South African people were treated by the Afrikaner Government I find rather appalling, how they were segregated and forced out of their homes so that white people could build and live there and sent to live in harsh conditions such as shacks on the outskirts of the cities and towns. Families were destroyed; if a white family was thought to be a little dark they were classified as coloured and removed from their family. There were white only schools and no coloured child was allowed to study there. There were curfews set in place and they were to be home by a certain time. You had to carry your identity booklet with you and could only go to certain places that you were allowed, no blacks or coloured could enter a white only place. Most jobs employed by black people were domestic or working down in the mines. Education was limited and with very little material for the black children and so when they went to find work it ended up being low paid domesticated jobs. I am sure there are other things that happened during the Apartheid era that I did not mention.

I know my own country’s past treatment of the First Nations people is almost the same and it’s also appalling. I believe in equal rights and both these incidents we are all made in God’s image and we all should be treated as equal and enjoy all things together without hatred for each other.

Today as I walk the streets of PMB, the evidence is still here but slowly it is changing little by little. Quite a few black Africans have now moved into towns and cities where they weren’t allowed to live before, they are getting better education in most schools and now are able to get better jobs and careers the same as white. But most of the domestic jobs are still employed by the black citizens, but job creation is very evident, if they can create a job then the better. Even though some of the black people have moved into the towns and cities there are hundreds and thousands of black people who still live in the townships on the outskirts of the city. PMB is located in the bottom of a hollow and in the rolling hills around the city lies the many townships of black communities. The poorer schools that the black children attend, lack in government assistance for school material and educational aids. There are still sections in town where the large Indian population still live, and sections where the black people have moved into. I myself would not walk through these sections on my own for safety reasons. Muggings are very common in SA, as well as home robberies. This is why all homes have burglar bars and fenced properties and alarm systems just for added protection.

But this is how life is here. Some people here call it a 3rd world country and some call it a developing country, but they strive to become 1st world. I see lots of characteristics of 1st world thrown into life here. Lots of KFC’s more so than McDonalds (2 here in PMB), lots of groceries stores including a Woolworths store that sells groceries and I think clothing and other stuff too, a shopping malls like ours back home. And many other things of first world living. But you don’t have to drive far until you see 3rd world characteristics of homeless people or squatter communities/informal communities where people struggle for the basic things. Their homes consist of sheet metal maybe wood if they found it. They won’t have plumbing and so they would have to find water and carry it home in large pails, and they probably won’t have electricity unless they have been smart enough to hook up an extension cord to someone who does. The streets are often more littered in the black poorer communities compared to the wealthier sections of town.

When I drive by these areas I have felt very blessed of how I have grown up and not have had to deal with these situations like this. We grow up with a proper roof over our heads, a warm bed, food in our fridges and pantries and maybe most importantly clean drinking water. We aren’t usually concerned of getting mugged at possibly knife point for our wallet or cell or have our home burglarized because we were forgetful and didn’t lock the driveway fence and left the door wide open. We don’t go snooping through garbage bags set out on the street for pickup looking for maybe some food that is till edible to eat, worry about if it rains so hard that our homes will get washed a way. No we are very blessed.

I hope this has finally answered some of your unasked but pondering questions about how I find the living here. I really do enjoy living here, and even sometimes I feel very much at home here especially when I become a minority amongst the black Africans; as I make my way down to the Kombi (taxi rank) stepping over the littered garbage laying on the streets and walking past the many street vendors with tables set up selling fruit, candy/snacks, used clothing, cd’s or dvd’s, chicken kabobs cooking on a braai or maybe a soft hot meelie (corn on the cob) to get home for the day. So this has been apart of my life here and I hope I haven't offended anyone.

Signing off…

The Drakensberg (The Dragon Mountians)

The highest mountain range in Southern Africa is the Drakensberg Mountain, and is located along the Eastern border of Lesotho and South Africa. It reaches a height of 3,482 m or 11,420 ft, wow that’s high and is 1,000km in length! In Zulu, the Drakensburg is called uKhahlamba, which means “barrier of spears”. The range has many different spectacular sections with numerous hiking trails to explore. Some of these sections are Cathedral Peak, The Amphitheater, Giant’s Castle, and many more. Throughout the Berg there are probably hundreds or maybe even thousands of caves, and in these caves you may find cave paintings painted by the Sani people (bushman). Another significant historical fact or event of the Berg is the Great Trek of the Voortrekkers. When the Dutch farmers who had arrived in the Cape, decided to migrate further inland, they traveled through the berg with their families and livestock; carting all their belongings in wagons through the treacherous regions of the Berg to start anew.
So this past weekend I had the opportunity to go camping and hiking in the Berg and I jumped at the opportunity. I had be eager to spend some time hiking and exploring in the Berg since I arrived here, and finally I had time to organize myself to go. So on Saturday morning I was picked up and met up with other friends and new friends; finished packing everything in vehicles and headed off. We were headed to Highmoor, which is located just south of Gaint’s Castle. My friend Lisa, who organized the weekend, told us that Highmoor is the highest camp site in the Berg at 2000m in altitude!
Once we arrived at the camp site, we set up our tents and ate a quick lunch. At about that same time the last of our group arrived, and we decided to go for a walk down the winding road to take in the spectacular landscape. Along the way we came across large stones that we stopped and climbed, flowers and waterfalls we photographed, baboons fighting and chasing each other and ended up along a stream where we slipped off our shoes and enjoyed a refreshing walk through

the water.

Protea (SA National Flower)

Highmoor

Once we arrived back to camp, the others in our group who had arrived earlier and had gone off on their own hike were back at camp. The rest of the day which was late afternoon and evening, we chatted and then finally got the braai going for our supper.
Sunday morning I woke up and my feet were freezing, I hadn’t put socks on the night before and it had gotten quiet chilly over night. After everyone had gotten up, changed and eaten and cleaned up breakfast we started off for our hike. From the start of the hike we had an awesome view of Giant’s Castle. It is a huge mountain ridge! What was even neat was the little dam called “Kamloop’s Dam” that we walked past and in the water reflection was the Giant’s Castle. Our hike was only about 3 km, but we ended up at a waterfall and a double cave that was really nice. Some of us brought our swimming costumes, and I changed into mine and went for a dip. It was great fun and the hike was awesome! I love going on adventures here. God has certainly created a masterpiece of beauty.

Giant's Castle with reflection in Kamloop's Dam

January February Highlights

I don’t know whether to consider this a highlight or not, but I in exactly 5 months this coming weekend I will be boarding a plane with my fellow SwaLeSa SALTer’s and flying home. Highlight yes that I’ll be seeing my other fellow SALT’ers who have been living in various countries since we departed last August, yes to seeing our program co-ordinators and leaders, but lastly yes to seeing family and friends back home. Highlight no that I’ll be saying too many sad goodbyes to all the children and staff at work, no to saying goodbye to all the dearest friends who have stood by me through hard times and fun & exciting times and no to saying goodbye to all these beautiful landscapes and wildlife. The months ahead I hope will be filled with many memorable moments!

Okay so I thought I would share some highlights that have happened in the past several weeks. So I will start with my birthday, the 18th of January, which was a Monday, a MCC day. James & Joan were driving out of the city on MCC work so I spent the day working in the school library at GCS (Gateway Christian School) figuring out dewy decimals for the MCC book library, by going through the list of books printed on paper and by guessing at the titles deciding how to catalogue them. Not an easy job! At the first school break I went upstairs to the staff room where I met up with the teachers and they sang Happy Birthday in English and Zulu. It was really nice being sung Happy Birthday in Zulu. Next the staff went around the table and shared a few words with me, and I really enjoyed the moment. Later that evening around supper time, Becky picked me up and we met up with Sally from work at a restaurant in town that has quizzes every Monday night. Can’t remember the restaurant name, but I am diffidently not a trivia person. Like one question was “what is Mike Tyson’s nick name”? Or “what is the state capital of California”? I know I should have known California’s state capital, but I just didn’t know it that night. Where is Liam when I need him? Overall the day was awesome and I was very blessed with unexpected presents from some of the school staff members and others from PG.

My second highlight was spending the day with my friend Liesel, and day tripping into the Midland Meander. The Midlands are situated in the countryside just outside PMB, and the countryside is filled with all sorts of different craft shops. I diffidently know that my father would have enjoyed a causal drive through this landscape of SA! I ended up buying a purse/bag which is falling apart now, grr; and a few other little trinkets.

My third highlight includes an awesome weekend that started off with receiving a long awaited Christmas parcel (a 2 month wait) which consisted of a beautiful homemade calendar made of a collage of photos of family and friends. The rest of the weekend was filled with spending time with Andrew & Felicia who came over from Durban to attend a dinner mystery dinner at Hexagon Theatre with James & Joan, Andrew & Karen Suderman (Mennonite Church Canada Witness Network), Gabi, Tim and Anna from the Radical Journey program and myself. Earlier that day, I attended a birthday party for a teacher’s daughter, where I had a wonderful time chatting with guests and enjoying some wonderful Indian food.

My next highlight would diffidently have to be Friday the 12th of Feb, which GCS had some fun Valentine Activities. The school planed fun fundraising activities and on that day the children paid R5 and wore their regular street clothes. Some of the children and teachers brought in some sweets to be sold. Kerry the Liberian got out her water spray bottle and since it was another incredible hot day the children paid R 1 for a refreshing spray of water on their faces. Mrs. Bennett told me I could sell ice cream to an Eskimo! It was so much fun to have my finger on the trigger. Just watching the children bracing their faces for the coming water spray and their squeal of response was priceless. Some of the children came back for one or even two more sprays of water and each time they paid R1! Right before the children finished for the day at noon, I helped Juli one of the grade 3 teachers hand out some Valentine Balloons that she organized as another fundraiser for the school. This was something new, and it went pretty well. I even received two balloon Valentines myself, but I don’t know from whom though.
To finish off this wonderful day, Kerry invited me to her home after work, where I spent time getting to know her two girls Paige and Meg, and husband Rus. They have a beautiful home and a lovely pool and once I was changed into my swimming costume I relaxed in the water and enjoyed my hostesses. The evening was completed by a wonderful braai and after that I did some sharing about Canada with my books, postcards, and photos of home. A wonderful day with new friends!

I just thought I would lastly share with you two upcoming highlights in the near future. The first one is happening on the 20th of March when CMU’s (Canadian Mennonite University) Outta Town program is arriving in PMB. I have been looking forward to this date for a long time since one of the students in this program is from my very own church from home. His program will be here and living in the cell blocks at PG and I am excited to see a familiar face from home.

Second, a couple days after he leaves I’ve planned an awesome holiday down to the Cape. I am so looking forward to this and everything seems to be falling into place. I just ask for prayers of safe travel for those days!

Signing off….

Changes Update

I feel like it’s been a long while since I last blog and time is quickly going here. Actually I have been wanting to blog for a while but just haven’t gotten there yet. There have been lots of things on my mind the last couple of weeks and there have been a couple of changes in the last couple of months I haven’t shared with you all.

So the first change that has happen since I’ve returned back to work after my Christmas holidays is my living arrangements. That first week back to work (Jan 11-15), I learned that Lucille and I would be moving, what we didn’t know was the actual move date. On the Tuesday of the following week at about 9:30 pm Lucille informs me that we are moving the following afternoon after work! Eek, scramble, scramble, I pulled out my suit cases and started packing my clothes and other possessions asap.

The house we now reside in is a very lovely home and my room here has a ceiling fan, spacious cupboard & closet space and carpet. We now have new house mates again, like before in the other house I was living with four girls who were part of a church gap program called Destiny Team through NCF, but their program finished at the end of November. Now the program has started up again with new participants (aprox 30 young adults), and 2 girls from this year’s program are now living with us. The old house we were living in has 9 boys occupying it from the program! Also living in with us is another girl, who like me has nothing to do with the Destiny Program, but is a University freshman student at the near by Kwa Zulu Natal Varsity Campus. So my house mates are Charlotte & Tash (Destiny Team), Jess (KZN student) and Lucille our house mother. The house is spacious and I think more comfortable which also has a better A/C for the days that reach the high 30’s and low 40’s!

My second change is that I have now started attending a home group. Home groups meet on Tuesday nights and are like bible study groups. This group I’ve been meeting with is a little younger than I, but I have been enjoying it so far. One of the guys in the group named Darryl would like to move to Vancouver, BC and he has even managed to learn all our provinces and territories and their capitals and also knows that July 1st is Canada Day. So, last week I took along with me a couple books I had bought about Canada and shared them with my group and they loved looking through the books looking at the pictures of our beautiful country.

So even though I’m not living on church property I am still active with church activities during the week. Sunday at 6pm church service, Tuesdays home group and Thursday church prayer meeting! These activities and my various work place locations make my weeks go quickly. And in about 5 months almost to this day I will be boarding a flight heading to Akron, US. So much I still want and need to do in these 5 months. But I am enjoying it here and will have many sad goodbyes L

Signing off…

Speaking Zulu

January 23, 2010

Speaking Zulu

One of my goals here in SA is to learn a little Zulu. Zulu I find is not easy. There are different click sounds for different letters, to name a few the c, ch, q and x. I have not mastered any clicks, since these clicks are different for how you place your tongue in your month to make the click sound. But I have learned a few words.

A couple months ago, James purchased a few books that help people learn new languages for us SALTer’s. This books method is to try and learn new languages by a child’s perspective. Children learn how to speak by listening to grown ups by repeating words and also by try and error. So one of the techniques in the book to use a type recorder and record words and repeat them over and over and then go into the community and use those words.

I do not have a recorder, but my days before Christmas day I read through that book, and went through my little Zulu phrase book to pick out some common phrases and words, and then on Christmas Eve I met up with my dear friend Siphokazi for a couple hours to have her help me. Siphokazi is not Zulu, but actually Xhosa but does know Zulu. Since then I have learned to speak the hello greeting better and a couple goodbye greetings, thank you greetings, and a couple other words. Actually a few months ago probably back in October, I did start a few informal lessons with someone else from work. So in one of my notebooks here I have pages with Zulu words and phrases written down.

Saying hello here is not just a one word phrase of just hello. You actually have to phrase the greetings of “Hello, how are you, I am fine” which in Zulu words would be “Sawubona, unjani, ngiyaphila”; with people that you meet. So, I’ve been working on this with people I know, and people I don’t. When I greet strangers, they are sometimes surprised and often impressed that I am greeting them in Zulu. One morning this week or last at work, I saw one of my friends that works in the tourism office walking across the parking area, instead of saying ngiyaphila (I am fine) I responded “shep shep” (good good in zulu slang), and he chuckled in surprise of my response. Other times that I’ve been trying to use the Zulu words I’ve learned is when I get out of the Kombi and I’ll turn to the Kombi conductor who had opened the door for me and say “ngiyabonga” (I thank you).

So bit by bit I am learning Zulu.

Signing off… or Hamba kahle (my farewell to you all which means, go well), and you could responde back to me Sala khale (stay well)

What Do I Do?

January 23, 2010

What Do I Do?

I’ve come to an understanding by my mother since she kindly informed me that I have neglected to blog about what work I’m doing over here. I guess I have been mostly sharing about my spare time adventures and not about my work adventures or even maybe the cultural differences here in SA to back home in Canada. So, I’ll start with the first thing on the agenda; What Do I Do?

So, to start this is my work week schedule from Monday to Friday. Monday is at my MCC office (James & Joan’s home office), Tuesday Project Gateway admin building, Wednesday and Thursday School admin building, and Friday Project Gateway admin building.

My Mondays, working with James & Joan in the MCC office, I’ve been working on accounting journal entries. James is the MCC Finance person for MCC SwaLeSa group, and he gives me journal entries to write up. He also has given me receipt slips and had me reconcile them. So, I’ve been doing a little bit of accounting duties. I’ve also done some web research, spread sheets, and my biggest task I’ve been working months on is getting all the MCC books into a working library using a Dewey decimal system! They have quiet a few books, some really old and a few not as old. I have come across some interesting old African poetry books, and a few other interesting books. I have never ever done such a task before. One of the things James and Joan did was purchase a computer program that helps to find the dewey decimal number by using the ISBN number or the author and book title. A lot of their books, I couldn’t find the dewey number, and so with those books I have now separated from the other which I have successfully have labelled, I have located a reference book that breaks down the system. But have to borrow it from the School. I enjoy my work days at the MCC office and with the company of James & Joan! They have become about three different roles to me, MCC country reps, employers, and step-in parents. And I know come July when I leave SA, I will miss having them close by, but with technology they aren’t as far!

When I first began working at Project Gateway, I was given the task from one of the head admin manager persons Di Milford, to scout out on-line companies for possible grants. Project Gateway’s major inflow of money consists of grants. These grants go to the many different Gateway project’s to help cover the expenses, to help those in need to empower than and teach them to become self efficient and to move on confidently and securely. There have already been some of their projects that have moved on and are not under their umbrella of Project Gateway! So, I sit at a computer and search company web pages to see whether Gateway will qualify for a grant and then contact the company via e-mail to learn how to apply for such grants. I was doing this both Tuesdays and Fridays, but I find this work to be long and frustrating since companies don’t respond to my messages! And sometimes the office space I work in doesn’t always have internet air time.

So my Tuesday’s you will find me up in Bronwyn’s office (Finance office in Admin building) now, helping her reconciling invoices and receipts to statements for the different projects or maybe working on archiving some of the files. I enjoy working with Bronwyn she is a really sweet and friendly person and I enjoy sharing with her about my family and country back home and what I’m up to here.

Wednesdays and Thursdays are my school days at Gateway Christian School, which is located just outside the old prison walls. Actually the area the school buildings were built on was where the prison wardens used as a recreational space during the time when the prison was in use. Some of the things I have kept myself busy with at school are creating the award certificates and Grade R (Kindergarten) graduation certificates for the Year End Award/Christmas Concert. I created, designed, printed and laminated them. I’ve also worked on creating and printing school event posters, and event tickets for the Fun Walk Fundraiser back in September, and tickets for the Year End Award/Christmas Concert back in December. I’ve also helped going around to the different classes and taken class attendance in the mornings for Mrs. Bennett (Public Relations Manager). Mrs. Bennett is who I work closely with, but have helped the school receptionist, and secretary with a little bit of filing, typing up new class list for the new school year (school years run from January to December, but it consist of four terms with a few weeks of holidays between each term). And any other tasks they might need help with. I have now just offered to help the teachers with photocopying homework sheets. The school doesn’t have money to supply the classes with work books so teaches are consonantly photocopying sheets and sheets of work assignments for the students. I think I put my foot in my month when I suggested this help last week at school, because right after the teacher’s started giving me photocopy work and I didn’t know when I could get all done, since there is only one photocopier in the school and the secretaries needed the copier too!

One of my favourite days at school is Wednesday, since this is the day that all students and teachers meet in the hall for morning worship and devotions. I love singing along with the students and teachers with their African worship songs that I have learned here. I have not learned them all very well, but there are a couple I know and love. One of my other favourite activities here at the school is when I’ve been lucky to assist one of the classes on a class trip somewhere in the city area. The children are very sweet here, and the youngest ones are very affectionate and sometimes come running over to me as I walk through the school yard to carry my purse, lunch bag and umbrella. It looks so cute when I look down to the small child carrying my purse and noticing that it is only a few inches from the ground! Sometimes I get hugs walking through the school grounds in the morning, and I very much love getting them.

Friday mornings at Project Gateway, I start the morning off at Chapel for an hour of worshiping. We used to sing African songs for the first 20 minutes but now Pastor Jabu (CEO of Project Gateway) only wants 10 mins of singing and more time focusing on the word. I love singing in the chapel here with my co-workers and friends, they sing from their hearts and it’s so incredible to sing along side with them. The rest of the day I’ve designated to spend on on-line grant research when I have internet access, and when I don’t I go asking others if they need any help with stuff.
So, as you can see I’m all over the place doing different stuff. Some days or weeks I don’t know what I’m going to do until I get there. This I find hard and frustrating since I’m used to a very scheduled work day back home and I knew what to do and when to do it, but here not always. One of the things I read about before leaving home about living and working in a warm climate culture is that the people are social orientated and not task orientated as in colder climates like back home.

Well I think that about wraps up in general what I do, I hope that has answered some questions about my days here.

Signing off in Zulu,
Hamba kahle (good bye or go well)

Changes/Add on

I realized that I didn't post everything to that blog entry so please note and read the rest of the entry which is attached to my last post.

Richard's Bay, St. Lucia and Hluhluwe & Imfolozi Park

San’bonani (hello to more than one person in Zulu),

My holiday to Richards Bay, St. Lucia and Hluhluwe, started off on the morning of the 30th of December. Lucille’s daughter Lyndall and husband Clint came up Christmas Eve and spent a few days at our place. And on the 30th we followed them up to their home in Richard’s Bay. But Lucille and I took a really nice drive up along the coast and stopped along the way at Balito beach for a walk on the board walk and a quick lunch. I found the ocean really blue here and the waves where rolling really well since it was windy.

Ballito Beach

New Years Eve, Lyndall took us over to a look out spot in Richards Bay off the coast, and finally once we found somewhere to eat lunch and buying some shampoo since I left mine at home in PMB we finally hit the road for St. Lucia for 2 nights staying at BIB’s International Backpackers. The backpackers were ok, but I met two girls from Singapore, where they were traveling down through South Africa on a holiday. We spent a quiet night there and actually I found that it can be really challenging to find somewhere to eat at certain times. So our New Years Eve was quiet, but there were fireworks going off at private parties.

New Years Day, we slept in very late and decided after a little while to book a hippo and croc boat tour on Lake St. Lucia Estuary for 2 pm, but in the mean time Lucille and I decided to try and drive around in the Isimangaliso Wetland Park, which we waited an hour in line to get in and then we didn’t have much time to explore since we had booked the boat tour. We did see however a few animals and I got a lovely shot of the coast line again. The boat tour was good and I saw lot of hippos including a baby one with its mother but was too quick to take a photo before hiding into the water again, but did manage to get one taking a big yawn. The hippos usually stay together in groups but we did see some where there were a couple together.

Hippo at Lake St. Lucia Estuary

Later after the boat tour I was very hungry since all I had eaten that day was 2 bananas all day, so Lucille and I went over to a restaurant that we had seen the night before and decided to try out their menu. When we walked into the place we were told that the kitchen was closed and that it would reopen at 6, but we could order drinks in the mean time. It was 4pm then and we decided just to get drinks and relax until the kitchen reopened for supper. There was a constant flow of customers coming in after us and were told the same story and left, but came back closer to 6pm. By then Lucille and I picked out our food, and by 6:50pm after waiting and waiting to give our order we were told that the kitchen cooks hadn’t shown up and that they weren’t going to be selling any food. So we wondered over to another near by restaurant and waited and waited in line until we were ushered to a table. It was about 8 pm by the time I finally had some food in my tummy. The night before I had similar issues that the kitchens were closed, but finally I got a burger at place just down from our room.

Saturday the 2, Lucille and I packed up our bags and said goodbye to St. Lucia and drove over to Hluhluwe & Imfolozi Park to search for the Big 5! I have to admit that the day tour of the park was a lot cheaper than I thought it would be which was good. We had gotten there about 8:30 am and it wasn’t long before we spotted our first of many giraffes, and not too long after a wild dog, but I didn’t see it soon enough for a picture and we never saw another one the rest of the day. During the course of the drive there would be dirt roads leading off the main paved road. I finally convinced Lucille to take one but she wasn’t too keen on it and was afraid an animal would damage her car. But I glad we took this road since we came across a herd of Cape Buffalo which is one of the Big 5 I hadn’t seen yet. Along this same road but further down we came across an elephant on the road, and at the very end of the road we found a white rhino laying in the muddy water hole. Other animals we came across were a wart hog, variety of buck, baboon, zebras, black rhino, some lizard and we just missed a leopard when we ventured into the Imflolzi side. Leopards are hard to find during the day, it is better to find in the early morning or on a night drive. We also didn’t see the lion, drat’s! But we did see a whole heard of elephants cross over a low river stream!

The beautiful view of inside the Park!

Elephants crossing the stream

White Rhino

We finally had to turn around since Lucille’s gas tank was getting pretty low and we still had to drive back to Lyndall and Clint’s home in Richards Bay, so we left the park at 5pm, feeling pretty good at seeing the many animals we did come across. I had met a couple at lunch time that only had seen giraffe at the beginning of the park, and they were heading into Imflolzi to find more.

Sunday the 3rd, Lucille and I accompanied Lyndall and Clint to their church. Their church meets in a school and as we entered the worship area I happened to notice some country flags hanging on the walls. And it just so happed that the row of chairs we sat down in my Canadian flag was the one hanging beside us! After the service and before we left I had Lucille stand with me beside my flag and also with her South African Flag for a photo; I just didn’t think we would get another chance to take our photos with our country flags again.

After lunch sometime we finally hit the road for home. I needed to get back so that I could my wash my clothes and repack for the next day for Port Shepstone/Shelley Beach for my Mennonite Christmas Retreat. It was a good holiday and I feel very blessed to have seen so much of God’s beauty in the past couple months and look forward to many more opportunities!