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….
Friday, February 19, 2010
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…
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…
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