New on the blog there’s an updated profile page, now with ‘before’ and ‘after’ profiles. It may be interesting to compare the two for each person and see what’s changed! There’s also a seventh video just out of the works, but it’s been delayed to press (aka youtube) by a couple of technical hitches, which will hopefulyl be sorted out in the coming week or so.

In other news at least 2 if not 3 of us will be speaking at a Musa conference in Leamington Spa on Sautrday the 4th of September. The conference will be held at Emmanuel Evangelical Church, Leamington Spa from 1:30-4:30. If it’s anything like last year there’ll be plenty of cake afterwards on top of our multimedia-and-cutting-humour-rich presentation (which has yet to be planned…), which makes it an event not to be missed!

The work of MusaweNkosi still goes on in our absence. We’re sad to hear that operations in Eniwe have all but ceased, with the one remaining child moving to the other homes in Entoweni. Do especially remember him in your prayers. If you’d like more news, or to recieve the regular(ish – haha only joking Elaine) newsletter, do get in touch.

Until we meet again!

I think it’s safe to say we’re all straight back in at the deep end anyway. I’ve plunged into our church’s Holiday Bible Club whilst getting my job back, attempting to see all my friends again after so much time away and plenty more. Milly seems to be having an equally busy time with a new job, a million friends to meet and is flying out again, this time to Romania at the weekend, while Lydia prepares to move up to Scotland (Edinburgh) to start her nursing course.

It’s weird coming home, and it’s weird adjusting to not being able to just go back – all we’ve experienced, all the kids we love and friends we’ve made are now thousangs of miles away, and the likelihood is we’re not going to be able to afford to go back anytime soon on our student budgets. Life goes on, and despite all else we have to do in the meantime, I think a part of our thoughts, a piece of our hearts, will always be in South Africa – as cliché as it sounds – home is always slightly further away than usual.

Hopefully I’ll put up a final video when I get time to make it. Then if I have even more time I’ll try to embellish the blog with some more pictures and footage, seeing as we’re now back on un-restricted internet (ah, bliss)!

Take care, hope to see you soon if I haven’t already!

Lewis

I suppose the most chronologically logical place to start is with Holiday Bible Club – Week Two. Our second week of HBC was at Nseleni Baptist Church. The layout and format was much the same – we used the same stories and verses, which made things a lot easier, though we all had more to do as there were less of us. We had probably less kids on average the second week, though 50-70 kids for 4-5 leaders is still a pretty good number! Even on the rainy day (zulus don’t go out in the rain) kids came in dribs and drabs and we ended up with about 50 of them!

At the weekend after we were treated to a trip to Durban. Bex and Naomi have been back in their holidays, helping with HBC and other things, and with them and Gavin and Elaine we travelled to meet Ben to visit uShaka Waterpark and Aquarium.

We watched the dolphins and perused the aquarium which was staged in an old shipwreck. There were huge eels, tiny eels, rays, sharks, jellyfish and an octopus which seemed to be trying to tell us something; but perhaps foolishly, we ignored it.

After that, we went out for lunch, collected our odds and ends, and as Gavin and Elaine travelled back, the rest of us stayed to watch the Argentina-Germany game at the fan park. Germans are pretty noisy winners!

The week which followed should have felt less busy, but it didn’t really. Although we had no ‘programme’ to follow as has been the case with our school weeks and HBCs, we visited Entoweni most days to spend time with the kids while Naomi taught maths. On tuesday Milly, Naomi, Rebekah and Gavin went to Oribi Gorge for a spot of gorge swinging (bungee jumping).

Gavin wisely abstained, meanwhile Lyds and I were left to relax on a beach in Richards Bay in the morning, followed by running Sunday School in the afternoon. Number for Sunday School have been much depleted in recent weeks due to the school holidays, so we’ve resorted to telling a Jungle Dr story, having a quiz, singing songs, and playing  few games. Tomorrow (our last one!!) ought to be a little larger, as school has re-started.

As well as visiting Entoweni and Eniwe throughout the week, we were also treated (if that’s your thing) to a couple of Sokkie dancing lessons by Glen. Sokkie dancing is traditional Afrikaans dancing, generally accompanied by painfully cheesy or bizarre Afrikaans songs which are occasionally formed from cannibalized overseas hits. It was a good laugh, though I was characteristically awful, and the girls definitely enjoyed it. Maybe it’s something to YouTube!

The dawning of our last weekend in South Africa was announced with a 4:30 wake up in order to catch the early risers at the game reserve! We saw lots of animals, and also had the best breakfast I’ve had for a significantly long time! Bacon, eggs and sausages – mmm! There were also mushrooms but we won’t talk about those.

The animals possibly even more interesting than breakfast! Okay, definitely. And that’s saying something! We didn’t see a lion in the end (awww) but we did see a Rhino with an unbelievably long horn, lots of Warthogs, Impala and Wildebeast, and even two Elephants!! Have a look at these…

But yeah, it was brilliant. And such a lovely day to top it off. Another BIG thank you to Gavin and Elaine.

It’s crazy to think we’ll be leaving all this in five days. Certainly the girls seem more emotional about it than me, and are already planning to spend the rest of their lives here, but that’ not to say we’re not all going to miss it about as much! It’s so odd to think that all the people and places I know here are going to be so far out of touching distance – it’s not like I can just drive down for a visit. It’s definitely been an experience (and a good one) living with different people doing something completely different for 6 months – I think I’ll notice it more when I’m at home again. It’s funny how your habits and mannerisms and stuff change – for example it’s going to be weird drinking water from the tap, not out of the fridge at home – little things like that, but it’s going to be odd without them.

It’s also exciting to be going home. However completely un-homesick I’ve been for most of the last six months, there’s been a lot I’ve missed. It’ll be good to see everyone again, to be part of my church, even just to wear the familiar old clothes and laugh at the Sockman sitting in the town centre. I think it’ll take a fair bit of reflection to get my head around everything that’s happened in the past year. Do I want to live here, do this forever? I honestly don’t know. That’s for God to tell me in the future I suppose! But for now, I am gonna miss it.

I will endeavour to squeeze out another video before we leave – no promises though! Haha.

Hope you’re all well, and we’ll see you soon!

Lewis

Last week we were running a Holiday Bible Club (from here-on in HBC) at Matchana. I’ve probably spelt that wrong, but hey ho. It was a cold, grey day here on monday, and as we arrived we didn’t expect great things, as Zulus don’t like to go out when it’s cold! And, as expected, we arrived to greet a grand total of about 2 children! As it was the first time the church has ever hosted anything like that, I don’t think it’d really managed to get out so well – so the pastor went round all the houses and told the kids to come! We ended up with 120!

Our sunday school timetable involves an ‘Object Lesson’ (a pictoral example to explain a biblical principle), a Jungle Dr story, a Bible story, a quiz, a memory verse, and then some games, all punctuated with a healthy smattering of songs: some english, some zulu.

We had an average of 80-90 kids each day I think, which felt just about right for our flucutating entourage of about 6-7 leaders. We all swapped around jobs and slots, which meant we all got a go at most things.

It's story time! The pastor translates into zulu...

Cool! It's one of those socks-into-bucket quizzes!

Suddenly everyone knows the answer! Well almost everyone...

Okay, there's definitely some cheating going on here!

Who wants to hold a balloon for the memory verse? Uh-oh - everybody!

That's more like it.

Games time! The older kids seem to be having some ridiculous sort of relay race...

...the younger kids are getting stuck into a game of duster hockey...

...meanwhile the dinkies are doing some colouring - yayyyy!

So who's coming back tomorrow!?

I think it’s safe to say we all really enjoyed the week! We’re doing something of a repeat act at Nseleni this week, so I’ll update you on that later on in the week.

On top of an exciting week of HBC, we were also treated by Gavin and Elaine to a once (or twice, in Lydia’s case) in a lifetime experience in the form of a boat-trip at St Lucia on saturday! Guess what we saw first hand…

Not bad eh? You can click any of the last 3 pictures to see a super hi-res version! I’ve been having a fiddle with Photoshop’s ‘Panorama’ feature, so you may find five legged-two headed hippos and stuff…but I think they look good?!

Anyway, the week has flown past. It’s sad now thinking we’re only here for another 3 – needless to say I think we’re gonna make the most of it!

Hope to be in touch again soon,

Lewis

Both were pretty big affairs! In Canaan the ‘farewell ceremony’ was supposed to start at 11, however Prophet Urban- the preacher- didn’t turn up on time therefore we started about 15-20mins late. The HOD opened with a few comments about how nice it had been to have us at the school and how sad it was that we now had to leave. Then Prophet Urban took over and preached a fairly disjointed message about ……………….. after finishing his message Prophet Urban went on to pray (with the entire school standing up with their hands in the air) for about 10mins.

There seems to always be an order of service for any occasion here. Even something as small as our goodbye service had a printed out timetable and a programme coordinator!  After Prophet Urban had finished his part the school choir came up and sang a few songs very, very well. Singing here is just out of another world. Even the boys join in with a gusty tenor/bass line. They love singing and get into it with all they have blasting out the notes and dancing along. The whole choir together sounded amazing. Another highlight was when the girls did some Zulu dancing in a group. It’s very beautiful dancing, led by a massive drum and involved mainly footwork.

After that we were asked to perform a song in Zulu!! The children started the song in English and then we were expected to sing a response in Zulu! Thankfully it didn’t go to badly and nobody laughed at us. C.J then said some very nice things about us, which were very nice to hear. We were then presented with our thank-you gifts. Lewis was given a goat skin hat while Milly and myself were given goat skin flip flops and a headband. Lewis then on behalf of all of us said how great it had been working in the school and getting to know the children and the teachers. There was abit more singing and dancing and then we were shown the feast of our life! They had actually braai’d about 3 cows! There were salads and putu and meat and drinks and chips and so, so much food!! It was a lovely day- though very sad as well.

The farewell at Eniwe was similar, but probably less organized, although there was still an order of events and programme coordinator! This day was the finale of our plays as well. Even though it was a big shame we had to drop the grade 5 play as the children weren’t listening and we were making no progress. So on the final day at Eniwe grade 6 and grade 4 performed their plays. Again South Africa is very different to the UK in that on the last day of school, despite being in the play the boy acting Noah didn’t turn up, the boys that were the dove and the raven didn’t turn up, most of the animals didn’t turn up and narrator 8 didn’t turn up! So on the morning of the play it didn’t look to hopefully. However I was able to convince Sbongsen, a boy from grade 5, to learn the Noah part and we were able to substitute others into the other roles, so in the end it went okay. Grade 6 had less people missing thankfully and went very well. The teacher was very pleased at how well it went. Grade 2 did some singing and dancing for us, it was very sweet.

We were then given gifts. We all received a trophy(!!) from the school and also a South African soccer shirt so that we could say we supported bafana bafana!! Again there was a feast prepared and I ate until I was stuffed as it was shovelled onto my plate! Again this day was very special.

As school is over now we have 4 weeks to kill. Nah, just joking, we have plenty to do. Starting tomorrow we are running a ‘Mini World Cup/Entoyeni World Cup’ for Canaan school kids. They all seem pretty excited about it, so we’re just waiting to see how many actually turn up! That will probably run for 2-3 days. We then have 2 Holiday Bible Clubs lasting a week each. One is in Nseleni and the other is in Matchana. We haven’t been to Matchana before so it will be interesting to meet some new children and to share the Word with them.

With only a few weeks left, it’s getting pretty sad knowing that I will probably not see most of these children ever again. Having got to know most of them individually and coming to really care for them the thought of leaving them is terrible.

Love,

Lydia

The fun really started the day before my birthday – guess what Lyds and Milly got me?!? A horse riding trek! It was really good fun. I rode a big horsey called Copper.

Sadly he was a little slow…possibly in part due to my significant weight on his back. Regardless, he did have his moments of haste – once when he started running off downhill, and a couple of times when he got spooked by the farm dogs running in the sugar cane! We went out for a trek (me and Lyds riding, Milly walking) with a 14ish year old horsey person, and rode through majestic scenery into the sunset, through woods, vales and hills. And, in fact, that’s not very far from the truth!

My birthday started like this:

I was prepared a delicious bacon and egg breakfast by Lyds, before driving off to school for the morning. A few lessons later (and a quick happy birthday from grade 6), it was time to go. When we arrived home, Mummy called, we had a quick turnaround, and then had to drive out to Etsheni for homestead visiting. We walked around in pairs, visiting homesteads to check for orphans. Milly was proposed to (and got lost – according to the volunteers!), and Cindy (zulu volunteer I was paired with) and I were led on a wild goose chase, which left Lydia and her two volunteers to do the bulk part of the work! A couple of exhausting hours later we dropped the volunteers back off and drove home to Empangeni. In the evening I had band practice, which resulted in a bit of rather over exuberant and talentless bass playing, and so I finally rolled in at about 8:30 in time for a phone call from Daddy!

A much better birthday that I’d expected! I was also treated to an unnofficial birthday present by Gavin and Elaine, as we visited the Drakensberg over the weekend!

We left early on Friday morning, to arrive about midday at the ‘Little Switzerland Resort’. ‘Little Switzerland’ has a hotel, and numerous chalets, all located on a picturesque plateau halfway up a mountain. You can hear baboons bellowing in the nearby forest, get close enough to touch wild zebras, but still enjoy the comfort and convenience of the site’s tennis court, bowls green, volleyball court, stables, trampoline, crazy golf course, swimming pools, play parks, and fully equipped gym/sauna/jacuzzi/indoor pool/squash court facilities. I was impressed. Could you tell?

We went with Gavin and Elaine, and met Rebekah, Naomi, Ben (G+E’s kids), Eman and Candice (family friends) there.
We arrived first (by some margin) and were left to explore on our own! To our surprise we discovered that the facilities (except the gym, squash court etc) were all free! So we had a couple of rounds of ‘Putt-Putt’ (aka crazy golf) and several games of bowls. Needless to say I was mostly victorious, in a roundabout kind of way. It soon started to go dark, and we waited for everyone else to arrive. Everyone except Eman (who was to arrive the next morning) turned up by about 6:00. We ate a delicious supper, and played a game of 30 Seconds, and went to bed.

The next morning, some of us (me, Milly, Rebekah, Candice, Gavin) were up bright and early for a walk down to some nearby ‘falls’. We almost lost Milly there when a pillar collapsed, dropping a huge rock onto her. Luckily, Gavin managed to lift it off.

We played squash and tennis in the morning, coming back for lunch afterwards. The fog settled thereafter, so while Milly got her fix in the gym Lydia and I shared a very soggy game of tennis. The night was concluded with another delectable offering from Elaine’s culinary repertoire.

The next morning was time to leave, and so we had to clear our chalets. Once we’d loaded everything into the back of the bakkie, we headed over to reception to borrow some games kit before we left! Bowls was first on the agenda, as we split into two games. It was an intense, fast, and furious match – wait – no it wasn’t…but it was fun.

After this, those who wanted to headed back to relax/prepare dinner, and Milly, Lyds and I played 3 games of volleyball against Ben, Candice and Eman. South Africa took advantage of the young english team’s disorganisation in the first match, winning in almost straight points. By the second match however, we had recovered, and inflicted a heavy defeat. The deciding game was going really well – until we had to cut it short for lunch and lost. Or at least, that’s my excuse. Haha.

On the way home we visited the Cascades at Royal Natal – the sun was glistening off the rushing water – it was amazing. The water was frost cold which was lovely on your hot, sweaty feet!

Anyway, I had a fantastic weekend. It was brilliant being in the Berg – the cooler climate, stunning views and sports facilities suited me just fine! Apologies for the lateness of the post, it’s not even near my birthday now, but it’s been in the pipeline for a fair few days!

Have a good week, will try to be in touch soon – might even get to hear from the girls!

Lewis

Stuff has been a bit crazy here. At the moment we can’t go out to Entoweni or Canaan school because things have escalated so much.

Basically: Enock who is the resident pastor/housefather at the Entoweni homes has been more and more problematic since he got married to Gertie (problem housemother) but because he’s now 65 they can retire him. That option was being considered for the near future whilst thinking about pay rises or other things they could do to calm the situation.

It has recently become clear however, that Enock is now planning to try to take control of the whole project in Entoweni by fostering all the kids himself, and taking the homes. Whilst this doesn’t sound so terrible, it is very worrying because of the problems which are present in the project under his supervision. The decision was made that he should be retired with immediate effect.

The board travelled to the home for a meeting to inform him of this at which he became very abusive and even threatened them (‘God knows what will happen to you!’ etc). The other housemothers have advised Elaine to stay away from the area without first phoning them. This has meant we’ve not been able to get out to Canaan school or the home this week due to worries over safety.

The children are obviously shaken by the whole thing, with the imminent danger of being sent back into abusive situations pressing on their minds. Elaine has met them to try and reassure them, but it’s not an easy time for anyone.

The plan is for us to return to Canaan school next week, but probably not to venture to the homes yet. Safe to say we’re looking forward to seeing the kids again and hopefully being able to give them some reassurance and respite. Please pray about this situation, ’cause it’s not nice and there’s no obvious happy ending on the horizon.

In other news…

• Watching the brilliant Man City – Tottenham game has made me miss football very much! My eyes are yet again still on the mend, and fitness levels are down however, so I may have some work to do before it’s worth trying to play when I get home! Also my team has irritatingly arranged to play at the Walker’s Stadium in an end of season friendly against the youth team – in May – while I’m here. Completely not fair!
• I should also add to that that Switchfoot and TobyMac are playing close to Loughborough around the same time, which again, I’m missing! Gaah!
• I’ve gained a spot playing bass in the ‘worship team’ at Empangeni Baptist Church. They mentioned on Sunday they were short of musicians, and invited people to come have a go at the Thursday practice. I smashed out a few bum notes accompanied some quizzical looks at the music sheet and was promptly offered a job due to the lack of a viable alternative. Sounds familiar (if you were involved with Elev8!)…
• I bought some football magazines (the kids like them) and two were meant to have world cup trading cards in! But one didn’t. But I did get a shiny in the other one. How exciting. Okay, that’s not really news.
• You should see how our play props are taking shape! My Goliath shield and spear are particularly impressive. Or at least, I thought so.
• Our lack of presence caused Britain to become pathetic and fail to elect itself a government. Well done guys.

I’m witterring now. And Live at the Apollo is just starting on BBC Entertainment, which is my cue to be off.

Any questions? Fire away.

Keep in touch, hope all you blog followers (Mum, Dad…hamster…) are well!

Lewis