Another Year Older!

On Friday I sat with a group of Rastafarians and chatted for an hour or so (I'm now fluent in their greetings - respect!) which was very enlightening. They feel very strongly that alcohol is a huge problem and want to see the shebeens closed but also the breweries. I found this a little amusing as the pulled out a 'sack' of hash and proceeded to roll the most enormous spliffs! They saw no irony in this rather explaining it as being what helped them meditate on the book of life! They want to talk again so I'll being doing some research on Rastafarianism before that.

Mama Jane and family (with Dina) left for the Transkei on Friday evening for the funeral. Unfortunately their bus broke down and they eventually arrived on Sunday morning! They had 2 hours for the funeral and had to leave immediately to get back to CNP, needless to say that they were shattered this afternoon. Sadly I just found out this evening that the Rasta I saw last week with AIDS related TB died on Friday evening. Once again the community are in shock and mourning.

We've had a great weekend, celebrating Dean's birthday on Saturday with friends and neighbours. We were sat out in the garden until midnight enjoying the balmy weather. Paula gave Dean a stunt kite for his birthday so on Saturday we went to the beach to fly the kite which was fun. Joel really enjoyed exploring the rock pools, however we had to keep an eye out for the jellyfish as there were hundreds of them on the beach. We had fish & chips on the beach for lunch and then spent the afternoon getting ready for the evening.

Paula is continuing to enjoy going a bit deeper with some of her new friends. 2 in particular seem to be becoming close friends. She has also been asked today to disciple one of the young girls who is serving with the church until March next year. She is on a year out before deciding whether to take up nursing training in the UK. This will be a real privilege for Paula. She is also meeting tomorrow with another friend to discuss the setting up of the day cell group for mums and young children. She hopes to start this cross-cultural group in January next year and all the plans look exciting. Please also pray for her as she goes to have a suspected verruca burnt out at the doctors tomorrow (Tuesday)! Ouch!! Joel has just learnt to jump, courtesy of a borrowed Teletubbies video!! This is extremely amusing as he can't yet stand alone without support, so the jumping action is impressive!

Cheers for now

D & P