Another Average Day

From what I know of most other folk serving in a foreign culture far from home, from time to time they get asked something along the lines of  "What does a typical day look like?" That's a tricky one to answer but here's a great post by Hazel on the subject: Two Days, One Life. What I also know from reading the various blogs and websites of other folk serving in a foreign culture far from home is that this is a bit of a dreaded question. In part because trying to explain running around in ever decreasing circles isn't really very edifying and telling folk that you drink tea or coffee all day whilst talking to locals isn't really deemed to be work by the good folk back at base. Added in to the mix is the need to justify to supporters why they should carry on supporting and it all becomes a bit sensitive.

I would like to pretend that I am above such things but in reality I sometimes feel the need to justify my existence just like anyone else...

Tiny Bubbles Christmas Party

Today marked the eagerly awaited day for the Tiny Bubble creche in Chris Nissen. The boys' school have had a partnership with the créche for 3 years now, providing weekly sandwiches mainly, but also coming up trumps from time to time with school supplies, clothing and the odd cooker or two! Each year, we do a special party for all the children and "our children" have been generously buying presents for the individual kids and making and buying yummy party food for them!

Emyezweni Christmas Party

It hardly seems possible that a year has slipped past since I last entertained the kids at the Emyezweni Christmas party in Lwandle, but that year has shot past and here we are posting about it again.

I really enjoy being asked to entertain the kids and count it a real privilege to invest a tiny amount in the lives of these kids.

As ever they were a fantastically appreciative audience and certainly know how to make one feel good! The simplest tricks continue to be the most appreciated. The fire juggling is a huge hit, but the unicycling and diabolo are also popular. Climb the string is the simplest of diabolo tricks but probably the most appreciated. Throwing the diabolo is also great, the higher the better! Each year I try to do something different, so last year I used my fire clubs for the first time and this year I used my juggling rings which went down very well. Next year could be a bit tricky.

Tiny Bubble Registration

We heard some really good news from Sandra at Tiny Bubble créche today. After several months of much frustration, form filling and scraping before officialdom, the créche is now officially registered.

This is great as it means Sandra and her staff can now seek some financial assistance from the education and social welfare departments. They will also be able to seek help with wages as presently they work voluntarily.

Routines

We've been back for just over a week and it feels like we've hit the ground running in terms of following up on contacts, establishing new contacts and working out a plan of attack as to what we do, where we go and who we see over the next few months.

The boys have slotted back into their routines smoothly and they're both delighted to be back with their friends at school & playgroup.

Tiny Bubbles Come To Play

The morning that we flew to the UK turned out to be a really special one as the children from Chris Nissen's Tiny Bubbles creche were invited by Joel's school to come and play for the very first time. It was a freezing day, but so much fun was had as around 60 children from many and varied cultures spent the morning together playing, learning and having a fantastic snack lunch. From the point of view of the children at the International School it was great to finally meet the children they so faithfully make sandwiches for every Thursday. As for the Tiny Bubbles kids - well just look at the pictures!! We hope that this 'exchange' will be the first of many.

Absurdity Of Bureaucracy

How crazy is this?...

Tiny Bubbles Créche was set up in CNP about 2 years ago in the containers, so they have electricity but no water or sanitation facilities. The municipality agreed to provide these services for the créche but to date has failed to do so.

So late last week the municipality sent a health inspector to Tiny Bubbles to assess the situation. The conclusion being that the créche may have to close if they don't get water and sanitation sorted out.

Tiny Bubbles Créche Graduation

This afternoon we went to the Tiny Bubbles Créche graduation in Chris Nissen Park. Despite the classic CNP start -very chaotic- the event was great and very well put together. Sandra directed the proceedings and there was a lot of involvement from the rest of the community. Not only did a lot of folk come to watch, but many of the older children in CNP had put dance routines together to entertain the audience.

Emyezweni Christmas Party

On Friday I had the privilege of entertaining the children at Emyezweni Pre-School in Lwandle. This seems to have become a bit of a tradition but it's a lot of fun and the children really appreciate it. This year I had my fire clubs fixed so I was able to juggle with fire too. As you could imagine it was a real hit and the children requested that I juggle fire again at the end.

Emyezweni Pre-School

One of the joys of my work is that I get to spend time with a wide variety of people in a wide variety of contexts. One of the best contexts is Emyezweni Pre-School which is run by Debs & Rach as part of HCC's outreach into Lwandle. This morning I took my laptop and projector and played Cars for the kids. Needless to say the film was a huge hit.

The boy in the foreground in the check shirt was riveted

Nose Picking Shepherd

Joel had a ball at the Twinkle Tots Nativity yesterday. He did himself proud and we were very proud parents! As you'll see from the photos below, Joel was very happy and enjoyed the whole experience, unlike last year when he refused to participate and cried throughout. Nata had obviously given a lot of thought as to who would take which roles and Joel was one of two shepherds. The other shepherd was a smaller boy named Liam and Joel took him under his wing and helped him along.

Joel's Last Day @ Twinkle Tots

Today is Joel's last morning at Twinkle Tots, where did his 2 years there go? He has really enjoyed his time there and we've seen him develop and flourish in so many ways. We'll always be grateful to Nata, Ouma & Yolande for taking such good care of our boy! We're also looking forward to Eli starting there in June next year. Tomorrow Joel will be a shepherd in the Twinkle Tots nativity and then it really is 'farewell' as he starts at the International School in January. Wow, he's getting all grown up!

Strawberry Picking

On Friday Paula went with Joel on the Twinkle Tots annual strawberry picking trip, much fun was had by all as well as many strawberries! Thankfully they didn't weigh the kids or parents on arrival or departure.

Emyezweni Christmas Party

We were invited to attend the Emyezweni Christmas Party today, mainly so that Dean could entertain the kids again, but also because we try and support the work as much as possible, although in truth we don't do anywhere near as much as we'd like to for them.

As usual the Christmas party was a lot of fun, Debs, Rach' and the staff really do put a huge amount of work into it and the whole event is brilliant.

The photos tell their own story, so we hope you enjoy them..

Chris Nissen

I had an interesting morning in CNP today. His first task was to deliver a load of toys and two cupboards to the newly established créche in the community. This créche is a bit of a mixed blessing for us, it's great that at last there is something for the kids and their parents, it means that I can no longer use the containers for my bible study on Thursday mornings.

Twinkle Tots At The Fire Station

Joel went with Twinkle Tots to the local fire station this morning and had a great time, despite the awful weather. Joel was a bit disappointed not to see Fireman Sam but was quite pleased to see Fireman Michael who is a real fireman. All the kids seemed to have a great time and there was an unusually good turnout of dads!

A Meaningful Update - At Last!

We apologise that it has been an age since our last blog update but life has been hectic, hectic!! We eventually moved house on Monday 21 February - typically it was the day of the first torrential rain of the year and we all sorts of furniture to move! Thankfully we managed to dodge the downpours and everything is now in situ. We have also had nearly 3 weeks of huge power cuts right across the Western Cape which has impacted everything from not being able to sterilise bottles, make a cup of tea, sew up curtains, cook dinner, wash clothes.

Emyezweni Pre School

Debs has just updated her Blog with some cute photos of one or two of the kids at the pre-school. Take a look at Deb's SA News

Here's one to whet your appetite

Emyezweni Christmas Party

We recently posted a couple of photos from the Emyezweni Christmas party which was a great event. If you would like to see more of Dean's photos and read a bit more detail about the event take a look at 'Debs News'.

Debs (together with Rachel) runs Emyezweni pre school in Lwandle (a township just outside Somerset West) with support from Ukuthasa a UK charity and Helderberg Christian Church. The pre school offers a valuable service to many parents who would otherwise have to stop working to care for their kids.

Andy, Father Christmas, Noddy Et Al

We've had an excellent time with Andy Clasper from Queens Road Church in Wimbledon, it was a pleasure to spend time together and to be able to show Andy a little bit of what we're up to. Andy has also had a brilliant 3 week holiday in SA and has been able to experience things normally not on offer to tourists including playing Santa for 70+ children in Emyezweni, our pre-school in Lwandle township (enjoy the photo below).