The life and times of Lindsay working at Rehoboth

The Last Post

2008-12-06T09:48:00.002+02:00

Well guys this is potentially the last time I'll get on to the internet before I leave on Tuesday. The last few days have -as has always been these past 3 weeks- awesome. Have had many more special times with the kids. On Friday we had some music on in the creche and I danced with all the toddlers. It was such a special time, I didn't take any pictures as it didn't want the kids to feel like the had to perform, I just wanted them to be themselves. We were dancing and prancing about having so much fun. I seriously didn't want the mom's to come and pick the kids up at 10, I would have happily danced all day with them. The look of absolute happiness on their faces was so amazing to see. They all have such big, warm smiles- they truly melt my heart. Even though some of them have endured such hardship, they are still happy and smiley. Simple things like dancing together gives them so much pleasure.
Whilst still visiting my kids, I've been spending more time with friends making it even more awesome. Thursday night was at cell where we had a wee birthday party. There was much merriment mainly in the form of laughing at our attempts on the singstar. It's been a while since I've totally let my hair down and "chillaxed" so all good for Lindsay. Then last night went out to the re-0pening of a bike shop just down the road. Was again a really nice evening spent with some amazing people. Now I'm just about to head off for the weekend with more friends to a nice house by the beach (shame it's tipping it down outside- at least it's not snowing!!!). I'll upload all the pictures from my last few days likely when I'm back in England so keep looking- they'll appear soon!
L
xx

Good times

2008-12-02T08:36:00.007+02:00

Since I last blogged I've had so many more special moments with my kids. German measles is sweeping across the village (they don't get the MMR jab here for free- it would cost 10 pounds per child) so we've had a few kids off school. I've been spending time with them chatting and watching DVD's in the hope that I can distract them from the discomfort they're feeling. I'm still rather shocked that in a country where so many kids who are already so sick with HIV, TB or both won't receive the MMR immunisation. Crazy, huh?Anyhoo, I spent a lovely morning with the babies and toddlers in the creche. We actually had to hold it in one of the houses as the weekend storms caused flooding in the creche building. It seemed so much more relaxed and informal, I don't know why it just did. Another "wave" of toddlers are just on the verge of walking so we're keeping a close eye out so we can get it on camera when it does happen! It's such a joy andf priveledge to be able to see a child walk for the first time.

We've had 3 more arrivals this week and last and one on the way meaning that with 55 children placed at Rehoboth we are officially full. With 5 children in each house it's sometimes not an easy job for the mom's- especially if all their children are under 5!!! Not sure how well I would cope with that! I'm sure my own mum could sympathise with these women as she had 4 children under 4!! The older children however really do look after themselves, they're taught from a young age to help the mom's wherever possible, like doing a bit of wahing up, helping with the washing and cleaning. They do it so willingly, without fuss as they know how much their "aunties" do for them. It's so nice to see.

I babysat 15 children yesterday for a few hours as the mom's went for IT classes. It was an absolute breeze I have to say. Some of the kids watched "surfs up", some played soccer outside, others read books. I had two babies with me, but the kids were so good at looking after them I actually probably didn't really need to be there. When they started to get a bit restless I would take the babies, but otherwise I had to "wait my turn" before I could get some hugs in!! The older kids know how to work my camera so I let them loose with it and they took some rather good pictures:

I'm now not sleeping at Rehoboth, I'm staying with my amazing friend Reece who is my rock. She's just such an awesome friend and I absolutely adore her family. I'll still be driving through to Rehoboth most days, I just wanted to spend time with her as well. I'm actually going to visit her place of work as well as she works somewhere called "Place of Restoration". It's a foster home, housing 60 kids from all different backgrounds. Black, white, coloured, HIV positive, HIV negative it doesn't matter. If there is a need to place a child, it is placed while fostering or adoption is arranged. It's a completely different set up to Rehoboth, but I've fallen in love with the kids already. For the protection of these kids, some of which have been through horrendous hardships already in their little lives, I'll not be posting any pictures or writing about any specific children. I'll just be handing out hugs and kisses to them for free as always and trying to give them as much love as I can in a week.
I can't believe that I only actually have a week left in South Africa. I fly at midnight a week today. I knew that time would fly, but it's still a bummer to know that I'm going home in 7 days. Gonna try not to think about that one........

This is Africa and I wouldn't have it any other way

2008-11-29T11:58:00.005+02:00

I'm sitting writing this blog in the middle of a typical African thunderstorm. After enjoying a morning and afternoon of glorious sunshine, with very little warning I'm now sitting looking out across the sky as bolts of lightning strike the ground all around me. Rain is pouring down and it's blowing a gale to say the least. I find it quite hard to believe that I was in the swimming pool with the kids only an hour again. This as they say is Africa and I wouldn't change it for the world. Speaking with Rob we both agree that while South Africa is enduring many hardships such as the AIDS crisis, poverty, a corrupt government etc that's what makes this country what it is. It's because of these things that make the people like they are- friendly, warm, inviting and so loving. I come across countless people everyday who have very little, yet what little they have they would willingly share with me even though they don't know me. Then I come across the gas station pump attendant who will allow us to put 5 litres of diesel into our car which has run out of diesel even though we have no money so we can get home.That was a funny moment. Rob and I went to pick some bread from the supermarket, we knew we had very little fuel but we thought we would get there but nope as we came out of the supermarket the car just died. Neither of us had any money, but we managed to persude the petrol guy to give us 5 litres and then we would go back later with the money. Not convinced that would happen in England.

Anyhoo have had more exciting times with the kids these past few days. On Wednesday I took more of the kids shopping for new clothes. One of the boys I took was the little boy that I mentioned in my last post- the one who I thought would die before I got back out to South Africa. He has no idea what we were doing, he looked so worried in the car, I think he thought that I was taking him back to the hospital. But once we got past the hospital he perked up a bit. When we got to the shopping centre he was still rather confused (his english is still quite bad, I don't think he understood what I was saying) so I plonked him in a trolley (he literally walks like less than 1 mile an hour) and we headed off to the shops. I kept picking out clothes and showing them to him and he again just looked confused. It was quite comical bless him. This child is nearly 5 and he wears clothes size 18-24 months!!! Eventually when I had picked out lots of clothes for him to try we went into the fitting room and then he realised what we were doing. As soon as I told him to take off his t shirt and try a new one he started grinning from ear to ear, the penny finally dropped. We tried on lots of clothes (t shirts are like less than £1) and then went to find him some shoes. As we were walking around he was clutching onto his piles of new clothes for dear life. When we finally went to pay I saw relief in his face- he knew they were now his. By this time we had only been shopping for about an hour but he was finished. He looked so tired bless him. So I got him some ice cream and we went home. By the time I got back to Rehoboth he was fast asleep and looked as though he was in absolute bliss without a care in the world. Good times. Speaking of good times, here are a few more pics of the kids- you wouldn't believe how much some of them have grown and developed in only 8 months!

We had a few birthday's this week. The boy below only arrived at the village a week ago and he's already had his first every birthday party. He looked so happy the whole time.

This little beauty is the "premie" baby that arrived shortly before I left in March (picture of me with her in one of my older posts in Feb/March). At only 2.5kg at 4 months, she was very small, but look at her now celebrating her first birthday! Also huge news in that she is actually also HIV negative- praise God!

On Wednesday night I got to see the kids dance in a show. The school children get hip hop dance lessons once a week. Every single child has such an amazing sense of rhythm, but they are all so unique in the way they dance. I was so proud of them when they were dancing. After the performance there was a presentation as all of the children in the show did dance exams this week. All of our children passed and one even got a trophy for "best hip hop grade 1". He didn't know he was getting the trophy so he was so shocked when they called his name. Again the feeling of pride was overflowing inside.

On Thursday night I met up with more friends at my old cell group. I've missed those guys so much. They're all just so chilled and relaxed, they have a great effect on me. Even though we had no power because of the storm we just sat and chatted. It didn't feel like I had been away from these guys for 8 months. It felt so normal. Made me realise that I really don't make it a big enough priority to stay in contact with these guys. Who can guess what my new year's resolution will be....

An emotional reunion

2008-11-25T17:31:00.005+02:00

Finally I got to see my beautiful children, after 8 months of thinking about them and longing to be with them every single day. The reunion was awesome. I just rocked up out of the blue, walked along to where they were all playing together and just casually said “hi guys”. They looked up and said “hi” back and then looked away. They then did a double take saw that it was me and all came running up to me screaming “Auntie Lindsay”. Is was just so awesome. They were hugging me and telling me how much they had missed me and how happy they were to see me. For the first time in a long while I felt completely relaxed and insanely happy. I was home, I was with my kids. After that reunion I had many more with the younger children and all the mom’s. Each time I went into a house and saw the kids they recognized me straight away and came running. I would then move onto the next house with all the kids in tow until I finally reached the last house with more than 30 kids by my side. It was such an emotional reunion and I managed to hold it together until the very last house. When I left South Africa in March I left a little boy dying in the local hospital. He had multiple infections, we thought he was in final stage AIDS and would die. When I said goodbye to him I really though that was it. I was even praying that God would have mercy and take that little child to be with him in heaven. But he survived, he is now happy and relatively healthy. So for me to see him again was just so amazing I just burst into tears. My little boy is still here, my little boy is happy, my little boy is no longer in pain. God did have mercy on that little boy, He did heal Him. He is a walking, living miracle. Yesterday I had the immense pleasure of giving him a little motorbike. He was grinning from ear to ear when I told him it was his.

I still can’t get over how much some of the children have changed. More than 3 of the toddlers who were just starting to crawl when I left are now running about laughing and chatting away. The older toddlers are speaking very nicely. I can sit with them and have a proper conversation. The school kids have matured and the shy ones are starting to come out of their shells. When I walk into devotions in the morning the kids all come running up to me wanting to grab my hand. This morning I could hardly move there were so many of them around me. I sit with at least 3 children on my lap and countless others either side of me and in front of me. The feeling of love is awesome, I never want it to end. I couldn’t possibly describe how much I love each and every child. I love them as if they were my own and I will never stop loving them. Being back with them shows them that I haven’t forgotten about them. When I left in March I told them all that I would think about them and pray for them everyday and that someday I would return to see them. I don’t think they 100% believed that until I arrived on Saturday. Now they know that I will never forget about them and that I do think about them everyday. These kids have endured such hardships in their small lives before coming to Rehoboth. False promises have made it difficult for them to trust people. I have always said to the children that I will never break a promise, I haven’t yet and never will. Most of you know that I have been sending out birthday presents to all the kids while I’ve been home. It has cost me a small fortune but I’ve seen the rewards. I always send a card with a picture of me and the child along with a present so that they will always be reminded of what I look like. The cards I send are up on the pin boards in all the houses. It was so touching going round the houses and seeing the pictures up there. Now I know that while they are sitting eating dinner they can look at the picture of me and know that I love them with all my heart and that even though I am far away they’ll always be in my heart. I will never forget them, they are my children and I am so unbelievably privileged to be a part of their lives.
It’s been so great seeing all my friends again too. Had a huge emotional reunion with an amazing friend called Reece at church on Sunday morning. She is such an awesome friend, I’ve missed her so much. We ran into each other’s arms and hugged for ages. I didn’t want to let her go. But I did as we had to continue with the service. Then near the end of the service while we singing the benediction Reece’s son appeared out of no where, wrapped his arms around my leg, gave me a huge hug and ran off again. It was so lovely. Then last night I met up with about 15 more friends and had dinner with them. We sat and chatted all evening just like old times. Most of the guys are in a band together so they were practicing in the background. They are all such amazing musicians and make truly inspiring music, was such a privilege to sit and listen to them. Hoping to have many more evenings like that before I leave.
I’ve quickly got back into the swing of things here, I’ve been working in the crèche playing with the toddlers and pre school kids, whilst giving the babies lots of hugs (such a hardship!). I’ve also had the pleasure of taking some of the kids out shopping for new clothes. Yesterday I took one of the new little girls who has probably never had clothes bought for her in her life. Everything she chose was so pretty and girly, most of it pink. The smile on her face got bigger and bigger as our time together went on. She was in absolute bliss. It was so lovely to see. Today I took one of the maid’s (Busi) children out shopping for school clothes. I decided a while ago that I would pay for her to go to the same school that the Rehoboth children go to. I knew that Busi could never afford to send her to school and knowing what that family has been through in the last few years I just knew that this beautiful little girl needed someone to give her a chance to make something of her life. So we shopped for school clothes, a bag, shoes, pencil case, lunch box etc. Again she looked as though she was in absolute bliss! I showed her mum everything I had bought and she just broke down in tears. I could see in her eyes relief as well as joy knowing that her child now has a chance to really make something of her life and hopefully avoid going through what her mother has gone through. I must have only spent about 40 pounds on her, if that. Such a small amount of money that has made such a huge difference. Think we could all learn a little from the experience I had today.

Honey, I'm home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-11-21T08:53:00.002+02:00

I'm back on the Southern Hemisphere!!! Woop Woop!!!
Right now that's out of the way, let's get cracking! Or not as the case may be. I'm currently sitting at the computer in my pyjamas with a cup of tea, blogging without a care in the world. Looking out the window the sun is shining, the sky is blue, there is a slight refreshing breeze, what more could I ask for!
My flights yesterday were fine, no major issues, just slightly delayed leaving Amsterdam. The business class lounge was an absolute joy. Just sitting around, munching on caramel waffles with a cup of tea, it was quiet and relaxed. I looked insanely out of place in my baggy pants and comfy hoody, but no one actually seemed to care. On the plane I had all the leg room I could possible hope for, it was chilled and relaxed. Food wasn't great I have to say, but hey at the end of the day I'm here and that's all that matters. Now the next adventure will be negotiating Joburg airpoirt once more and getting down to Durbs tomorrow. Then it will be reunion time. Can't wait!
Apparently the internet cafe which I used to blog the last time is no longer there, so I'll be on a mission to find somewhere else on Monday! Wish me luck!
L
xx

Deja Vu

2008-11-18T21:02:00.002+02:00

Well here I am again about to embark upon yet another epic trip to my beloved South Africa. After being home now for 8 months I just couldn't wait any longer. I miss Rehoboth so much, I miss my beautiful children so much, I miss my awesome friends so much and I miss a country that will always hold a special place in my heart.
Looking back over the posts I did during my 6 month stay I am reminded of how amazing God is, and how amazingly blessed I am to be able to go back. Yes, I'm only going for 3 weeks, but that doesn't matter. This time round I'm even more excited. I don't have any nerves (apart from nerves about flying), I'm just so eager to get to Durbs, get in the car, get down to Rehoboth, drive through the gates, jump out of the car and run into the arms of my kids who don't know I'm even coming (hoping it will be a nice surprise for them). My kids whom I've thought about every single day since I left. I often sit and wonder what they are up to. I can't wait to see how much they've grown in 8 months. Some, I know will be barely recognisable but in a good way. A good way because when they arrived at the village they were malnourished, covered in scabies, unbelievably unhappy and severely underweight, but now they are flourishing, they are settled, they are happy, they have literally had a fresh start at life.
That's what I think I'm looking for in a way- a fresh start. I know it sounds weird but I kind of feel like I've been in limbo for the past 8 months. Don't get me wrong I am happy in myself, I am happy in my job and I do feel very blessed but I just feel like something is missing. Because of this, I'm not sure of my future at present. I'm constantly putting off making any firm commitments as to whether I'll be effectively "setting up camp" here in the North East for the forseeable future. Something is holding me back. I feel like this trip is a chance for me to be quiet and listen. Away from the busyness of work, friends and family I can just completely relax and take time to see where I go from here and I have to say I'm rather excited by it all.
So now I've rambled on for far too long, I'm off to do the packing. I'll be updating as much as I can depending on internet availability with pictures and stories. Happy reading.

L
xx

Tying up loose ends

2008-03-15T19:16:00.006+02:00

Time has flown by at a scary pace these last six months. It feels like only a short time ago that I was new in South Africa adjusting to my new way of life. Now in a short time I will have to do the complete reverse and readjust to my old life again. Robbie and I have been talking quite a lot about coming home these past few days. We both have such mixed emotions about it all. We both agree that while seeing family, friends and familiarity as soon as we get back, waking up on Sunday morning and not being at Rehoboth will be the pits. We both asked each other what the three things we were most looking forward to when we get back home. My first was just being in the arms of my parents. Seeing them again in the airport I know I’ll struggle to keep it together but they’ll be strong for me. I know they will be my strength as I get used to life without my 41 amazingly beautiful and unique children. Then my second was seeing all my friends again, I know they will also play a big part in getting me through. Then finally my third I’m ashamed to say is my car. I do miss my car. But not just my car, I’ve missed just being able to jump in and go wherever I please. Here obviously the cars aren’t mine so I have to use them within reason. Also it’s not safe for me to drive by myself at night here so going anywhere is usually a no no (better to be safe than sorry). So being able to drive at night and generally any other time of the day and feel safe will be a nice thing to go back to.
Last week has been like every other week- very busy and eventful. Firstly we found out that one of our newer little baby boy’s is HIV negative. His brother who is also here is positive so it really is a gift from God that the little one is negative. Praise God! Also I made some real progress with the 4 year old little boy that I’ve talked a lot about in recent weeks. One day in baby crèche I lay down and plonked him on my chest. He sat on me and played with his cap and then lay on my chest and cuddled in. I said nothing, did nothing, just let him lay there. A few minutes later he started chatting away to me. His words made no sense but he was communicating- a real first for him. He usually only speaks to the little boy he lives with. He then sat up and gave me a high five and then lay down again and cuddled. I had tears in my eyes as he lay. Finally some emotion from this little boy, finally some form of communication. In a way I feel like my work is done now. I know it sounds stupid but I’ve spent so much time with this little boy trying to encourage him to accept his new surroundings and express himself that having him cuddle in properly and communicate was such a huge thing for me. It seems to have made these 6 months even more worthwhile. It’s moments like these that will stay in my heart forever. No matter where I am in the world or what I’m doing this little boy will always be in my prayers. Unfortunately this high didn’t last very long as I’m very sad to say that the little boy is back in hospital with not one, but 4 different infections- a sign that he is in the final stages of AIDS. He has mastoiditis, and ear infection, gastroenteritis, TB and possibly hepatitis as he’s a bit jaundice. I’ve been to see him as often as I can. Each time I go he is in a different bed and as soon as he sees me I see slight relief in his eyes and then a desperate longing for me to pick him up and just hold him. His breathing is very laboured and he is in so much distress. All I can do though is love him. I walk around the ward with him and sing to him. There’s nothing else I can do but try to give him at least some comfort during all this. His pain is visibly horrific and the only form of pain relief is paracetamol. Guys again this boy is in dire need of your prayers!
Another special thing that happened last week came from one of the staff who runs the baby crèche. I was helping her out tidying and sorting stuff in the crèche and we were just chatting away as we usually do. We got onto the conversation about me leaving and she was asking if and when I would be back. I’m not sure what God has in store for me yet, but I do know that I’ll definitely be back to Rehoboth in the near future. Whether it is for just a little holiday, 3 months, 6 months or a lifetime I don’t know, but I do know I’ll be back. She was very pleased to hear this as she said that I treated her and the rest of the staff with so much respect. She said that I always asked her to do something not demand it, and that I always said hello, asked how she was and thanked her for her work. I didn’t treat her any differently than I would a white person. I have been brought up to treat people as I would expect them to treat me. I have been taught that manners are free. Saying please and thank you doesn’t cost anything no matter who it is. It was so lovely to hear her say these things to me as I came out here wanting to treat all people as equals in a country where everywhere else that doesn’t happen. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not intentionally trying to criticise this country. Unfortunately due to a whole host of factors there is little equality here due to a whole heap of things that happened in the past. I cannot pretend that I know or understand everything that happened in the history of this country. What I do know is that no matter where I personally am in the world I will treat all people with the same amount of respect, as that’s what I’ve been taught not just by my parents but also by the big man himself, God! Amen, that’s all I’m going to say on that one!
For our last weekend in South Africa we went up the coast to stay in Durban for a nice well-earned relaxing weekend. We went with one of the management couple and their two most beautiful and amazing children (man am I going to miss this family!!!). We spent time with their friends and had so much fun. These are the type of people that I would be friends with back home, so even though I didn’t know them very well I could just relax and be myself which is just what I needed. We went to a big rugby game on the Saturday night. They’re in the middle of the Super 14 tournament involving teams from South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia so there is some high class talent on show. It was a really entertaining match and we won which was of course a bonus. We watched the match from the stands but got to go in a corporate box after the match (free drinks-woo!). It was a fantastic evening just chatting about rugby and other stuff, made me feel so close to home.

I’ve had two experiences in the community these past few days. Firstly last week I went to a crèche that is run by the Methodist church in the community. There are 63 children that go and only 2 ladies who run it most days. The children are amazingly well behaved, speak English and Zulu and seem to be quite bright. They attend this crèche as their parents work and siblings are at school. They get breakfast and lunch provided which is such a blessing to these kids who live in one of the poorest areas of KwaZulu Natal. They are so eager to learn and are so polite. They all stand in a queue for lunch so patiently, even the ones right at the back don’t complain and are grateful for their food even though most of the other kids are finished by the time they get theirs. The crèche usually finishes around 2pm and the kids get picked up by siblings how attend the local school. Without this crèche these children would literally be homeless for the day. Their parents would go to work and lock them out of their houses. They would just wander around which is just so unsafe. The work the women do to keep that crèche going is amazing; God is truly at work there. Please pray that God would continue to bless that crèche not just financially but with loving women to run the place and give the children some hope.

We also painted the outside of one of the housemother’s houses last week. It was such a small gesture from us but it made such a huge difference to her life. All we had to do was give the small house (two tiny rooms- no bigger than your lounge probably at home) a coat of primer and then a top coat of light green paint. It was baking hot while we were painting but it was enjoyable nevertheless. The house is near a local government school so when school finished there were lots of children walking by. They all looked so stunned- I’m sure they were quite confused as to why white people were painting a black persons house. We waved and said hello to as many as we could and they all eventually waved back after they were over the initial shock of seeing us. It served as a good final reminder of what I leave behind and the fact that I return to a society where equality is so much more real.

Week of contrast

2008-02-29T16:49:00.005+02:00

What a contrast this week has been compared to last week. I was playing mum while my amazing friend was lying in a hospital bed. This week I’m back to being “Auntie Lindsay” and my friend is back home and recovering extremely well! Praise the Lord for restoring some sense of reality back into our lives.
The little girl I wrote about last week is still progressing at a fantastic rate. She is now interacting well with all the other children in baby crèche, as well as the other volunteers and house mothers. Whenever I’m in crèche with my camera she always wants to have her photo taken and then look at it. She is communicating so well now, it truly is amazing. God is really answering our prayers!

Our new little baby is also doing very well. She is bonding nicely with her new house mother and is happy and smiley!!!

Unfortunately, the little boy that arrived shortly after Christmas isn’t doing so well. I’ve written about him before as he was admitted to hospital with TB. He has gone from 10kg to just 7kg and he’s 4 years old (he should weigh 17kg). Whenever I pick him up I pray that I don’t break anything, he really is just so underweight. He is being cared for very well by his house mother, but the TB and the side effects of the TB treatment are just making him so ill and weak. Please guys your prayers for him would be so greatly appreciated! Thanks also for your prayers so far.

All the children have a “memory book” which we update with pictures throughout the year. There are pictures of birthdays, Christmas’s, outings, family members that visit amongst other things. It’s a lovely thing to do for the kids so they can look back over the years they have been at Rehoboth and see just how blessed they are to be here. We’re in the process of updating the books and so have been taking some new pictures of the newer houses and of the two newest sibling pairs we have (two brothers and then a brother and a sister). I had to include the pictures this week as they are just so cute!!!

Rehoboth was blessed with a new car last week. We traded in our old car which was becoming dangerous for a newer model. Hopefully we will have less problems with this car! We also got some amazing news that we have been awarded a grant from the Lotto here in South Africa. They’ve awarded us nearly R400, 000 (28,000 pounds ish) which will go towards a new 4 x 4 truck and will also be used to increase the workers salaries which is a real boost for us! It’s so wonderful to see just how much God is blessing this village! He is truly amazing!
With only now 2 weeks left, I’m trying to spend as much time with the kids as possible. In the mornings that’s in baby crèche and in the afternoons I swim with the older kids and sit with them outside. It’s always such a special time just to go up to the houses and be with the kids. They’re so much more relaxed in their familiar, home environment. Man I’m going to miss these kids…….

Lindsay "Mother of 4" Bewick

2008-02-23T11:27:00.005+02:00

Introducing the new Lindsay, house mother extraordinaire!!! Let me explain myself a bit more! One of the reliever house mother’s baby daughter became the latest victim of the horrendous bug going around the village and community. She had to be rushed to hospital on Monday evening with more than 10% dehydration. The little baby was struggling to breathe and kept drifting in and out of consciousness. Finally both mother and baby were admitted to hospital. Mother’s bed was a hard wooden bench next to her baby so she can still breast feed her. I quickly popped into the hospital to visit on Tuesday and the mum was so tired- she got very little sleep at all. But by the grace of God her baby has perked up a lot. She is responding to the fluids being pumped into her nicely. So, how does this make me a good “house mother”. When the reliever and her baby went into hospital it was up to us the volunteers to look after the 4 kids in that house. So on Monday night I slept over and played mother. The kids got me up at 5.30am (eek!!!!!!!!!!) but were so good. The two older kids didn’t need my help at all except to make them breakfast and put up their school lunches. The younger two were just as good though, we ate breakfast, had a nice bath and got dressed. Each child took their medicine willingly without fuss. These kids are so well behaved, I really actually had to do very little. The next night, Robbie stayed over and played the house father, while Sophie our newest volunteer stayed over on Wednesday night. Between us we kept that little family together and running! What an achievement!
While all of this was going on unfortunately one of the management team and a very special friend of mine was taken into hospital for an operation to remove her Gall Bladder after an infection. A routine operation which should have gone smoothly quickly turned into a nightmare with my amazing friend ending up in ICU for the night. When we heard the news our first instinct was just to pray. Pray that God would keep her safe. Pray that God would influence all those involved in trying to fix the problem in theatre. It was an intense time waiting to hear whether she would be OK. Praise God she is now out of the woods. Praise God for keeping her safe. It’s been a long few days now. I miss her terribly. I miss having her around the office to chat to and laugh with. I miss our “pity parties” which only we can have together. I miss seeing how wonderful she is with her children and most of all I miss how good and appreciated she makes me feel every single day. I praise God for my amazing friend and pray that she would be healed quickly.
Excellent news on our newest little girl. I’ve spent a lot of time one on one with her this week and she is now responding very well. She is smiling with her whole face now. Her eyes have life in them, she is now ready to fight to live! She has a cleft lip but has started speaking. She even managed to nearly say “Auntie Lindsay” yesterday. Most of the children do struggle with my name. At first they call me “Lindy” or “ Linz” but eventually they get it! I’m going to miss being called Auntie Lindsay when I leave (just 3 more weeks to go- ahhhhh!).

We had a new arrival in the form of a tiny (only 2.5kg- about 5.5 pounds!) 3 month old baby girl on Friday. Clearly she was born prematurely so we need to keep a close eye on her. Her mother is in the final stage of AIDS and has TB so it was impossible for her to care for the baby and all her relatives refused to help her. She is now being cared for by a wonderful house mother and is a happy, smiley and most importantly healthy baby! Praise God.

I'll leave you with a few new pictures taken in the last few weeks of the kids on their bikes and visiting the stables.....

Many happy and beautiful returns!

2008-02-20T14:02:00.002+02:00

Last Sunday took us on a road trip to Pietermaritzburg to watch Ryan swim the “Midmar mile”. It was a great chance to get away for the day and have some fun together. The weather was quite overcast and pleasant so we didn’t think to put on any suntan lotion! Oops big mistake! By early afternoon I could feel my face getting hotter and hotter- I’d got sun burnt through the clouds! Typical! So the first half of the week my face was rather red and is now thankfully back to normal! Needless to say my skin is as sensitive to sun as it has always been. On the way back home we visited a friend in hospital. He’s been quite sick for some time and is on morphine. When we arrived he was sitting out of bed with his tools fixing a fan. Even though he is in tremendous pain he’s still just getting on with life. If he sees something broken his instinct still is to fix it. He gave an amazing short testimony in church a few weeks ago, which totally blew me away. He spoke of how it took a serious illness for him to get right with God. We mustn’t do the same. We can’t just turn to God in the bad times; he must be the centre in the good and the bad. We know what God wants us to do for Him. We must love Him and do His work. It’s as simple as that. Goodness if we all stuck to that philosophy how amazing would our world be!!!!
We had another birthday this week and so it was time for another birthday party! As usual it was a great time for the kids to get together and celebrate another year of their life. The little girl whose birthday it was turned 3. When she came to us she was rather overweight and very unhappy and it’s only been in the last 5 months that she’s really picked up. She’s lost a little weight and has turned into a happy, delightful little girl (as you can see from all the photos). Praise God for working so many miracles in her short little life!

Praise God the little baby girl that was admitted to hospital last week came home on Sunday fit, healthy and back to her normal smiley self. Thanks for all your prayers- they really do make so much difference! I am sorry to say though that a different little baby girl was admitted on Thursday morning with 10% dehydration (ie SERIOUS dehydration). There is an horrific bug going around which causes vomiting and diarrhoea at the same time so in this heat And humidity it doesn’t take long to get dangerously dehydrated. We were very lucky to get a bed at the hospital as it was full of children with the same bug- it literally is sweeping through the village and the surrounding community. It doesn’t discriminate who it affects- old, young, healthy or sick everyone is at risk of contracting it. Again prayers for both our little one in hospital and all those affected by this bug would be appreciated!!!

quarter life crisis

2008-02-16T09:36:00.003+02:00

Ok so in my old age (well I am nearly 25 you know- gosh am I that old???) I left my USB stick at home and it's a 50km roun trip to go and get it so SORRY guys but I've not got any photos for you this week. What I'll do is just give you a general update and then put up extra pictures next week- promise!!!!!
We had a birthday party last week for a little girl who has turned 3. We had lots of fun playing, opening presents and eating cake. Fun times were definitely had by all! The little girl who I told you about last week who was admitted to hospital is now home praise the Lord! She is now absolutely fine and back to her cute smiley self. Unfortunately I had to admit another little girl last Thursday as she was 10% dehydrated due to an horrendous vomiting and diarrhoea bug which is sweeping across the community and our village. I went to see her yesterday and she is doing very well. She looks just about back to her normal self so hopefully she will be discharged on Monday. When we admitted her there were no beds available- most of the children in the ward were also suffering from the same bug. Prayers for resilience and strength to fight this bug should it affect any more people would be appreciated thanks!
I've not had anymore encounters with snakes this week thank goodness. I've basically stayed away from all the snake hotspots in the village (including the toilet attached to the office!!!) as I don't think my nerves can stand it much longer! I think though that most of you would be proud of me as my phobia of all things creepy and crawly is getting less and less huge each day!!!!
Well think that's it for now guys. I'll put up photos of our fab birthday party next week- infact I'll probably just do two posts- one new and the one I was supposed to do today to try and make up for forgetting my stick- doh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Arrivals, departures, an almighty storm and some snakes

2008-02-09T10:51:00.000+02:00

I can't believe that I've only got 5 more posts to do before I come home! It's reallys starting to hit me now that I'll be leaving very soon and that I'll have to say goodbye to all the children. I'm so close to all the children so it's going to be so hard. On the plus side though it will be nice to come home and see all my family and friends again!

Well it's been a very topspy turvy week. On Sunday one of our volunteers left as she'd completed her 6 months here. We took her to the airport, dropped her off and then had to wait 5 hours before we our new volunteer arrived. We decided to go and see a movie at a huge shopping centre near the airport. Anyways after the movie eventually got started after 3 attempts (seriously every time I go to the movies there's a problem!!!) we headed back to the airport. That half an hour was one of the scariest of my life. We got caught out in the middle of the worst thunder storm I've ever seen. We could see lightning hitting the ground all around us! Seriously a lot of prayer went on in that car as the roads were flooded (the roads have no drainage) and cars who'd been struck were just sitting ducks (literally!) in the road. Ever bridge we went under there were cars stopped so we had to keep plodding on. We eventually got to the airport alive and the storm passed. Our new volunteer Sophie arrived safely and we got home with no more problems at about 11pm! Man I was tired! She seems to be settling in really well and is getting along nicely with all the children! David and Glen from my church back home also arrived this week. They've been involved in the project for years now, really from when everything began and they come out for generally 3 months twice a year. It was so lovely to see some familiar faces and get some lovely hugs from them!!!

Thanks for all your prayers for the two little boys that were in hosptial (first two pictures), I'm happy to say that they are both home now. They were discharged on Monday, praise the Lord! They are both doing very well and are visibly so happy to be back at home. Unfortunately we had to admit one of the little baby girls (bottom picture) to hospital on Thursday. She aspirated some milk and so was struggling to breath. She is doing much better already and hopefully will be home on Monday. Again your prayers would be greatly appreciated.

We had a new arrival last week in the form of a beautiful little 3 year old girl. She has been placed in a house with all girls as she has sufferent horrendous abuse in her short little life. When she arrived she had the usual "death stare" as we call it and was visibly distressed. However she has instantly bonded with her new house mother and is even calling her "mummy" which really is a result. Then on Thursday as we arrived at devotions I saw her and said hello and she smiled at me. Ah it was so amazing. It was such a beautiful smile. Praise God, we're really making quick progress with her! I sat with her on my lap and she seemed so comfortable in my presence. It was such a special time for me. I've not taken a picture of her yet as I think she would be rather confused as to what I was doing as she has come straight from the community and didn't even know what a mirror was. She really have lived a horrid life up until now. From now on though she will receive so much Godly love and attention- something she so very clearly deserves!
The weather is certainly heating up now we're into February so with that the snakes have come out. In the last week I've seen 3 snakes, one of which was poisonous (but not deadly). As most of you know I'm not particularly fond of spiders, snakes and generally all things creppy and crawly so I'm having to adapt fast to this new threat! Prayers again greatly appreciated!!!

At one with the animals

2008-02-02T08:50:00.000+02:00

Before I start this post please let me apologise for not posting at the usual time for the past few weeks- we’ve been extremely busy here with the celebration day and lots of other projects so getting into town for the internet didn’t some how fit into my agenda! Well this week I’ve had some time off just to chill and recharge my batteries. I’ve felt so tired and a little emotionally drained these past few weeks to be honest so I really needed the break. Last weekend we went to a few Game parks in Northern KwaZulu Natal and had an amazing time. We saw lots of different animals and birds and generally had a restful time away. It was extremely hot but thankfully we had an air conditioned car so all was well!

Unfortunately we have 2 little boys in hospital at the moment. I admitted them both and have visited them as often as possible. Each time I leave them both they scream and my heart just breaks for them. It really does bring home to me the situation we are in here. The hospital is not getting any better- it takes me on average 4 hours to admit each child. I’m definitely learning to be a lot more patient and understanding as losing my cool and getting angry really gets me absolutely no where. Last Wednesday afternoon we had a memorial service for our beautiful little boy who is now with our Father in heaven. I had to leave to go to the hospital as soon as it was over to admit one of the children. I sat in the admissions queue for more than 2 hours. I was 6th in line however an old lady behind me in the queue soiled herself so I let her go before me. Then a lady who was in labour started bleeding and was visibly in agony so of course I made sure she went first, then a lady with severe chest pains again needed to go before me. Of course I was more than willing to let these people go before me even though it was now 6.30pm. What really frustrated me was that they had to sit in the queue in the first place. I have no idea if the lady who was in labour successfully gave birth or if the lady with the chest pains is now well. People in Africa literally do die in the queue waiting to be seen to. It just serves as a reminder to me just how amazing the NHS is really! I’ll never complain again!
One of our volunteers is leaving us on Sunday and as she leaves another volunteer arrives from America. She did a similar degree to me so hopefully we’ll have a lot in common and finally I’ll be able to have some “geeky” conversations with her! Also she will be eventually taking over the role of running the clinic we have and admitting sick children to the hospital so that when I leave in March (6 weeks time argh!) she’ll be able to do everything for herself straight away! Also it will lighten my ever increasing workload a bit so I can spend a bit more time with the older children! Fingers crossed!

The Name of The Lord is to be Praised

2008-01-24T16:39:00.000+02:00

What an amazing and tiring week we’ve had! As most of you know we held a huge celebration day last Saturday the 19th. The days leading up to the day were ridiculously hectic, we worked most days without breaks well into the evening. The hard work and effort was all worth it though as we had such an amazing day. More than 350 people came to celebrate what God has done at the village. Everyone was so amazing at how fantastic the village and all the children are looking. There was a jam packed program including some fantastic worship, dancing from the children, a truly amazing self penned poem by Robbie and even I let my voice loose for a change and sang a solo. After the main event was over we had a huge Braai (BBQ) and there was a huge 5 metre water slide which the kids absolutely loved. At the end of the day I couldn’t resist going down the slide fully clothed! Ah it was so much fun! The whole day was a huge success in showing people exactly what God has done in the last 6 years. It also served to raise awareness about the huge problem this country has regarding the HIV/AIDS crisis and how we aren’t shying away from this problem here at the village. We as a team along with our Lord Jesus Christ are tackling the problem head on.
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians: 3:20-21

No longer in chains, I have found my freedom in you
No more am I bound, You’ve taken my shame and my sorrow away
I will walk with my head lifted up
The old has gone and the new has come

The name of the Lord is to be praised
The name of the Lord is to be praised
The name of the Lord is to be praised
The name of the Lord is to be praised

Alone and afraid, I was lost in need of your amazing grace
You came into my life, you poured out your unfailing love and your truth
By your grace I stand justified

Because of you have eternal life

The name of the Lord is to be praised
The name of the Lord is to be praised
The name of the Lord is to be praised
The name of the Lord is to be praised

And you will be praised (we give you all praise)
For your amazing love (we give you all praise)
For your grace and mercy Lord (we give you all praise)
For the freedom you have given (we give you all praise)
My healer, My saviour

The name of the Lord is to be praised
The name of the Lord is to be praised
The name of the Lord is to be praised
The name of the Lord is to be praised

In Our Hearts Forever

2008-01-24T16:35:00.000+02:00

Matthew 19 verse 14 reads “Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
As most of you heard via email one of our beautiful little babies died last Saturday 12th January. He had been quite ill for some time and the doctors were struggling to find out exactly what the problem was so he was admitted to hospital on Monday 7th January.
When we went to see him on the Friday before he died he looked happy and peaceful, so we live happy in the knowledge that he slipped away peacefully without any pain. For those of you who were praying for him again thank you so much for taking the time to remember him in your prayers. As we all know dying and going to be with our Father in His kingdom is the ultimate healing so we're happy for our little boy that he is there now. He arrived at the village in July 2007 unwanted as a product of rape. Here he was loved unconditionally by so many people for nearly 6 months- what more could we give him than the love of the Father. He lived with his amazing house mother, his two year old sister, 6 year old sister and 8 year old sister. They loved him so much and played with him and cuddled him every single day. He truly was loved and cared for with so much love and compassion. Hallelujah! We will be having a memorial service for him on Wednesday morning to celebrate his little life. Please pray for everyone here at the village as we come to terms with his death and start to move on and adapt to life without him. Praise God for giving this beautiful little boy 6 months of love and happiness.
Revelation 21:1 to 22:6 tells us a lot about what heaven will look like. Thato is certainly in an amazing place now:
‘I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who is seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” He said to me: “It is done. I am on Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be hid God and he will be my son.”

Bless The Little Children

2008-01-12T10:48:00.001+02:00

Unfortunately the first half of this week I was ill with gastro problems and then the second half was spent in the clinic and the hospital so no photos you guys I’m afraid!
So all of Monday and mostly Tuesday I was in bed with horrendous stomach pains- must have eaten something really bad over the weekend although I can’t figure out what it could have possibly been. It really threw me this time as I thought that as I’d been healthy for so long my immune system had adapted to being in this environment. I’m fasting on Mondays at the moment for a good friend but for the past few weeks every Monday I’ve had a niggly stomach. I’ve mostly been able to ignore it as I knew that it was some form of spiritual attack, however there was no way I could ignore it this week. Anyways, because I was ill I spent very little time with the children as I didn’t want to spread it round the village. Also on Monday we had to admit one of the little babies to hospital with suspected TB meningitis. He really wasn’t doing well so I sent out frantic emails to everyone it pleading them to pray for him. He did pull through the night but is still not doing great. He had a lumbar puncture which came back negative for the TB meningitis which was good news but we still don’t know what’s wrong. The hospital has very limited resources which is a worry so we’re just hoping and praying that God will prevail and that he would lead the doctor to a diagnosis so that he can then receive the appropriate treatment. Thanks for all your prayers guys- I doubt he’d have made it without them. We’ve visited him everyday and he’s still in a lot of distress every time we go. They gave him a blood transfusion yesterday as his blood was very low (again a big worry) so they’ve shaved his head- I nearly didn’t recognise him. When you pick him up he clearly is in pain and when you put him back down he still cries as he still wants your attention. It’s so awful to see him like this but with prayer I know he’ll get through/
We then had clinic day on Wednesday where the doctor comes from the local hospital to check out any of the sick kids. The doctor decided to order xrays for two of our recent arrivals- brothers who are 11 months apart. The older brother has been off his food for a few days and has a bad cough. As his mother nearly died of TB it is highly likely that he has it too so we took him for xrays the next day. When looking at the xray the doctor didn’t think it was TB but she was very worried about his cough and he clearly was struggling to breath so she admitted him straight away. He’s on IV antibiotics and has perked up a bit but he’s still very weak. The two boys are next to each other in the hospital which is nice. When we went to see them yesterday it was over 30 degrees and there was no air at all in the ward. They have two tiny fans which just circulate hot air- the children who already have a high temperature have no hope- the sweat was dripping off them both. I’m praying that the hospital sees the need there and buys an air conditioning unit for those poor kids!
So with so much time spent in the clinic and hospital I’ve not got any photos- sorry! Will put up more than usual next. This week has just gone to show that really my illness this week was actually nothing compared to what these kids have to go through from time to time. We spoke to the school children about their status properly for the first time this week too. Most of them already knew or had a feeling so it wasn’t too much of a shock to them and they all took it really well. They understand that as long as they keep taking their pills there’s no reason for them not to live a healthy life for the time being. I was so proud of them and impressed at how they listened and took everything in. God truly is blessing every aspect of their lives!

Happy New Year

2008-01-05T10:35:00.000+02:00

I hope and pray that you all have a truly blessed and joyful 2008!
Well I’ve been at the village for officially 3 months now- I can’t believe it already! Time really does fly when you’re having fun! We’ve had yet another amazing week celebrating the start of another year here at the village. Each year we have so much to celebrate and this year was no exception. So much has been accomplished this year- new houses have been built, new housemothers and relievers have been employed and trained allowing for the arrival of 20 new children! 5 children have left to be reunited with their family. No children passed away in 2007, which has been a tremendous blessing. The Lord truly reigns over the lives of every individual involved in the project. Hallelujah!
On New Year’s Eve we had a huge Braai with all the mums and children. The food was sensational- these women really know how to cook! I’ve seriously not tasted anything like it! After the food we had an amazing time of worship together. The sound of beautiful African singing voices echoed across the valley. Everyone joined in. when we went into prayer I briefly looked up to see not only the mothers lifting the prayers to the Lord but the older children too were deep in prayer- filed with the Holy Spirit they cried out to the Lord. I sat with the new little boy on my knee most of the evening. I was sure that he would cry when I picked him up as he is still scared of white people but as it was dark we all looked the same so he sat quite contently on my knee all evening. At first he sat right on the edge of my knee but as he felt more and more comfortable he drew nearer to me. Eventually he cuddled in to my chest and fell asleep. It was a very special evening filled with memories which will never leave me!

On New Year’s Day the temperature was more than 30 degrees and extremely humid, however that didn’t stop the mums from preparing another huge delicious feast- we’ve been so spoilt by the mums! Each time I experience the cooking I can’t believe that it can get any better but it does each time! The kids played together all afternoon in the paddling pool. All laughing and joking together. There are some really tight friendships amongst the children- they really look out for each other! They also fussed around the new little boy. They brought him food, sat with him, talked to him in Zulu (he has no English yet) and tried so hard to include him- it was so sweet to watch how they interacted with him. I imagine he must have felt so overwhelmed by the whole event so hopefully he found some solace from the other children! All in all we celebrated the beginning of 2008 in style. A lot of prayers were sent up and we all really believe that this year will be yet another amazing year at the village. A year of finishing what was started 6 years ago. A year of spiritual growth and a year of miracles.

Robbie returned to the village on Thursday bringing with him Alison who is also from our church at home. Everyone was very excited to see them both: me, the children, and the mums! It was nice to have Robbie back and have another pair of hands to help entertain the children (they aren’t back at school till the 16th of January!). We went in the pool, made thank you cards for the Christmas presents and generally had lots of playtime. The kids were all relaxed and happy- it’s almost been a stress free week- let’s hope it continues!

The greatest gift of all and a rather large Christmas miracle!

2007-12-28T16:52:00.000+02:00

What am amazingly blessed week we’ve have here at the village. It’s been one mad dash from start to finish but I’ve enjoyed every second of it! Monday was an absolute nightmare as I had to pop into town to do some last minute shopping for the village. Even at 8.30am the car park was full. It was bedlam inside. The shelves in the supermarket were just about empty- I struggled to get everything we needed! What should have been a quick in an out job took me til 1pm to complete! I was shall we say a little stressed when I arrived back at the village! Anyhow, most of Christmas eve was spend wrapping more presents and sorting all the other presents into boxes for each house. I knew that the children would be getting quite a few presents from lots of different people but seeing the amount of gifts each house would receive just took my breath away! I cannot stress just how blessed we’ve been this Christmas and how grateful we are for any gift, large or small! I then go to be Father Christmas in the evening dropping all the presents off at the houses after all the children had gone to bed. It was so lovely to know that in the morning the children would all pop out of their bedrooms to find lots of presents under the tree- we had told them they were getting 2 presents when in fact they actually got at least 6 presents each! In the morning I went around the houses early to film some of the newer children opening their presents- for many this was their first experience of Christmas even though they are older. The reactions were all different. Some went crazy and were jumping up and down so excited by all the gifts. Then others were so quiet because they were so overwhelmed by the whole thing. Either way I was so overjoyed to be a part of the whole experience. I spent most of the day with the children going from house to house. Not a single child was disappointed with their presents. Each said thank you to me for the little gift I bought for them all. The appreciation was huge- we’re raising them to be such grateful and polite children! They truly are amazing! I had to put quite a few toys together- a beauty dresser, a shopping trolley (which turned out to be really difficult to put together!!!), a kite, a car garage etc. I was quite the handy woman with my little tool kit (which I borrowed from Robbie of course!). A of yet I have heard of no breakages, everything works everyone is happy. What made the day extra special was the fact that all the children that are old enough to understand, know what Christmas is really about. They know that they have actually already received the greatest gift of all- of course our Lord Jesus Christ. In all the chaos and confusion no-one lost sight of the miracle that was the birth of Jesus Christ. We also had our own Christmas miracle here at the village, which happened on Boxing Day. One of the little boys who is 2 had suffered horrendous abuse before coming to the village which left him with a horrific herpes viral infection in his lower region. We know that the herpes virus is very difficult to get rid of and were told that as his immune system got stronger that the infection would slowly but gradually clear up. Clearly we’ve been praying for healing for him ever since he arrived as his life must have been so horrid and stressful for him. Well on Boxing Day his house mother went to change his nappy and found that the infection had miraculously cleared up literally over night which by worldly standards is impossible! God has performed a miracle with our precious little boy. He is completely healed and there are no scars! It truly has been a miracle so we are so overjoyed by the news! Praise the Lord for he is so awesome and wonderful and performs miracles each and every day to those to believe and pray and trust in His word.

We had a new arrival this week in the form of a little 4 year old boy. Both his parents died of AIDS related illnesses and his Grandmother died last week and his Grandfather can’t take care of him anymore. The little boy has just turned 4 but wears clothes for 6-12 month year olds. He is so small and underdeveloped (like a lot of the children here) and was so distraught that his Grandfather was leaving him. He screamed and screamed when his "papa" left. The Grandfather said that he knew that he couldn’t provide for the child anymore and because he loved him so much (which was very apparent from the way they interacted with each other) he felt that he should be placed in the village and in such a loving and caring environment. That was a very brave and noble thing he did for his Grandchild. A 9 month old baby also arrived this week, however she is only here temporarily as her mother is going for chemotherapy for the next three weeks and can’t look after her. Again you could see the love between mother and child. It is so nice to see that some people do actually care for their children in a community where there is so much neglect and abuse.
We had a little outing also at the end of the week to keep the children entertained. We went to the gorge which is very near to the village and had a walk and little picnic- such a small event but so significant to the children!

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T09:10:00.000+02:00

Just wishing everyone a very happy christmas! I hope you all have a lovely festive period wherever you are and whoever you are with!

Lots of love and blessings to you all

L
xx

Life Is A Rollercoaster

2007-12-24T08:49:00.000+02:00

As I write this latest blog entry (Friday 21st Dec) I’m sitting in the local hospital. One of the children is in the operating theatre; the other has just come out and is in recovery. Both routine operations but I’m still feeling so apprehensive. In fact I’m feeling so many different emotions right now and I’m tired. I’m constantly in prayer even as I write. I’m praying that God would protect his beautiful children whilst they are so vulnerable. I’m thinking back to the time when I was hospital and how scared and alone I felt. My eyes are welling up as I think of the children lying there asleep. I can’t be next to them, I can’t hold their hands. I can’t be there when they wake up in recovery as there aren’t any scrubs for me to wear. I said I would be there when they wake up but I won’t be. Anyway, this isn’t about me, it’s about a 10 year old boy who when he wakes us will be able to hear so clearly for the first time. No more muffled sounds, perfect hearing at last! The other 10 year old may get is voice back after becoming hoarse a while ago.
Both children are now in the children’s ward. Both were told that they would be returning home the same day, now both are faced with the prospect of having to stay over night. Not because they are particularly sick but because the nurse doesn’t want to fill in all the discharge forms because it’s past the normal discharge hours and she wants to go home. She pokes and prods the children. She sticks a thermometer into the ear of the child who has just had ear surgery. She doesn’t tell them that she is going to take their blood pressure the she brandishes a needle and pricks the boy’s thumbs without any warning. There is no love, there is no compassion and both boys are pouring out their hearts, begging us to take them home. At this point I have very little control; the tears are falling from my face. I get up and wander around the ward looking at all the other sick children and again tell myself that this is not about me and how upset I am that the children might have to stay, it’s about them. I have to be strong. The tears stop. Finally at 6pm after being in the hospital since 10am the doctor comes and discharges both of the children much to the disgust of the nurse. I’ve not eaten all day, I’m emotionally empty but they’re coming home. I can’t describe how happy I feel. My boys are coming home; I don’t have to leave them alone. Both boys finally smile for the first time. I get a hug and a high five- I know they are well enough to come home. Praise the Lord for looking after my gorgeous boys and for letting them come home and eat some ice cream. Praise God for those brave boys. I’m so proud of them both- I can’t stop telling them that.
Thinking back over the week it’s been one big rollercoaster ride. So much has happened this week. Everyday we’ve had some kind of event happening for the Children! We’ve been so blessed! Firstly on Saturday Standard Bank organised a Christmas party for the children, which was a huge success! The big crèche kids and school kids were involved and they had such an amazing time! We had lots of hats, blowers (I think I was nearly deaf by the end of the party), games, songs, dancing and generally happiness! Some of the newer children were a little overwhelmed by all the noise and attention- after all it’s the first time a lot of them have actually had a party! I felt like such a child again- I was dancing away with them all without a care in the world! The only thoughts going through my mind at the time were of how blissfully happy the children looked and how blissfully happy I was too! God truly blessed that party!

On Sunday we went out into the Community again to a church service where Yvonne (one of the management at Rehoboth) was doing a talk on HIV and AIDS. It was amazing to see how a service is a carried out in a Zulu church! They worship so freely and with so much visible emotion! There were a lot of hallelujahs and amens. Nothing ran according to the schedule- the service was supposed to start at 9am but didn’t really get going until 10.30am (yes that’s right- an hour and a half late!) but it didn’t seem to matter as they were still coming to worship God regardless of what time it was! Yvonne really encouraged people to go and get tested for HIV as so many people just try and live in ignorant bliss. There are so many myths going around as to how you can cure AIDS, how you can supposedly protect yourself etc so Yvonne really tried to dispel all the lies and she really spoke out the truth. The kids did seem to have some knowledge about the disease but the adults knew very little so it really would have been a learning curve for them. We watched a program on TV about Iffafa which is another extremely poor area in KwaZulu Natal highly infected with HIV/AIDS. They showed footage of a guy working with kids in school talking about how you can protect yourself by either abstaining from having sex or by using condoms. One girl said that she doesn’t trust condoms- I can actually understand where she is coming from as recently over 1 million condoms had to be recalled, as they were faulty so no wonder they have little faith in them. Another boy said that his girlfriend didn’t like him using condoms as “who wants to eat a sweet with the wrapper still on”. Crude I know but it’s what they think. The problem is huge and isn’t likely to go away for a long time yet. The church has now set up some sort of confidential support service for those who have been tested and are positive- something they’ve never had before so I really think that after Yvonne’s talk that a lot of people will be moved to go and get tested and then receive the support that they need to accept their status and adapt their lifestyle.
Now onto Monday. We didn’t work as it was a Bank Holiday- weird I know as it is so close to Christmas but hey I wasn’t going to complain! It was a fairly nice day so we decided to go to Lake Eland which is actually in a game reserve. It was amazing to see all the wildlife- zebra, giraffe (we were really close!!!), springbok, wildebeest and warthog amongst other things! We had a lovely picnic next to the lake and just relaxed all day. It was so nice to get away and empty my mind for a few hours. Life is so hectic at the village at the moment that sometimes even at night it’s hard to switch off.

On Tuesday morning we took the kids to the movies to see Surf’s Up- good movie by the way! The kids really enjoyed the trip out and it was a great way to keep them entertained as it rained hard nearly all day! On Wednesday we had a very busy day of preparation for the Christmas party planned for the next day. A very generous lady brought KFC for all the kids at lunchtime as a little Christmas gift. Ah they were so happy to get their little kiddies KFC box. A small gift but such a significant gift as the children adore KFC so they were very grateful for it.

Now onto the big day- the finale of sorts! Pick and Pay (a local supermarket) organised a huge party for the children and staff. The festivities kicked off at 9.30am when Father Christmas arrived at the village via a helicopter- man he arrived in style! All the kids and mums were jumping up and down, waving and screaming! It was so wonderful to be a part of all the excitement. Father Christmas then was transported up to the activity centre and gave out some really lovely looking gifts! After Father Christmas left, the mums received a gift in the form of a food hamper. As these ladies live in the community when they aren’t working at Rehoboth it was a very nice gift for them indeed! After gifts we had lots of nice food. The organisers had also arranged a bouncy castle (or jumping castle as they call it here) and a really cool water slide. The kids went wild jumping everywhere and running onto the water slide getting totally soaking wet! By mid morning all the kids were soaked, I had been down the water slide a few times fully clothed and was ringing wet, the sun was shining and everyone was happy. The kids were all running round with such huge smiles from ear to ear. The organisers of the whole event were all so happy and smiley too. For them seeing just how much joy they had brought to the entire village made the whole event so worthwhile and a huge success!

It was such an amazing day for us all but something else for me made it an even better day. When Father Christmas had to leave again in the helicopter guess who was sitting next to him for the ride home- me! I’ve never flown in a helicopter before so I was so excited! The experience was awesome! We flew across the community- I had no idea how big it is! There are little shack like houses as far as they eye can see all closely packed together. The local community stretches over many peaks right to the coast. It was amazing to see everything by air. Now I really can see the extent of the poverty in this area- “now that I have seen, I am responsible, faith without deeds is dead……..”

I'll Stand For You

2007-12-14T16:17:00.000+02:00

Well Robbie and I are half way through our time here at Rehoboth- can you believe it? We’ve been here for 3 months and it only feels like 3 weeks! So much has happened in such a short space of time sometimes it’s difficult to take everything in. Christmas is getting ever closer but for me it didn’t really feel like Christmas until yesterday. Yesterday I received a nice surprise in the post from my mum and dad. It was an advent calendar. Yes, I am aware that I’m 24, but I’ve ALWAYS had an advent calendar so not having one was just weird. So, my little surprise made my day and my week! Mum and Dad you’re so good to me- love you both lots! What was also good was that I could eat 13 chocolates straight away! Yum! And it was English chocolate- not rubbish South Africa chocolate which in my opinion is pretty rubbish (but I still seem to eat it!!).
More and more Christmas presents keep arriving from so many generous people. We’re getting lots of parcels through the post from English sponsors- thanks guys for your generosity- all the gifts look amazing! I’m still not finished wrapping all the gifts (I don’t think I’ll ever be finished) but hey it’s not too bad a job wrapping lovely presents all day!
Rehoboth is having a big celebration day in the New Year to give thanks for 6 brilliant years so we’ve all been busy organising invitations and flyers and posters this week. Robbie and I were given the task of hand delivering all the invitations to the 40 or so farms and other dwellings on the dirt road Rehoboth is situated on. So, off we went in our little Citi Golf after lunch. 2 hours later we returned home thanking God that we were still alive. Every single place we went to there were at least 2 or 3 big dogs so Robbie bless him had to be a very brave boy! We ended up at chicken farms, car garages, general farms, haunted houses, diesel suppliers, parrot farms etc! It was quite a fun afternoon! I’m developing my off roading and manoeuvring skills quite well as some of the roads leading up to the farms were rather battering and uneven. I as quite impressed with my driving- I think I definitely have now adjusted to life in South Africa!
We had a big even in baby crèche this week- one of the toddlers stood all by himself for the first time! Ah it was such a lovely moment! He’s been standing aided for a long time but this was the first time he was able to stand by himself for at least 30 seconds! He was so pleased with himself (as you can see in the picture!)- we were obviously please too! What made it even more special was when one of the other boys noticed he shouted at some of the other kids and they all came and stood next to him and gave him a big clap! They were so sweet! It really was a special time for us. It’s always nice to see a child reach an important milestone like that given what they have been through and are still going through. Ah special times.

One of our workers gave his life to the Lord this week, which was so amazing. He’s been on the verge for so long so we’re so happy he’s now made that commitment to God. The children all adore him so much so hopefully now God will use him even more in their lives! Praise the Lord.
It really has been a good week now that I think back over everything. On Thursday night we all went out for a meal as it’ll be our last meal altogether as one of the other volunteers is going home until the end of March and we’ll be gone when she comes back. We had a wonderful evening- we all get one so well and are so comfortable around each other- I feel like I’ve known these people my whole life- not just 3 months. Doesn’t time fly when your having fun…..

Your will not mine be done

2007-12-07T16:48:00.000+02:00

As I’m sure many of your have heard via texts, facebook and desperate emails this week Rob and I have had nightmare problems trying to extend our visas so that we can stay in South Africa. We originally planned to leave mid April however when we went to Home Affairs early on Tuesday morning we were bluntly told that we could only stay til mid March as we could only extend our existing visa by 3 months and not 4. Rob and I were devastated to say the least. Our only option was to change our flights to the 14th March meaning we would have 2 weeks less time at the village and no holiday touring the country afterwards. We were initially quite shocked and angry; however after speaking to someone else higher up at Home Affairs we realised that there was nothing we could do. So many people were praying for us (thanks guys) so initially I really thought that Satan was on the attack. I soon realised though that I was living according to my agenda. I wanted to stay in South Africa a bit longer, I wanted a holiday. That is clearly not in God’s agenda. His plan obviously involved going home a month early. Knowing this has given me so much peace. God has everything figured out and has done for a very long time. He’ll then let me in on all the details when the time is just right!
Aside from all the visa dramas it’s been a lovely week. It’s been the first week of the school holidays so all the older children need to be entertained in the mornings as well as all the younger ones. The house mums have put together a program of activities for the mornings, which has been a huge help to us all as we’re sooooooo busy at the moment. As most of you are aware I’ve been given the wonderful task of buying and wrapping all the Christmas presents- yes all 38 of them. Over the past few weeks I’ve spent countless hours out shopping looking for nice gifts. I wanted to buy each child something that was suited exactly to them and something that I know they’d love. Needless to say it was a mammoth task. When I was finished buying I then had to put batteries in all the battery operated gifts and check everything works. Now I’m in the process of wrapping. I’ve already gone through at least 20 metres of paper and I’m not even half way through. I’ve still got a shopping trolley and beauty dresser to wrap a well as lots of other big toys!!! Now I know how stressful Christmas can be for parents- you can’t just buy the present and then wrap it. You’ve got to think about it, go out and buy it, carry the heavy box, open it, put it together, put the batteries in, check it all works, take it apart again and then try to get all the parts back in the box again (near impossible I’ve found) and then finally wrap it! Who knew Christmas could be so complicated and stressful!
The children danced last week at their church. There were a few problems beforehand which could have potentially been disastrous however everything got sorted in the end. Before the service I went outside to pray with the children that were dancing and we realised that one of the dancers had been left behind at the village. I had to race back to the village and race back. By God’s grace and amazing timing we walked into the church, sat down and then had to stand straight back up again as it was time for the children to dance! Phew! They of course danced with such grace and mostly with huge smiles. I was so proud of them! Afterwards the management team, their kids and us the volunteers went to a Waffle house for waffles (doh!!!!) and then to the beach for a bit. It was so nice to have time with everyone together as we’re all so busy during the week that sometimes we don’t get to see each other very much!

It’s been so amazing to see how much people want to get involved with Christmas here at the village. We’re having at least 3 parties supplied by different companies completely free of charge. Then others have donated presents or given us money to buy presents. The children will have at least 4 presents each to open on Christmas day! They even got an early Christmas present this week. A bike shop donated a fleet of brand new bikes so we gave out about 20 new bikes this afternoon to those who didn’t have bikes already. The children’s faces were absolutely priceless. They all came running to collect their new shiny bike grinning from ear to ear. It was such a special moment to see some of the children ride a bike for the first time! The little 6 year old girl that only arrived about a month ago probably never got a present in her whole life and now she has her very own bike and will be getting some lovely presents on Christmas day! Now each child over the age of 4 has a bike to ride around the village with their own helmet of course- praise the Lord as he provides exactly what we need!

The end of an era

2007-12-01T09:12:00.000+02:00

Into the community we went again this week. A few years ago a little girl who was staying at the village was adopted into a family in the local community because it turned out that praise the Lord she was HIV negative. It was her birthday on Saturday so all the crèche children were invited to her birthday party. When we arrived there were already lots of adults and children crammed into a tent but we were ushered in to find seats which I assume had been left especially for us. We were apparently the guests of honour- and obviously Robbie, Tamara, Yvonne and I were the only white people there so that was an even bigger thing for them. I’m now used to almost always in the minority so being stared at is nothing new to me now. Whenever we go to the local hospital people stare, whenever we go to KFC people stare- that’s just the way things go and I’m fine with it. Anyway I digress. So we were the guests of honour and Yvonne was asked to make a speech. While she was talking I looked around the room at all the faces and I knew that well over half of them would be infected with HIV. Perhaps even more disturbing I knew that a good proportion of the children would be subject to some form of abuse be it verbal or physical everyday. The whole experience served as a reminder that while HIV and even TB are rife in this country we forget that while these children have that to deal with they are sometimes suffering horrific abuse from those that should love them unconditionally. We were there quite a long time and were offered so much food- birthday cake, then sweets, then crisps, then chicken with rice, then fruit and yoghurt. The food just kept coming and people just kept eating more and more. I’ve no idea how they could afford to buy so much food! Music constantly played in the background and lots of the children got up and danced. Again like our children they have such natural rhythm! We ended up sitting outside as it got far too hot in the tent. It was good to cool down but our kids then started to wander about and it was rather difficult to keep track of them all. There were lots of men drinking beer like it was water outside and one of our kids went and sat with them. We were quite worried that they might try and give him some beer so we kept a close eye one him. Then a few of them went off exploring as children do so I went off in search to find them playing with some other children which of course was harmless enough. However with lots of drunken men wandering about and lots of disgusting looking dogs (most likely with rabies) looking for food it wasn’t safe for them so they needed to stay with us. All in all it was an interesting shall we say day and a good way to remind myself of where I am in the world and what I and everyone else needs to pray for!

The schools and big crèche finished for the year on Friday so we had a wee party in crèche to celebrate a fantastic year and to say goodbye to the children who will be leaving us and starting school in January. 5 of the big crèche children- literally half of the crèche- left so it was quite an emotional moment to realise that never again will crèche be the way it was. In January we get a new influx of the younger children from baby crèche so the whole dynamic of the group will totally chance. For now though we have 6 weeks break. 6 weeks to prepare for a new year. It’s so good to think that a few years ago no one thought that we would ever be in a position to have so many of the children at the village going to school. Last year unfortunately we lost 4 children to HIV/AIDS but this year the Lord has truly blessed us and we’ve not had any losses. One little girl who is 6 nearly died so many times last year. But now she is doing so well and she’s going to start school in January- again we have been so blessed! Wow there’s so much to be thankful for! Here are a few pics of the party we had. The last one is a pic of the 5 children who are going off to school. Please pray for them that they would really be able to use the next 6 weeks to prepare themselves for their futures and that they would thrive in school.

as long as I shall live I will testify the love....

2007-11-24T10:49:00.001+02:00

As always the week has flown by so before I know it it’s Friday and I still have yet to write my blog entry- naughty Lindsay always leaving it to the last minute! I suppose the major thing for me this week actually doesn’t have anything to do with the children. Last Friday the phone lines went down and they are still down. That means that I’ve not been able to read any emails you guys have sent me (so sorry for not replying already!) and even more importantly I wasn’t able to have my weekly phone call from my parents. Every Monday I go the office at 8pm ready for my parents to call. We chat for at least 2 hours- well I say we, to be fair it is mostly me who does the talking. Those two hours are so special to me. They keep me connected to home. They allow me to stay focused and grounded and above all they keep me feeling supported and loved. Initially I thought that the lines would be back up quickly but it’s now Friday night and we’re still without the lines. Only now do I know how blessed I am to be able to talk to my parents even though they are on the other side of the world. Only now do I start to appreciate phone lines. Clearly it’s not just me who this affects- the entire village suffers. We don’t have our intercom service between all the houses and buildings which means a lot more running about to deliver simple messages. Lots of different people only have our landline number such as social workers or staff at the local hospital. For all we know there could be a child somewhere who desperately needs to be placed at the village. That child could be in a horrendous situation- they could be living in horrible conditions or worse be suffering terrible abuse. They could be lying all alone in a hospital bed just waiting for us to pick them up and give them the love and care the so desperately need and deserve. Without the phone lines we could be and am sure are missing so much.
One of the little babies was admitted to hospital on Monday as she was vomiting all weekend and so was dehydrated. We arrived at the hospital at 8am to find a full paediatric ward. Usually on a Monday the ward is quite empty as a lot of children should have been discharged the Friday so we were quite shocked to find it full. We sat for 3 hours with a poorly, uncomfortable, tired and visibly distressed little girl. She was quiet for about the first half an hour but then she was getting restless and tired so I sang to her a little and rocked her and eventually she dropped off to sleep. Then the rather (when I say rather I’m actually being extremely polite) incompetent nurse started to fill in all the admission forms. I lost count of the number of times she got up and wandered off and then came back 5 minutes later. Some of her questions were ridiculous. The baby is 5 months old and so was obviously born this year. Knowing this the nurse then asked whether the baby had previously been in hospital this year or last year! Ah! Needless to say the whole process was very frustrating. All made worse by the fact that the nurse kept poking the poor little baby with a thermometer so each time she woke up with such a fright that she started crying- who could blame her? My heart really went out to her. She was in so much distress and there was little I could do for her but sing and rock in the hope that she would somehow find comfort. Eventually we said that we would take her home and bring her back when a bed was available in the afternoon. The nurse was less than impressed and wandered off again. Miraculously 2 minutes later a bed was available and within 2 more minutes I put her down, said a little prayer over her and then left. It was heartbreaking leaving her in the knowledge that while she might receive the right medical treatment she probably wouldn’t receive any love or attention until she was discharged back to the village. All in all it took 3 hours to admit the poorly little girl. Thankfully she came home on Wednesday and looked significantly better than she did on Monday. She is now back to her smiley, noisy self. The whole experience served as a reminder not only that these kids are sick but that we are in South Africa where there are limited medical resources and medical expertise. How much to we take for granted that in the UK we have free medical care which is of extremely high quality- it may not seem like it is high quality sometimes but trust me it is. Think about that next time you complain about the NHS.
On a better note there have been some lovely memories made at the village this week in baby crèche and big crèche. I feel that maybe I’m leaving them out a little bit so here are a few pictures of some special moments..

I also did some dancing with the older children one afternoon as they’ve been asked to dance at their church next Sunday. Most of the children are now at an age where they are really starting to worship God with so much passion. You can really see the Hold Spirit moving in them as they dance! I was astounded at how quickly they picked up all the moves! By the third time through they not only had all the moves mastered but they were singing along to! The words to the song are so powerful and they sang them with such conviction! The chorus starts with "as long as I shall live I will testify the love" and they really meant it when they sang it! I felt so blessed to be among them that afternoon! After dancing we just played together in the activity centre. I really cherish these times as the children just completely relax and really show off their different personalities…

Huge huge huge thanks!

2007-11-17T14:41:00.000+02:00

T everyone who was involved in anyway, shape or form in the "Geordie Night" held on the 31st October to raise funds for Rob and I can I say a massive thank you to you all. You truly are all wonderful people and all support whether it be through prayer or financially is hugely appreciated. Your faith is most definitely matched by your deeds.
Many many many thanks again to you all

Much love and blessings

L
xx

Point of no return

2007-11-17T14:35:00.001+02:00

Sitting in devotions on Thursday morning a baby started to cry. Instantly without even looking up I knew exactly which child was crying and exactly why she was crying. At that point I realised that there is no going back now. These children have moved me in a way I couldn’t ever attempt to successfully describe. I have such a strong connection with each and every child, a connection I now know after the experience of Thursday morning will never leave me. As you all know I have no children of my own but I can now begin to appreciate how much a parent loves a child. When the children are crying real tears and are visibly in pain or are suffering I feel their pain. Deep inside. I went to one of the houses on Thursday afternoon and found one of the beautiful little grade 1 school girls sat at the table with a heartbroken expression on her face. I instantly went to her and asked what was wrong. She didn’t answer. Instead her huge brown eyes filled with tears which then silently rolled down her cheeks. She said nothing and for 10 more minutes sat and continued in the same way. I asked if she was sick, I asked if something had happened at school or at dancing. I asked if someone had said something nasty to her but each time I got no reply. I couldn’t get through to her and it broke my heart to see her so visibly distressed. No matter what I did I couldn’t lift the sorrow from her heart. I cradled her in my arms; I tried to make her laugh but nothing worked. Again I knew that now there is no going back. My life will never be the same. These children will always be a huge part of my life. As I write the words of an amazing song called “Albertine” by a phenomenal Kiwi Artist called Brooke Fraser spring instantly to mind:
“Now that I have seen, I am responsible. Faith without deeds is dead. Now that I have held you in my arms, I cannot let go…….”
Never did I realise how much a child can touch your life in such a way as to leave you completely changed without they themselves even noticing.
We also had the privilege of going out and working in the community this week. One of the external workers had a new house build last year however the outside had yet to be painted so the volunteers and I went to her house and gave it a coat of brilliant white paint. she was overjoyed by our efforts even though all we did was put two layers of paint on the outside of her house which is smaller than my bedroom at home. Half a days work and what a different we made. From the hillside the house now stands proud. It was such a strong statement to the community- 5 white people working for a black family. Never before will they have witnessed what we did- and they probably won’t again. It was so humbling because what we did seemed so small but the appreciation was huge. The difference between developed and developing has never felt bigger………

Smile boy smile- please!!!!

2007-11-10T12:32:00.001+02:00

Another week goes by and again the time comes for me to find something to write here that may be mildly interesting for you all to read! Again we’ve had an amazing week where many good memories have been made. On Sunday we went to church as usual for 9.00am. The church is amazing with a congregation of at least 700 every single week. The worship is excellent (always a bonus!!) and the preaching is something I’ve never experienced before in my entire life. The Pastor is phenomenal. He is so energetic and he really knows his stuff. What’s more he knows exactly how to communicate exactly what God is putting on his heart. I’ve got so much out of his sermons already and I can’t wait every Sunday to hear what God. He is so accurate and whenever he quotes scripture he always gives the context of that particular scripture. So many times bible verses are quoted and because the context is not considered the verse is taken completely out of context so he really is refreshing! Anyway I digress. After church there was a touch rugby tournament on the rugby pitch next to the church. It was a lovely hot and sunny day but the wind was blowing so it was bearable. We just sat and watched and cheered everyone one and had a relaxing time together in the sun. It was just what I needed. Because we live at the village in amazing accommodation we effectively live where we work! I absolutely love being always so close to the children and house mums but sometimes it’s good just to get away for a bit and empty my mind completely of what’s happening at the village. Don’t misunderstand me as saying that I wish I didn’t live in the village or think that I’m being ungrateful, we all just need to totally disconnect from everything that’s going on for a while. Without a little time away from the village every now and then I don’t think I’d be enjoying my time here as much!
I’m still as involved in Baby crèche and Big Crèche as ever however in the afternoons this week I’ve been helping paint the rooms we use for crèche. Before we started painting the wall were a Salmon pink colour which we didn’t think was very child pleasing so we’ve gone for a lovely Green colour which is covering the walls nicely! Because I don’t have any old painting clothes here for obvious reasons I’ve been wearing a very attractive green dress with buttons all the way up the front. It causes quite a roar of laughter every time the house mums and external staff see me- didn’t realise I looked quite so funny! It’s been a really productive week and hopefully by the end of next week we should be just about finished. Will post finished pictures as and when!
We’ve actually had some nice weather this week so I’ve had many sessions with the children in the swimming pool. Only a few of the children are confident to swim without armbands so I only take one house at a time- i.e. only 4 children in the pool with me. They absolutely love playing and swimming in the pool- it’s such a big treat for them that they usually behave! Generally the school children are the only ones who swim however some of the big crèche kids join us if their house is swimming!
This week it’s started to hit me just how sick some of the children are and just how much we need to pray for all the children to keep fighting this horrific disease. A little boy who is 2 years old but is smaller than they average 1 year old arrived with us in August. He had clearly been very neglected but he picked up quite quickly and he started smiling quite soon after his arrival and had life in his eyes. In the last few weeks I’ve noticed him smile a lot less than he used to and that little spark in his eyes is fading fast. I really have to work hard to get his to smile. He just sits slumped over and makes no effort to interact even with the little girl that he lives with. I’m so worried that he is just giving up and isn’t willing to fight for his life anymore. He is quite clammy at the moment so I think that he has come down with something so please could you all pray for healing and for the strength to keep on fighting and keep on living. I’ve no idea what most of the children have been though in their short little lives but sometimes the pain they’ve gone through is quite visible. Sometimes the children seem to get lost in their own little world and we have no idea what they are thinking. The little boy in the pictures below demonstrates how sometimes it takes a while to get a smile back on his face…..

To carry on slightly from what I rambled on about in my last about how it seems the South African government is “burying its head in the sand” I was thinking that in the past few months actually while I’ve been here in South Africa I have watched 3 brilliant and thought provoking films which illustrate in a big way just how corrupt the whole world is and how it is the vulnerable that suffer. I’m not just talking about South Africa and not just about HIV/AIDS. “The Constant Gardner” is an amazing film which always moves me each time I watch it. In Kenya and many other developing countries we see how huge drug companies exploit and use the vulnerable to test new drugs which are still in clinical trial. These people that are used are completely coerced into taking drugs which they have no knowledge of whatsoever. It probably won’t help them in any medical way either. However, if these people refuse to take the drugs on trial they don’t receive the drugs that they actually need. Clearly the story in the film which is based on a true story is a lot more complex that this however what I have just explained is the harsh reality that hits me every time I watch. The drug companies are highly connected with many governments of the Western world and so they are also involved in this most hideous exploitation up to their necks. If people die from the side effects of these new drugs they are inhumanly disposed of in mass landfills. In this way both the drug companies and the leaders of the world have blood on their hands. But, they don’t care. They use money and power to try and wash themselves clean. Let’s face the harsh reality here that these developing countries such as South Africa and Kenya will always remain just that- developing. They will never be able to become developed like the rest of the Western world even though they strive and long for the chance to develop. The leaders of the developed world will always suffocate these people and literally keep the cork in the bottle...

Don't bury your head in the sand unless there's a thunder storm...

2007-11-03T10:45:00.000+02:00

So another week has gone by- that’s five here at Rehoboth and 7 in South Africa! Oh my word how time is flying! Before I know it it’ll be April and I’ll be thinking about leaving for home!
We’ve had a bit of a topsy turvy week. On Monday evening we had just finished dinner and all of a sudden there was a very loud bang, a blinding flash of light, the switches sparked and the power went. From then on we witnessed the power of God in the form of a huge thunderstorm. It was tremendous- I’ve never experienced anything like it. We sat outside out accommodation and had a 180 degree visual of the show. There was fork lightning which struck left right and center- you didn’t know where to look next! Scatter lightning permanently lit up the sky and the noise was deafening at times. It was so fascinating and for a full 2 hours we sat and watched in awe. On Tuesday morning we heard that one of the first hits of the lightning struck down here at the village. It didn’t just hit anywhere though- it hit the main power box by the front gate hence why there was a rather loud bang and why we still had no power! Eventually at 10.30pm on Tuesday evening most of the power to the village returned, however as we then realized that another one of the power boxes had been hit which just so happened to supply out accommodation so that had to be fixed which took til late Wednesday afternoon- so not one but two cold showers for Lindsay! Boy do I appreciate electricity more than I used to! It kind of serves as a good reminder that after all we are in Africa and problems here take a little more time to be sorted than at home. It doesn’t help that most of the power cables and boxes are above ground and therefore vulnerable. At least however we are all safe and well. No one was hurt only material possessions we damaged which can of course be replaced. God really protected each and every one of us at the village so this week we’ve had a lot to be thankful for!
Yesterday I had fun dressing up and dancing with all the older school children. I put on some worship music and the girls did some beautiful dancing. Their African roots really show through when they move. They absolutely love to show off and perform- if I’m not constantly taking photos of them they start to get annoyed with me!

I think those photos capture so much beauty and innocence in each individual child. They live here surrounded by so much love and protection. By the grace of God they have been brought here and saved from a potentially short and abusive life. Unfortunately we can only care for the children brought here- there are so many who are still out in the community who desperately need our help not just from us here at the children’s village but from the world. The South Africa government has literally just buried their heads in the sand. They refuse to acknowledge the problem and moreover because of this they are so illeduated on the subject of HIV/AIDS. Firstly the President of South Africa believes that there is no link between HIV and AIDS. The Dep slept with a prostitute who he knew had AIDS and then said that because he took a good shower afterwards that he would be fine. Then finally the Health Minister advises those already infected to eat lots of garlic, lemons and olive oil. Completely shocking. If the government refuses to do something to help all these people in desperate need of help then I’m afraid it is down to us. That doesn’t mean that I think we should all be out on the mission field nor do I think that everyone should be throwing money at the problem. We all just need to take time to think about these people and most importantly pray for the situation. If God wants practical help from you then he will most definitely tell you and not stop telling you until you do something about it. If God just wants you to pray then please pray. Pray that the government would wake up and stretch out a compassionate and helpful arm to all these people in need. Pray for all the researchers who are desperately trying to develop new treatments. Pray for all the people affected by HIV/AIDS that they would try to help themselves by taking their drugs regularly and by leading more healthy, non-promiscuous lifestyle. Pray for all the volunteers and missionaries out here trying to make a difference that we would have the strength, encouragement and compassion to continue with God’s work and hopefully make some difference to the lives of the people here who so desperately need our help…..

New Arrivals

2007-10-27T11:11:00.001+02:00

So after blogging last week I realised that I didn’t really write much about exactly what I’ve been up to. It’s just that I feel so strongly about what’s going on in this world that maybe sometimes I get a bit carried away and miss what’s slap bang right in front of me. The little girl I wrote about last week is just going from strength to strength- or should I say smile to smile. She laughed out loud for the first time on Wednesday. I felt so humbled and blessed to have witnessed it. She now smiles a lot, she laughs, chatters away, interacts with the other babies and toys and now is even making attempts to start crawling. It truly has been a miracle. The pictures below show just how much she has changed in a little over a week. It’s not just her smile that is visibly different- you can see in her eyes now there is life and a desire and a will to fight. I know so many of you have been praying for her so thank you so much! God has truly answered our prayers! Hallelujah!

More exciting news comes in the form of not one, not two but three new arrivals at the village. We picked up a three month old gorgeous little baby boy up from the hospital on Thursday afternoon. It was such an amazing experience to go and collect our new arrival. When I picked him up for the first time I instantly felt drawn to him. I instantly felt that he was so desperate to be loved. I prayed over him and sang some songs and I felt the power of God flow from me to him. The connection I made with him that afternoon will never leave me and I hope and pray that before I leave that I can play a big part in his development both spiritually and emotionally. It truly was a special moment- one I’ll never forget. Then Robbie and another volunteer picked up his 12 month old brother on Friday afternoon. He was in so much distress when he arrived. Tears were streaming down his checks, it was quite an emotionally draining moment- I really struggled to keep it together. There are 9 months between the two siblings meaning that the mother got pregnant again as soon as she had the first little boy. Then just as the 12 month year old arrived a 6 year old little girl arrived. She seems to be quite happy although her English is not too good but hopefully she should settle in well and get to know the older children quickly. She has been put in a house with another 8 year old girl so hopefully they should get on well and for a special bond. All the other children can’t wait to meet the three new arrivals and make them welcome. They are especially excited to meet the 6 year old as that’s another recruit for the football and cricket matches!!!!! Please pray for these three new arrivals that they would feel as though they are at home and for the house mothers that they would make a deep and lasting connection with the new children.
Thursday brought the celebration of a birthday- any excuse for a party! We had cake, “chippies”, marshmallows and lots of fun! As always we sang happy birthday, blew out the candles and opened the presents. The afternoon is always such a special time as sometimes we forget that we can’t predict how many more birthdays the children will have so each one must be made a very special occasion. I took my camera with me (I rarely go anywhere without it!!!) and took so many photos- the kids absolutely adore having their photo taken as you can see from the pictures below…..

The older children have dance lessons once a week after school and they had their big performance last weekend. They performed brilliantly with so much passion and enthusiasm. I felt so nervous for them as we sat and watched all the other acts before it was their turn. The way they came onto the stage however soon dissolved my nerves. They just looked so exited and confident. They were amazing! Most of the children have such a good sense of rhythm- they really felt the music and that just shone through. Bias set aside they easily got the biggest clap of the night. I incidentally didn’t just clap- I screamed, whooped and clapped as loudly as I could whilst fighting back tears of joy. As with out new little arrival I feel already I have such a strong and deep connection with each and every child. I felt so proud of them and what they have achieved against all the odds. The love of God really shines through them and I feel just so privileged to be part of their lives……..

Don't Give up the Fight

2007-10-20T09:25:00.000+02:00

Before I start my post I must apologise for not posting last week. I’ve been ill with tonsillitis (nice little present from the children) so I couldn’t get on the internet last weekend as I could hardly make it out of bed let alone to the internet café! I’m trying hard not to let this illness get the better of me by trying to stay as active as possible, drinking plenty of orange juice to keep up my vitamin C levels and generally trying to be as happy and smiley as possible but it’s hard. My energy levels are running low and I’m not having much contact with the kids as I don’t want to make them ill too so sometimes it’s hard to keep going but I’m plodding along. This week I’ve mainly been doing preparatory work for the "Bible Club" I’ll be starting with the kids in the next few weeks. Rehoboth seeks to look after the kids according to five different areas- Emotional, Physical, Intellectual, Medical and finally Spiritual. Emotionally the children are well supported by the house mothers, the sponsorship program, the Aunty and Uncle program and of course us as volunteers. Physically the children play a lot! We play outside in crèche, there are jungle gyms dotted about the village to keep them active and we’re currently in the process of constructing a football pitch which should be ready after Christmas. Intellectually all children above 6 who are able to recognise their names, know their colours, count to 10, speak English to a reasonable level and are well enough attend a local Christian school. We currently have a 6 year old and an 8 year old still in "big crèche" aimed at 3-6yrs who hopefully will start school in January providing they are healthy enough and can speak and understand enough English. Many of the children who arrive at Rehoboth don’t speak any English. While it is vital that the children learn to speak good English in order to attend school, we encourage the children the speak Zulu (their native tongue) to each other so they don’t totally leave their heritage behind. Clearly we look after the medical needs of the children by providing them with the right treatment according to their individual circumstances. Most of the children are on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, however some remain quite healthy without it. Most of the younger babies also receive vitamin supplements and unfortunately some of the children newest to Rehoboth are receiving treatment for tuberculosis- another big killer here in the KwaZulu-Natal region. Finally spiritually the older children who attend school go to a Zulu church on a Sunday and attend the local Sunday school which they love. Also as they attend a Christian school in this way they are too told about Jesus. It has been felt however recently that we as a team here at Rehoboth should also be providing for the children spiritually hence why I am going to be starting up the "Bible Club" I mentioned earlier. The kids already have a good understanding of who God and Jesus is. They sing about Jesus at school, and in daily devotions the children that attend crèche also are involved in worshipping God and Jesus. They are all encouraged to enter a personal relationship with Jesus and accept Him as their Lord and Saviour and also their friend. All this however needs reinforcing with word from God so I will be reading them stories from the bible (with the aid of felt picture boards- v exciting!!) and teaching them hopefully a new bible verse every week. In this way each and every child should be "fed" with the word of God and also have a deep and meaningful relationship with Jesus. Your prayers that this would be realised at Rehoboth would be greatly appreciated!!!
With very little contact with the children this week due to my illness I have very little to report back on kids wise! We have had a major break through though with one of the children. She is 15 months old and until this week had never smiled. She came to Rehoboth in August and had very little life in her. As the weeks went by nothing changed, she remained very emotionally dead and was slowly giving up the fight. usually when children like this come to Rehoboth the love and care that they immediately receive is usually more than enough to bring them back to life, but not with this little one. She has received so much prayer but it was only this week that we’ve had the breakthrough we needed. She has started smiling and in her eyes you can now see that she’s starting to live again and build up the strength she needs to fight fight fight this horrendous virus. I’ve not seen it for myself yet but I’m very excited to see her when I’m all better. This combination seems to be the key to fighting this disease. The children need to be supported emotionally, physically, spiritually, medically and intellectually in order for them themselves to literally fight for their lives.
Please pray for each and every child struck with HIV/AIDS to fight for their lives through the love and care of Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Saviour and our Friend.

This is a picture of the little girl before she started smiling- hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be able to catch her now beautiful smile on camera to show you how much of a difference living at the village has made in her life! L xx

He's My Brother

2007-10-06T12:23:00.000+02:00

Well after 9 months of waiting I finally arrived at Rehoboth last Friday. Everything still feels a little surreal but I’m here where I know I’m supposed to be and I can’t wait to see what’s in store during the next 6 months.
I’ve had a hectic week feeling my way around the village, organising some sort of schedule and of course attempting to learn the names of the 37 children and all the house mothers and other support staff. In the mornings I’ll be involved in co-ordinating baby crèche (0-3yrs) and the big crèche (3-6yrs). Then in the afternoon I’ll be doing lots of things ranging from working in the clinic sorting out all the many medicines that the children need, swimming with them, doing homework with the ones who go to school, music and dance lessons and of course sorting the storeroom where the many many donations of clothes, toys and other things need to be sorted and shelved. Any other time I have free I spent playing, reading and generally having fun with all the children. It’s gonna be a busy 6 months!!!

Rob and I have been made to feel so unbelievable welcome. I feel so privileged and blessed to be among such loving and caring people. The children are just amazing- each so beautiful and special in their own little way. I’ve seen a lot of pictures of the children when they arrived at the village. They all looked so miserable and unloved. Most of them were very ill too for obvious reasons. To see them now and witness just how much the love and care of Jesus and his followers can transform a child into a happy, smiley, relatively healthy individual is very humbling indeed.

As you can see from the pictures below the children themselves are so loving towards one another- it’s hard to stop the tears from falling when I look at the pictures below.

In the last week blood test results have revealed that actually 3 of the little ones are HIV negative and hopefully in the next few months they will be reunited with family. These three children’s biological mothers are actually HIV positive so it really is a miracle that these children are negative. God is amazing!!!
The volunteer accommodation that we are living in is beautiful. My room is lovely and cosy. I’ve stuck lots of pictures of u all on my walls already to make it feel like home and I’m in the process of printing out photos of all the children to help me learn their names faster! Our living room and kitchen is really homely and the view from the building is beautiful! The whole village is set on the side of a massive hill so you have to walk up and down hills all day long- good way to get back into shape! At the bottom of the hill near our accommodation is a wee reservoir so at night the sound from the hundreds of frogs is almost deafening. I’m having to quickly get used to all the many many many different bugs- moths, flying beetles, flying ants, crickets, shongololos (not sure if that’s how u spell it- suffice to say they are really big long black centipede) and so many other things that are just horrid to look at. As most of you are aware I’m not a fan of creepy crawlies so I’m having to change my ways fast as there’s no way to avoid them there are so many about- especially at night! I’ve already got a few mossie bites- actually less than I expected as usually mossies love me (or my skin rather!).

The weather so far has not been the best. We’ve had quite a few horrendous thunder storms with fantastic lightning but torrential rain. We lost power from about 8.30pm til 11.00am the next day. I’m quickly learning that with being in such a remote and poor area it takes a lot lot longer for things to get into motion and for vital things like the power to get up and running again after storms knock it out. The difference between the area around Rehoboth and Joburg is staggering. It’s like we’ve stepped into a different world. Here almost everyone is black. Most people live in tiny little concrete shacks- very few actually have electricity. There are very few cars about except from taxi’s who ferry people about (usually there about 25 people crammed into a 8 seater car and the drivers are complete maniacs!). There are people walking next to the roads day and night. Most of them seem to be wandering aimlessly- not knowing or caring where they are actually going to end up. This last week really has been a wakeup call to the struggle these people face day in day out and I’m worrying about the fact that my hair won’t stay straight. I visited the local government hospital today and was appaled by the conditions. The wards were filthy, everything seemed so unorganised. the state of the TB ward was just unbelievable. No wonder so many people in Africa are dying not just of AIDS- TB remains a huge killer as well. The childrens ward wasn’t much better- kids with open TB who were supposed to be in quarantine were wandering around mixing with the other children who were clearly already rather ill. It really was unbelievable especially considering I was assured that this was one of the better hospitals in KwaZulu Natal- apparently the hospital received lots of funding to build new, more up to date wards however these wards haven’t opened as of yet as there are no staff to run them. Today really opened my eyes to how tremendously lucky we are to have free medical care which is of far greater standard. It seems to me that the KwaZulu Natal (nicknamed the AIDS region of South Africa as 40% of the people living here have HIV/AIDS) region whilst being so famous for its high rate of HIV/AIDS is in reality a region that the people of South Africa and indeed the rest of the world would much rather ignore…

Relaxation in Joburg

2007-09-26T11:17:00.000+02:00

So as you all know we’ve been staying with Robbie’s relatives in Joburg. We’ve spent most of our time sitting in the sun relaxing- it has been absolute bliss. We’ve both had such busy summer’s working to help fund this trip that actually when we got here we were exhausted and in desperate need of a holiday- and that’s what we’ve had really. Some time to relax and recharge our batteries so that physically we’re prepared for the work that lies ahead. The time has also prepared us spiritually. I’ve had so much time to sit with my bible and to be with God praying about what lies ahead and how I’m going to cope with this huge leap of faith. All through the summer I was always busy with work or with church stuff or with friends and family I honestly found it very difficult at times to devote time specifically to reading my bible and just being with God. Now I’ve had two weeks of time with the Big Man I feel completely at ease and ready for the challenge. I’m on the right path with God and I know he is with me every step!
There was a public holiday last Monday (National Braai Day) so Rob and I spent a long weekend at Robbie’s relatives’ River house in Parys which is about an hour and a half north of Joburg (I think!!!!!). The house was absolutely gorgeous, the weather was beautiful, the surrounding were beautiful- it was perfect! I spent most of the time reading and listening to music while Robbie spent the odd hour or two fishing. Bless him he didn’t catch anything but he gave it his best shot! I also did some exploring and attempted to be like David Attenborough with little success really. Nevertheless I did manage to see some Lechwe, Wildebeest, Springbok and lots of other wildlife- it was just amazing! Managed to take a few shots on my camera- I never really got a chance to get near the animals because as soon as they saw me approach they were off- didn’t think I was that ugly from a distance!!!! At dusk the animals came close to the house as well- one night we had a small herd of Springbok feasting on the plants surrounding the house! The weekend was truly amazing- one which I’ll not forget in a long time! Again just what we needed.
I’ll leave you with a few pics from the weekend. It may be a while before I post again. All depends on how quickly we settle in, how good the internet access is and generally how much free time we get- not much I’m thinking when you’ve got 44 children to entertain!!!! Thanks for all you emails and texts. It feels great to still be connected to you all on the other side of the world- your support means so much!

We made it!!!!

2007-09-15T21:31:00.000+02:00

Well we're here after what felt like days of travelling! Things didn't exactly get off to the best start at Newcastle airport where a rather rude check in lady wouldn't take my bag unless it was exactly 20kg or less- I only had 22.5kg! She then weighed my hand luggage which of course again was well over the 7kg you're allowed. So 2 cut a long story short I had 2 shed kilos of weight by leaving behind toiletries, books and some clothes. The annoying thing was that the flight to Dubai was literally less than half full- so any extra weight wouldn't have been a problem! Anyhoo, the flight to Dubai was fine. We touched down at midnight local time and were told that it was 31 degrees outside! The airport was nice and modern- well let's face it Dubai isn't as old even as me so it had to be up to date surely! We waited til half 5 in the morning for our next flight to Johannesburg which is where we are now, staying with Robbie's Aunt and Uncly for 2 weeks before we fly down 2 Durban. Going to Robbie's Aunts river house at 6am tomorrow morning so with that I'll dash off and get some sleep as I've been awake for about 30 hours or so now!
Oh and guess what was the first thing I bought in South Africa............ chewing gum- how classy!

L
xx

3 days to go!

2007-09-11T14:39:00.001+02:00

Well 3 days to go until I leave the Northern Hemisphere and begin a new chapter in my life! Why am I not more prepared???!!!! I don't think it's hit me yet really that I'm going away to the otherside of the world for 7 months but nevertheless I'm both scared and excited and can't wait to get stuck in! HUGE thanks to everyone who has supported me in so many different ways- I love you all so much and will miss you terribly. I hope to keep this website updated as regularly as possible with photos and videos of what I'll be doing! So, in the meantime I'd better get back to packing, unpacking and repacking again and generally preparing for this amazing adventure I'm about to embark upon!