If I Ever See Another Apple...!

Maddy, please feel loved and influential. This post is for you. 

Its actually been a pretty hectic week. We climbed Mt Horeb, swam in the dam two days in a row and had a Braii by the river! Don't worry, I've also done some proper work... today we cored, peeled, cut and stewed I don't know how many apples, I'd estimate at about 200! Our hands were brown with the juice and Modiehi got a blister from the peeler, pretty intense if you ask me. Hardcore, haha core (apologies, that was terrible but I'm pretty tired)! The apples were for Mapheo, we've set about properly feeding the children every week on R50 a week which is approx £5. Cheryl has given us a great menu and we're all quite stoked about the plans, last week we made pap with sardines and the outer leaves of broccoli. The apples will be frozen and turned into a sort of fruit crush, sounds yummy! Tomorrow we are serving them homemade bread with jam and peanut butter. It feels really rewarding to know that this food is going into stomaches that really need and appreciate it.

My other news from today is that I got HIV tested. Topsy needed a volunteer patient to show someone how to do the test so I said 'sure thing'. The thing was that although I was dead certain it would be negative, there is no way I could have had HIV, it was still pretty nerve racking. I was sitting watching my blood go through the test and just praying, 'Lord don't let the impossible be true!' Thank God it didn't and I am HIV negative, but it was a hairy moment even though I was 99.99999999999% sure that there was no way at all I could have HIV. All in all it was a really interesting experience and I would get tested again any time! It was really interesting being counselled through the test and why you should have one done, it was another glimpse into the culture that I live in here. We're doing a drop-in testing session on Friday at the church so am praying that many people turn up. Its so important that people find out their status and so can make precaution to either stay negative or get treatment. 

Jumping into the Dam

The sky on Sunday evening - storm followed.

On top of Mt Horeb!

Busy as a Bee at Harvest Time!

I'm enjoying a welcome hours break to eat some lunch at home during what has been my busiest week since I got here! Practically legged it back from School at 12 and will be back up there for 2ish to start preparing for Mapheo. Began the week still feeling out of sync with the fact that this is my life now... think there is still some of that sentiment lingering. I'm loving living here and everything I just don't really feel like I do live here, I guess it takes time though. I've only be actually working for 3 weeks and am only just getting into a proper routine and our whole team has only just assembled, the final member -Jason- arrived last Saturday.
Yesterday after being in school in the morning the FPs went to finish off painting an old man's house that had been started when the team from Dubai was with us. His bedroom is now a rather sporadic (Tara) shade of blue because it didn't quite mix properly, but I think it looks pretty nice! Then it was home for a quick dinner of fish finger sandwiches (for the second night running) before we were off out for Youth Leaders Meeting. I'm speaking this week with Modiehi on friendships and am trying to pull a little 'No Perfect People Allowed' spin on it. We'll see how it goes, praying that the Holy Spirit will just take over!!
Been doing admin-type stuff at school the last 2 days which, while it does make me feel useful, is ever so slightly boring, I like being with the kids more! Having said that, the stuff needs doing and if I didn't do it someone with much less time available would have to, so there we go!
This Sunday I will be performing a puppet show about Samuel hearing from God for the Under 4s. Praying that both age and language do not stop them understanding that they can hear from God and that he is listening to them, Should be good, looking forward to it!
Well, best be off. We're feeding the Mapheo kids eggs this week so its going to be an afternoon of boiling them (the eggs of course, not the kids!)

Painting the old man's house!

Everything

Having given up a year of my life to serve the church you might think its easy for me to say, Jesus is my everything. But really, we all have to got through a daily struggle of giving Jesus all of ourselves. Saying that nothing else matters in comparison to Him and that today, we promise, we will not let anything take precedence over our goal of following Him and Him alone. It a tough thing to do and yet do it we must.

"God in my living, there in my breathing

God in my waking, God in my sleeping

God in my resting, there in my working

God in my thinking, God in my speaking

Be my everything, be my everything

Be my everything, be my everything"

Tim Hughes, Everything

"And how can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

Cause you're all I want, You're all I need
You're everything,everything
You're all I want your all I need
You're everything, everything.
You're all I want you're all I need.
You're everything, everything

You're all I want you're all I need, you're everything, everything."

Lifehouse, Everything

Maths Classes and Ostriches

Well, things have kicked off with Back to School! After 6 months of being out of the classroom I'm back in it on the other side of the table! Somebody had the strange idea that I can teach maths and so I've been taking the 6 most able children in Grade 5 (10 years old) for their, numbers to 1 000 000 lessons! This mainly involves a lot of number lines and counting on, which may not sound so hard but I did put a number line on the board yesterday that I couldn't answer! This elicited the question "Are you a teacher?" from one girl, the answer was "Sort of!" Apart from that we are now only 2 short of a full team, the first of which comes back tomorrow and then the second of which...I'm not sure! Feeling ready to take on the year and hit the ground running.
We've been doing 'birds' in class as well where, as Mike said, my extensive knowledge of birds really came in handy! I've learnt that Ostriches are the largest birds on earth and can run at up to 45 mph. Today we had 2 Love Birds and a Chicken in the classroom which was...interesting! The Love Birds wouldn't really shut up so it was a bit frustrating after a while! I really became a teacher when I sat down with 2 subjects worth of books and was like, AH now I have to do all this marking - although the best bit is getting to choose stickers to reward them with. I think that every year should get stickers, right up to Sixth Form. Everyone loves stickers, am I right, or am I right!?

Things to Do Without a TV: No.1

Make a scrabble board full of words associated with God, great for focussing on His character and increasing vocabulary at the same time!

Arrival in Clarens and a Very Wet Safari

Well, I'm here. It seems like a lifetime ago that I started praying, planning and saving for this moment, so much so that its a bit unreal to think that the time has actually arrived - I keep half expecting to be told to go home again! We had a wonderful family holiday although the two days at the safari lodge were waterlogged to say the least, however, we still saw loads of animals including cheetahs and giraffes!
I started this post a week ago and have now had one week which has also been more of a holiday but also some adjustment time. Our team has not yet re-assembled after christmas and so things are on a go slow at a push! But it has been, in a way, quite good to just pick up the pace of life here and try and settle in to what is now my life. I think we underestimate moves like this, excited as we are, we forget that there is a lot involved and that actually behind the exciting things we're doing and the great things we're going to do and see and experience life doesn't just change at the click of a finger and we aren't able to just fit into a new place as immediately as hoped! I say 'we' because I think really that is one of the true lessons of leaving home for everyone who's done it. Now, don't quote me or use me as some expert on this because, seriously, I haven't consulted anybody else on this issue, its just a hunch. I think one of the biggest learning curves leaving home is that home doesn't happen overnight. You can make a place look like home and, yes I believe Clarens is my home [see previous blog posts to see just how much] but actually making a home in a new place, especially on your own is tough. (I hope this is making sense, I'm really just typing before my brain thinks this through). I suppose I'm just grateful that I am joining a church here that feels like a home, that the people will make sure I feel like part of a family, and that the Northcote family let me kip on their floor!

'Almost There' or 'Three Sleeps to Go'

I'm looking around my room at all the photos and postcards and cuttings that have made it mine. This room has so much of me in it, the actors, the art, the photos. I'm trying to leave it as long as possible before I take them down because I know that once they're gone it really will feel like I'm leaving. I've cleared my room out. Well, I say cleared. The thing is that I've cleared the cupboards and drawers; all the out of sight stuff. I thought doing this would make it difficult to mess up my room in my last few weeks. How wrong I was. There is so much stuff on the floor, I really don't know where it all came from and certainly don't know where its all going to go!

 

Packing has been a bit of a nightmare as well, I seem to have way too many clothes. [do you think we added the 'e' into clothes because we didn't like sounding as if we were wearing 'cloths'?] Anyway. My whole point is that my leaving day is very close indeed and I don't really know what to do about it. This has been my focus for a very long time but now that it is almost upon me I don't know what to do with myself. To be honest I'm trusting God that it'll all just fall into place somehow! TTFN