25-28th April

Wednesday 25th
Wednesday was a pretty dry day, as we are still in orentation we havnt started any actual work yet, so there wasnt much to do [that all about to change soon!] We went to the schools assembly in the morning which was nice and we got introduced to all the kids. It showed to me the differnce though between this school and one back in england. The layout was the same but when the teacher was saying 'what makes you not be able to concentrate on your work', rather than the replys i expected such as 'my friends' etc, it was things like, if you have no food to eat for the day or if a family member has died. So we are gradually beginning to see how different these kids lives are. For the rest of the day we did team time and our weekly shop [i had yet another 'fun' shower experience...]. In the evening we went to a joint cell meeting with the other cell groups of the 20's [so just the young adult cells] there were SO many people! It was awesome as the church we go to are also really involved in outreach and it was a meeting all about the mission weekedends we are going on all over where we live so its real exciting.

Thursday 26th
Thursday was SUCH a good day. At first it seemed like it was going to be my idea of a nightmare: water + swimwear + children! but it was really fun. We took the entire school to a water park! We were assigned classes so Rob and myself helped look after the year 4 and 5s. It was really funny because a trip like that would never have been allowed to happen in england! We were on the coach and the children were all dancing in the isles running around etc! and when we got there all 200 of them were allowed to just go off on their own! but we came back with everyone safe and sound so its all good! The weather was 32 degrees so it was perfect and it was an out door park made up of all differnt sorts of water slides and swimming pools. The trip was about 7 pounds per child but we were told that most of the families had to pay this in installments and it would have been hard for them to manage, but the kids look forward to it for the whole year, some even buy new clothes! Despite my lack of children skills I got on fine showing them clapping games, singing high school musical [missed you zoe!] and talking to them about omarions new song! I went on most of the rides [apart from this massive high slide] and we had lots of fun! [dont worry the real work will start soon orientation ends this week!]

Friday 27th [happy birthday shanta!]
Yesterday was the final day of our orientation, so the day to decide what projects we feel we should be part of an would work best in [to the be timetabled up on wednesday - our co ordinator is at a funeral untill then] so we went to the Botanical gardens and spend the day having individual times and thinking about, praying and reading the bible about where we feel we should be for the next 4 months. It was a really good time to get focus as we havnt had any time alone really since we got here. So hopefully by wednesday ill be able to tell you what im gunna be up to! We went to dinner at an indian ladies house that works for the project and it was really good but i felt so bad! They had made SO much food and they must have spent so much time an money on it and none of them ate! They stood round us while we had food and like waited on us, i wasnt really sure what to do but i just made sure i thanked them alot and ate alot! We then went bowling in the evening which was fun although im really really rubbish but anything that costs under 2 pounds is fun!!

miss you lots!
x

23rd - 24th April

On Monday we had one of the best days ever! Because we are still in orientation we had a team building day! we went to an outdoor activities center and spent the day there.
We begun by playing 'get to know eachother' style games such as, have you ever and a game that was a bit like captins coming which were really funny!
We then began to do the trust excersizes which i hated as they involved people having to pick me up etc, which is not fun. We had to fall back off this massive rock in to the teams arms and lots of different things like that, but i pushed on through and managed to do it! We then did absailing down a waterfall and i was very scared [especially since im not one of the most agile of people...]
However i just went for it and it was lots of fun! Although at one point i did lose my footing and crashed against the wall into stinging nettles/brambles, yet again meaning i need the first aid kit- when i looked down and realised my arm was covered in blood! After that busy day all we were ready for was an early night!

Yesterday [tuesday] was pretty boring! We were in meeting all morning with the funding team who met with all the different projects and it took hours. It was nice to meet everyone but there was so much stuff i didnt understand about differnt organisations funding etc! When this was over at about 4 i went to have a 'quick sit down' on a bean bag and ended up falling asleep... :S
In the evening i went to an awesome prayer meeting, one of the best ever. There were around 1000 people there and they played worship music the entire time and there was such a good atmosphere. After that we went round a guy called Ashlys house [his house is amazing] and watched the man u game as he is a massive fan. We had such a good laugh and it is really nice to be made so welcome by people we have only just met!
There was a slight problem on the way to ashleys house [mum dont read this haha] but me and sarah were in her car and we got hit! We were parked at the traffice light and a guy came round the corner and misjudged the distance and crashed into the corner of our bumper. It was all fine an no one got hurt, but sarah and i soon both realised the mad was drunk [he couldnt write down any of his details...] but we are just thankful that we were all kept safe! [prayer point: that the police take the accident seriously and that the mans insurance pay quickly as sarah is selling her car in a few weeks]

And finally pictures:

Our prison:

20th-22nd April

Friday 20th april
Friday was a pretty empty day, however the weather was sooo nice - so its all good! We helped out at the school in the morning and got to meet some of the kids which was really good as we will definately be helping out there in the next 4 months. We then went to the mall and picked up some bits and pieces [the culture shock is tough.....] In the afternoon we met the kids from the childrens home for kids with hiv. It was really good to get to know them and they are all so cute and funny. They live on the same sight as us so now they know us they keep wanting to play all the time!
In the evening we watched a DVD of a movie called faith like potatoes, which is a true story based on a guy who lives right near where we are staying! its about a guy whos faith in god did miracles! and we hung out with sarah and rachel [who have saved our life out here as they are always making sure we are alright and have things to do -they also drive us around everywhere!]

Saturday 21st April
We went to Tala game reserve as it was our day off which was really cool [its like a mini safari]. We drove around in this mini bus thing that threw us all over the place! we saw girafe right up next to the car, zebras and lots of other animals [photos to come!] However most of you know im not really an animal person so after about an hour i was pretty bored...
We stopped for lunch and we went swimming in an out door rock pool, although it was boiling outside the pool was freezing! we spent the rest of the afternoon looking at the animals and i was so tired!
The last few days there have been a group of guys who are doing prison ministry living in our cell blocks, and they have been leaving at 4:30 every morning to drive into real prisons, but they are SO noisy! they keep shouting and slamming doors etc so i have been woken up at that time evey night! however i had enough in the end and shouted at them! hahaha
In the evening rachel an sarah took us out for dinner with their freind ash an we had these massice TGI Fridays style meals and for 5 of us including drinks it cost 14 pounds!! i love africa!
we then play mini gulf, but this wasnt any kind of gulf..this was 'an adventure..' i was rubbish but cheated alot so it was really fun![playing cost like 70p a game!]

Sunday 22nd April
Today i had another brilliant day! First of all we ate breakfast to the sounds of a gosspel church who have a meeting using one of our building so with that amazing music and the sun shining it was the perfect start to the day. We went to our new chuch in the morning and it is massive! they have 2 services in the morning as there are so many people. Sarah said there are about 2000 people who go there and the building is amazing. The preach was really good an the music is very similar to Harvest. They have a visitors longue which looks like starbucks where they give all new people free muffins - it seems to have done the trick! they also have loads of other cool cafe areas an a book shop and all kinds of things!
We then went to Penny and Cliffs house for lunch, they are eldres of the church who sarah lives with and Penny works for project gate way. Everyone was so friendly and made us feel so welcome, we then went to the evening service which was also awesome. However today was the first day we used the car we are shareing and on the way to the evening service the car broke down and the breaks failed! so we had to pull over in some random road. It was a good job it was still light or it would have been real dangerous. Luckily sarah resuced us but we had to leave the car on the road and just pray it wouldnt get stolen! It was so funny but proper rubbish at the same time - then loadsa guys from the church came down at the end of the service and got it going for us again thank goodness!
They have like a canteen bit so we had our dinner there too [hot dogs for 20p!] - not having to cook for ourselves is always a bonus!. The night was finished by goinh to Mug and Bean for white hot chocolates with loads of people from church, so it was a really good day [despite the car trouble!]

xx

19th April

Yesterday we had a brilliant day!
The morning started with going to get milk shakes as Anna was a bit down so we wanted to start the morning off on a good note! We then went to have a talk at the school where we got to learn how we could be involved and what we would do if we were going to be working there. The majority of the children there are Zulu and are all from disadvantaged backgrounds, alot of them have had family members die from aids. The primary school is really nice, however at the same time there are alot of resources they still need [such as new computeres for the computer room].
We then led a music class, with two of the other girls who are from england and ireland and have been living at gate way for the last few months. We had a class of receptions and sung songs with them and played games. It was so much fun, the children were so enthusiastic and amazing singers!
After lunch we were picked up by a guy called rob [originally from englang but has been living in SA for the last 4 years with his family] who works for the community care project. He took us to a secondary school where we was holding a talk to a class about what he and the project do. It was a good oppertunity to go into another school, but it was very overwhelming hearing all of the tragic cases that Rob has worked in. 1 in 3 people in this area have HIV and it has the highest number of people with HIV in the world. The same number of people who die in the tsunami [sp?] die every three weeks here of HIV. For the community care project its therefore like having to deal with the aftermath of tsunami not just once, but every 3 weeks! He then drove us around the townships so we could get a taste of what alot of people in the area live like. From the previous day being in a mall that could have easily been england this was a massive contrast. Just driving the opposite way up the road we were surronded by area after area full of shack style house made of mud and corrigated iron. There were cows and goats etc in the street and it was very differnt to the parts of SA where we had previously been.
We were driven to a road where if you looked one direction you could see exclusive luxuary houses with swimming pools, then do a 180 degree turn and all you could see are mud huts for miles.

In the evening i attended my cell group linked with the church i will be going to called NCF. There are around 2000 people in the church, mainly which Africans. There are around 300, 20year olds! [i also met a guy who goes there who i recognised and it turns out he used to go to hillhouse camp and was a youthleader at counterslip baptist-where we attended a few times when going to bcyr! so its a small world]. Everyone was really welcoming and it made us feel alot more at home to be part of such a friendly group.

We then got back to the prison and realised that we had forgotten the key and locked ourselves out! We tried to climb over the wall...but considering it IS a prison this wasnt going to happen [so no need to worry mum its impossible to break in]. We then tried the next plan, see if the guy who runs the overnight shelter [outside of the prison] had a key. We were also told that he had been in the prison when it was functioning and had managed to escape 8 times! so he seemed to be our man [after finding out he was there for murder, i was slightly less convinced...] However all this failed and in the end we managed to phone someone who was inside to come and let us in!

Day 1-2

I arrived at heathrow airport at 1 oclock and was ready to head off on my adventure! I said goodbye to my family [+ Zoe Shanta and Jane -but they count as family] which was really sad and then was ready to go! We travelled for aroun 24 hours, first with a flight to Paris, then a second flight to Johanessburg which was over 10 hours and then took the final flight to Pietermaritzburg [PMB]. Everything went really smoothly [so thank you for all your good thoughts and prayers!]. The flight to PMB was on this mini plane with around 30 seats so it was really strange/worrying...but we arrived at Project Gateway all safe and sound!

The rest of the day was spent meeting the people who live and work on site, having a tour of some of the projects and making ourselves feel at home [in the converted prison!] Im living in a cell block which although i say converted still very strongly ressembles a prison with bars still on windows etc!

We ended the day going to the church at the back of where we live and listening to some speaker however after having only around 2 hours sleep the previous night it was very hard to stay focused!

I slept pretty well last night as i was so tired and begun my day with a shower...this was an 'interesting' experience... They are part of a shower block with see-through curtains, so me and the girls seemed to bond in a 'whole new level'...and it was fun trying to judge the erratic water temperature!

We then went on a big food shop and that was where the culture shock really sunk in. The nandos was only half the size, the body shop full of white people and it was hard to decide whether to choose heinz tomatoe sause in a glass or squeeze bottle... [it was very similar to the witgift center..with the magic numbers playing in the background] The prices though are awesome and you can go to the cinema for about 60p!

We then had the rest of the day full of talks about culture and the history of South Africa. This was pretty intence, although the people who were teaching us have been through so much that it was really interesting to listen to! The setting of where we are staying really emphasises the history of the contry and makes the horror of apatarthide [sp] even more real. One exciting thing is that we are staying where Ghandi once was held!

All in all its been awesome being here and everyone is so welcoming and friendly, we have an 8 day orientation to decide what projects we are going to be part of so at the moment we are just setteling in.

Miss all you guys loads!

lots of love xx

Team!

This is the team that I will be spending my time with for the duration of my trip. Anna, Rob, Kate and mike!