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!
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!
posted by Jessica at 2:06 AM
1 Comments:
good to hear you are experiencing some godinstances, long may they continue. Trust the worship was fun.
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