Wednesday, September 30, 2009

COLD

ok... so im in africa and i'm freezing my butt off...... its sooooo cold here. i'm not complaining i'm just telling. i was warmer in canada! lol

yesterday Amy and walked down to the shops (i'm loving walking down there) and we tried my bank card AGAIN and randomly she got it to work. so i dont' know if we finally hit on the right account, or the lines to canada were open or it was the magic of Amy but FINALLY it spat out money and i did a happy dance in that atm atrium. soooo happy.

other than that yesterday was pretty chill and i just watched some movies and relaxed. towards the end of the night i started feeling like i was getting a sniffle and i was soooo feverish... so i went to bed a bit early and woke up this morning right as rain! thank you Lord.

so today we shot a video for the church all the new volunteers get introduced to the church and the church here does its announcements by shooting a video every week. its very cool and fun!!! i haven't got a clue how mine will look but judging how i felt talking to the camera, its gonna be soooo lame... lol.. i'm such a dork. but its such a cute way to do announcements. anyways, i've linked a video just to give you an idea what i'm talking about this one is pretty funny as well, it features a music video that has another one of the volunteers in it, Taylor who has been here almost 7 months and will be here a year total before he is done. :)



just a shout out to my home group tonight back in Canada. i miss you guys. I miss snuggling with Tobi and trying get Aurora to giggle. I hope that all the pregnant ladies are doing well.. you know who you are!!! i need to see some updated belly pictures soon...

love to all and thank you for continued prayers!!!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

AFriCaN RaIN

SOOOO yesterday i blogged that it was beautiful and sunny and warm and thennnnnn haha.... the weather here changes soooo fast. Mamello and i decided to walk down to the mall thats close by and it was beautiful and warm and loverly. and then while we were in the shops the wind kicked up and it clouded over. by the time we walked back it had really started blowing like crazy and then it started to rain... and wow did it come down. thunder and lightning and rain!!! it poured and poured and poured. the roofs here are tin and it makes the sound even more resounding. it was pretty awesome. till we lost power, then i was a bit sad. lol sitting in the dark and hoping the power would come back on, is not as much fun. but we got the power back within a half an hour and all was well.

last night there was a surprise birthday party for the lead elder here at Urban Life Church. Craig Clark turned 50 and the life group (aka home group) that i plan on attending next week threw him the party. it was pretty fun and i go to meet lots of new people again. its a bit overwhelming all the people that i keep meeting and trying to remember all their faces and names. i keep seeing faces, knowing that i've met them before but drawing a blank as to their names. ahh well that will come.

Today is another day off for me. i was up quite early so i did my laundry and thats about it. its a very relaxed life here so far. there isn't much responsibilities and i'm trying to just enjoy it. its wierd for me not to have something to do every day. no real schedule. no real major plans.. yeah. weird. very weird.. ... ...

ummm i still don't have a phone. its being delt with hopefully. i think that the church is going to get some sim cards for the volunteers. i went down to the church office this morning and they took a photo copy of my passport. so hopefully i will get a card soon.

also as far as the debit card business. i'm still unable to withdrawl money from the atm machines the card doens't work in the shops. so i'm reliant on my VISA card for now and i will try again today to draw out cash. if not i'm going to have to call the bank again and sort it out. the problem being that i don't have a phone... .... its a bit of a circle. but oh well. i'm not suffering in any way! :)

Prayer Requests

~I'm not sleeping well. praise God i'm totally healthy but i'm not sleeping and its frustrating.
~ my blood sugars have been running kinda low and i've woken up three times in the last 6 days with VERY low lows. ... so. pray that that works itself out quick. its not hot or anything so its not the weather thats affecting them. its just the new place, new food and so on. so prayer would be great.


African RAin



Amy and I in the rain!!! :)

Monday, September 28, 2009

lazy dayzzz :)


its sunnnnnnyyyyy and warm and beautiful here today!!! i'm love love loving it. i have today off and so far i've done not too much. I got my laptop working finally and it works like a hot dang!! hurray! and i walked the property and took some pictures of the place. soooo i will start putting them up!!!

I also now have some pictures of the kids so if you want to see them please post here and give your email address and i will make a list of people to email them to.

I just wanted to thank everyone who has been commented on my blog. this is a way for me to talk to you and i so appreciate the response. it makes me feel loved...... and not forgotten!! :)

so..... yesterday i worked the afternoon shift. this was my third shift and its getting better and better everytime. i'm getting to know the regular caregivers and i'm getting the routine down. so its feeling less and less like a duck out of water! im in love with the kids of course. they are all just so cute in their own ways. getting to know their personalitys and so on is so much fun. Last night the meal wasn't quite prepared yet so the caregiver let me do all the babies baths. thats the four that are under 1 year. OHHH so much fun!!!!!! have i mentioned that i'm in heaven??? actually what with doing the babies and then doing the other kids afterwards i was bathing from 330 to five! haha. thats a lot of bathing!!

after i got off work at 7, i walked across the way to a braai that i was invited to by one of the ladies that lives here on the property. i have no idea what kind of meat i actually ate but it was LEKKER! i also got to try braai breckies, which are basically sandwhiches grilled on the braai (barbecue) its really hard to describe tho because a braai looks nothing like a barbecue that you guys would think of. its much bigger and more open and its all charcol i'm pretty sure. so its really tasty. anyways the sandwhiches had all kinds of things on it, cheese, tomato, onion and some sort of yummy sauce. they were goooood!

afterwards i wandered next door to Tumi's and watched a cricket match with him and another fellow. i now understand that it is incorrect to ask 'who is winning' or 'who is loosing'. i will decide later if i like the game it or not... its gonna take a few games to understand the rules. but South Africa lost and that was a bummer! What i know for sure is that while i'm here, all sporting events, I'M SOUTH AFRICA ALL THE WAY! lol

Today is my day off so i'm just chillen
in front of urban life church on the property
Mamello and I

The Babies home from the front
The volunteer quarters. the white door is mine :)

the rest of the pictures are on facebook. it takes a lot of time to load them so i dont' want to do it twice!!!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

ahem.... Braai....

lol. i can't believe how many people have asked!!! haha. ok... here the Wikipedia definition for ya'll... :)
The word braai (plural braais) is Afrikaans for "barbecue" or "roast" and is a social custom in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Zambia. It originated with the Afrikaner people,[1] but has since been adopted by South Africans of many ethnic backgrounds. The word vleis is Afrikaans for "meat".
The word has been adopted by
English-speaking South Africans and can be regarded as another word for barbecue, in that it serves as a verb when describing how food is cooked and a noun when describing the cooking equipment, such as a grill.[1] The traditions around a braai can be considerably different from a barbecue, however, even if the method of food preparation is very similar.

SOOOO my dear Canadian friends.... its a BARBECUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) and i'm going to one tonight when i get off work. whoot...

ok.. soooo picking up where we left off. i had my first afternoon shift yesterday (Saturday) at the babies home. it was, to use a phrase i hear a lot here already, brilliant. :) i'm totally in love with the kids and have favorites already but the are all adorable!!!! afternoon shift comes on just as the kids are finishing lunch. We just play with the kids and have snacks and stuff with them. around 330 we start getting them ready for bath time. i've already decided that i LOVE bath time!! its hot yes.. but i love it... .. you get to have individual time with the kids during that time and their little personalities really come out. after bath time we give them supper and WHAT a MESSSSSSS. one of the little ones, Kundi (pronounced koon-die) is a particularly picky little eater and spits out ninety percent of what i put in. so i was covered in noodles last night.!! lol. after dinner we have a major clean up moment and the kids watch a movie to start trying to settle them down. thats about the time i did the dishes... .... LOTS OF DISHES!!! then the littlest baby gets her bottle and i look for ANY chance i can to give it to her. Phundili (not the correct spelling here) is the SWEETEST little 3 month old. and she LOVES her bottle time... lol... i'm in heaven!! haha..... at about 630 we start changing nappies starting with the younger ones and working the way up... so... pretty much LOTS of poop for the nest 30 minutes.. .haha... Then tucking all the kiddies into bed. my favorite moment last night was when i put Bongi to bed and i pushed his crib back into place... or so i thought.. when i came back and found all the lights turned on i realize the crib was away from the wall for a REASON... lol. little monkey.

by the time i got off at 7 i was pretty pooped out. came back to the volunteer area and had dinner and played Ligretto with the dutch sisters. Ligretto is the dutch version of DUTCH BLITZ pretty much... LOL so they taught me how to play and then i taught them the variations of dutch blitz. totally hilarious!! later i watched a movie with another one of the girls, Amy, who is just lovely!!! (haha Amy.. i KNOW your reading this)

This morning i got up and went to Urban Life Church. they have two services one at 8 and one at 10. i went to both because i figured, why not!!! :) it was BRILLIANT!!! so friendly. i met so many people. They had a guest speaker who was awesome, PJ Smyth. Very good preach on building the church and spiritual warfare..... very good.

Now i'm off to work the afternoon shift again. afterwards i'm going to a braai. so it should be a wonderful night!

Love to all.

Prayer Requests:
~still healthy.. keep up the prayers... hallelujah!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

settling in

Hey all... i didn't update yesterday and i apologize but i was just tooooooo tired... lol.... (slash) toooooo busy... hehe...

Other than still not being able to use my bank card to withdrawl cash (and before i get suggestions these ones have been exhuausted 1. i can't withdrawl with my visa because i'm not set up with a pin and according to the bank, i'm not allowed over the phone 2. i've tried every account so its not like i'm drawing from the wrong one 3 i have my correct PIN... lol ) anyways, here in africa its a LONG weekend that started thursday SOOOOO i don't have access to a phone till monday. so that must wait till then and i refuse to let it stress me out! :)

Also i don't have pictures yet because i don't have my computer set up..... again.. no one is here so i can't get the password for the wireless. hopefully that will get sorted next week. lol.


As to the weather..... well.... i was warmer in canada!!! haha.. its still early spring here and its been cloudy and windy most days. today however i'm looking out at a clear blue sky and its SOOO beautiful. i think that it might warm up to 28 today but we shall see. somethign that i was not expecting is how dark it gets here so early. 7 pm the sun is down..... and its dark out. SOOOO early. and it doesn't rise any earlier or anything. 5 am is when its getting nice and light out. its so crazy!

sooo yesterday. I stared my first day a day early in the babies home. One of the other new volunteers was just not feeling up to starting yet so i took her morning shift. Starting at 6am wasn't as bad as you would think... .so far... lol. when i got in the kids were already up and eating their breakfasts. all twelve of the older kids... i think that the age range is something like 18 months to 6 with the older ones. the babies stay in their cribs til later. anyways 12 kids eating porrige is DEEE lightfuly messy and i was pretty much sticky within an hour of being there. after the kids ate we got them washed and dressed for the day. and it is crazy loud and busy with all of them in the bathroom at the same time!!! haha... it took us like an hour or more to get them all washed and dress and going. then they pretty much had play time while we got snacks and lunch ready for them. they get a snack time and then we let them outside to run and play. its hectic because of how many of them there is and how little of us there is. but actually they play together well and its seems pretty cool!! after play time the kids go down for a nap at 11. thats my break time and i really really needed it yesterday. they get up again at 1230 and have lunch.... and after that i get off shift. stuff that happens in between all that is lots of nappies need changing, i cleaned up puke three times my first day.... my favorite one! this little guy walks up to me with his shoe and i thought he wanted help getting it on, so im turning him around and lifting his foot up to put on the shoes and he's yelling at me... "noooooo theres VOMIT in it...!! " AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH sure enough... vomit in the shoe... why in the shoe?? i dont' have a clue.. lol also i've never seen so much snot in all my life. everyone seems to have a runny nose and they really enjoy coughing in your face when your not expecting it.... lol

when i got off shift i felt totally exhausted but really good. there is definitly some culture things that are going to take some getting used to and i'm gonna have to change my way of thinking as far as what i'm used to with kids.


the rest of the day yesterday was fun. tho most people are away i have actually made some friends and ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the day yesterday. we walked down to the mall to have lunch. its about a twenty minute walk... downhill one way.. haha. coming back is a bit harder i must say but it was totally doable. so far, no weird food by the way. NEW food but nothing weird. all awesome. and there's tons of familiar stuff aswell. i horrify the dutch volunteers by eating Nutella right off a spoon..... mmm that was dinner last night... haha.

umm the rest of the day was spent playing video games, card games,watching movie and LOTS of laughing.

Today is my second shift. i'm doing an afternoon shift this time so that will be fun. something new again. afterwards i'm hoping to get picked up to head to someones house for my first BRAAI!!!!!! WHOOT i'm stoked!!!


prayer request

~still haven't gotten sick... so keep up the prayers. i forgot to mention, or maybe i did, but anyways, i decided to just go for it and drink the water here. getting bottled water is possible but somewhat of a pain if no one is availble to drive you to get it. and walking that distance to pick up water would be unpleasant. so rather than struggle with that i'm opting to drink the H2O and see how it goes. so far... my tummy is a happy camper. YAY !!!! and with the kids all being very snotty and puking .... yeah.. just pray for health. lol
~that i get my bank stuff sorted out next week. :)

edit: note going to the Braai afterall because its over before i'm done work.....:( next time!!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

AFRICA BABY!!!!!!!!

Hello loved ones!! i'm here!!!

I left Canada tuesday morning at 915am. I was told to be there three hours early and there i stood at the ticket counter in front of a sign that said the agent would only be there 2 hours before the next scheduled flight. grrrrrr..... checking in AND security took less than 15 minutes. LOL. anyway i arrived in Seattle with three hours till my next flight and i was thankful for the time. by the time i went through customs, rechecked in, went through security and found my gate it took over an hour and a half! i had a really quick lunch and then the plane was loading and i was on my way to Amsterdam. i got my desired window seat and a very nice older gentleman sat beside me. in my head i thought "score he will have to potty lots, he's old... right???"WRONG... he totally took a "sleeping tablet"and passed out!!! ahhhggg.. and i had to PEEEEEE every two hours. it was crazy annoying!!!!!! lol. so i spent most of the flight stressing out because he was sleeping and i had to go.. .lol.. but seriously it went well. watched three movies and some tv shows. we landed early, i guess we had a good tailwind coming in. and it was so cool to land in Schipol Airpot. remembering when was there a few years ago with my dad and brother. I had a three hour wait there and it was most pleasant. i just wandered around the airport looking in shops and talking to this guy i met on the plane. he told me all about his plan to build a house and bar in Narobi and retire there in five years. Random i know.

I took off from the Schipol Airport at aprox. 1030 am wednesday and was on my way for the last 11 hours of the trip. this plane was EVEN bigger and i was sitting in the middle of a row of three. this sweet girl on one side and a little old dutch lady on the other. but before we even took off the olderwoman requested a seat with a space if it was available, so that left US with an empty seat... total score:) i tried to sleep on the flight and i did a little bit but it was a 'daytime' flight for everyone else so they left the lights on and it was pretty noisy. lots of activity. oh and annoyingly enough.. now that i didn't have an issue with sleeping old men... i only got up once during the flight.... what the what!!!!! haha.

i landed in South Africa at 920pm and cleared passport cheque and bag pick up and custums in 25 minutes or less. Beejay and Aimee were there shortly to meet me (not before 4 taxi drivers offered me a ride, thank you Mark for warning me about that!!) and I got on my way to Botshabelo. It only took about 45 minutes to drive. when i got in i got to meet a few people before heading to bed! SOOOO tired.

i got up this morning at 7 am even though i didn't go to bed till almost 1230, because i want to jolt my body back into normalcy as fast as possible. I got up and had a shower and felt totally better about life. 21 hours on a plane with that air blowing on you is vile and i felt so gross.

only one thing leaked in my luggage... ONE THING... thats it!!! praise God, thats pretty awesome. I'm in a room on a temporary basis because its located by the laundry facilities, so i'm going to be moved next week to a different room. but its not quite cleaned yet and ready for me so when it is, and i move, then i'll take some pictures to post.

as it stands right now i'm using the communal computer. my laptop can't connect to the wireless here yet, so i'll have to get that sorted out. I also should let you guys know that i won't actually be able to post pictures of the kids.... i've been told that for safety reasons and so on, i can't put any of the kids pics online. so... i can privatly email them to anyone who wants to see but i won't be posting them.

today after i got up i toured around the property a bit on my own. its a holiday today in africa so its VERY quiet. Once Aimee got up and going we had a chat and a tour and then Beejay took me shopping. where i found that i can't use my debit card!!! it Will NOT work. i will have to make some calls to the bank but again because its a holiday the church office is closed and there is no one around to let me in even to use the phone today. lol. thankfully my visa card worked in the store so i was able to get some grocerys. just to freak you out, i spent over 550.00 rand. haha.... if my math is right, thats something like 70.00 canadian dollars... lol.

now i'm here writing. the other girl who is here volunteering, amy, has gone to work, Beejay and Aimee have gone on holiday and won't be back till after the weekend and Taylor (another volunteer, not totally sure what he does but its something in the community based care area) is going on a bike trip to Mozembique. so i'm on my own, literally.... lol... i expected it to be quieter here than what i'm used to but this is hilarious!!!!

what else..... oh.. i don't know yet if i will be having a phone at this point. things have changed a bit here recently and now you have to have proof of residency to get a sim card... and i don't have that. but hopefully someone will hook me up.... we will see.

also, i cannot d0 video skype while i'm here because it uses up too much bandwidth. so i may talk but i cannot use my webcam. :( oh well.....

OH the BEST part!!! i've already met the kids!! and they are adorable!!!! :) i dont'start work till saturday but i've been over to meet them and i'm going back shortly to spend some time with them again. i mean why not!!! i've already fallen in love with one little sweetheart, who walked up to me and held up her arms and then wouldn't let me put her down the whole time i was there. it was so precious. there are 15 kids in the home right now. age ranging from three months to six years.

Prayer Requests:

~that i don't get sick... apparently EVERYONE gets sick when they get there because of the traveling and because the kids are sick all the time. so please pray against that for me. i'm also drinking the water, because other people do and don't have problems, so rather than spend money on bottled i'm gonna try.. pray for my tummy!!!
~that i get over my jet lag really fast. i'm soooo tired right now... :)
~my feet are super swollen from the plane, so pray that that goes down swiftly

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

lEaVInG!!!!!!

I'm outa here guys. quick prayer request for the trip.

~safe arrival of my luggage on the other side!!!
~on time flights
~that I find my gates with relative ease
~that i get my sleeps on in the plane...... and i forget that i'm afraid of flying... hehe....
~that i'm a witness to others even on the way there!!!

SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

So long Nanaimo


Me Lindsay and Angela
Amariah and Me

Tali and I :) <3



So i'm on my first leg of my journey :) I left Nanaimo today. .... and drove to Victoria... whew... so far so good. lol

Saturday i had a wonderful farewell party. its was so much fun. and i felt so blessed and loved. i just want to thank everyone who has supported me in this adventure in their prayers and love and gifts. its been so amazing so far and i haven't even left the country yet! :)

So this afternoon, after church and some tearful goodbyes (the way i bawled you would think i was leaving for 4 years and not just 4 months... lol) i headed back to Mike and Tanya's to pack up and head to my parents in Victoria. ...

Tomorrow will be spent parking the car, getting storage insurance, putting my phone on vacation leave and putting everything that c0uld leak liquid in my luggage into ziplock baggies, and repacking all my stuff so that it fits. it did all fit at one time when i left my house in the beginning of the month but 3 weeks elsewhere has caused things to expand and now must be put back in its place....

so far so good.

Tobi and Me at church on my last day!!!!!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Quick updates


Ok i realize that the last update on here there was a few things still in the works! firstly and mostly importantly my visa did arrive safely in the mail!!! there was many sighs of relief. Me because now i can leave the country and perhaps Mike and Tanya because now i'm definitly not going to be a permanent resident in their house...hehe

being here has been such a blast however, i love the way that the transition from one roommate situation to another was made so very easy by their generous hospitality and the fact that Mike an i have the same terrible sarcastic sense of humor!

the other is that my car was fixed!!! i didn't miss a single day of work thanks to Krystal and Merrick generosity with their car and i didn't miss any functions thanks to people like Angela who became my chauffeurs to various places. it was great. and the problem with my car was fixed with relatively little cost... $100. not to bad i felt!!!

So God is good. all the time!!!

Today at church i had some amazing donations toward my trip and i am feeling just so very blessed and LOVED!!!!!

this will be an interestingly busy week. i don't have a single night of the week available and once I'm done working i don't think i will have much day time free either. :) i have one more week in Nanaimo and then i head to Victoria to park the car and spend some time with my family before my flight on Tuesday the 22nd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, September 7, 2009

oh of course


hmmm so everytime i plan a big trip that is also a huge step of faith, something breaks down on my car. seriously its a true story. i went to LA 1.5 years ago for an LTT, and a week before i left my car had major issues and caused me to rethink whether i should go or not. Then last year in july I went on a missions trip to the virgin islands and two weeks before the trip my car died in the middle of the road, i think that was my alternator.....;) and again i thought, was i supposed to take this trip. now both those trips turned out to be life changing, in fact the LTT was were i learned that flying is possible even if you do have a deathly fear of it and BVI is where i got my bug to travel and serve God in other countries.

so... when my car died on the side of the road yesterday in the pouring rain on the way to church just a little over two weeks to me leaving for africa...... i thought... ohhh right on time!!! :) thanks to amazing friends, i got picked up for church, went to a birthday party and had a great day. today i walked to work because it was close enough and tomorrow i'm borrowing a car so that i don't even have to miss an hour of work. God has blessed me with just amazing friends. hopefully tomorrow the mechanic will be able to fix my car, with very little cost...... fingers crossed. :)

meanwhile i'm tracking my visa in the mail and its sitting in Mississauga, probably waiting for the long weekend to be over ;) everything is coming together it seems and i'm ready and raring to go!! its now two weeks to take off!!!

**personal thanks for steven, lindsay, mark, dena, krystal and merrick for being my car rescuers... :)**

~Prayer Requests~
car fixed for cheap
safe arrival of the visa (go canada post)


Friday, September 4, 2009

VISA!!!!

soooooo finally finally. yesterday i started getting stressed out. i hadn't gotten my visa yet and it had been a month since i sent it. thats a far cry past the 5 to 10 business days its supposed to take. so i've been calling them for the past week. leaving multiple messages for the guy in charge 'ramone' and not getting anything back. call after call after call and nothing. no answer. and although the kindly receptionists voice was real, there was nothing she could do to help me and all she did was transfer me over and over and over to 'ramone'

so finally last night i set my alarm for 5 am. the office opened at 8 and they are 3 hours ahead. i figured that i really needed to talk to them before the long weekend. so at four i woke up and started clock watching till 5. i called, and again found myself listening to 'ramone's' voicemail. so i called back... 3 times till the cleaning staff picked up and said the receptionist would be right back... this was my 31st phone call attempt (i'm persistent hey?) this time when i spoke to her i asked to speak to a supervisor. i explained the this was my 31st call and i was tired of leaving messages that weren't getting returned. and that i knew they were very busy but i really needed to talk to someone about my visa and if 'ramone' wasn't going to return my calls then could i talk to someone who would.

she hand delivered the call to 'ramone'. he was very nice. i asked about my visa, oh so politely and friendly. he told me to just wait a moment, then said.. OH look, it just got put in my inbox! ready to go. :) so he promised to mail it today. i got the tracking number from him so hopefully i will have it by Tuesday or Wednesday!!!! HURRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!