Durban and BAck. still no interenet at home!!! gah!!! and a bit homesick you guys!!!

Tuesday October 20th

it really helps me to write down the date fully because the weather here makes me feel like its the middle
of summer! not that its really that hot. i wore jeans today and a short sleeved jacket for most of the day.
but it also was hot enough to get in the pool and sunbathe for a while. sso.... yeah figure that one out!! haha

today was my day off so i got a beautiful sleep in. after a month here in africa i'm finally getting my sleep
on! i have been waking up at 5 every morning whether i'm working or not because the sun and the birds wake me up!
its NOT quite ever here. at night the frogs just go and go and go, and when i'm trying to fall asleep the rats
like to run around above my head and keep my awake.not afraid... just thinking..hmm they are noisy tonight. a
few weeks ago we are pretty sure one died up in the roof because of the stink in our rooms. lol. awesome hey? ;)
anyways, today was a glorious sleep in. then i did my usual laundry chore which takes forever because the machines
fill very very very slowly. but i honestly enjoy hanging it on the line and they smell so sweet. a little bit
crunchy compaired to a tumble dry with a bouce sheet but meh!

later on in the morning the girls and i went for breakfast at the wild olive. i'm addicted to getting mildshakes
there, thank you very much Amy, and its super cheap. breakfast and drink cost me R50 which is pretty much 7 bucks
canadian i think. so... pretty cheap really. the way i figure out the value of things is probably totally off base
but i have a general idea anyways. lol

after brunch amy and I went for a swim. it wasn't really warm enough but i enjoyed lying in the sun for an hour. i
must get brown!!! haha.

we have discovered the the restaurant that is walking distance from here, has free wireless with your meal. so Berdika
and I walked down there with our laptops to enjoy. we actually were there for over two hours. lol. and i ordered what
was considered an appy for my meal. hehe. but it was so stellar because there we can upload photos and talk on skype with
video!!! i actually got to talk to my Dad and Mom and a lot of my siblings just at the last moment before i was going to sign off.
!it was so sweet!!!! i tired to upload a few more photos and i updated the old blog. honestly it takes SOOOO long to put
photos on facebook that i get very frustrated quickly! i almost need to find another way to share photos or just forget it.

Im so excited because i leave for Durban in two days. i'm looking forward to the long break like crazy!i can't believe im going
to get on a plane again. lol. after my flight here i didn't want to fly again for a very very very long time. but this is just an hour
long flight. i have to fly because it would take over five hours to drive and its honestly so cheap to fly you might as well.

ummm tonight was pretty chilled out. i got to babysit for BJ tonight. she is fostering a little girl here. the little girl is
from the babies home actually. BJ has been fostering here for i think about a year now or so. she is the sweetest little kid. five
years old. so cute. so... pretty much a normal night for me hey? almost like i never left Canada and flew halfway around the world...
only to do the same i do back home!! hehe.

ok. shout out to my kids back home that i now all of a sudden miss terribly. Amariah miss you. Jessica and kaitlyn auntie Gwyn sends
big big hugs and kisses. Aurora please don't forget me!! Tobi i miss my sunday snuggles!!! Tali you beautiful girl!!!! i would like
a hug from you girl!!! JOsh and matteo... i would now enjoy watching barney with you!!haha...(welllll almo0st...lol) Si i hope your still
reading the blog with your mom!! and you all you unborn babies, i can't wait to meet you!!! lol.

Wednesday Oct 21


worked the morning shift today. it was pretty sweet really. i get along really well with the regular shift caregivers and so we
find the shifts go by pretty well. its just really hectic because, well really its 15 kids to wash and dress and find shoes for and get
food made for and then find shoes again for and then change again and then sort out little fights and make them stop eating sand and
change again!!! haha. seriously its a lot of kids! there is this one little boy that i really want to take home with me. he loves to cuddle
with me every chance he gets. i have to be so careful to not choose favorites but when its settle down time at night and all the kids are watching
a movie he will sneak over and hug me and then he just falls alseep on me. and how can you resist that! if i had the ways and means to support
him, i would be so tempted to stay here. the problem is getting a job here is not that easy and medical care is pretty costly. they don't have
the support system here that they do in Canada. its actually scary. keep praying i don't get ill, because i don't want to have to go to a doctor!
lol.

by Monday the smallest baby will be gone. she is adopted and the hand over is monday. so i need to finish her scrap book and it has to be done
now now because i'm leaving on friday for Durban and the social worker wants it before the weekend so that she can take it and photocopy it, so that
the church has a copy..... so tomorrow is going to be a crazy day of work, packing and finshing the album up.

after work today i got asked to drive and pick up one of the kids up at her school. she goes to a special ed school about 20 minutes away. i was
pretty honored to tell you the truth that they not only trusted me with their car, but with the picking up of one of the kids! so i got sweet directions,
begged Taylor to come with me for map guidance and made my third driving adventure in africa! totally sweet. it went really well and i'm totally getting the
hang of the driving. its coming now easily and i'm not really struggling to remember what lane i'm to be in and stuff like that. so i'm happy.


afterwards a tiny swim in the pool just before a freak thunder shower came up and i ended up swiming in the rain. it sounds crazy but honestly
the sun was still shining even while giant rain drops were coming down and if you've never swum in the rain, its actually really quite fun.
and whats the point of getting out!! your wet one way or the other!! lol however when the sun disapeared behind a giant cloud i knew it was time
to get out!

Durban in one more day! hurray!!!

thurday Oct 22.

tomorrow i leave for Durban and i'm so excited. today has been the most discouraging day i've ever had here in Africa. i want to come home right now.
so tomorrow's break will be most welcome. i can't really talk about why i'm having a bummer of a day, but i can ask for prayer. so please do so for me.

today i finished the album for the littlest member of the babies home. by the time i come back from Durban, she will be gone. so i held her tonight and fed
her a bottle and kissed her goodbye. i'm so happy that someone is adopting her and that soon she will have a mothers love and a fathers care. its a good thing!
but she will be missed. such a sweet little baby and i honestly think i only saw her cry like once or twice. so good natured. lucky parents!! :)

i'm not taking my laptop to durban. i need the break from writing and i don't want to have to worry about it. see you when i get back. :)




I"M BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DURBAN WAS WONDERFUL!!!!

FRIDAY 23
i left super early in the morning and caught a 915 flight from the Lansiria airport. i flew with this little airline called Kulula. its so cute. its a tiny little local
airline. they are a little more relaxed than most airlines. during the safety speech at the begining of the flight they tell you that in case of a crash the oxegen will
come down. put in on yourself first and then assist elderly and children and people behaving like children! in case of water landing 'please stop screaming and put on the
life vest that are under the seats" they tell you where the exits are in case of an emergancy and then show you the lighting and so on, and then finish with 'if you can't find
the exits, thank you for fly Kalula Air". i laughed! the only thing that concerned me on the flight down was that they announced that they were leaving the first five
rows of seats empty because they needed it for balance and weight distribution! ummmmm what the what!!!!

i flew into Durban and was treated to a stunning view of the Indian Ocean as a flew in. it was so beautiful and awesome to see an open body of water after all this time.
Durban is lush and green compared to here in Jo-burg. so much more rainfall in the coastal area and so its much more jungle like. i love it. the air was totally more humid
and warm. Andrew picked me up and the first thing i saw within five minutes on the road was a monkey crossing an overpass. apparently they are very very very common here and
get into all kinds of mischief. i've decided the best way to describe them is they are to south africa what racoons are to canadians. except possible a little worse. apparently
Mel has had to chase them off her dining room table. haha!!!


Andrew took me to a restaurant on the beach, Joe Cools, and we had a breezy burger in the sunshine. i got african politics 101, which i found very interesting but i'm not going
into detail here. suffice to say, its very different than in Canada and i know mmore and more now how blessed a country i really do live in.

after that we headed home. Andrew and Mel du Toit live in Hillcrest area, for those of you following on a map :) its a little outside of the city of Durban. its a stunningly beautiful
area on the top of a ....well a hill but kinda a mountain esh area. the views that you can get living up there are georgous. you over look all the lush green hills. its so pretty.
they have a awesome home with a big garden (yard) and a cute little pool. they are in the middle of renovations with several projects i think in their minds. but the current one
is they were laying the cement for a deck when i arrived. so the garden was busy with activity of the men working and Andrews dad was also there, so i got to meet him as well.
Andrew and Mel also have a little 2.5 years old, James, who is a busy busy little guy, just full of life and activity. so right away you can imagine there was just a great
homey kind of enviroment and it was so nice to just be there and chill. (brace yourselves to be jealous now because i got totally spoiled rotton in Durban) andrew and Mel
had set up their guest room for me, and had bought a bed the WEEK before i got there. and what a fabulous bed! a huge queen size comfy bed!!! totally spoiled right!!! the rest of
the day we chilled out, when shopping for dinner stuff, had spaggetti bolinaise for dinner and chatted and had tea. just generally very nice and relaxing after the busyness
of the babies home.

SATURDAY 24
Mel and I went out together to get some errands done in the morning. Andrews Dad is getting married this saturday and Mel is doing all the decorations and cards and menus and so
on for the wedding so she had a few things to get done in the morning. so we left the house around 8 and went to craft stores and floral places. and got the borrowed decorations
stuff and went the wedding venue and looked at how to set them up. it was a crazy busy morning but since i adore wedding stuff and anything related i was actually pretty much
a happy camper. i got to meet Jus' (andrews dad) fiancee Sharon as well and yeah... it was just cool to meet all these people who i know family of back home. very cool. actually by
the end of the morning i had been invited to the wedding by everyone.. bride, groom... lol. i wish i could go.

we left the smallest du Toit with Mel's mom and headed down to the water to go to Ushakak, which is an aquarium/water park in Durban. when we got there we met up with NEIL!!!!!!!!!!! who
i haven't seen since he left Canada in April! so that was Great. we've been smsing back and for for the last few weeks and it was so great to see him again. weird tho, now i'm here....
the aquarium was so cool. We went to the dolphin show and then toured around the aquarium part looking at all the amazing sea life and the sharks especially. they had pretty much everything
you could think of that lives in the ocean. some very amazing creatures. my favorites being the jelly fish and the turtles. when we were done with fish we got our swiming costumes on
and went on to the water park part. those who know my mortal fear of water slide would be so proud of me. i tried most things and only could not be convinced to go down the straight down
drop slides. i went down once on the easist of the hard ones and almost peed my pants screaming. no thanks! lol. but i did do the other curvy slide and they were fun. only came away with
a small minor injury.... long story but yeah... lol

after we wore ourselves out and it started raining a little bit we dried off and headed down the boardwalk a tiny bit, down to the beach and put my feet in the Indian Ocean. what a cool
feeling to think about being there, looking at the bay and the view of the city of Durban and think...wow! i can't believe i'm actually here! crazy cool!!! then just down the beach we went
to a restaurant that had been recommended to us. Moyo. its this african restaraunt that serves awesome african style foods. our waiter was really good and fast and we had a good time. we all
got our faces painted with african designs. I had an amarula, which apparently comes from a plant or berry or something that elephants eat in the wild and get drunk on. :) sooooo yummy.
then we had starters of venison samoosa's, Pap with tomato gravy and Springbok (which was served thinly sliced and pretty much raw. they soak it in lemon juice and thats what 'cooks' it. )
i tried all of it and it was all really really good. then i ordered the Ostrich burger. i just had to try something different and you dont get that in canada often i don't think. lol.
it was very very very good. i'm not kidding it was very tasty. tender and apparently ostrich is really good healthy meat. :) all the food was tasty and the service was very good. i would
highly recommend it to anyone! if your in the area! ;)

it was probably like 8 by the time we were done eating so said good bye to Neill and headed home wards. we took a drive by the stadium that they are bluilding for the World Cup next year.
its massive and the design is very stunning. its going to be quite the landmark!

SUNDAY 25

church! we were all soooo tired after the busy day yesterday i think we could have happily gone to church in our jammies and not cared.... lol. got the day started with a phone call from Mark and Jen in Canada and that was awesome. it was so so so good to hear voices from home!!! actually made me a bit homesick to tell you the truth. anywayyyysss.... Andrew and Mel go to Hillside Church. Hillside, for those
of you interested, is the church that Mike and Debs planted Oceanside Church out of! they have a great building and the people are very friendly. i got the chance to speak to several people who send
greettings with me to Canada and in fact got to speak to the whole church! as the worship ended and i was rummaging for my bible and pen i heard the annoucement that 'andrew has a brought a Canadian visitor
and they are just going to come up and bring greetings from the church in Canada" that being the first time i heard that i was bringing greetings, i had all of the time from my chair to the front of the church
to prepare! haha. i honestly don't remember what i said, except for sure Hi from Oceanside and specifically Mike and Debs. haha. N E ways! three shades of red later and mentally planning to punch andrew in the
car on the way home, it was a good preach and nice to meet a few folks afterwards. shame, there really isn't anything more awkward then being in a new church. i had the advantage of being globally introduced and
still finding people to come to me and chat was challenging. i feel so sorry for people when they first start coming to a new church. its so very uncomfortable!

after service we went to a little tourist shopping area. i love looking at all the local stuff, paintings and carvings and stuff. i can't afford to buy but i do love to look look look. we had lunch at a cute little
cafe and then we went to a Crocidile reserve. we got to see all these crocs in real life and close up. im telling you, canadians will not understand this at all probably but seriously they let us into the reserve,
paid our fee and then we were let loose. i'm not saying that we were roaming WIth the crocs, but there was no one keeping an eye on us at all. the safety measures in place were such that if you wanted to, even I
could be over a fence into the crocidile enclosure. not that i would want to. i'm[ just saying. actully the area where the turtles live, they keep kinda like a petting zoo. you let yourself into their pen and go looking
for them all over. and when you find them you can pet them and touch them all you want. its very different. i have this one picture, where the only thing between me and a croc is the wooden bridge i'm standing on.
if i wanted to, i could have poked my fingers through the slats of the board and petted a croc right on the nose. no problem. :) they also have all the kinds of snakes that you find roaming in africa. green mambas, black
mambas and so on. there was even a burmese python laying her eggs while were were in there. it was so quiet in the reserve ( we were the only people there) that one of the staff offered to let us hold a baby crocidile.
SOOOOO cute. they are so soft when they are small. very soft and very warm. i have awesome pictures of me holding it. apparently its not the common thing but because it was so quiet we got the chance.

we did a little driving around and got to see a lot of the area. totally awesome day!! for the evening we chilled out and watched a little tv before bed. pretty much a crazy busy weekend i'm telling you.

MONDAY 26

caught a 950 flight back to Joburg and had to work the afternoon shift. i was totally exhausted and dragging my butt but it was nice to be home ! amy and the kids missed me! lol. on the afternoon shift that i worked
the caregiver, Lizzie managed to horrify me by cooking herself a stew of chicken intestine and chicken feet and pap. SICK SICK SICK! she tried to get me to eat it but seriously it smelled so very bad that i just couldn't\
even work up the courage. gross! lol i learned how to tie a baby on my back like the african women does here and was walking around the propery with one of the babies on my back. it was so cute and totaly effective.
your back doesn't hurt because of all the support the blanket provides and your hands are totally free! lol. and she was content to play with my hair and drool down my back. :)

today. tuesday Oct 27

busy day. i went with another woman from the church and picked up the new volunteer at the airport. came home, did a ton of laundry, grocery shopped and chilled out a bit because i think i'm getting a cold. my first time sick in africa! booo

pray for me. this trip away was the medicine that i needed and at the same time it reminded me a lot of home and i'm very very very homesick right now. like.... i want my mommy homesick. :)

still no interenet at home. we are starting to get a little hopeless on that front. :(

love to all...

at another internet cafe

At an restaurant eating chillen and using the free internet.
Amy and I
At Monte Casino!!! awesome mall!!!!
Monday October19th

im a bit behind. first of all there is NO internet still. its very very very frustrating. and also i had a busy weekend
so i didn't bother writing.

friday: was my day off. but its the kids swimming lesson day so i still did some work. i just loved taking the kids in smaller
groups to the pool. so much fun. they are terrified of water and so its a chore just to get some of them in, but once they get
over the fear you can tell they have so much fun. after the pool we had a little volunteer meetng and then Taylor, amy and i
went to our little internet cafe and i posted the previous update. I got to drive a little bit as well and i was way more
comfortable once i got going.

Saturday: the rest of the gang went to the lions park in pilandsburg (no clue how to spell that one) but i had to work the afternoon
shift so i stayed behind. it was lekker to have the whole place to myself. i got a sweet phone call from Michelle M. and then walked down
to Spar to return a movie and get more airtime for my phone. then just chilled out watching tacky noon television. its cool watching
another cultures tv. lol. then i worked and went to bed very very very on time.

Sunday: up with the birds. Brad and Chanee drove in from jo-burg and picked me up for church in an area called four square, i believe. there
is a little church plant there that planted out of Brirntson (spelling?? lol) so i got to meet a quite a few new people and a lot of them
knew Mark and Jen back in Canada, so i was litereally introduced to everybody as "gwyn from Canada, she goes to the same church as mark and jen."
haha. awesome. i met a lady at the church who was visiting from somewhere in the interior of canada. isn't that a small small world? she was there
visiting her parents. anyways, i now have her business card, she sells and exports biltong and all kinds of South African
sausages and meats. lol.

Church was brilliant. it was sweet to fellow ship with a smaller group of believers. i think i got a chance to meet/chat even briefly with the entire
church. yeesss... it was small... lol.

after church i was taken out for a lunch with brad and chanee and then back to the babies home for an afternoon shift. i got to take 8 of the kids to a birthday
party on the property. it was so fun and the kids ate so much candy it was crazy. they loved it and i had fun, especially when i realized four weeks ago
i would never in a million years considered taking 8 kids under six years old out alone. and yet here i am....... :)

sunday night Nicole, Mamello and i went to the movies. it was stellar, we went to this huge huge huge mall that is also a casino.... Monte Casino its called.
i'm betting if you google it, it would totally come up. (don't have internet right now or i would try it to prove my point) anyways it
was pretty awesome. the theater is huge. the whole thing is huge. we strolled around the mall after the movie and checked ou the casino. turns out, casinos are
boring. but after seeing them in the movies and stuff it was cool to walk through. when we parked and got to one of the many
entrances and i couldbn't stop looking at the signage out front. i will post the picture, but basically it said the the mall was a 'gun free zone' and that i could
check my guns on a seperate floor!!! haha. seriously awesome. they check your bags at the entrances and run you over with a metal detector as well.. ... ..
its pretty intense i suppose if you think about it but mostly it just cracks me up! lol

Monday: worked the morning shift today. its getting easier every shift but i'm still pretty much exhausted every time. 15 kids will run you ragged i tell ya.
after work a bunch of us went for a late lunch down at Spur. and then i went to life group tonight. tried another new group, sidney and janenes. it was great.
the guy that led the group, i've actually met him and his wife before when they were visting in canada. so it was cool to hang out with them a tiny bit. the
group was really big tho and that made it very hard to connect really.

thats about all for now. sorry its kinda a rushed update. its almost tuesday now by my clock and i'm supertired. hoping the internet will be connected soon but
i've stopped holding my breath now!


cheers

FInally updating!!!!!!!!!

My room here in SA


Tumi and i being cool out for lunch in Centurian

amy and I in the back of a Taxi
October 11, sunday

I worked today. it was my first time working a sunday morning shift. and it was fun! so much busyier
because of getting food ready and kids ready for church and then keeping them clean! haha. but having
them in church is fun and the little one i had fell asleep on me during worship so of course i was in heaven.
as usual. lol. ummm i'm cooking up a storm now in the babies home now and i'm feeling my old skills back, from
when i lived at home and cooked for this many peoplel. its surprising the pressure i feel considering the
palates that i'm cooking for. but i'm enjoying the challenge!

after work i defrosted the freezer. thrilling i know but actually i haven't ever done that before and it had
gotten so bad that it wasn't closing. lol. so challenge extended, accepted and conquered. it may have involved
me and Amy wheeling it outside so that i could throw boiling water on it for half an hour. worked like a charm!

i missed a call this morning from my parents and when i got the message i cried a bit. i hadn't heard my dad's
voice since i left and it was SOOOOOO good to here! but i was so bummed that i missed the call. but tonight i got another
call and this time i was ready!!! i got to talk to my Mom AND Dad and it was so so so good. i came back and was just
beaming happy. I can't describe how happy i am here. and healthy. its Gods love and provision in my life just coming
through so faithfully. but hearing from home, canada, was brilliant.

Happy thanksgiving everyone!!!!!!

October 12th, Monday

still not online. its a little annoying and very very very freeing at the same time. depending on your perspective. . .
i've chosen to used this time of internet silence as a great opportunity to realize that NO i DONT have to be online every
single day. i can live without facebook. and i get lots of reading done instead. lol.

Today i worked the afternoon shift. i'm getting better and better at work, getting the routine and getting the kids to know me.
now, when i show up for shift i get a running attack and my name hollered at top voice. especially by one little fellow who
just has me wrapped around his pinky finger andi think he knows it. i can't help iT! i''m trying very hard to not show favorites
but ohhhhh this little man!! i just love him. he gets in trouble more than anyone else and he has a twinkle in his eye and every time
he see's me, he runs screaming my name. even when i'm not working, if he see's me on the property he runs to the fence and yells
my name till i come over and say hi. i make sure that i say hi to all the kids equally but i notice him. lol. actually his little
monkey face and gleaming eyes and trouble making attitude reminds me of one of my own little brothers. today he cracked the glass
on the back door of the babies home..... fromm like top to bottom its cracked now, like 7 ft of glass. *sigh* but seriously who
puts glass in a babies home! its practically not his fault. lol

The weather here has started storms. tonite there was an amazing storm. you can look around you as the lightning striks and see it
streaking across the sky in one area and knifing down to the ground at the same time in another area of the sky. there is a lot
of sky here. it expands in every direction!! and the thunder is just awesome and beautiful. and when the rain comes down, its sudden
and the drops are fat! it started raining at one point while i was working and most of the kids ran screaming inside, except one
little stinker, who ignored my commands to come in, and instead took the opportunity to bounce on the trampoline getting soaking wet
and making all the other kids totally jealous as they watched her inside the house. when she finally daned to grace us with her presence
i locked her in the 'naughty bathroom' but she seem pretty unrepentant over all...... cant say i blame her, if i hadn't been working
i think bouncing in the rain drops would have been my choice aswell.

i went to another life group tonight. this one was closer to home because i had to work till 730. it was nice to meet new people again
and fellowship. we had a good discussion about the sunday service. we are doing a series at church for the next eight weeks that
i think is going to be pretty amazing. its a video serious that we are taping from another church in the area. very cool concept
that urban life church has come up with, instead of getting someone in to preach and teach, videoing them and bringing them in that
way. very cool. and the series looks like its gonna be very good,

its looking like i will miss this sunday's tho, i think i shall be catching a lift to another church nearby. Brad and
Chanee are picking me up and taking me to a church plant thats nearby. it will be sooooo goooood to get off the property and hang out
with new people! :) AND!!!!!! also i will be heading to durban on the 23rd to go visit Andrew and Mel, mark D's brother and sis in law!!!!
I'M SO EXICTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! andrew helped me book the flight today as i don't have internet!!!!!!!!!!!!! whoooot!!! i'm
going to DURBAN!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahaha... yesssss..... very very very excited about that! and i have three days off so i'm leaving early
on a friday morning and i'm not coming back til monday. so its gonna be a nice little vacation! plus Niell contacted me two nights
ago and i will hopefully touch base with home aswell and we'll go do some fun stuff!

i'm starting to pick up some disturbing accents now. i say 'shame' WAy more than i did when i left. i also have noticed that i say 'come' a
lot more. i ask questions with a high pitch on the end of the sentence, and i exclaim 'shuuah!!' when something interesting happens. i also say
aswell instead of as well. it all just comes flying out of my mouth before i even think it. eishhhh. :)

still feeling in top form for the most part despite a lack of sleep, a plethera of snotty noses and the fact that a day doesn't go by that
some child doesn't cough in my face. continued prayer for that is appreciated muchly. and i give God all the glory for it. :)

good night from beautiful africa!!!!

October 13th. tuesday

still not online. we've all payed our money to be put back online but we are waiting for the connection to happen. DIA i keep getting told but....
lol... its a bit aggravating!

today was my 'day off'. i put that in brackets because.... the day started off great with me doing what i planned to do.... laundry....lol
it takes me a long time to do laundry here because first you have to wait for a machine to be free, and then the water takes a while to fill
the machine so the washing cycle takes like over an hour, and then you have to hang it all on the line. and wait. lol. so... the process takes a
lot longer than it did in Canada but dang! my clothes smell amazing!!!!!!!!! that fresh outdoorsy smell. the best is when you've just hung
all your stuff up and it rains. you can't tell here when its gonna rain. it could look like it all day, but then it just doesn't. and then
'on the other hand it could be sunny and fine and two minutes later its pouring down. lol

anyways, as i was saying, before i got distracted expounding on laundry, i started my laundry and then went down to the church office to give
my flight itinerary to the woman in charge of us volunteers. so that i can get a ride to the airport and hopefully a pickup again on the way back. lol
i got to chatting with her and mentioned that if there was ever anything that i could do to help out in the office or whatever, let me know. and no sooner
i said it then i was being pulled to the babies home excitedly and asked if i like scrapbooking.... ummmmm does a fish like water?? ;) so basically, all the
babies when they get adopted out of the home, they try to send them with a scrapbook of thier time there, so that in the future, when they look back
they can see where they started from. so... i'm now in charge of that little area. one of our littliest babies is being adopted right now and will be
gone in two weeks, so i have the task of making her album. so off the sshops i went and bought like r300 of scrapbooking stuff... hehe. and then when i came back i was
in the babies home taking pictures of her and people holding her. i went there twice today to get shots with her and all her caregivers and volunteers.
and i will be back in there tomorrow getting more shots. i'm so very excited to be able to do this, its such a cool task!!!

so that was pretty much my whole morning. i had lunch with a friend here and then coffee later with another girl i've met through church. and then Taylor and Amy
and I borrowed a car and when out for a while. we made it to the internet cafe that i was at before, but i didn't feel like spending a lot of money
so i just did a quick 20 minute check of my banking and email. only cost me R10 which is like... 1.40$ then amy and i did some window shoping
while taylor got his hours worth on the computers. we dragged Tayor jewlery shopping and randomly found this amazing little place that mines there
own stones and stuff. and one of the shopkeepers was very interested to know what an american, english, and canadian were doing hanging out
together. so we told him about Botshabelo and he was very excited and asked if we would be interested in sponsers. and so now we are going to have a
meeting with him and the company might start helping financially. ....isn't that a cool shopping trip! :)

I went to SALt again tonight and it was sweet times, not just because the preach was interesting but because i'm starting to get to know people and
that just makes life better and better.

ummm lets see what else. health is still awesome. ive gotten lazy now and stopped boiling the water even and now i just drink it out of the tap. i was worried
that i might get a funny tummy but day three and i'm right as rain. so... yeah... africa really agrees with my system. :)

Thanks to all who have been sending me little sms messages and such. its very encouraging. i'm so happy here and content and God is sustaining me
but it so very encouraging when my phone goes off and i get a little message from home. Love you all lots. thanks for reading!!!!


October 14th, Wednesday

its my three week aniversary of my stay here in africa. weird hey? somehow i feel like i've been here forever and yet at the same time i still
feel very new! lol

today was classic of how lazy i am here. i was late for a meeting!!! in fact i forgot about the meeting entirely and had to be woken up for it....
anyone who knows me well, knows that just never happens!!! i can't believe i've gotten so out of touch that i was late!!! lol it seems like time
here doesn't exist for me. its so strange. i barely check my phone for the time, i don't have many appointments at all and everyone is so much more
relaxed here. i love saying, 'just now' to stuff. 'are you coming' 'just now' i tell people and then i take my sweet time. and no one cares. i truely
heart this place and the mentality most people have! :)

umm other than the meeting, amy and i walked down to the shops later to have a late late late breakfast, in fact it was lunch and killed outselves
laughing because some old guy behind us spent like 30 minutes trying to clear a frog in his throat. im telling you, you know that moment when
something hits you as funny and you just can't help but giggle and then you get to the point where you just can't stop laughing no matter how hard
you try?? TEARS were running down our faces and every time we would get some measure of control... humgghhhh he would try to clear his throat again.
we acutally got to laughing so hard that the staff caught the mood and started to laugh and then got in trouble with the manager. it the strangest thing
here, every where i go to eat the serving staff, if they arn't busy with customers, stand and watch you eat. if you drop you napkin, you barely have time to
bend down to grab it and a new one is at your place. its nice, ish, but at the same time its annoying because they are literally watching you eat. anyways,
we felt bad for getting them in trouble so we wrote them a nice little note explaining why we were laughing and when we left the old guy was still coughing away
gently and the staff were having a fun time NOT laughing. lol i might never be able to go back there again.

working this afternoon was great. i had a special time with one of the kids. this little darling girl, who i love, had gotten her fingers caught in a door and
was quite upset and hurt and so after she calmed down i asked if she could help me preparing dinner and doing dishes ( the kids are VERY strickly forbidden
from being in the kitchen) so it was a treat actually for her to be allowed in there. so in she came and standing on a little chair she rinsed the dishes and then
helped me make a gravy sauce for the dinner. and it was just so very cool because it was likely the very first time she had been in the kitchen and allowed to to that
and she was just shyly beaming by the end of the time in there. and at dinner when we served and i announced that she had made the gravy and all the rest of the kids
were very impressed she just got such a glowing smile on her little face. it was perhaps a small thing, but somehow it felt like a huge moment.

after work, the boys made us dinner and then i chilled out with BJ watching pride and prejudice, the real old good BBC version. ahhhhh... good good good.


October 15th, thursday

We took the kids to the zoo today. it was sweet because we only took the older ones and i was the volunteer working this morning so i got to go with, and how
fun!!! we went to a small small zoo that was established for rescued animals. there were lions and tigers and ... owls and vultures and tortoises and foxes and
badgers and ocelots..... seriously so many exotic animals (to me at least) and it was so fun to take the kids there and watch how excited they were to see all that stuff
as well. so my work day was long because i worked right through my break, but when your at the zoo, who cares!! haha.

I got started on the scrapbook album today that i'm making for the littlest baby that is getting adopted. went for a swim. had a milkshake down at the coffee shop, watched
amy make three pizza's for dinner and totally kicked Tumi's butt at Tekken ( a play station game that i'm actually getting quite good at i think... haha) all and all a great day

and to top it all off i got a phone call from Canada, and got to hear my roomies voice for the first time in three weeks. which is definitly the longest we've gone not talking
since her bible school days, and i'm pretty sure that even then we never went THAT long!!!! so that was very very very sweet.

all in all, another beautiful day in Africa. .... love love loving it here.


October 16

at an internet cafe updating!!! haha... i tell ya....life here......DIA!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm writing this on friday night. we are planning to go to an internet cafe tomorrow and i'm hoping to post it then. our internet has
been out for quite some time right now. what happened actually is that we ran out of our cap for this month and we haven't replaced it yet
all is well over here. i'm trying to remember off the top of my head what i wrote about last.... but i think i wrote about working the double shift
and all that.

ummm monday i wrote about my taxi ride. to explain, here in SA the people rarely take taxi's. its not always safe if you don't know what your doing. but
since we had Tumi with us we were fine. :) and it was super fun.

tuesday i worked the day shift. did an errand in the shops and then went to 'salt' which is like a bible study at the church. it was awesome
and funny when the elder leading it called out my name to read aloud and it freaked me out because i couldn't figure out how he knew my name. lol
wednesday was a nice day off. went swimming for the first time here at the pool. it was the first day that it was actually warm enough to swim
and even then i was pretty cold in the pool and spent most of the time out of it more than in! haha.
Thursday i had another day off so i decided to go with Taylor into the Creche (community school) and helped him teach his class of 6-9 year olds. i went
into Olievenhouteosch. i took lots of pics but i won't be able to upload any i don't think. we'll see what happens, but since i'm gonna be at the cafe i don't think i will have the time for uploading. anyways, it was like, totally different
from the africa i've met so far. garbage, small houses and just the smell. the kids are adorable and heartbreaking.they play with my hair with their
little grimy hands and i just bend down so they can. and they don't even care that i'm a total stranger. i walk in and they come for hugs from all
directions. its so precious. and i love it. some of the stories just kill you tho. Taylor wouldn't tell me about one little girl while we were there because of my history
of bursting into tears..... ( long story short, i went to church, after night shift, seriously sleep deprived and was just blindsided by a story about
two of my kids in the babies home. they brought them all to church and this man came and picked up two of the little boys. and i asked who he was. he is their father
i'm told, the mother left him and gave up the kids to the system without asking him and now he has to fight to get them back but because he doesn't have a job. so he comes
to church to visit them once a week. i got told this and then i burst into tears in the middle of church and locked myself in the bathroom. lol :( ) ANYWAYS.... so Taylor now hesitates
to tell me sad stuff. lol. *sigh* so this little girl in his class, her, her little brother and sister live alone during the week in a tiny little shack. their mom is a single
mom and she works for a family that won't let her bring the kids, so they live alone during the week and she comes home on the weekends. the oldest is nine. she takes care of the younger. thank you taylor for waiting till i was
in the car home to tell me. *sigh again*

last night i participated in a food packing. we packed 400+ bags of food to be handed out in zimbabwe. it was sweet and a LOt OF WORK!!!!! i was in charge of the beans. :) it was hard work and somewhat backbreaking but it was awesome and i got lost in though many times thinking about where the food was going and who it would be helping.

ummm today i worked and i worked my butt off. staff were off so i was alone at one point it was me, the cleaning lady and seven babies. haha... yeah. it went. :)

so the internet is down but i don't know how long for. hopefully we will get it back soon but its hard to say. i do have a phone now. thank you to michelle M who has already
called me twice! i'm not homesick per se but i do miss talking to my friends. and it was so good to hear a 'home' voice. soooo if anyone wants to call me please please 0725437952.
canada dial 011-27- 725437952 :) i would love a call or a text!!!

i love love love it here. i'm getting into the swing of things and loving it. its not home but some how i'm totally AT HOME here. i'm very relaxed for the most part and just enjoying the adventures. i can feel the prayers from home and all around. i'm healthy, i still haven't gotten any of the bugs from the flight and i'm regularly kissed and hugged by snotty faced children and its just God protection on my life that i havn't come down with anything. God's protection and regular handwashing!! haha. actually yesterday was funny cause i kissed one of the kids and came out with a mouthfull of grit. i guess he had been in the sandbox... lol.. perhaps i should take some worm medication... just in case... hehe.

ok. must sign off. lots of love. x0x0x0x

long time, no write

hey hey everyone. i'm alive!!! haha.

so... lets see... saturday night was a crazy night. I didn't end up making it to the braai after all. the woman who was to do the overnight shift that night had her daughter go into labour and they asked me if i would be willing to do the shift for her so that she could go be with her daughter. soooooo i went back to work after just getting off 5 hours before and worked the 12hr overnight shift. it was awesome and scary a the same time. me and 15 kids! haha. it went really really well. i just got bottles ready and did the night feedings and the early morning feedings. and then at 545 i got all the kids up and started on their breakfasts. then i went home sunday morning totally exhausted. but somehow i didn't really sleep and i ended up going to the second sunday service. it was a really good service. the video system went down for the second service so i ended up at the front introducing myself. :) that was fun... lol

for the rest of the day sunday i chilled out. walked down to the video store and got an account and rented some movies. and watched them and went to bed! :) i was pretty sick actually. i'm not good with not sleeping! lol


Monday was a stellar day. slept in till like... ohhh lattteeee... and then went out with Tumi and Amy. we took a taxi, (because we had Tumi with us we were allowed to take a taxi) They are super super cheap! and it seems that very few south africans that i talk to actually take them, i didn't really find it that scary at all. :) we went to Centurian and went the mall there. just chilled out, walked around and looked in all the shops. its the coolest mall because its all open. you walk through the center of the mall and see the sky. :)

i have lots of picture and i will post them to my facebook later today when i have time.

last night i went to my first life group. it was brilliant. i was having kinda a homesick day, because i got a message that i'm an auntie again!!! rob and danielle had a little baby boy, benjamin nathaniel. and when i got the message and saw his little picture i just wanted to hold him so badly. so going to life group was so wonderful. it was very homey and comfortable and i just felt so very blessed.

randoms

so today there was the day of the huge market here at the the property. Urban Market takes place every first saturday of the month. Everyone comes and sets up tents and sell things like cheese, meat, honey, jams, jewlery, art, and so on! so much stuff. and there is bouncing castles for the kids. tons of carts with food. petting zoo animals... sort of. lol anyways its super fun. i was working so i took the kids down for trips to the fun areas that they would enjoy. and then

after i got off work a bunch of us girls went to the Boulders mall. its this mall thats been build on giant boulder rocks. its soooo cool. unfortunately when i went to take pictures security was on my like you wouldn't believe. YOUR NOT ALLOWED TO TAKE PICTURES!!!! i got told . but then i really wanted a picture of me with the rocks so we snuck another shot and then another security guard was on us! and he was a little unpleasant. i was getting told off by him and the other girls i was with said 'ok lets go' and he chased after us telling her she was rude because he wasn't done talking to me because i hadn't apologized yet. he was somewhat delusional because i was no where near apologizing. I did ask to please point out the signs that were to tell me that i wasn't allowed to take pictures.... there was no signage saying that i wasn't allowed to take pictures anywhere that we could find. and he didn't have any to show me either. anyways we sort of kept a look out the rest of the time in the mall and finally on the way out at the entrance we found one sign smaller than my hand that said no cameras! and while we were looking at the sign, another security guard came over and was telling another of the girls not to take pictures because she had her cell phone out. she was smsing her mom but he didn't believe her. so... we kinda just booked it for the car. CRAZY!!! not to mention i was perhaps one of MAYBE 10 white people in the whole mall. it was a very different experience. :)
Last night was salsa lessions with Tumi and the girls and it was great fun. i'm a terrible dancer and i've got zero rythm but it was fun just to hang out and laugh!

tonight a bunch of us are off to a braai. so that will be awesome fun........

here are some shots of the yard. last night the bugs swarmed the light. they then landed on the ground and lost their wings and burrowed in the grass. this mornign the walkway was covered in abandoned wings. it was very strange!
Praise report:
~ thanks to all who prayed, my back is compleately healed. i went to bed last night and i had to take four extra strength excedren for the pain in my back. i woke up this morning fine. seriously fine!!! i mean, i was on the trampoline today and about 7 kids were on me at one point while Amy bounced us. ride Gwyn was the highlight of the day and my back didn't hurt at all. so praise God!!! awesome!!!!!!!!

sotho, zulu, and afrikaans

ok.... so i've been bugging some of the people here to teach me words and phrases in the differents languages here. so far i've been laughed at repeatedly at my attempts to speak. I'm currently practicing how to say, 'how are you'or the equivalent of that in sotho and zulu. '"le kae"is the sotho. and i can't remember the zulu. also... "tu la" is SHUT UP... haha... everyone jsut keeps telling me and then laughing at my terrible attempts. its wildly amusing. lol.
today has been pretty mellow. but somehow i always have something to do. there is no rush to get anything done and i'm kinda loving it. lol. i worked today, and then had a late lunch and then went down to the shops for a bit. thats about all. i have a whole list of little things i could be doing but i probably won't. lol! '
i worked last night and again this morning. the kids have just got my heart in a grip. i love love love them all. there are some that really just catch my heart because there is something in their little personalities that cracks me up but i love them all really. last night we were watching a movie and they all lay down on a blanket on the cement floor so i got tired of sitting and lay down with them and two the kids fell asleep on top of me and another on my shoulder. it was a sweet moment.
today i made the lunch AND dinner for the kids. and i tell you, just because i know how to cook in canada, doesn't mean i know how to cook here. everything is different and yet its not. when the caregiver told me to make dinner i had a brief moment of panic and i felt like.... ok.. i can't do this. and then i got over it and made a loverly pot of rice and beef mince thingy with gravey. it looked good and the rice turned out perfect (like kids care) so i'll find out tonight if they liked it or now. i'm cooking for 3 year olds and i'm sweating a bead because i can't find the spices.... ummmm LOL....
Prayer Requests:~i've strained my back badly and i would appreciate prayer for quick healing. its quite painful right now.

stay LEFT gwyn!!!!!!!!!!!

sooooo excited. today one of the ladies from the church handed me the keys to her car, brave woman of faith that she must be and i DROVE!!!!!!!!!!!! its was HECTIC!!!! and awesome. Myself and the two dutch girls went out together shopping at a mall about 15 minutes away. it was CRAZY i have pictures and i will put them up later when i get off work. but OHHHH SO fun!!! driving first of all on the right side of the car. so everything is backwards. thankfullly i know how to drive standard because all the cars here are standards. but everything is backwards to what i'm used to and i'm sitting on the opposite side of the CAR!!! AND i'm driving on the left hand side of the road!!! haha.. it was intense. at one point i was going to slow for one fellow who decided to weave to the side of the road, flail his arms at me and and honk repeatedly. and i just idnored him... cheerfully. i believe i started to laugh actually. and then when i was at a set of lights turning left i was a bit unsure because the light was red but it had a flashing arrow. a garbage truck behind me was absolutely going beserk honking and waving at me... and i just kept ignoring him and did my thing. so... good stuff. staying to the left is not as hard as i thought it would be BUT figuring out how to make turns is crazy!!! when do you go.. what lane do you end up it. its all opposite what i'm used to. i also used my first sought african roundabout today and again... its the whole staying left thing. i think that being an aggressive driver is something that will come in handy for me over here. lol. so much fun and soooooo stressful. i have a few gray hairs now but WOW baby i've already driven in AFRICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha... some of you will understand how happy i am right now. and a shout out to Mark D. thanks for telling me to get my international license!!!!!!!

every stop light or stop sign there are people on the side that immediatly come to you car and try to sell you stuff and its a bit unnerving but you just ignore them and its all good
i actually bought some clothes today as well because the price was so cheap. i got the cutest little blouse for 79.00 rand which is like... 10 bucks canadian.... awesome!

Ok i'm off to work now but i will post pictures of the drive later tonight when i get off...... !~!!!!!!!!!

i'm flying high right now!!!