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...