Week 7 - a week of good news :)

Hey everyone!

How are you all?

This week has been filled with lots of good news which I would like to share with you all.

The first is that the MSC Health Officer has donated a cow to the Home to enjoy during the Jubilee Celebration which is taking place next Saturday (26^th October). A cow costs a minimum of R13 000 (nearly £1000), as you can see, this very kind donation is saving the Home a huge amount of money!  We are expecting over 500 guests next Saturday (all of whom need to be fed) therefore any help we can get is very much appreciated. By the way, if anyone would like to make a donation to the Home, below are their account details:

Bank Name: First National Bank

Account Number: 53145434999                

Branch Code: 270324

If you decide to do so, please let me know in advance so that I can tell the book keeper and Malume (the director about it).

Since I arrived, I have been working on a report of the Home. This is a booklet which contains great detail on the Home, its history, what it does and lots of pictures. It will mainly be given out next Saturday but because of the details it contains, it can also be sent to churches to raise awareness as well as to future volunteers so that they can get a better understanding of the orphanage. Originally, Malume just wanted me to check the English however I also took it upon myself to organise the formatting, work on the layout and add colour whilst making sure it still looks professional. After lots of amendments and discussions with the printing company, I finished the report on Monday and it is now in the process of being printed! This was another huge investment for Saint Anthony’s as 2000 copies costs R25 000 (£1 700) however after a kind email to Father Edmund, he has agreed to cover some of the costs J Father Edmund is originally from Glasgow but he was a priest for a very long time in this area. Malume was very happy with the report and has said to me numerous times how grateful he is for the work I am doing. On Tuesday, he told me I should never stop smiling because it helps not only him but the children too... He made me promise to never stop hehe! Once the report has been printed (and I have Malume’s approval) I will try and upload it onto this blog so that you may also read it, download it and even print your own copies if you wish to do so.

Before the school half term, Slindo (oldest girl in the orphanage who is currently in Upper Sixth) had a geography exam. I helped her with the sections she was struggling with and tested her on all of the chapters. A few weeks ago, I also helped her with her tourist homework which consisted of putting together a tour guide for Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. The reason for telling you this is because on Tuesday she came to me and told me that her grades in both subjects have hugely improved. In tourism she has gone from 43 to 53 and in geography was has gone from 43 to 63! She was really excited to tell me and gave me a big thank you hug! I am so proud of her and really glad I was able to help! This has also given her motivation to revise hard for her final exams, which will start next month. I will be helping her with those too! She also received her report this week and wants me to read it so Sis Mabu (the Health and Education Officer) will make a photocopy for me J

The fourth piece of good news is that the little toddlers are finally learning my name! Since I arrived, they have been calling me Bettina or Valeria who were the previous volunteers. I didn’t mind as they are too young to tell the difference but it is nice to have them call me Isabel/Isabelli/Isabella! As this is a new word to them and they get my attention from saying it, they like to repeat it again and again and again... too cute!!!

As you can see, the week has been filled with lots and lots of good news for the Home, which makes me very happy! Unfortunately it isn’t all good news as Malume’s mother isn’t very well. She has been in and out of hospital all week. I can tell from Malume’s facial expression when he speaks about her that she really is unwell. I would be very grateful if you could keep her in your prayers.

Now that both the report and the Reach for a Star are completed, I have started work on the staff and child database (I explained about this project in a post a few weeks ago). This Excel sheet includes information such as date of birth, date of arrival at Saint Anthony’s as well as why the children are here. Although I already had a general idea of why the children were here, creating this database means I am finding out on an individual basis why each child is here. I find this particularly hard especially when it comes to the children I spend a lot of time with. It makes me realise even more how lucky I am and that some of things we worry about, are sad about or stress ourselves out about are in fact ridiculous. These children have nothing, they have been abused/neglected/abandoned and some have been at Saint Anthony’s for more than 11 years! Nevertheless they have the biggest smiles on their face; they don’t complain and are grateful for the smallest of things. They are an inspiration...

Isabel x

Pictures...

Hey Hey Hey

Hope this post finds you all well.

This week has been very quiet therefore I thought this week I would replace writing with pictures. If you are friends with me on Facebook, you would have probably seen these already so apologies for that!

Here are some of my favourite pictures so far:

Singing and Dancing with the Toddlers

This made me smile!

Girls watching my sister's music video...

Dever

Siyabonga

Lindo

Kwanele

Basilo

Fun with the camera #1

Fun with the camera #2

Fun with the camera #2

The Masakhane girls

Basilo and Philasande

Taban and I

Ncami, Sindi and Nothemba

Me and Basilo

Sindi and I

Me and some of the younger boys

Soboniso and I

Slindo on her Farewell Night

Slindo and her friends all looking beautiful

Isabel x

Reach for a Star Project Completed!

Sawubona! Yebo!

Hope you are all doing well! Another week has gone by which means I have been here for a month now, I can’t quite believe it!

This week the children came back from their half term! I’m so glad to have them back; it is very quiet here without them! They were also very happy to see each other again which is great to see J Personally, I have been particularly busy this week as I have been trying to finish the Reach for a Star project! I am pleased to say all 3000 cards were finished on Friday (4^th October) and about one third has already been distributed to the nearby churches. This will give the congregation enough  time to put some money aside to buy a piece of clothing for one of the children J Below is a picture of what the cards look like:

One of the churches we gave the card to was in Newcastle. It turns out the priest, Father Peter, was a priest in Essex for a long time. One of the churches he was based in was actually in Rayleigh! It is so strange but great at the same to meet people who come from the same area as you when you are so far away from that place! The world is really becoming small... With the Reach for a Star completed and the remaining cards being distributed over the next week, I can now concentrate on other things such as the children/staff database and the Jubilee Celebration!

Friday evening, I went out with Father Matthew, who is a Kenyan priest who works in Madadeni (township next to Blaauwbosch) as well as his friend Paul, who I have met before. We went out for dinner to a restaurant called Gooseberries. It is situated in a game reserve so on our way, we saw zebras, springboks and even ostridges! The restaurant itself was nice, the staff were very friendly and the food was delicious (and so cheap!) We all ate steak, had a glass of wine as well as a desert and the bill only came to the equivalent of £30!!! Amazing ! Here is the view from the restaurant:

 As you know, every Saturday the whole of Saint Anthony’s Home pray the rosary together. This normally happens in one of the cottage but this week (the care workers weren’t sure in which cottage was due to host) it was held in my cottage J I put candles around the living room and made enough space so that all 92 children plus their care workers could fit. Although it was a bit of a squeeze and rather warm, it was really nice to have them all here! For those who don’t know, the rosary takes about 30 minutes and is prayed on your knees. Although a blanket is put on the floor, there are no cushions so you can imagine how sore your knees get. However this doesn’t matter, every child, no matter how old they are (Yes this does include the toddlers), has to stay on their knees for the whole rosary. What amazes me is that they don’t just do it, they do so without complaining! However there is always a loud sigh of relief once we have finished praying!  

This month is the month of the Rosary which means the home doesn’t pray the Rosary just on Saturdays but every day of the week, including Sundays. Therefore today (Sunday 6^th October) instead of mass starting at 8 am (which is already quite early), mass started at 7:30 am! It will start at that time for the duration of the month... This makes it official, in South Africa the weekend is only one day, Saturday! As well as going to mass, I did some baking and in the afternoon I started to teach the teenage girls my hip hop routine which they will be performing during the Jubilee Celebration! They love the routine (thank goodness!) and they picked it up very quickly! Once they have learnt it all, I will film them and post it here so you can all take a look!

Until next time,

Isabel x

P.S: Another reason why I love South Africa so much... they love deserts just like me ;)

Pig farming... and a road trip!

Hello fellow readers,

Hope you all had a good week. Mine was quiet because of the lack of children but very busy as the “Reach for a Star” project is well underway. All the cards should be distributed to the 49 churches by the beginning of next week J very exciting!

Another exciting thing I would like to tell you about is a meeting we had on Thursday, when a man called Johan came to visit us. He works for a company called SACBC (The Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference, http://www.sacbc.org.za/). He works in the department which goes and builds houses for orphan’s whose living conditions are not suitable. This is one of the reasons why some of the children are placed here at Saint Anthony’s by social workers. Although Saint Anthony’s is on their database, they have not worked together as of yet... that’s where I come in.  As I am working on a staff and child database which contains information such as the reason why they are at Saint Anthony’s, I will be liaising with him to try and find those children who need a more suitable home. This way they can be reunited with their families quicker and make room at the Home for other children. This will be my first priority once the Reach for a Star project is complete.This was the first point on his list; the second was how to keep Saint Anthony’s going. It is no surprise that the state of the world economy means no one has any money meaning funding is slowly decreasing. No funding means no Saint Anthony’s. Therefore the only option is to become self sufficient but how do you do that in a country as poor as South Africa? The answer is simply... agriculture. No matter how poor you are, the one thing you will spend money on is food!

Before passing away, the founder of Saint Anthony’s brought a farm to do just that. However to this day, it has not been used. This is where Johan comes into the picture. He suggested setting up a pig farm! You’re probably thinking why pigs right? There are actually many reasons (as you can see I learnt a lot during this meeting):

• They reproduce twice  a year and up to 15 piglets a time whereas a cow only produce one calf a year
• They don’t need to be vaccinated or dipped unlike cows
• They eat everything so we can give them the scraps from restaurants/hotels rather than having to buy hay

Johan, as well as having his own pig farm in Mozambique, has a friend who started her own pig farm. After just a few years, she is making a yearly profit of 2 million Rand (£123 000). The water at the farm is also very nice which means it can be bottled and sold too. In addition to all of this good news, Johan said he would be happy to relocate and run the pig farm himself!!! Everyone was delighted to hear this as I am sure you can imagine J Another positive thing about having a farm is that the children of Saint Anthony’s can help. Here in South Africa, you learn farming from your parents however as a large part of the children here are orphans, where are they going to learn these skills? The pig farm answers this question. By helping out on the farm on the weekends for example, the  children can learn important skills which they can use to set up their own farm if they wish to do so once they leave Saint Anthony’s.

In addition, as the government is trying to push agriculture in South Africa, South African citizens (only!) can receive a start-up grant of 35 000 Rand for setting up their own farm. The forms needed to receive this were filled in at the end of the meeting so that Johan could hand all of it in on Monday (1^st October). As farming needs time to generate profit, it was important to get started as soon as possible! With the grant, Johan will be able to set up the farm and buy pigs, chickens and maybe a cow!

I think the pig farm is an excellent idea J

Now I would like to tell you about my amazing road trip on Saturday (28^th September). Having not travelled further than Maria Ratschitz, Malume thought it would be a good idea for me to go with him to Ladysmith. This is a town a little smaller than Newcastle situated about 1.5 hours south of Blaauwbosch. He was travelling there to pick up a priest called Father Donal who was visiting from Scotland. Having had a long week, I was looking forward to having a relaxing Saturday and the idea of sitting in the car for three hours did not sound that appealing to be honest with you. However I thought it was very nice of Malume to ask so I didn’t want to refuse. What I did not realise what that in Glasgow, Father Donal lives with another priest called Father Eddie who lived in this area of South Africa for a very long time. Therefore Malume wanted to show Donal not only Saint Anthony’s but also the places where Father Eddie had lived and preached. The fact that I came along on this sightseeing road trip meant that I got to see these sights as well! I could describe what I saw but words would not do the views justice... Take a look:

Mohlumayo Moutain

 Malume's old church and youth house

(now unused)

Malume's home 

View from Mohlumayo Moutain

 View from Mohlumayo Moutain

View from Mohlumayo Moutain

As you came imagine, I am so glad I agreed to come along!!!

What a great few days :D

Isabel x