I requested to eddie that we go and visited Siyandas mum, she also happens to own the cutest looking house in the village. She had something cooking in a cauldren over a fire outside her round hut. We had just caught her about to embark on another chore. Probably one of the worst in my opinion but one i was quite excited about seeing being done as id heard about it on my last visit to candu and the concept of which has and will never leave my mind. It was time to apply another coat of cow poo to the floor. I could see she had already per-selected her cow dung, it was laying on the floor next to a bucket of water. She had prepared the room by moving the two beds into the centre of the round hut and prepared herself by taking off her skirt and leaving just her underskirt on. On the floor on all fours she broke off some of the co dung, poured water on it, began kneeding it and before you know it's liquid poo. It's smeared into the floor then scooped away with the side of her hand leaving a thin wet layer behind and in a lovely rainbow shaped pattern.

*The above is an extract from my book 'Egg boxes are for insulation', a photographic book giving insight into how our brother and sisters live in South Africa and will be available for sale summer 2011*

TODAY

i just love the zulu's.

Just look at them praise God!

part 2 of the Afrikhono course

First of all you need to read my blog further down about the Afrikhono course.

Now the students have completed the course they need to learn how to sell their products in order to create sustainable self employment. Tuesday i took them into town with their products to teach them how to sell a) to the public b) to retail

6 out of 9 turned up (one reason they don't have a job in the first place), a few of them have real potential, a couple on the other hand didn't understand basic principles of selling i.e. smiling and making conversation with the customer.

Selling in the office of the stationary shop. The office ladies loved the retail escape away from their desks

conclusion: get inside the offices to sell

Selling to the customers who cant walk away in the food court

The students with their items

Selling to the BAT centre the earrings and cards on consignment: SCORE!

Next week they will experience selling on a market stall!

Food parcels

A new feeding scheme has been started over here. Once a month 200 orphans that have been identified by the local hospital will receive a food parcel enough to feed them for a whole month. Most of these kids look after themselves and their younger siblings and live in a small tin shack. They live in a valley, it took them 45 minutes to walk up the valley to come and get their food parcel. They then had to walk back down carrying the food parcel that some of them could hardly lift. We were warned not to go down there.

There was a girl named wendy, dressed as a boy, we thought she was a boy until we found out her name. She dresses like that because she is on her own and if she looks like a boy there is less chance of anything happening to her. Then we discovered that her mother is in hospital and she cant attend school because there is no-one to pay for it or supply her with the uniform and book. It costs £10 for school for the year!!! One of the volunteers here is sorting out getting her into school, but how many others are there that don't attend school because they don't have £10?!

Indali Yengubo

Indali yengubo, zulu for jumble sale. Everyone needs to experience a jumble sale at Lamontville. We hold it at our good news centre, this was our 3rd and all three times they have had the same reaction. We didnt need to advertise this one. We told the 20 kids at cyc about it the night before and the word spread round the neighbourhood like wild fire that night. The lamontville ladies were waiting eagerly at the gate from 7:30am. By 8am they had let themselves in and had their faces pressed against the windows sussing out which table to go to first. Liberty was nominated to open the door for them - a dangerous job. Just watch her make a run for her life...

The ladies dying to be let in

A day out with the Mariannhill girls

latest Ndwedwe trip

GPFTF

Incase your wondering GPFTF stands for "Gods plan for the future". Its a class been set up in recognition that there isnt any support for the newly baptised or interested contacts. Its every saturday morning. It was run by David white and Ben topham - wise brothers. They have both now left as have all the other volunteers so this week i volunteered to lead it. I had been the previous week and led the first 20 mins as cam wasnt around, and it was really enjoyable! I arrived this week to see 3 new faces, bongani, pilile and bekka, of whom had come as a result of being drawn into the bible education centre because a bunch of us were singing zulu songs outside the shop. Kwanda had told them about the class on saturday morning and they came! So that was awesome to see. We sit in a group around a table and this week we looked at a bunch of verses about the ressurection of the dead and the idea that christ is coming TO the earth and the dead shall be raised, which then gives a good basis for not believing in heaven when we die. To be honest it was quite intimidating at first, there were 5 people older than me by a good few years and from a different culture and every sentence i said i just hoped that they would agree and come to the same understanding from what we had just read, and didnt have any wierd traditional or cultural views on the matter! Im 23, i hardly have a wealth of experience in teaching! But my strength isn't my own, my strength comes from Christ who fills me up and helps me, its from him i was able to teach!

Mariannhill skills course

Phil, Adam and i are running a skills course in the church in Mariannhill township. The idea of it is to provide the unemployed will skills so that they can be self employed. Its a 4 week course, one day a week. Phil is teaching a group how to screen print, Adam is teaching how to make earrings and im teaching them how to make greetings cards. At the end of the 4 weeks we are taking the products they have made (along with them) to the craft market to sell what they have made. This then we hopefully show them how its done and how easy it is! They must then go out themselves and find shops to sell their products etc and we will do a follow up after 2 weeks to see how they are getting on or any problems they might be having. Its quite exciting!

Choir

Phils main project over the past 8 months has been recording a choir to create a CD. Its an incredible story in itself how the choir all came together but thats phils story to tell. All the choir members are FANTASTIC people! they are very fun...here are some photos of them in action...

This is Tammy, listening to her sing makes you want to give her a hug

Buhle, the babe. She can sing

Arrival of new wheelchairs

Friday 22nd October, finally we see the result of months of hard work and effort of fundraising as we arrive at Happys to meet thula, our wheelchair supplier. God had also helped organise the day for us too, when we arrived the entire school were together in an organised assembly sort of way (a very rare thing) and there was a company there (im not really sure what they were promoting) with an entire PA system which gave us a platform for presenting the wheelchairs and turned it into a ceremony. It couldnt have worked out any better! thankyou God!

The state of some of the wheelchairs were just not worth thinking about, ripped seats, ripped back rests which meant thy had no back support, broken wheels, no foot plates so they had no where to rest their feet, they really were disgusting! But there was nothing more joyful to see them lifting themselves out of these wheelchairs and into a brand new one whilst the urban beats were pumping out the speakers and the other students were cheering at the joy of their friends.

Nozipho also recieved her electric wheelchair and almost lost her hearing at the same time through the amount of screaming and clapping. Thula lifted her out her chair and into her new one and showed her how to work her new chair. Understandably she was incredibly nervous at using it for the first time as she was centre of attention in front of the entire school including the teachers "Hamba, hamba" they were all screaming at her (which means go). For the first time since she was 15 (shes now 29) she was able to move for herself, to get to where she wanted to on her own, what an incredible thing! She also has leg rests, before people would accidently knock her legs and she couldn't do anything about it.

It was such a beautiful day and i feel very blessed to have been a part of it and witnessing their joy as they received their new chairs. I know that they are very thankful! 15 chairs were delivered in total and there is still more money coming in to buy a couple more!

Tomorrow Thula is coming back to start and fix the 18 chairs that can be fixed...

How to tell your living with an aussie...

Dani Pogson, iv got a lot of love for you!

GOD

Monday i had a list of things to do...the kind of list that could go very wrong and take a long time to get everything sorted. But God WAS with us and it was so evident.

The day started with going to the visa office to see what the requirements were to extend our visa. The car park was the tiniest ever, and the place itself was really busy, and it was the centre of town, but there was ONE car park spot left and we got it. There was no where else to park within a mile radius because it was on a main road so we were bless with that one. Then i expected to stand in line for a couple of hours waiting to see someone to ask what the requirements were. As soon as i walked in there was a lady stood there just waiting to speak to me. She handed me a piece of paper with the requirements on and a form. basically i just need to fill in the form and hand them a bit of money. Again i was expecting to have to provide medical reports, police reports etc so i was in and out within 10 minutes!

then we had to find a pharmacy in town because i had to buy a wheelchair. which is a story in itself. maybe ill cut it short. i felt moved by the spirit to go and speak to this man whilst there was a group of us singing to the ward in the hospital. I always find it a bit hard to speak to the men in the hospital, its not one of my greatest talents i dont really know what to say. But God lead me there because this man needed something that he couldnt provide for himself. He was discharged from hospital but couldnt go home because he needed a wheelchair. It just so happened that we had some surplus money from fundraising, money that we could buy this wheelchair with. So we were driving through the busy streets of durban and we found the pharmacy without getting lost. AND there was one car parking spot right outside the doorway of the shop! in the middle of durban! this is rare. i was expecting to have to order a wheelchair. but god was with us, we just bought one there and then, as easy as buying a tin of beans. and it was affordable! the guy brought the wheelchair in the box down for me and asked where the car was parked. HA! right outside the door...

I was just so amazed at how smooth everything went that morning. It felt that we were doing the right things that god wanted us to do and so he was with us and he made them run smoothly.

SIYABONGA BABA!

New Afrikhono cards...

So iv been doing some wood cuts for the Afrikhono project. They will be turned into cards as an income for brothers and sisters to sell. Yesterday i went to the BAT centre (the equivilant of the custard factory) to print them. They have a studio full of artists, its the best place ever! we made a few friends there and he let me use the print room. It was THE BEST! it was like being back at uni. i loved it.

The awesome print room

The printing press

One of the designs

The prints

They still need some work, some colour adding so watch this space! Then when they are finished i expect you all to buy some, a good cause!

Fun at the bible centre

Woodcut room plaques

Westville have kindly built me and my friends accommodation in the meeting room garden. nice ey? and asked me to make some signs for each of the rooms.

Worlds smallest crab?

Pen pals

Anna organized for the hall green kids to each write a letter for the kids at happys. Here are a few extracts from the replies:

- i love being friend of jesus

- i like the junk food as a child

- i live at Eshowe farm a place it is difficult to me, i hate farm

- We have a sun, but sometimes we have a rain

- i like to speak the jokes

- i like playing soccer ball and sex (Ayanda, age 12)

- i love you so much my friend, thats the end of my letter to you

Candu

Last week i had the BEST EXPERIENCES EVER in candu! It was so uplifting and awesome to get to know the sisters there. Candu is in a very rural area of xhosa land. Their water supply is rain water and the nearest town is 20 minutes drive in a car of which they have none. There is a christadelphian church here which meal a day sponsors. I have started a new project...

I am making a photography book "Egg boxes are for insulation" In it will give insight into how some of the poorest brothers and sister live in South Africa. Dorothy, the only sister who can speak english assissted me as i visited all the sisters in the village and translated for me. The xhosa culture is beautiful! Their houses are simple yet beautiful and cheerfully painted. We all connected through laughter at the things i was learning and experiencing. I was taught so much, a fantastic 2 days, i cant say any more, all my experiences will be written down in the book which you all should buy when iv finished it....its going to be a good one!

bread head

Sunday schools in Mariannhill are the BEST!!! if you cant guess, this is the bakers dream that joseph interprets.

Colouring in josephs coat

Really carefully...

Then WHAM! ruined, just like that...

Ndwedwe again!

If youve been reading my blog, youll know who vincent and jabu are. if you dont, then read my past blogs. They are a couple we met through the bible education centre in durban in march. Last week they were baptised! They also set up a soup kitchen in the remote and rural place of ndwedwe because they saw that there were many orphans who had grannys looking after them with no money. The church here in westville and durban help with donations of food and we take them up here once a month. Last week we were greeted with a bunch of kids singing for us which then led onto some zulu dancing. The future plans is for the community to build some houses in which we can cook in, feed the children in and store the food. The aim is also to be fully sustainable with regards to food, grown their own mille, bild an oven to bake their own bread, vegetable patch etc... Jabu and Vincent are keen to spread the gospel of the good news here, having now supplied them with bibles they are able to read together and hold discussions. Jabu has got a gospel choir kick started and Vincent a soccer team. They are so keen to interact and work with the community here!

here are a few photos what we experienced..

The lasy who we buy avos off on our trip up to undwedwe...we also drop off some food supplies for her

her home

getting into the dancing