310112, Tuesday, sweating in the rain…?

René and Asefika in the caravan

It’s hot here.  Hot.  And yet it’s raining outside.  Desperate for a breeze… 

Yesterday I spent most of the morning cleaning and packing up everything in my tent, before my little class with René.  I haven’t moved though.  Might not after all.  I am still ready to move somewhere, but we’ll see what happens from here. 

In the afternoon we got Asefika to come over for a little play-date.  I’m happy to have Thobile back as well to practise his reading skills, after a very long break.  

I’m sorry, I can’t write anything further today, it’s just too hot.

290112, Sunday, on the brink of a little change...

Had a great evening last night, a bit of an impromptu ladies' night reunion at Papazela's, just what I needed, thank you awesome girls!  You are too far and few between.  

Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day, I’ve decided to move.  I have the opportunity to park my caravan in someone’s yard, very close to where I’m staying at the moment.  And I’ve decided to do it, a change is as good as a holiday after all.   And I think it will be good.  The lady who stays there likes to do a bit of gardening and some crafty stuff, so I reckon we’ll get along smoothly.  She has also helped me a bit this week with planting my trees.  And so has Rene’s uncle who is also a camping neighbour of mine.  He helps out wherever he can.  Thanks Vince! 

Another thing happening tomorrow is a new little class I’m starting.  René, the 5 year old Afrikaans girl, staying in the campsite needs a teacher, and I’m it.  So I’ll be teaching her for 2/3 hours a day and she comes and hangs around at my caravan any other time of the day as well.  I guess this will change a little when I move.

I might miss having her pop in every 5 minutes, but I’ll also be able to focus a bit more on what else I’m doing.  I’m not going to miss my other neighbours,  who arrive drunk in the middle of the night and start talking as if they live alone on a deserted island.  I won’t miss hearing their grunting and spitting noises in the shower in the mornings either.

But René is quite a little character.  The first day she came around she was pretty shy and almost didn’t want to say a word.  That quickly changed and she turned into a big talker and a very funny little personality.  I had to chase her home a few times, cause I was afraid she was never going to leave.   Now I enjoy her company although sometimes I still very strictly have to send her home. 

She has a funny way of speaking, she can’t say her Rs, and she is afraid of frogs, so she says flogs (or she would have if she was speaking English, but actually she calls ‘paddas’ pallas – even though it’s spelt with d’s and not Rs)

And she’ll say cute things like ‘what is him name?’ – that’s directly translated from ‘wat’s hom naam?’

Anyway, little René is one little girl from another world that seems to be enjoying herself completely in this alien world where hardly anyone speaks her language or understands what she says.  But, she’s made good friends with Buyana and Aphiwe and has big conversations with them and order them around, all in Afrikaans.  Sometimes they even appear to understand her.  She goes swimming with them, join us when I teach them English, plays with them all the time when they’re around and joins us when we go to my land to plant trees or whatever.  She has become fanatic about ‘bush – wee-wees’.  I’m not sure if she ever uses the regular toilet anymore. 

Hopefully we'll get bricks again tomorrow to make some building progress!!  

260112, Thursday, tree planting

It feels like not too much happened today, although a few things did get done.  Had a nice morning at school.  The electricity was out and the classroom way too dark, so we went to sit outside under a tree.  The kids had to make up their own verses of Amazing Grace and we read about Madiba and his school years, good stuff.

After that I rushed to meet Lucy and went to the chief’s house to get my papers for the land. The chief’s cluster of houses are very neat and some of the rondavels painted pink and green, reminds me of ice-cream.  There was a cute baby kitty that made itself at home on my lap and  a puppy and chicken who were sleeping close by.  I do love animals. 

Unfortunately the chief’s men couldn’t help us today since they haven’t heard anything from the headman, who might be avoiding them (and us) because he hasn’t taken them my money which he was supposed to do more than a month ago.  We’ll try again on Tuesday and hopefully get this thing sorted out.  On the way back I managed to get some fresh salad products- there’s been a lack for a while, so had a very healthy lunch today, yay!

In the afternoon Aphiwe and I borrowed a saw to cut off some branches to plant on my land. (Vince, my camping neighbour was sweet enough to dig two holes for me yesterday.)  Neither of us were strong enough to cut through the branch so I had to pay another skilled man to do it.  Now 2 branches are planted and someday they’ll be beautiful trees giving lots of shade on the hill.  Slowly but surely.

Thank you to everyone who lent a hand!  You are superstars!

Wednesday's mud brick making session...

250112, Wednesday, last night's progress of the Reading Rondavel's building

Mud bricks in the making...

Day 1 of mud brick manufacturing, 40 down, 760 to go!

It appears at this stage that there is a lot of interest amongst the villagers for the Little Library/ Reading Hut to also become a little play school for 2-5 year olds.  I am seriously considering this idea...

I'm also trying to think of what name to give the place...  The Rainbow Reading Hut or Rural Reading Rondavel perhaps, or maybe Lavonne's Little Library?  Ha ha, any other ideas are welcome!

And please contact me if you would like to make a financial contribution towards the building or if you have books lying around...!

230112, Monday, day 5 of rondavel- building

                                        View of the rondavel's first cement brick layers

The ladies making the soil fine in preparation for the mud bricks...

It’s been pretty hot for the last two weeks and tonight it’s raining for the first time in a while.  The rain isn’t really doing too much for the heat, but it’s definitely good to have.  I’m sure the plants are happy and everyone else with water tanks – a chance to refill…

And it seems my caravan - with the roof down - isn't leaking at the moment!  Yay!  Just got to cope with the heat of the day with a low roof...

Tomorrow will be my first official day back at the Christian school.  I’m not too worried, I popped in there today and there were very few children, only one grade 9…  So they had all the grade 6 – 9s in one class doing some quiet work.  I really hope they’re not going to give me everybody together in one class tomorrow, I’m not going to be too happy about that.

Had a nice session with Buyana today, I think he might finally start catching on to  the difference between singular and plural, noun and verb… 

Other than that, there’s a little 5 year old Afrikaans girl, very hungry for some learning, staying in the campsite with her parents at the moment.  She visits me often and I give her books and let her practise some scribbling.  This evening she sat with me while I was making my favourite dinner, eggplant, baby marrow, chilli, garlic and tomato with some cous cous and pumpkin seeds.  She quite enjoyed the cous cous and pumpkin seeds and was very amused by my little Japanese miso bowls which I like to eat from.  She’s decided she’ll visit Japan with me some day.

There is a bunch of other people in the campsite right now as well.  To my right there are 4 guys from Orkney, two older guys and 2 younger sons. Staying in a tent.  They’ve come for a week’s fishing and they’re leaving tomorrow again.  It’s been nip tide, so they haven’t been very fortunate with the fishing…  To my left is another very old caravan with about 4 guys as well.  They’re here to work apparently, although there hasn’t been any evidence of that so far.  They’re here to test the soil and to do some drilling in preparation for bridge renovations of three of the local bridges.  That’ll be nice if that actually happens, but we’re not getting excited just yet.

There has been much talk about the roads around here that are getting fixed and a lot of road workers were staying here before, paying quite a sum for accommodation.  There is also a whole site that has been built for the road workers that had to cost a good couple of million.  Now it has all stopped and all the workers are gone, because someone didn’t calculate how expensive the diesel is going to be and now they’ve actually run out of money and can’t continue with the project.  Insane.

Anyway, my little rondavel is also costing me a little bit more than initially budgeted for, but hopefully I won’t have to stop.  I’m just waiting for my second lot of concrete bricks to be delivered so my man can finish the foundation.  The mud bricks will be manufactured soon, just depends how the rain is going to affect things now.  But the two ladies were there today to ‘make the soil fine’ so that they can make the bricks.  Hopefully this week still!

I must just put the word out there for anyone interested in sponsoring some funds towards the rondavel (it is going to operate as a little library/ reading hut/ perhaps even a little play school) any contribution will be most welcome!  The total cost will be under R10 000…

Please contact me on my email Lavonnebosman@gmail.com

My bank details are: Lavonne Bosman, ABSA, Savings account nr: 428174879, Branch code: 632005

Of course, any books will also be welcomed, so if you have any books (especially children’s or any other graded readers, easy reading – English please or Xhosa!)  Please let me know!!!  And thank you for considering! 

190112, Thursday, the new year

                                                 Welcome back in the Transkei!

View of the foundation of the rondavel, day 1.

I’m back!  I’m back, I’m back.  Sorry for been quiet for so long, but I’ve been away in civilization for a month and had to deal with some issues of the heart (in short I can say that this was one love story that didn’t work out too well – but the ending isn’t entirely unhappy, at least I have my freedom back...) Not going to dwell on that subject too long.

When I arrived back, about a week ago, I was met with a caravan that leaked very badly in my absence, with the result that I had to spend a good couple of days washing out half rotten and moldy sheets and things, cleaning cupboards and what ever, trying to create order again in my surroundings and my life. 

All is under control again now and I have settled back in.  On Saturday I had my first session teaching with the NGO and this week I spent a bit of time preparing for the other school to start again next week.  I have to do a lot of planning and make a lot of copies for the kids, since they don’t have handbooks and we have to create everything for them. 

Other than that, exciting things are happening.  I’ve got a good builder now, who has started with the foundation of the rondavel on my little piece of land.  (The rondavel that is going to function as a little library / reading hut) I can see the land from my caravan and the guys are working hard.  It’s going well, but could be going better, because I don’t have a bakkie to transport all the building materials like the cement bricks and cement, so I have to get other people to help me out when they have the time.  This is causing some slight delays, but we are keeping on.

Also, we have decided to make our own mud bricks (the cement bricks are only for the first 2/3 layers of the foundation).  So, the guys dug up the soil for that also today and now we have to organize for members of the community to come and make the actual mud bricks.  It’s just going to work out cheaper this way than using cement bricks or buying mud bricks from someone else. 

Let’s hope our cement and foundation bricks will arrive shortly!

When I was in Mosselbay on the way back, one woman gave me 4 big bags filled with some bedding, clothing, toys and baby stuff.  I was trying to think of a solution of how to fairly share it between the people.  Then I got the idea to sell it, but for very cheap, as in R2, up to about R20 for something.  This way the people would be able to afford what they want and only take what they really need and leave the rest for someone else. 

So I gave the responsibility to my friend Lucy, because I know she has a good business sense.  And then she can also make some money for herself.  So the one day I took her to her home with the bags and on the way we gave a lift to two other ladies as well.  These ladies wanted to see what was in the bag, so we stopped right there next to the road and one two three, all the contents were spread out on the grass and pretty soon there were about ten ladies browsing through and choosing what they wanted to buy.

Within half an hour, most things were sold and we left with only one small bag of things and said goodbye to a bunch of happy mamas on their way home to take welcome presents for their children and family.  I reckon we should start a little thrift shop…

I was of course more than very happy to see my little ones on the other side of the river and they were also equally happy to see me, and made me feel most welcome again..)

Other than that, it’s very hot here and a little bit windy, but one is happy to be able to go for a dip in the ocean.  I’ve already lost all the weight that I gained in the silly season out there in civilization, so that’s another good thing.

I’m also happy to have a camera again, although I haven’t made the best use of it yet so far, but I believe the time will come..!