120811, Blessings on a Friday morning walk

100811, Thursday, lots of love...

Some school kids crossing the river in a hurry
Snooks and her friend...
Sarah and Sezah, possibly the cutest baby in the world..!
Woke up with sunshine and went for a nice walk (ihamba ijimi)  this morning...  Later, I checked if Mr Bom Bom was in to talk about the piece of land and yes, there he was.  Turned out he doesn't speak a word of English and there didn't seem to be anyone else around that does either, so I had to pull out my best isiXhosa.  I think he sort of understood what I was talking about, he seems like a good and kind man.  I also had a paper that I drew some pictures on of what I want to do on the land.  I gave this to him and and he said he's going to think about it!  So, I've got hope!  

In the afternoon, I went over to the other side and worked on the bag a bit, with Lucy and Miriam helping.  It is truly a group effort.  

Because it  is nearly full moon, the tides are quite hectic and we laughed a lot every time someone crosses the river, cause they would get about halfway before the tide starts coming in again. Normally the river is very low and you don't even have to take your shoes off, but occasionally the sea comes in quite quick! It reminded me of the Red Sea crossing!  Miriam would shoutingly encourage all the crossers, Baleka!! (which means 'run!') as they were nearing the other side and we would keep an eye out for everyone to see if the make it safely to the other side. 

Then I went to visit Sarah and all the kids playing around at Bomvu.  Man, I love those people!

Some traditional dancing at the campsite

090811, Tuesday, Womens’s day

The wind is huffing and puffing and trying to blow my house down.  No, it’s not that bad really.  It’s just a bit unpleasant to be outside right now.  For the first time since staying in the campsite, I actually have a family camping right next to me for a few days.  A moment ago they had some trouble with their tent blowing loose and I was happy to go out and quickly help them tie a rope down and get everything under control again.  It feels good to start becoming a little bit of an experienced camper…

 I taught at Kwaaimans  with the NGO this morning and yesterday. Our classes have grown quite big all of a sudden, which is I guess, a good thing.  I almost lost my patience a couple of times with the kids, but it wasn’t too bad.  It is now just a case of crowd control. 

 I went to look for Mister Bom Bom earlier, he’s the man that the piece of land belongs to, that I’d like to use for my community project.  I was a bit nervous and then relieved when he wasn’t there.  I’m not sure if he’ll be willing to let the land go.   And I can’t see another piece of land that would be just so suitable.  So I pray that I’ll meet him at the right time and that it will be in God’s will whether I can get the land or not…

070811, Sunny Sunday

Lucy and her lovely family

Lucy's Mother
A hand-broom in the making

So happy for a little bit of sunshine today!  I missed my bead friends, so I went to see who’s there.  It was nice to see my ‘tjommie yam”, Mama Miriam.  She hasn’t been there for a while.  Lucy was also there and wanted to go and show me the new window in her new hut!  She has a great view. 

 Then I went with her to her mother’s place, where I took some family portraits of them.  They’re such a lovely family.  I sat by her mother while she was making a traditional broom out of grass.  She talked and laughed and I understood only bit and pieces, she speaks not a word of English.  I should go and spend more time with her if I want to improve my Xhosa. 

 After that I went for another visit at one of the locals who's been living her for about 20 years. and had a really interesting conversation.  She told me some the history of Coffee Bay.  Sounds like some really bad unthinkable stuff used to happen here in the past, people thought they could get away with anything because it’s such a remote place.  One example is the road from the N2 to Coffee Bay originally was built with money that was supposed to be used for the road to Umthatha, just because the minister who was in control, had a holiday house here!  The other stuff are just too horrible to mention here.  I also need to do more research about that. She is very happy that things are changing and that more God-fearing people seem to be moving to the place these days.  Also, the new and better roads are opening the place up and exposing everything that was hidden in  darkness before.

060811, Saturday, little bit rainy

I’ve been here now for pretty much exactly 3 months.   Congratulations! I feel quite settled in, although I know there is still MUCH more to learn and experience here.

 Not so much has happened this week, I am thankful that at least there were no more natural disasters that I had to deal with.  Perhaps it’s the fast, but I feel slightly removed from everything right now.  It feels like I’m entering a new phase now that everything isn’t so new anymore.  I do know that I desire to spend a lot more time learning the language.  Lately I haven’t gotten around to it so much as I wanted to.  

020711, Tuesday, no troubles...

Snooks and Fika looking at one of the photos

Reflection on a Sunday stroll

My bonsai lettuce and  avo tree embryos

Sun rising over my new dry camping spot behind the reeds.

I've had a nice couple of sunny days to recover from my little adventure of last week.  No surprises thus far this week!  

Had a very nice, peaceful weekend, a bit of stretching the old muscles with some poi moves, a little exploring walk by the river on Sunday, followed by a nice braai with some tjoppies and boerewors (my once a monthly treat!), shared with my friend Travis.  I must say, I think I'm preferring my new camping spot to my old one...

Yesterday (after copious amounts of washing...), I went to the other side and gave most people their photos that I printed in Umthatha last week.  They were all pretty stoked.  Especially the surfer boys are ecstatic about their pics.... Makes me glad.  Hopefully I'll be able to visit more families for family portraits soon.  Haven't been taking any amazing photos for a while.

Everything going according to plan this week, making some good progress with the boys and their extra classes.  It took a while, but Ninti recited the alphabet without mistake for the first time today! I've made some word flash-cards for Thobile  and he's making steady progress.  

The guys got new bicycles last week, to help them get around quicker from home to school etc.  The excitement was unfortunately short-lived for Moses, as he had quite a bad fall over the weekend.  He lost 3 teeth, the poor guy and is feeling pretty miserable.  I hope he will recover quickly!!!

I'm looking into making a clay-fridge (Indian style- Zeer or Pot-in-pot fridge) one of these days, my gas fridge is chowing too much gas!  (Only problem is they apparently don't work so well in humid weather...will give it a try anyway...