Work in progress

Update

 

Well it has been an eventful couple of weeks.

Where to start? Well, we returned to work in school last week after my holiday in Cape Town. We are near completion of the Life Skills programme which, needless to say, I am quite relieved about. There are only so many lessons you can do on addictions and relationships until you get bored. On average we teach five lessons a day, four days a week so when you are teaching the same lesson over and over again it gets a little tedious shall we say. There has still been no sign of chairs in our class room for the last two weeks but it has just become the norm for us and we do lessons as normal, standing around in a circle. Who said you needed chairs and desks to teach?

 

 I have two camps coming up in the next couple of weeks. First, Beauty camp being next weekend. We are taking thirty girls from the classes we teach away for the weekend. The name of the camp is a little misleading as the aim of the camp is to encourage the girls in their self worth, which is low due to abuse and violence in their homes and backgrounds. We hope to show some of the love God has for them and to offer support and friendship to encourage them in their lives. We can’t change their circumstances but we can help them to grow more self confidence, to learn that they are valued and importantly that they are loved. It’s just over a week away but already this last week I have been in numerous  situations where girls have come to me, telling of their deeply distressing situations back home which includes abuse from their parents and family. I really hope the weekend will enable us to help them but at times I often find myself not knowing what I can do because the situation seems so desperate. But that’s where God comes in and I would really appreciate it if you could find some time to pray for this weekend and for the girls especially. But as for me, that I might be the person they need, that I can be of some help in terms of advice and support but more importantly, to be able to share who Jesus is with them and the hope he offers.

I am also meant to be giving a talk to them all at this weekend camp so prayer that I would speak the right words would be most appreciated! I think it might also be time that I started working on that talk, seeing as it’s a week or so away, nothing like a lack of time to motivate you into getting things done! Some things never change.

 

Weekend after that we are taking some of the children who lead the Christian Bible studys in school called “Reach for Life” away for a camp also. It is held so as to encourage them in what they are doing in school and to reinstate them in their faith, but importantly to have lots of fun. I am looking forward to it. Should be a good laugh.

 

This last week I was really lucky to have the opportunity to help out at a local Sunday school which is held in a nearby slum. Another member of the SU team I am a part of here, called Sandra, runs it for some of the children. Without fail she goes every weekend holding a Sunday school which is run on the side of the road because there is nowhere else for it to be held. She sings songs with them and afterwards hands out food which she previously has prepared. When the children realised that it is food time about 20 more came running with their little bowls and excitedly lined up to get their food. It was amazing to see her dedication and the love that she has for these children. I loved spending time with them, and being able to be a part of the project. It really reminded me of the children I taught back in Kenya. We spent about 45 minutes singing and chatting with the kids. I only have two months left but have volunteered to go each Sunday and take the Sunday school with them so I am looking forward to getting stuck in with it all.

 

I have also started doing some work with another SU worker here in Durban, Gabby. She is new to the job and does not have any volunteers as of yet to help her out. So when I have some spare time, I go with her to the Youth Centre she works in. It’s not like any youth centre I have ever seen before.

Situated on the edge of an Informal settlement it overlooks where I am living. She holds here Bible studies in a room in a crumbling old school. The basement to which is home to about 20 squatters. All the windows are smashed in and it only offers a dirty floor to sit on, but that’s all she has so it does the job. Many of the children squat in the basement of the school with their families or come from the settlement next to it! As we arrived a whole group of little children latched themselves onto the car, screaming and shouting as we pulled up! Their excitement to see us as we arrived was quite mind blowing as they threw their arms around us. Dressed in rags they have nothing but their little cheeky smiles. But I was so happy to spend time with them singing, chatting and helping Gabby run the programme she has. Without fail she visits them about four times a week. She has no sponsors of her own so what she has she gives to them. She brings them food, drink and all the material she uses for the programme she runs, she takes from her own pocket! So far it has been one of the most humbling experiences I have been a part of here. To see this woman who has so much love for these children do anything she can within her power to help, support and care for them was such a challenging thing to see. Although the next couple months are busy for me, I hope to spend time helping Gabby with this project as often as I can. We hope to try and tidy the place up a little and get it looking like a proper well looked after building like it once was.

 

Well that brings me pretty much up to date really. Thank you for your continued prayer while I’m out here. It’s much needed, but very much appreciated also. I am learning so much, far beyond anything I ever imagined!

This weekend the plan is to take some good time out, soaking up some nice sun rays and getting some surfing done, I think it’s about time since I have been here nearly 5 months!

As ever I am missing everyone and home lots. There is not a day that goes by without me thinking of you all. I hope you’re well and enjoying life. Take care.

Bridget

 

 

Half way, holiday in Cape Town

Well its been a while since I last updated this so I felt I better get my act together and write what I’ve been doing the last couple of weeks, so here goes!

After Holiday Club at the begining of April things were pretty quiet for me for a week or so. Spent most of my time in the Office planning stuff for going back into Overport Secondary in Sydenham ( the school I’ve been teaching the Life Skills programme with su last term ) for a new term and organising the next things for  camps coming up in the next two weeks in May.

School then started back about three weeks ago. However not to the start that we had hoped for. We arrived back in school to be informed that the teachers in the school had decided to change the time table AGAIN, this being the 6th time these last three months. This new time table changed three times again the following week, and we had lost the chairs in our class room. This made things a little challenging and frustrating as trying to teach a class of 50 children who don’t know their time table, who turn up late to class and when they do they arrive, to a classroom with no chairs! This happened the last term and it frustrated me so much as we had prepared all these lessons but were unable to teach them. However second time around I was not surprised, I have learnt that this is just the South African way and by the third week, we were managing to teach some classes which is a lot better then nothing, and quite surprising considering the circumstances. I am just learning to use my time wisely. In the end , we are there to teach the Life Skills course, but more importantly we are there to be a support and a friendly face to the children in the schools who they can come to know and trust.

For the last 10 days I have left Durban and school behind and have spent the last week or so backpacking around Cape Town. We had our mid way debrief at the weekend. I cant believe that I’m over half the way through my placement, its gone so quickly. So I was given the week off and met up with the rest of the volunteers from the uk in Cape town. We have spent the week enjoying being a tourist which has been great. I have been up and down Table mountain, which was actually a week ago, however today is the first day I have actually been able to walk in any normal fashion that hasn’t resembled a crippled old man. I have spent the last four days hobbling around, much to the amusement of those watching. However it was well worth it as the view from the top of Table Mountain is breathtaking. You can see over the entire Cape Town peninsula and all the way along the coast. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in all my life. If it wasn’t for friends and family I would happily move and stay here right now!

 Spent a day in Cape Town’s city centre, visiting the African craft markets, eating lots, , sitting relaxing in the botanical gardens and soaking up sun rays on Cape Towns beautiful beaches. Tomorrow off to Robben Island to visit the place where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner which should be interesting. Sadly tomorrow is my last day, how is it that holidays always seem to go twice as fast as any normal working day? So I fly back to Durban on Sunday ready to start back to work on Monday.

So this has just been a little update on the goings-on in the life of Bridget. I will write again once I’m back to work and camps are on their way. Till then hope you all are well and will be in touch soon.

Holiday Club

This last week has been a rather overwhelming week for me. We were running Holiday Club in a nearby church. Currently Scripture Union is trying to encourage the local churches in the area to start to undertake the  running of  these Holiday clubs for SU so that Scripture Union can reach out to more children in the community who are in need.

The week started with 94 children turning up which was far more then we expected. The Sunday before we had posted flyers around the local area and it seemed that word had travelled fast. This number increased considerably over the week where on Friday 150 children turned up in the morning. I really could not believe it. The church was bursting at the seams and the noise level was something else. Over the entire week over 200 children had come along which was such an answer to prayer.

A considerable amount of these children have come from very under privileged backgrounds and this was very evident in their behaviour; towards us and also to one another. They often came across as being either violent, angry or upset which at times could be very challenging to know how to react and handle them. I don’t have so much experience with children that come from these kinds of backgrounds, however I feel I learnt so much by just spending time with them, talking to them and hearing the stories they had to tell. Once I got to know the children I realised that although they can seem violent and not well behaved, actually deep down all they are looking for is some love and someone to be their friend. It was difficult to hear the backgrounds that they come from and being unable to change them, but what we could do was to befriend them, give a friendly smile and share the hope of Jesus Christ. At times it seemed that there was very little we could do but I was overcome by the eagerness they had to learn more about who Jesus is. 

Come the end of the week they were asking about the next Holiday Club, church and when they could next come and see us.

One child in particular comes to mind. I had a boy called Luke in my group who was 11. He comes from an area called Sydenham Heights which is one of the roughest areas in Durban. He has no father around and the mother is not there most of the time. He has a sister of 26 who has three children who range from about 12 to a couple of months. Basically he has no one at home to love and care for him and he lives in one of the most violent areas in the surrounding community. He came across as very unsettled, demanding and at times very annoying to deal with. But underneath it all, the real Luke is just a little boy looking for someone to care and look after him. It was very touching then to see this boy ask for prayer, and to hear him ask if he could come to church. For me it highlighted why something like Holiday club is so important. If you could pray for Luke that would be much appreciated!

So I’m shattered and have not done much this weekend – I will admit; apart from the norm of going to the beach, watching an inordinate amount of films and eating a lot!  I am taking full advantage of the fact the going to the cinema here only costs about 75p!! I will definitely miss it when I come home. Talking of home, how are you all? How’s bonny Scotland doing? I hear you had lots of snow? Well it’s cooled down a little here but still well in the thirties.

This week I’m in the office all week, which truthfully can be rather boring at times, so feel free to drop me an email with news on you and life. Would love to hear from you.

I need to start planning for the next Holiday clubs coming up in June and Beauty camp. So keep an eye out for more details on life in Durban. Until then, hope you’re well and remember that any spare time you have…pop us an email – I won’t mind

 

Take care,

Bridget

 

Update

So hello, how are you doing? Hope all is well with whatever you are doing! And that life is treating you well!I got a couple extra days off last weekend as it was Easter so took full advantage of them and decided to start on my travelling around South Africa. So decided to go to a place called St Lucia which is north of Durban on the coast, near Swaziland to do some relaxing, eating and the like, however weekend did not quite turn out as predicted.Arrived Friday lunchtime to torrential rain, I looked as though I had just spent the morning swimming in all my clothes, nevertheless, took a boat trip to go and see some Hippos on the nearby river. Amazing, there were hundreds of them all sitting cooling themselves in the water. We were really lucky to get as close as a couple meters from them.Saturday brought a very early start of 4.00am, I was not impressed at having to get up at such a ridiculous time, however It was well worth it. Had a day in Hluhluwe National Park which is one of South Africa’s most well known parks. It is famous for its Rhino and I was really lucky to see some as close as 4 meters away, they came rite up to our Landrover which was a little hair raising, never the less managed to get some fantastic pictures so when I get time I will try and put some up. However this was not as exciting as meeting a rather angry looking Elephant around a corner which decided that it did not like us being there and after a moment went to charge at us. I will admit to never being quite so alarmed in all my life as I saw this 3 meter tall male Elephant make its way towards us with speed far faster then our Landrover could reverse. It was one of those times that I saw my life flash before my eyes, sadly realising that there were still a couple things in life I wanted to do before saying good buy, thankfully I still hopefully can. It was well worth it as consequently I got some great shots of an Elephant charging at me, head on, although maybe at the expense of my sanity, I will leave that one for someone else to decide though.Sunday unfortunately was our last day. Wanting to use our time to its fullest potential I thought it a good idea to spend the morning Kayaking up the same river we went to go see Hippos, to see if we could catch a glimpse of some Crocs . However I did not take into account the fact that I have never been Kayaking in my life, never mind in a river teaming with Crocodiles and Hippos. It was an experience I will put it that way where the rest of the group I was a part of were well experienced and far ahead, enjoying the beautiful scenery, where as there was me and Rachel attempting to just go straight, trying to avoid colliding with the bank where there were potentially lots of crocodiles and not spending most of our time paddling around in circles. Despite this we had a great trip up the river, saw some nice crocodiles, a little too close for my liking at times, as there was a comedy moment where I was shouting, right, Rachel left and us steadily heading in the direction of a crocodile sunning itself on a bank. But I did not die, I’m still here and we had a great time.So back in Durban for a week now. Spent most of the week preparing for a Holiday Club we are running next week for the children in the area. They are not from good backgrounds and don’t have the chance to be a part of something like this normally. So its our aim to welcome them, introducing them into what we hope to be a warm and friendly environment. The programme is called Go for Gold, and is based on the up and coming Olympics of this year. So lots of sport, games and fun but importantly time to share with them who Jesus is and the message we want to share with them of hope that he gives us.So I am really looking forward to a weekend of relaxing, hopefully on the beach, get some sun bathing done and a good amount of Ice cream eating ready for a busy week next week.Will post more on how things go, until then, hope you are well, enjoying cooler weather (its boiling today, I’m melting.) hope to hear from you soon.

Two months down the line…

I am proud to learn that Scotland is doing well in the Six Nations!! Long may it last! It is very strange to find myself sitting in a café in Durban, in sweltering heat while watching the Six Nations, its like home but  in South Africa. Fantastic!!Last couple of weeks have been so, so busy. Time is flying by. I can’t believe I am a third of the way through my placement, not that I am counting down the weeks or days or anything like that  Monday to Friday is still spent in Overport Secondary teaching the Life Skills course. I am now getting to know the kids quite well and their names too, although my pathetic attempts at Zulu pronunciations is still laughed at, somehow I don’t think that is going to change over the next four months.During lessons, each class is divided into groups for the Life Skills course, which then are taken individually by an SU leader, I am surprised to have found that  a large majority of the kids in my groups are unable to read properly. This is because they are pushed up in their classes every year by their teachers and have learnt to pretend regarding their reading skills, so they are not kept back every year. I am hoping that the lunch time reading class that I have started with one girl I can increase and so help more of them. They have exams coming up all of next week, but the likelihood of those passing who can’t read is very slim. There is one girl in particular who is 16 and is in year nine and still can’t pronounce her alphabet properly. I have found that she is actually dyslexic, giving an explanation to why she has reached 16 and can’t read, but unfortunately there is not help in school. Harsh as this may sound most of the teachers turn up to this school mainly because they receive a cheque at the end of the month, excluding a couple of exceptions. The kids have so much talent and potential but lose the will to learn because they can’t see why they should learn if their teachers don’t care and want to teach them. Consequently you get a surprisingly large majority of them who cannot write, read and do simple maths.Along with this during the last couple of weeks I have been working on a youth Program that we ran last Saturday. A local Church asked Scripture Union to put a program together for a conference they were running for their congregation. They wanted something for the youth of their church to do, so Scripture Union then asked me to put the program together. To begin with it was a rather daunting task, coming up with and writing from scratch a whole program for kids but in the end it was really rewarding. The day went really well, kids were great and I learnt a lot about putting a program like this together and running a day’s Holiday Club. Good preparation for a weeks worth of Holiday Club which is coming up in two weeks which Scripture Union is running, so that’s my next two weeks taken up with organizing and putting that together. After two months I feel a little more settled into South African life style and culture. Both Curry eating, learning to not stress out by their time keeping values, ( lets just say, one of the harder challenges for me) and learning to become South African in general, which I am enjoying thoroughly.Things truthfully did not start well for me regarding work and my placement. I was under the impression that my work here would be mostly spent running youth groups in different churches in and around Durban and leading, organising and planning Youth Camps. However that has not been the case. Most of my time here is spent in school running the Life skills course, which don’t get me wrong is very important and I love the kids to bits, however not completely what I expected. So I would say the hardest thing at the moment and the biggest lesson I am learning is to just accept the situation here, and to make the most of it too. I cannot change it, although I can tell you at times I would just love to but importantly I need  to not be disappointed in the work I have been given here to do. I am learning good life lessons I would not have learnt otherwise and like last weekend with the youth program, I am finding other ways and being given other opportunities to also get to do some of the things I hoped for in the beginning. However I would really appreciate some prayer on the matter as things can get so frustrating when it does not work out. Often due to situations here I get to the end of my day and just don’t feel like I have accomplished anything. We can often turn up to school and lessons are just cancelled and consequently the day seams wasted. I know that God will use me no matter what the day brings but on a bad day, as I am sure you can imagine, I find myself getting dragged down by it all.Well. on a happier note, I have become an avid Sharks supporter. The team “The Sharks” is a well known rugby team in South Africa for those of you who have not heard of them. Their home ground is Durban so Saturday night I went to see a great match that they played, which they won of course. The atmosphere was fantastic and was a brilliant game. So although I am gutted about missing most of the six nation’s excitement back home, I’m making up for it out here.This has become another long post, I hope that it has not bored the life out of you. Do keep in touch as hearing from back home makes my day. Will update soon, till then enjoy your cold weather and non-spicy food and think of me sitting in sweltering heat day in and day out…..come to think of it, something I would not really trade for any Scottish grey, wet weather!! Do enjoy…. 

Work in School

I really can’t believe another week has already passed. It’s been so hot here this week in school. The life skills course we’re teaching in school has taken off to a better start then last week I am happy to say, I am beginning to remember names and faces slowly. Currently I am only working in a school called Overport Secondary. Schooling is not free in South Africa unfortunately, meaning that the large majority of families are unable to afford their children’s education. Overport Secondary however is the cheapest fee paying school in the area. Consequently a large majority of the children at Overport  come from less privileged back grounds such as  informal settlements and homes with many problems such as; Alcohol abuse, Drugs, and violence. I had my eyes opened to some of these problems this week as we got to know some of the children in our classes better and the stories they are a part of. Such was a girl who I met this week. This girl was beaten up by her uncle so badly that her jaw was broken, she had two black eyes and burn marks to her chest area. Incidents such as these are not uncommon sadly. It is more then likely that you will see children coming to school with black eyes etc. However that’s only the physical side of the abuse that we see. I have already been part of conversations with girls who recount how they were raped and the horrific damage that it has caused them. These girls grow up with the idea that enduring abuse is part of life or deserved. This is extremely sad and highlights why Scripture Union believes it is so important to go into this school, making good friendships with these children, allowing them to know someone they can trust and who can get them some help. The school is in desperate need of help; such as counselling, but they do not have the funding or resources to do so. With my experiences this week I have been quite surprised to meet children of 15-16 who can’t actually read properly. They have been pushed up though classes by teachers when they were not ready; consequently they have missed out on very important aspects of learning such as being able to read properly. I am hoping to set up a reading group in some of the lunch breaks where kids can come if they so wish and brush up on their reading skills. I can see you laugh as I am aware that my spelling is not my strong point  but luckily for them, I will just be teaching them how to read better not to spell. Just as well really! I have decided to take advantage of my time here and have taken the decision to take up guitar lessons, so we’ll see how far I get  with them. On the subject of new things, I have joined a Tybo class, which is a combination of kick boxing, aerobics and some other funny stuff all of which needs coordination which I will add I lack some what much to the amusement of the rest of the class but its lots of fun, if you can describe it as fun?!Well I am finished work for the week now so am going to take in as much sun rays, swimming and go for as many ice creams as I can. Am off to go watch a Sharks match today. For those of you who don’t know who they are, you’re missing out!  The Sharks are a very well known rugby team in South Africa and are based here in Durban. I am taking full advantage of South African sport, first the Cricket, now the rugby. I hope it will be a good game… So anyone brave enough for my Curry challenge I set or are you all wimps? Well I am still taking as much practise as I can, to which I normally don’t have much choice in lol. I will keep my blog updated every week so keep checking and I would love to hear from you if you find yourself with a free moment!  

Hot,Hot,Hot…….

Everything here is hot, hot, hot. The weather, its been another sweltering week here 35 degrees +, lots of steam, sweat and stinkyness. I have been assigned to undertake a training on curry eating and other foods. As you well know, Curry eating it not one of my most enjoyable occupations, not because I don’t like it, but because its so PAINFUL to eat. That however is to change weather I like it or not! I tell you, they put chili on EVERYTHING here, I was offered a nice piece of Mango the other day, I was hungry and could not think of anything more delightful then a nice cold piece of Mango, BAD IDEA!! It was covered in Chili. It seams to be the normal thing, to cover everything you eat in Chili. Comments to food such as Pasta or anything ” British” is referred to being very bland and boring. I truthfully can understand why when fruit is covered in three inches of Chili. None the less I am really enjoying curry and will be ready to challenge anyone who would like to join me on a “eating as hot curry as you can” competition when I get back, so get training and may the competition begin!

On the topic of food, I was taken out to my first ever sea food restaurant on Tuesday. I decided to try and play it safe with some Calamari, which when told was squid alarmed me rather I will admit, however I was quite surprised. tasted really nice!But, this might be when it all went wrong as I thought it a good idea to try some other delicacies on the menu, Squids heads, again tasted surprisingly nice however it was when I decided that Muscles would be a good idea that it all went wrong! I apologies to those of you who are big sea food eating fans and I would happily eat fish with you, but muscles, I have been there, done that and well lets just say the evening was spent admiring the walls of my bathroom, which to you whom I am sure are riveted by this comment are rather dull and get a tad boring after an hour or so!

This week was the first that work in Overport Secondary really started or so I thought. Classes capacity is of about 50 children to a class, five classes to a year so within a day you see around three hundred different children. All of which have fantastically complicated names that I have not got a clue of pronouncing and being able to learn, much to their amusement I will admit! The school it’s self has over one thousand children in it, but to that number of children there are not that many teachers. I have found this week very frustrating as the school has not given out a proper time table although school started a month ago. Children do not know where they are meant to be going from class to class, all but the rite class turn up to your lessons having been told they were to come to you. Lesson time differs every day from one hour to twenty minuets, depending on whats happening that day. This means that no lessons are ever completed properly and even when the children do turn up, its only have the class, the other either bunking school, not there or just cant be bothered. I find it really sad as you can see that these children have so much potential to learn and become such fantastic people. However the problem lies a lot deeper then lack of enthusiastic teachers and organisation, all of which are out of my ability to change.The time value here is something ells and I am learning fast to be patient as there is noting you can do one a day like that.

Who ever said that Valentines Day had become very commercialised could not have been more accurate when referring to the celebrations here in Durban. I cant believe how many adverts there are, on TV, Radio, and in News Papers etc.Its everywhere and even more to my surprise its celebrated in a big style in school. There was no point in going into teach Life Skills in school yesterday. The children had been given half a day off, not because its a holiday but because hardly any of them turned up to school at all. Lesson time was halved, 20 minuets, with a brake of one hour and a half in the middle which expanded to two hours plus. Don’t get me wrong, I have not problem with valentines day, (Thank you for all the hundreds of Flowers, chocolates and presents you all sent, was very thoughtful and kind!) but it’s taken to a complete new level here.  The day’s surprises consisted of a number of people declaring there undying love for me and hoping that by me saying yes to there valentine proposal I would let me go early, nice try, cant say I used that one on my teachers at school.

Well Friday has come so quickly, got a nice relaxing weekend ahead with a pool party tomorrow afternoon and some good time relaxing on Sunday with eating ice cream, going to the beach, sunbathing and drinking nice big cups of coffee. Hope your all enjoying the lovely weather back home, I will say I do miss some things about Scotland/Edinburgh, but the weather is not one of them!!

My Address..

My address is

c/o Mrs Peters

215 Kensinton Hights, 311 North Ridge Road, Morningside, Durban, 4001, South Africa..

If you find yourself with some spair time on you hands!!

Starting work

I can’t believe that it’s been over 5 weeks since I left the Uk. Time has flown by and so much has happened.I miss all of you as much as ever address is enclosed if you find yourself with a free moment, please dont hesitate to write.

Most of my week has consisted of meeting with the Pastor’s and their churches in the neighbourhood, the idea behind this being to get them to support the work Scripture Union is doing in the community with their young people. By gaining their support in Fiances, prayer and  allows SU to do its work more efficiently and to train the people in these churches to run similar Holiday clubs for young people, thus reaching out to a greater number of Young people then Scripture Union can do alone. It has been really interesting to meet different people who have a passion to serve in this way and who are so eager to help out. I found that there is a huge need in Durban for camps and holiday clubs where children who would otherwise not have a chance like this can come and learn about God.

Thursday was my first day of going into a school to start the Life Skills program that SU is running here. I will be going into a number of different schools running 3-5 classes a week on the program.I found it rather overwhelming as the class room filled with over 50 children all yelling and screaming. My first challenge is to learn to remember their names and also more importantly how to pronounce them. I have my work cut out in that department they are not your average Jon and Gerald! However it was really exciting to meet the kids I am going to be working with. Although I think they thought of me as some rather strange foreigner I think we will get along well. They have a huge amount of potential and I am excited to be working with them. The Life skills coarse start next week where we will be looking at the decisions they are facing in the years to come regarding sex, relationships and the problem of AIDS.

Last week I was very lucky to have the opportunity to visit a hospital near where I work. It is the head quarters for treating AID’S patients and people with HIV in South Africa. It is a Christian based Hospital that a man named Jay runs who attends the same church as me. We were very lucky to have a tour and I learnt a lot about Aids and HIV that I never new and that is not normally disclosed to people. The reason behind visiting this place was to get an idea of the huge problem of AID’s and HIV in this country, who is mostly effected and what we can do. In the months to come I might be working as part of a team here teaching another Lifs Skills program.

Weather here is sweltering,although my look of a tomato is fading fast and being replaced by a lot of pealige,very nice as I am sure you can imagine, I have never in all my life been in such heat. Last weekend was over 40 degrees, I feel like I am melting most of the time. Bazaar as it sounds I would love to be able to sit down in a nice woolie jumper and jeans, however sun in January is great! Hows weather back home? Cold? wet?

Well hope you all are well and I will be back with more news soon. If you have a free moment would be great to hear from you.

Durban..home for the next six months!!

Hi there,

I am sorry that it has taken me this long to post a message on what I have been doing but the last week and a half has been very hectic for me. I arrived into South Africa on Friday the 11th where I stayed in Cape town for a couple of days before moving onto Durban a week last Sunday.

I am staying with a small Indian family in a place called Kensington Hights,(its bizzar having so many of the same names as in Britain in the middle of africa) a 21 story block of flats. The view is fantastic as I can see out to the sea and over the rest of Durban. I am sharing a room with someone who is on placement with me so my Patience is being tried( which I am sure you will agree is a good thing!) but she is really easy to get on with so all I say is poor her, for having to live with me for six months!!

I am adapting to Indian culture as the area where I am staying is predominantly Indian, at times I don’t feel like I am staying in Africa but India. The church I am going to is compleatly Indian too, I have never felt so white in my whole life but they are very warm and welcoming people!Durban has the 2nd highest population of Indian people so the culture hear is very different. I am learning how to live on Curry in 30+ degrees of heat, I cant get over how hot and humid it is hear, I spend the whole day in shorts and t-shirts and it never gets colder at Night.One thing I will admit to not missing is the wet, cold brittish weather, how is it??

I am currently sporting the look of what you might describe as a fried tomato, had a day off on Tuesday so went to the beach after hearing of many horrible shark tails of people getting eaten to death, I desided to go anyway, I tell you ever since I saw Jaws, I dont want to go swimming in any water other then that of the cold scottish atlantic,however the weather is so nice hear I might just have to chance it.But sun is not like that of Scotland and well as you can imagine come evening I looked like a nice shiny tomato!! Attractive I know!!

So I started work today, hence the Internet access, I have not managed to find a Internet cafe near where I live yet so I am on the look out for one as I am not going to be working that much hear in the office so I will have to get searching.

So my work, well as I said today is my first day of my work with Scripture Union for six months. I am really excited about the work I am going to be doing hear.I spent last week down in Port Shepspon on a training camp with about 40 other volentears from South Africa and the Uk. It was really great to get to meet some other people who are going to be doing the same work and also my team that I am going to be working with for the next  six months. We are going to be running holiday clubs and youth camps for young people in Durban. Two of which I have been assigned to organise and run, quite a daunting task as I have never been put in charge of something like that before but an exciting prospect.

With that I am going to be spending my time in schools in my neighbourhood, teaching life skills to the young people, this will include education on AID’s, and general decision making and issues effecting the young people. I visited one of the schools yestarday to say hi before I start work there next week and was amazed at how friendly the children seam, so I am looking forward to starting work there.

 So thats most of the news from me, I will do my best to keep in better contact. I am really missing everyone back home as life hear is so different. I know that after a month or so things will get easier and the culture shock want be so bad but in the mean time, I miss you all, and am thinking of you lots. Please keep in touch, would love to hear from you all and how things back home are going. I will try and post some photo’s as soon as I can too. So watch this space and I’ll be in touch!!