a typical day!

(firstly- apologise, i got the compases bearings wrong in my head when writting the prevous blog- the  voh is on the east side of cape town, wally would love to point this out for the second time!)

soo many of you have sent messages asking about what the "average" day is like in the village of hope- its hard to explain, as there is no identical day.

today for example-
07:30 school run- have to take 3 of the children to school, this involves driving a VW type 23 :D which is allot of fun apart from the gear box (like stirring soup!). as i have recently started doing the school run unsupervised the kids have taken full advantage of my independence- looking me out of the car, wadding around, hidding keys is not uncomon and esp embrassing when done infront of all the other parents are watching! i have recieved a couple of the "bad parenting" scares- but shrug them off knowning the kids aren't exactly 'mine'
08:00 meeting- this happens every moring to accolate jobs etc, grr.
08:30 timbercare- spent the moring with the lovely nurses from timbercare grabouw, we walked round the hillside squatter camp checking up on HIV patcients to see whether they have being taking their medications etc. this was both rewarding when the nurses pointed out ex patcients who have made a full recovery, but also frustating when we see patcients suffering for unnessescary reasons such as not taking the drugs properly etc. will expain more another time!
13:00 grub- depends whats in the fridge, normally and sandwith of some description followed by a quick powernap on the sofa :D
14:00 soccer- today was iraq squatter camp (my favourite), today we had such a great turn out of kids, warm up followed by blindfold/team building game which was great to watch as some kids try to get their peers to negousiate obsticals such as a rocky 3ft drop blindfolded! a game of soccer followed which i ref-ed- shocking!
17:00 back from soccer, quick drink then off to babyunit to look after the children as all the house mums have a meeting with the boss's. this was pure exaustion! three hours straight with 9 kids (i did have help of two others) the evil's once again took advantage of the absences of the house mums and gave us a battle, uncle simon, aunt kat were passed to the limit. espacially when one guy decided to scaverage an onion from the bin then eats it, a whole evening of onion breath in my face followed grr.
20:00 chill out, type this up then bed :D

hope this gives you guys an idea- not all days are like this!
i will try to start a photo albulm on this blog- one day...


simon x

1st week!

yes i have finaly got round to putting the first post from grabouw on my blog, took me a while to find the password, and then connect the laptop up- honest!

the village of hope is truly amazing, located in the beautiful hills surronding grabouw (roughly 60km west of cape town), here is a photo taken from the baby unit's garden- the building on the left is the baby unit itselt and the adjoined building is the voulenters accomadtion block. my room is the one in the middle with the curtains open (hopefully no mess is evident in the photo!)

i must point out at this stage, that the cleaner each day very kindly changes my sheets and makes my bed for me, as well as a little tiding up here and there! something that the cleaners at mary hare (old boading sch) never got the hang off, or dared to do! (nor dare i say my mother at home!)

so much happens here- i assure you no day is indentical and my office is purely outside :D  !
its way to much to squash into one blog, but regular updates(!) to the blog will soon give you an idea what's been going on!

here is a link to the V o H blog, which is updated slightly more regually- may see some evidence of me working time to time.
http://thembavillageofhope.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-volunteer-arrives.html

simon x

D-day :D

its finaly here, after a rough sleep i woke up and decided to tackle the packing, which is a little tricky as your going for 6months, many questions such as how many boxers, swim shorts etc. quick look at the weather confirmened tempatures of  (+)30degrees so that help to confirm what to pack!!!


tonight i will be jetting off to dubai- then run accross the supersized airport before cathing the conection to cape town, so- happy flighting grr

i will try to keep this blog as updated as i can (a little bit more frecuently than cye's blog!) but expiernece at boarding sch shows a young man should never make promises in the comications deptpartment.

do feel free to contack me by email or fb, s.thursz@btinternet.com

simon
x

testing testing