mum, dad and sis are coming out for a sunny christmas in roughly 2weeks :D
if you wish to send a christmas card, present, sweets, punch, kick, hug, anything please send it to potten end...
toads,
on the green,
potten end,
herts,
HP4 2QQ
simon x
Monday, 28 November 2011
video...
many of you have being asking to see the video from speech day, so heres the link below....
Saturday, 26 November 2011
international sport of soccer...
before i came here, someone told me soccer/football is a sport played anywhere in the world and no matter when you play the rules are the same. very true...
then i was warned it was very popular here in grabouw. that scared me a little, as i never took the sport seriously whether its playing or watching. but do have one memory of correcting a deaf semi pro footballer (and most loylal friend) George Stockton Pronunciation of the sport- fooFFall! -remember that georgie boy!
since arriving, i have turned from being the fool on the pitch to a reasonably good player- "good player" status, this was achived by scoring a hat trick home goal when playing in iraq last week!!!
as part of the sports outreach program we play soccer with the kids, a different squatter camp each after each day of the week. no wonder why i have "improve" dramatically. during these sessions we do a warm up, team building game, match with a twist and close with prayer/lifestyle skills.
occasionally like today we take the kids out to other venues to take part in matches/tournaments against other guys, these are great days out as we get to spend time with the kids, meet other people and enjoy free food!
during todays tournament i was summered forcably to ref some of the matches (another skill im improving in). it was all going very well until a little fight broke out due to a bad tackle or somewhat, i blew the wistle to stop the fight- nothing. stepped in between the guys and pushed them apart- nothing. by now more and more guys got involved, then one of the players had projuced a evil looking flick knife and started waving it around with stabbing motion at his oppenin.g player
rather than just staring in disbelive, the kid recived a kick on the back sending him to the floor where he droped the knife, i then gave him a red card and sent him of, (to the disbelive of his coach!- who oboviously thought it was a bad call) and informed the chap running the tournment who was then outraged at the ridicous coach. you may find it shocking that someone produces a knife during a soccer match, you certainly woudn't find Ronney stabbing Bob on the football feild. south africa does have one of the highest crime rates in the world- so i guess its a bit acceptable.
however, the grabouw team included a A and B team (due to so many players) our B team came first and the A team second- a proud achivement giving nearly all team players were playing in bare feet and lycra style shorts- fualts of the coachs appartly.
this photo was actually taken at the beggining- kidding ourselves that we won!
simon x
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
long needed post...
A long needed post,
Over the past two weeks the internet here has been on or off the same story went to my phone, it was kinda nice not having contact from the outside world for a few days!
There’s too much to fit in, but an trip to the west coast had to be mentioned...
A last minute self invite managed to secure a weekend away with Scotty’s parents in their holiday home on the west coast. (No relations to Rory from Scotland) this was truly a weekend filled with good (lots) food and drink- after weeks of feeding myself it was so good to experience good food again, by this i mean breakfast with fresh fruit and proper British hot cross buns. For lunch we went out to a seafood place and supper was a Braai- South African style BBQ *big thumbs up*
When not eating (and feeling fat) time was spent on the beech, just chilling and swimming in the sea. But the best bit was a huge family of seals, they were all over the rocks everywhere newborn baby seals, mothers, huge males, dead seals and dolphins. I tried to take some photos, but the zoom wasn’t that powerful- one of those moments where you curse yourself for not nicking your dads big SLR camera, but me being creative managed to improvise some bigger lens using the binoculars, I’m clever am I not????
One slight problems with south Africans is their sheer genosity, they will go out of their way and do everything needed to make your stay comfortable etc (unlike the british according to them). So when a bill comes tense decision follows on whether I should pay my bit, the same followed for petrol and house food etc. Failing miserably and feeling guilty with all effort, a stop to the flower shop was made to settle the score. Roses looked nice, but i kinda thought it give of the wrong message to John, so another bunch did the trick of evening out the bill.
sunday eve when driving back i did a small detore to false bay to watch the sunset- a supper consiting of billtong (dreid, chewy beef sticks), ginger beer and ice cream. nothing beats that
there are many more post to come in the next few days (to make up whats lost!) so watch this space
Friday, 4 November 2011
soup run....
fridays are often my favouirt days, as soo much happens- school run, morning maintence, soup run, smiley rainbow then youth group with daz. so enough to keep me firing on all cylinders all day long!
the soup run is when we collect a huge pot of pipping hot soup from rose and bull (local pub where we spend many weekends watching QPR getting lucky!) and deliver it to the iraq township. today i had the american crew in tow, so we decided to hang around. we watched and help serve the soup to all the kids that came,
what we did'nt relealise was that for many of these children, the soup was going to be their main/only meal of the day- it made me feel incredibly guilty about the amount of food i have in the fridge here at the farm- when non of these guys will have fridges in their shacks, nor would they have any food lying around like we do- makes you think doesn't it??? i can never have just soup for a meal on its own, nevermind it being the only meal for the day- can you?!?!
anyway- its certainly one of the most safitfying job we do around. but most importantly it gives me the chance to drive the buckie, a 3litre turbo charge toytya hulix pick up truck- my favouirt car by far :D
simon x
the soup run is when we collect a huge pot of pipping hot soup from rose and bull (local pub where we spend many weekends watching QPR getting lucky!) and deliver it to the iraq township. today i had the american crew in tow, so we decided to hang around. we watched and help serve the soup to all the kids that came,
what we did'nt relealise was that for many of these children, the soup was going to be their main/only meal of the day- it made me feel incredibly guilty about the amount of food i have in the fridge here at the farm- when non of these guys will have fridges in their shacks, nor would they have any food lying around like we do- makes you think doesn't it??? i can never have just soup for a meal on its own, nevermind it being the only meal for the day- can you?!?!
anyway- its certainly one of the most safitfying job we do around. but most importantly it gives me the chance to drive the buckie, a 3litre turbo charge toytya hulix pick up truck- my favouirt car by far :D
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
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
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
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
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
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
Monday, 10 October 2011
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
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
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