The days are going by....

It seems like lately the days have been flying by. I barely blinked and April is almost over. It feels like I've been here for years now and in actuality the end of April will be the 9 month mark. The end of March through the first 2 weeks of April was very busy with VBS. It was a first for Ntshongweni and the kids were amazing and lots of fun. Because of the VBS the children are now very familiar with me and my ministry partner Julia. Just yesterday some of the kids were on their way home from school and as they saw Julia and I, called out our names to say hello and give us hugs. What a good feeling to know that we are becoming part of the community.

Last week we visited all of the project families to finalize introducing Julia and to check on any needs and he general well being of the families. They welcomed Julia with open arms and they very impressed with my limited use of Zulu when I said hello. On the Saturday following the visit we went back to show some visitors from the USA life in Ntshongweni. The children were playing, ladies were braiding hair, the youth were playing music. Julia and I joined in with a group of young ladies who were dancing. They were impressed and so was I. It feels good to know that we are part of their lives now.

This week we visited all of the schools in Ntshongweni to schedule visits with the teachers of the orphans. We would like to know about how they are doing in school and try to be of help if there are issues. We also did a follow-up visit to the clinic. There is a group of ladies who do support and outreach in the community for those affected and infected with HIV/AIDS. We expressed our interest in attending the meetings and being a part of the group. Pastor Thwala will be able to provide spiritual support. The nurse that we talked to was very happy to hear that. We were also informed of a workshop on "How to Live a Healthy Lifestyle" that will be hosted by the teachers, social workers, police and members of the municipality. We will be attending.

The next few months will be packed with activities. We are scheduled at all of the schools, we will start planning for VBS for the school holiday in June & July, the community center and creche (daycare center) will be completed the end of April so we need to get those registered and operational. Hopefully somewhere between all of that we will be able to enjoy some of the activities of the World Cup.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Soccer Fever!!!

Went to a soccer game at the new Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban. It is spectacular. As we arrived there was a sea of black and gold for the Kaiser Chiefs and black, white and red for the Orlando Pirates. There has been a long rivalry between these teams with most of the games ending 0-0. One of the most amazing things about the game are the Vuvuzelas. They are made of plastic and look like elongated trumpets without the keys. When 20,000 plus are blown at the same time....man it's crazy. The fans were jumping up and down and many were in elaborate outfits in support of their teams. The game was quite exciting and went into overtime without either team scoring. It came down to penalty kicks where the Chiefs won 3-0. Soccer fever is in the air as South Africa gets ready for the World Cup.

Happy Easter!!

Christ our Lord is risen today. Alleluia!!! I have celebrated another first. This is my first Easter away from home. It was a wonderful day. I went to church in Ntshongweni to start the day. After church I went to a friend's house for a braai with his family. It was a lovely afternoon filled with laughter. We did something really cool in the evening. There is a group that meets at a nature conservation to look for chameleons. So we joined them. Even though it was raining we saw 4 chameleons. I heard that up to 45 have been spotted in the area. They are quite amazing and were a bit hard to see since they were green like the leaves. We used flashlights to look for them. Never thought that I would do such a thing. I did have fun and hope to do it again when it's sunny.