My year volunteering in South Africa: April Fools!

Sanbonan everyone! April has come and gone... So quickly. I have really really enjoyed April and I still have so much to look forward too!

The girls and I have started a less serious version of 'Come Dine With Me' every weekend. We take it in turns to cook a meal for each other, it's really nice. It's my turn tomorrow night. The pressure's on!

A few weeks ago, I had an outbreak of spots of my face. Now, as this doesn't usually happen, the kids wondered what on earth had happened to my face. When I was putting the boys to bed, Wandile said "Iona, what has happened to your face..?". I replied with, "Well, the thing is, at the weekend these aliens came over to the Hostel..... and then I just got these spots!". I waited for them all to laugh at me and tell me how funny I was but instead all the boys were like "What!? - deep shock - NO?" I said "No, no! I'm kidding!!" Heheheh, too cute.

At the beginning of April, I started going to a ladies house called Sister Abigail for a few hours in the morning. Sister Abigail is known by mostly everyone in Underberg. She is a wonderful woman who has devoted her life to helping others and works hard to provide the best life for her adopted children. Sister Abigail did not have an easy start to life having been born into abject poverty. She only started education when she was about 13 years old as her father’s culture was against girls going to school. From a very early age, Abigail had a very strong urge to help people and to become independent. She had to go to her village chief and ask him to coax her father into letting her start school! Sister Abigail lives her life with the Zulu phrase ‘Ubuntu’ constantly in mind. Ubuntu means to live life with not only your self in mind but everyone else too. Sister Abigail has a book called ‘Empty Hands’. In it, she says that “Ubuntu is not a moral obligation; rather, it’s a natural sense that we are all in this together, a sense of belonging to a community, that by doing for others, you help yourself”. What a beautiful way to look at life I think. After finishing High School at the age of 28 Abigail went to Pietermaritzburg to do a nursing course. She was now able to live her dream! At the age of 80, Abigail has spent her life helping her community. She is such an inspiration to me.

I have been going to Sister Abigail’s house in the late mornings to help her pick up the children from pre-primary. Abigail picks up a few other children as well as her own little girl and drops them off at their homes which is very kind. She has one little girl who goes to pre-primary and her name is Xoliswa. She has a condition where she has very little muscle structure and so has to be in a wheelchair. She does not have very much strength in her body at all. I help out by entertaining Xoliswa and doing stretches and exercises with her to work towards making her stronger. Sister Abigail has adopted and fostered about 28 children altogether, some of whom are grandparents themselves! Some of the children have had horrific backgrounds.. It’s very sad to hear some of their stories. I like going over to Sister Abigail’s house and teaching the kids new games to play. It’s really special to see them smiling and laughing. The first day I went to Abigail’s house she took me to the low cost housing to meet some of the people she helps. One of the shacks we went to was home to about four generations of a family! The great grandfather had lost ten children to Aids and was only left with three. It’s very sad. I really enjoy being in the company of Sister Abigail and her family. Everything is sooo chilled. African style.

Here's a picture of me and the kids. Xoliswa is to the right of me.

A very big highlight of April was about two weeks ago. Jess managed to get four free tickets to Underberg's yearly music festival Splashy Fen!!! Situated literally in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a stunning landscape, Splashy Fen's chilled atmosphere and hippie music was brilliant.

For Easter, Jess, Beth and I hid lots of Easter eggs for the kids around the Hostel. They were so mad about finding the eggs, it was very funny! I also hid some Easter eggs for the Grade 1 Mastery class. I will never forget the moment when I saw them from the window sprinting down to the area where I'd hidden them with their little baskets. At one point a little girl shouted "I just saw the shadow of the Easter bunny!!!! This way!!!" and everyone else running in her direction.

Here's a picture of us all at Lauren and her family's braai. The famous five.

Here's a little excerpt from my diary.

'16th April 2014. Today ten teachers weren't at school today because they were protesting outside the Department of Education. Some of them haven't been paid for over 8 months! Shocking... So, all the kids watched a movie called Robots. It was SUCH a good movie.'

On Sunday the 27th Jess and I went to the Northern Drakensberg for four days. It was the best four days I think I've ever had! On Monday we hiked up the Ampitheatre to Tugela Falls. The hike itself was such an adventure and the views outstanding. I was very proud of myself to complete the hike as well as I did because I have not been active for the past few months at all after coming out of hospital. This hike showed me I can do anything if I put my mind to it! On Tuesday we went for a four hour horse ride through the mountains..

Here's some pictures of the hike.