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On a slightly more miserable note, This post falls under the: 'I'm tired and I want to have a rant but my best friend's gone out for the day so I'll have to do it on my blog' category.

I share a room with 3 other people. Most of the time it's really fun, you get a really close relationship, it's nice to have someone to chat to at the end of the day when you're lying in bed. But there are two flaws: Even with the best of people, when you eat, sleep and work in the same place, you begin to see an awful lot of the same people and the smallest things about their personality can begin to grate on your nerves. I'm sure I really irritate some people, but one of my roomies is currently irritating me more than usual. The other flaw is a personal one: It turns out, I'm a very light sleeper. I seem to wake up and very little. This is where today's rant stems from.

The roomie in question is quite loud generally. I had night-shift last night so I really really wanted to sleep today because I was exhausted, something about doing nothing all night except staying awake really takes it out of you. Anyway, I manage to sleep through from 7.30am to maybe 1.30pm. 6 hours isn't too bad, but I would really like more. I'm woken by her phone ringing, it's our other room-mate who's in Joburg. It's not so much the phone ringing I was annoyed at, it was more that she sat on the top bunk having a really loud conversation at my equivalent of 4/5 in the morning instead of going outside.Then she calls someone else to arrange a skype or something. ARGH. Then she puts the fan on. This has become a bit of a battle subject recently in our room. There is a desk fan and this roomie like to put it on and leave it on all night under the impression it keeps the mosquitos off her. Judging by the amount of twitching, swearing and slapping that goes on, I would confidently say, it doesn't work. It used to just blow the mozzies into the bottom bunk where I was and they couldn't work out how to get out again, but now I have a net. The problem we have with the fan is that it is fairly noisy and she is the only one who feels any of the moving air because of the way she directs it. It's maddening. You're trying to sleep in a hot, sticky room and you can hear a fan, you can hear the air moving, you just can't feel it. It makes you feel even more hot and sticky. But when we ask her if she could not use the fan, she lies on the top bunk twitching and muttering and huffing and tutting.

So I might have stolen the blades out of the fan!

Bashed Up

Ok, first off, Hello to the PT volunteer who is reading and is coming out next August! And thanks for emailing me, it made my day!

I'm currently trying to organise a holiday for me and Sarah. It's chaos. We're in the middle of the summer holiday here, but we both have about 6 days off together by chance in the beginning of January, so we wanted to go to Mossel Bay and do some/all/part of the following:

• Learn to Surf
• Sandboarding
• Go to Wilderness
• Diving
• Skydive
• Paragliding
• (I just discovered this looking for prices for something else) Quad biking on a Game farm.

But because it's the middle of holiday season, everything is chock-a-block full to the gills! So I'm not entirely sure how well this is going to go!

In other news, me and one of my roomies went swimming in the very green pool yesterday (not 'eco' green. Literally green, it's a bit gross actually) and I wanted to show off my upside-down-balancing-skills, so I tried to do a handstand on the bottom step of the pool. Unfortunately I forgot that if there's a bottom step, there's probably a next step quite close to it. I put my hands on the bottom step,  swing my head down, and smash my face into the next step up. It wasn't overly hard, i.e. I didn't lose any teeth, but I did get a fat lip. I decide to float on the top of the water for a bit, just relax and all, when my roomie decides to swim underneath me to freak me out. Didn't work but I wanted to swim under her to freak her out, and I scraped my chin on the floor of the pool. The floor of the pool has an anti-slip thing which means it's textured as if someone glued sand to the bottom: very rough. So now I have no skin on my chin and thank goodness  my lip went down otherwise I would have seriously looked like I got in a fight. Also, can you imagine people thinking you got in a fight with someone then having to explain it was all self-inflicted due to stupidity?!

Honey Bees and Teenage Girls

It's only ten to eleven, but I thought I'd write a quick little paragraph about the behaviour of the girls I'm working with tonight. Last night I was with the same girls and it was insanity. They wouldn't go to bed, they started swearing at us in Afrikaans and English, then throwing empty cans and bottles at us. They were smoking in their bedroom, and we think they were also taking drugs. Some of them didn't sleep all night, but thankfully they calmed down enough that they were just chatting quietly in their room and sometimes playing music. Tonight, we were expecting the same as last night, only worse, due to the fact that it is Christmas day tomorrow and what kid doesn't get excited for Christmas? So I was a little apprehensive all day. I didn't want to have to battle against the kids, for so little. But I get to work and find that two of the girls have absconded. The two girls that had been causing most of the trouble last night. The girls that are home are all well behaved, the atmosphere is calm and fairly peaceful. At one point, they even want to paint my nails (I held out and my nails are still their natural colour!). There was such a difference in the house because just these two girls weren't there.

And it got me thinking, this is going to tangent, but I promise it gets there: In England, my parents keep honey bees, and a few months before I came here, my dad was asked to take a hive of bees that the owner couldn't keep because they were so aggressive. The bees would follow people and try and attack them or dive-bomb them. Having them live in our garage made life interesting. The thing with honey bees is that if the queen bee is aggressive, bad tempered and violent, all the other bees take on those characteristics and also behave aggressively and violently. If you change the queen and replace the angry queen with a calm queen, the bees will change their personalities to fit the new queen and they will also behave with a calm manner.

The girls here are so much like the bees in their behaviours. Calm and fairly respectful girls will become disrespectful, moody and bad tempered if the older or stronger (personality wise) girls are around. It's quite bizarre!

It's now 10 past midnight, and as much as I envisioned myself live blogging (without internet connection) all night, I've come to the conclusion that it is going to be a night like any other, although I might have to let Santa in through the front door later as the houses don't have fire places and therefore no chimneys. The thing I think I'm most excited about isn't actually x-mas day and presents and what-not (I opened all my presents already cause I thought it would be mean of me to be opening presents on x-mas day in front of other volunteers who didn't have any). But I'm massively excited about the surprise I have planned for Sarah! For her birthday in November, I bought her a massive mug because all the mugs in Back Kitchen are quite small, but she dropped it within the week and it broke. So for Christmas, I bought her another mug, but this time I bought a plain white one and decorated it with orange nail polish and I got her some pens-she's always complaining about having only 1 pen, and some coffee. I persuaded one of her room-mates to give me a key to her room and as soon as I finish my night-shift, I plan to sneak into her room and put the coffee and pens wrapped up on the end of her bed as if Santa's been! If she wakes up, I'm in trouble, but I'm seriously considering just saying I'm so tired I forgot which is my room and hope she doesn't question how I got a room key! I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!

Just let Father Christmas in through the main gate. He said he likes homes with lots of kids cause it saves him time. 40 kids in one place means he doesn't have to do 40 different chimneys, he's getting old and his knees aren't what they used to be. Also he says to tell folk that all the mince pies and full fat milk aren't good for his diet, could people please leave out a nice salad next year?

So it's the end of Christmas and it's been possibly one of my best Christmases ever! But that might be down to the fact that whenever you have a lot of people or a massive plan for the day, it's so much easier to get disappointed. If you have no plan for the day except to have a picnic with friends, you can't go wrong! I also went swimming in the pool at Home, weirdest thing to be swimming outside or wearing shorts and a t-shirt and burning my feet on the floor in December.

Sarah loved her gifts, she didn't know who the stocking was from and she thought the mug was awesome. And she got me a silver voucher worth R100 to spend on food at the Neighbourgoods market...I like her style! It also means we have to go back to the market!

So that was my x-mas, I hope all of your x-mas' were equally awesome.

Also, I got an email from my Dad and a letter from my Mum both saying that they know people who are following my blog, like properly following. My Dad said he was on tour with someone who knew when I'd posted before he did, so if you know me or my family or you just like my blog (maybe there are people out there!?) please do write me a comment, or if you want to email me (plumthing101@hotmail.co.uk) cause it's always a nice surprise. You don't even have to have a google account to write a comment, and you can do it anonymously-but that's boring!

Eyes and Ears Open Folks!

I plan on writing a blog post tonight while I'm on my night-shift, what's happening and what-not. It probably won't be fantastically interesting, but it'll be my x-mas post. I also planned on going for a picnic tomorrow afternoon, but the weather currently isn't looking fantastic. I was told it was over 35 degrees yesterday (I slept through it!) and then at maybe 2am there is a massive thunder storm, there aren't even clouds in sight, but that be SA for you! Anyway, the weather today is very cloudy and a little bit cold (although the thermometer on my watch is saying 24 degrees) so we've decided that if it is anything but glorious sun tomorrow, we'll make a den in our room between the bunk beds using our bed sheets and have a special party in there!

Drumming on the Streets of Cape Town

So, another double post, this time because when I tried to type up a post yesterday at the gym, the computer was a bit funny and wouldn't let me format it properly. Also, if it doesn't read well, it's because I have a massive headache and I'm exhausted having only slept 5/6 hours last night, and up and about all day and now it's 23.30 I'm on night-shift again and I'm trying desperately to stay awake.

OK, first post first: I got 3 surprise parcels in 2 days! 2 came on Wednesday, one from America and one from Manchester, England. I had no idea that either of them were coming so it was wonderful to have another volunteer hand me two parcels and them both be for me and not for me too give to another volunteer! The one from America was from a family my brother went to stay with when he went on his football exchange (and then the whole family came to England for a week last year and there were 10 people living in the house!). They sent me some American sweets, salt water taffy takes some getting used to, and games to play with the kids along with a lovely card, so thank you to the Burnetts (and apologies if I spelt that wrong, I'm typing this without internet so I can't check!)

My other parcel that day was from my Parents, and contained lots and lots of things for me to do with the kids like those hand tattoos of animals that make your hands into puppets, and tiddlywinks! And I also got a letter from each member of my immediate family which was basically the best bit of the box! I wasn't expecting this parcel because I got one from them less than a week before that contained home-made Christmas cake, a Christmas pudding and somewhat-squidgy-due-to-the-35-degree-heat chocolate, so to get another parcel, I was happily surprised!

The last parcel, came on the Thursday and was from my amazing Cornish Grandparents. It had 5 DVD's to play with the kids: Brave, Up, Ice Age 4 (love people that read my blog!), Raymond Briggs' Father Christmas and Shaun the Sheep. Shaun the Sheep was already opened due to the fact my Nanna is addicted to the show and only buys the DVD's so she can watch the episode's she's missed. She thinks we don't know, but we do. (Love you Nanna!) It also contained a badge. But not just any badge, oh no, this badge is a very special badge as it has the flags of my 2 favourite places in the world on it. It is a metal pin badge with a crossed Cornish and South African flag. It is the most beautiful thing in the world! The reason you can buy those two particular flags together is that a lot of Cornish miners migrated to the South African and American mines when all the Cornish ones closed down (story for another time).

That's the end of my first post, but I would like to make it known that Sarah just brought me two slices of peanut-butter and mashed banana on toast and two mini-chocolate-muffins to my night-shift. (Epic love for you as well Sarah!) Me and one of my roomies took her a toastie with egg and stuff and a cup of coffee when she hurt her foot and had to do night-shift last week, so when I said I had a headache, she brought me that and we watched some Shaun the Sheep!

And my second post is about what I did today (and most of the reason why I'm so tired!) We, me, 2 roomies, Sarah and one of her roomies, went to Neighbourgoods Market today! It's a market that runs every Saturday from 10am til 2pm and sells really really good food. Like really good food. And clothes and other in-edibles, but a lot of food. The food might have only been so good because I haven't eaten anything like it in 4 months. Raw vegetables have never tasted so good. The food at the Home is nice, a bit repetitive sometimes, but nice. But the vegetables are always sweetened or cooked so long they're mushy, so having some raw cabbage was heaven!

We then caught a mini-bus taxi to Cape Town to have a look round Green Market Square. We sat at a cafe, and got some drinks (I believe it was 36 today). Sarah wandered off to the piercing shop to see if she could change a ball for a ring or something and I went to have a look at some of the stalls while the other 3 were still at the cafe. Before I've even finished one row of the market, than Sarah comes hobbling over as fast as her ankle will carry her and is chattering something about a drum circle up the road, so we both set of as fast as we possibly can, me falling over the flip-flops on my feet, her trying not to damage her ankle further, to the sound of drums. We see the circle set up on the side of the road, literally, some people were sat on the pavement on chairs, other's were perched on mini drums on the road, drums resting on the kerb. There's a free drum, so seeing as Sarah didn't want to dive right in, I just started drumming. It was amazing. I have no other words to describe it. Sarah came and joined in as soon as another drum became available, and suddenly, we'd gone from Neighbourgoods market with so many tourists, to the people the tourists taking pictures of us drumming on the side of the street! It was so surreal. We completely forgot the others were still at the cafe and sat drumming for at least half an hour! But it was so worth it!

And me and Sarah are getting Djembes! We went to the drumming circle at the Home on Thursday, and we spoke to the guy who was leading it, and he said he could get us a Djembe each from a market, then he strips them down to check for woodworm and stuff then puts them back together and tunes them up and we can have them for around R800 (about £60) which is the same price you can get them straight off the market, I've found. We'll probably have them by the end of January!

Toms.

We had our Christmas party today. And it was lekker lekker! We played games for young kids, pass the parcel, and games for older kids, ninja. We also did a massive secret santa which was a bit of a hassle because there are so many volunteers here a lot of people picked someone they didn't know! So most of the presents were just general gifts but because Sarah is here, the person who had me asked her what I liked, so I got a bar of chocolate, some donuts and a 2l bottle of coke that was decorated with swirly patterns and it said: “Cornwall is the best” on the side!

We also got a present from the Home. Now, this is going to seem like it's going off on a tangent, but bare with me. In England a year or two ago, there were a brand of shoes that became really popular really quickly. Toms. I think the whole 'thing' that made people buy them, was that they had a 'one for one' scheme that meant for every pair of Toms bought, another pair would be donated to a poverty stricken child in a 3^rd world country who can't afford shoes. All the volunteers here, have as of 19.00 today, become one of those children that get donated shoes!

I should explain before anyone gets all angry that 1^st world teenagers got the shoes: The home that I'm volunteering in got a massive donation of Toms for the kids. The 3^rd world kids that can't afford shoes. But the home I'm volunteering in also gets a lot of donations including shoes. Also, the Toms came in a range of sizes with enough shoes to fit every child, unfortunately, although they gave a pair of shoes for each child, they gave too many shoes in higher sizes so there becomes not enough shoes for all the children. Because all the kids would fight if only some of them got nice new pumps (any parent of more than one child I'm sure will agree that if you give one kid something, all the other kids want the same or better) they've had to not give the Toms to the kids, only if kids need school shoes, they might get a pair. I think it's hilarious that the western teens get some of the shoes!

So I guess what I'm saying is:

Thanks for the shoes guys!

Nag Skuif

13/12/12-14/12/12

OK, so it's roughly 4am and I'm on a night-shift. I thought I'd write a post about what work we get to do on our night-shifts. It is really quite boring! If you're in a house with the younger kids, you get to change nappies and wake kids up to go pee. There are some kids you need to wake up in the older houses, but it's not so much of a mission. Tonight, I've been placed in the boys house (because it's the holidays, there is one girls house open, two boys houses and one house for the younger kids.) And it is wildly exhilarating, if by that you mean it couldn't get more boring if you tried. If you're lucky, it's 10 hours sat on a mattress listening to kids sleep. If you're not so lucky, like me tonight, you get a rather small sofa cushion to sit on for 10 hours.

On night-shift, you aren't allowed to sleep, obviously. But I'm fairly certain I'm one for very few volunteers that doesn't actually sleep. Some people are annoyingly blasé about how much they sleep, others pretend they don't sleep. I don't want to sound self-righteous or whatever the term is, but I think we all came here to work, and if we get placed on a night-shift, then we have to stay awake. There is a reason that there are volunteers on night-shift: Because of their pasts, some of the children have trouble getting to sleep and it reassures them that they are safe and there is someone watching out for them and making sure they come to no harm. Also there needs to be someone awake so that if anything happens to any of the children, a volunteer can either call for help or deal with the situation. The fact that some volunteers sleep irritates me. If you wouldn't sleep on day-shift, why should you sleep on night-shift.

I dunno. It's 4am and I wanted to have a rant, and I'm very bored having already watched 3.5 movies, read a little and played on my room-mates Nintendo DS

In other news, I bought a mosquito net yesterday. It's absolutely huge, and it was quite expensive, but last night, I caught (and killed) 3 mozzies in 15 minutes, only to go back to bed and have another one in my ear within 5 mins. I've been so pleased to have the lower bunk and a bunk bed since I arrived, just because I've been able to get so creative with it, but trying to install a 2 meter high circular net into a 1 meter high square space was certainly challenging! Especially as the net can't touch you're body, otherwise it doesn't work. It took me 2 hours, a lots of string, twine and thread and an awful lot of sweat (perhaps due to the 35 degree heat of the day) but it is up. It's just a shame that I'm spending the next 3 nights sat on a mozzie infected corridor. Hey ho, that's life!

6 bites on my left hand, 7 on my right...we're not even going to count the ones on my feet!

14/12/12-15/12/12 11pm

OK so this is now a double post in one. I didn't get round to posting this today so I'll try and post it tomorrow. Tonight, I've been placed in the girls house. The younger kids are downstairs, and I think there are less than 10 of the older girls here tonight. I know one of them has run away. This is quite a frequent occurrence, not just for this particular child, but for the kids in general. Unfortunately there isn’t a lot the home can do. With some of the children they can cancel home visits if they abscond too much, but if a child has no home to go to on weekends or holidays, and their pocket money has already been stopped, what else can you do? The kids that abscond usually come back the same night and when they come back, they have to sleep on the sofa or the floor of whichever room and house the night-shift leader is in so they don't disturb the other children and so that someone can keep an eye on them if they are intoxicated to make sure they don't hurt themselves or someone else.

But on a much better note, I just spent maybe half an hour sitting with 3 of the girls having them help me learn Afrikaans. It's really nice getting the kids to help me and one of the girls was telling me how nice it was of me to try and learn Afrikaans because usually the volunteers just assume the kids can speak English and leave it at that. She helped me pronounce the work 'bietjie' meaning 'little'. It looks like it would be difficult to pronounce coming at it from an English perspective, but you have no idea how hard! The combination of 'tjie' is actually pronounced 'kee' and when there are two vowels next to each other in Afrikaans, you often pronounce both of them e.g. 'lees' meaning 'read/reading' is said 'lee-uhs'. So bearing that in mind, try saying 'bietjie' out loud and enunciate the 'i', 'e' and the the 'kee' sound separately. Hard isn't it? Turns out you pronounce it 'bee-kee'. Who knew?!

14/12/12-15/12/12 4.30am

I just had to change a couple of kids nappies downstairs and wake up some kids to go pee. I had to wake up a new girl, I think she arrived yesterday and it was a bit strange. For one I didn't know her name, the other volunteer who woke her at 12 didn't think to ask and the child care worker didn't know it, but it's all OK, I asked her so I know it for future reference! It was also weird because she didn't wake up easily. No one wants to be woken up by a stranger to go to the toilet. Last holiday I had to wake up a little girl and my tactic to get her awake was just to gently pick her up and carry her to the bathroom. By the time we were in the bathroom she had woken up enough, then I would just carry her back to her bed. But because this girl is new, I didn't want to encroach on her personal space. It must be horrible to be taken away from all that you know, whatever bad situation made you leave. Also, I think I would be pretty freaked out if I woke up in a random strangers arms!

One of the older girls woke up earlier as well. About an hour ago. It was the same girl who was helping me with my Afrikaans. She had a nightmare and wanted someone to sit with her and just chat for a bit to take her mind off it so she could go back to sleep. I think it's moments like that, which make me so happy to be here. I love it here anyway obviously, but when a child gives something back to you it can be wonderful. And it's also a good reason to stay awake! If I'd been sleeping, she might have woken me up, but she might have just gone back to bed and laid awake thinking about her nightmare.

The children often ignore the volunteers and are quite disrespectful sometimes and part of me thinks that it's because they know the volunteers will disappear in a few months so why should they be nice to us or get to know us, so when a child asks me for help or even just a chat at 3am, who am I to deny them? And it depends on the child's age. The older kids always talk in Afrikaans so when a child talks to me in English and just makes that effort it's lovely. For the younger kids I think it might be a little more physical. One of the children I work with regularly always used to give me the most bone-crushing-breath-removing-painful hugs I have ever experienced. I think it was partly to get a reaction out of people, but also maybe because I don't think it registered in his mind that this gesture was causing people pain! Over some time, I showed him how to be more gentle. He could still squeeze me when he gave me a hug, but I would only hug back when I wasn't in pain. If he squeezed to hard, I would say 'gently kiddo, gently'. And it worked. He started be only giving me gentle hugs, but now if I'm there and he hugs too hard, I can tell the volunteer to stop tensing up cause it only makes it hurt more and I ask the child to be more gentle and it almost always works. I'm so proud of him!

Afrikaans.

Me and Sarah are teaching ourselves Afrikaans. We are getting a little help from kids, child-care-workers and the two volunteers who speak Flemmish. Our plan is to be as fluent as possible by the time we leave so that not only can we communicate with the kids and staff here, but we will have our own secret language when we get back to England (because oh yes, we are that easily amused!)

It isn't actually all that hard. I've been surrounded by the language for 4 months now which helps and I've picked up quite a lot from helping my kids with their reading and spelling and thankfully, the grammar is basically the same as English, so sentence structures and all that are the same. I'll try and keep you updated as to how it's going. Currently I can count to 12 do the days of the week and months and I can greet someone! Not bad for 2 days learning! I have my first night-shift of the holidays tomorrow night, so I'm going to ask the night-shift leader to help me if they're in my house.

Maybe by the end of my year here, I might be able to write a post in Afrikaans!

Muizenberg

So we went to the beach today! Me and 4 other volunteers drove to Muizenberg Beach after the braai and water fight with the kids! It was windy. Very windy. Cape Town can get very windy in the summer I have been informed, but I wasn't expecting the beach to be that windy. Actually the problem wasn't the wind, it was the lovely but very fine sand that was on the beach. It was so smooth and fine, but this meant the wind whipped it up and threw it in your face. So me and Sarah sat under a blanket like the weirdest blanket monster you have every seen, trying desperately to not be blinded. Also, both me and Sarah have several patches of open skin on our feet and legs. Sarah because of her Foot and Mouth and eczema, and me because there is at least one mosquito in my room, possibly more, and my damn room-mate thinks that if she puts a fan on, it will blow away any bug in our room. This would work I imagine if you were on the top bunk, but because I'm on the bottom (with all its multiple advantages!) I'm effectively in a rectangular box that only has 1 side open, so if you put a source of wind at that one open side, any bugs that go near said wind source or fly into my bed, just cannot get out again. But then again why would you if you had an endless supply of fresh food?! Anyway, back to original point: I have lots of very itchy bites on my hands, arms, feet and legs and because I have dry skin and no self control (it feels so good to scratch) there are several places where I have scratched the skin off my legs, feet, hands and arms. :(  

A Pensive Wander Through My Mind!

I know I've written very little about what happens in the holidays here, so given that it is now the longest holiday of the year, I thought I'd write some of what goes on!

I mentioned in a previous post (Holiday Times) that most of the kids go home for the holidays. As I understand it, the kids don't go back to the place that put them in Home in the first place. There is a wonderful team of social workers here that look for other options for the kids. This may be relatives such as older siblings, aunties/uncles or grandparents that could potentially give the children a permanent home. Some children have foster families that they often spend weekends or days out with and I think some of the kids also have South African (local) volunteers that are also potentially becoming foster parents. And one of the ways the Home can test the 'compatibility' of the relationship between the child and adult is to send the child to live with whichever care-giver it is almost as a trial run. And this is what happens in the holidays.

Some kids don't even have these options. No suitable family members and no volunteers or foster family. Luckily kids are allowed to spend time with friends from school. One child I know spends most weekends staying at a school friend's house and thankfully is able to spend most of the holiday with that family, because the other option is being left at the Home. There are only 20-30 kids that stay behind every holiday, but this isn't all as sad as it may seem. These kids don't have a free day for the whole holiday. Seriously, I've seen the holiday plan and it is mental! They get to go to a musical, there have been cable car tickets donated for Table Mountain, so some kids get to do that, they're going to a crocodile park, camping, movie nights, climbing Table Mountain. All sorts!

As an international volunteer, you can sympathise with the kids sometimes. We won't see our family for up to a year. I haven't spoken to my parents, brothers or friends for nearly 4 months, and I won't for another 8 months. I won't get to spend x-mas or my birthday with family around me like I have done every year of my life. But unlike the kids, I'm doing it optionally. And I can technically go back any time I want. I could pick up the phone and phone my Mum or Dad or friends right now (well I could if I had enough airtime!). I could go to the internet cafe and skype my family. But, and this is going to be a slightly harsh 'but' so if you are related to me, please don't disown me (!) I don't actually miss any of my family or friends. Except my Granny. I miss her a lot! I have absolutely no plans to phone or skype in th forseeable future because I'm doing fantastic without them (sorry guys!). But I think it's probably different for those left behind. For me it is a whole different life (that I will never be able to live again after this year-this fact terrifies me) but all my family and friends have to live their normal Manchester life and day to day routine without me. For my brothers, they have never had to do that. My parents haven't had to do it for 18 (I imagine long) years. It must be tough, I don't envy them! But what an interesting experiment it is! As much as I really really never ever want to leave this life here, I can't wait to get back and see how much things have changed while I'm away. I'm almost certain that I'm now the shortest child in my family (although thankfully not the shortest person-thanks Mum!) even though I'm the oldest. In pictures, my littlest brother is looking awfully lanky and out-of-proportion like teenage boys do when they grow suddenly. I want to see how the kids I used to look after have grown, and how much they've learnt at school. .

I think I've also changed a lot already in such a short time. There are things I do or don't do now automatically. I would never think to call it a BBQ. It is a braai, always and forever. Lekker has become a part of daily language. I'm also proud to say I sometimes think in Afrikaans. Just the odd word that I've picked up here or there. There are behaviours as well. I automatically clean my plate and cutlery after I've eaten (we obviously don't have a dish washer!) and now I've got a technique for washing my undies without injuring myself, I just listen to my ipod and get on with it. It's quite relaxing, I might carry on doing it in England! I would also never even think about going out on my own after dark, it's just to dangerous. I think one of the biggest changes is that I've become so independent from family and at looking after myself, but I've also become slightly dependent on other people in general. And I actually love living with other people. I love that if I'm bored, I can just wander over to another living area and find someone to chat to, or play cards with. I also love that I can see my best friend's bedroom door from my bedroom window (in a none-creepy-stalker way obviously).  

Remember when England had that Foot and Mouth Epidemic?

Sarah's foot swelled up yesterday morning and she could barely walk. Sarah has terrible skin and is prone to fungus infections and the like so she just thought her eczema was flaring up due to the detergent the laundry uses here. She goes to the doctor after being told it could potentially be SCURVY! Only to find that she hadn't got scurvy, she has Foot and Mouth disease! Foot and Mouth. As in the thing that cows get killed for. Foot and Mouth!!!! She caught it from one of the kids she was working with, better than catching ringworm. And apparently it is very contagious so if she shares cutlery with anyone for a week (starting last Tuesday) or shares a bed with anyone (if only to watch a film) or basically touches or breathes on anyone, they will also get it. Which, in short, means that I also have it! Due to the fact, we regularly share cutlery, beds and what-not!

Ahhhhhh well!

Let it Snow/Things that Bite in the Night

This has got to be the hottest I've ever been in December. Thankfully, the weather has cooled off a bit today because yesterday it was 30 degrees, very sunny and very little wind. Bleaurgh! Because most of the kids are going home this holiday, the Home has x-mas a little early. So there was a lekker party yesterday where some of the kids performed songs and dances they'd prepared, there was a HIV/aids talk from one of the volunteers, and the kids got presents! I'm not entirely sure how the system works and who provides the presents, but some of the kids got LOADS, and others got only one or two. I think one of the supermarket chains provided a lot of presents, or they sponsored the party because they had representatives giving the kids the gifts. I've noticed that whenever there is any sort of event at the Home that gets sponsored by an outside company, they only want pictures of the younger children because they're young and cute which I find infuriating. Also because some of the older children were much more excited to receive their presents. No matter, x-mas is nearly over here now. On Friday most of the kids go home so the Home relaxes a bit. There is the Chirstmas concert on Wednesday which I've been asked to sing at-also performing is Zanne Stapelberg! I was supposed to be singing with one of the the kids who is very very talented, but he's too old for the Home so he had his leaving party last week and he leaves on Wednesday which unfortunately means that he isn't able to sing at the concert, so I need to talk to my boss to see if she still wants me and the other volunteer to sing, hopefully we can!

In other news, as the weather heats up, things start breeding. Things like fleas. Yes I have fleas. Although I am proud to say I was the last person in the room to get them. That counts for something, right? And apart from the bitey bitey fleas I had a mosquito incident last night. I'm on my laptop at about 11pm and I hear the zzzzeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee noise of a mozzie. The noise stops and I do the famous mozzie twitch. The one when you think it's landed on you so you make your whole body spasm to try and scare it off. I ehar the whine again, and this time, it flies in front of my computer screen so I can see it (one of my room-mates is asleep so the light is off) I try to grab it, but I miss. This whole debacle goes on for at least 10/20 minutes. And then, I catch it! Now I know I'm safe from the bitey bitey, itchy itchy, I trun on my ipod and try to go to sleep. Just as I doze off, I hear another zzzzzzzeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. THERE'S TWO OF THE CRITTERS!