Mmmmmmm, Sjokolade!

So today, me and mum made a slab of malteser nougat, some hazelnut pralines and some raspberry truffles! The truffles and pralines need to cool overnight before you shape them so I'll try and post some pictures tomorrow when they're all finished!

I got a little carried away!

Do you remember last year (or the year before) when I made those hoodies?

Well I've gone a little further recently. When I was in Cornwall I started making a knee-length-multi-coloured-patchwork-waistcoat which I finished a month or two ago. On Friday night I decided I wanted to make a t-shirt, so I looked up how to do it and on Saturday I went into town to buy the things I needed. And what with me not really doing anything today, I decided today was the day! I made two, mainly because it was a pack of two t-shirts but also I was allowed to make a mistake or few as long as they were kept to the same shirt! As predicted, one came out awesome, the other-less so. I'm only putting up pictures of the awesome one!

ME!

The Front

The Back

The front of my coat-note the Cornish flag and Tin Mine!

The back of the coat *upside-down*

Upside-down view of the front with the magician lining on display!

In my Nana's odds-and-ends box I found a strip of name-tags from when my mum was in school, so they had to go on! They're on the left shoulder.

8 Legged Pervs

A spider just crawled out of my top. It was a fairly big one (for England). Urgh.

I'm going to have nightmare's tonight...if I even get to sleep...

Reality

I just landed myself face first into reality. I booked my flights. Suddenly I HAVE to make the money/pass my driving test/organise a visa etc. and in time! I fly out on the 3rd Feb which is 11 weeks yesterday. The countdown has begun (again!).

75 Days

Granny Care

I'm essentially doing nightshifts with my Granny. She has advanced alzheimers and has been getting up a lot in the night so my parents haven't been getting a lot of sleep. We think of her like a toddler which makes it a lot easier to cope/deal with her. It sounds a little harsh like that. Let me explain! With my kids in SA, I didn't want to know their stories at first because I was scared that all I saw when I looked at them would be the abuse they had suffered. Instead, when I learned their stories one by one it gave me a better understanding of how their minds worked and where they were coming from and so I was able to come up with solutions for any problems we had that suited the individual child. Same with Granny. If we think of her as a perfectly able old lady we get horrendously frustrated, she can be very stubborn and argumentative sometimes. But if we think of her as a toddler, we can look after her better.

With me working lates at M&S it means I can sleep all day, so we're trialling me on nightshifts to see if it helps any. I'm working a rough 2 days on 2 days off system and I'm only doing it 4 nights a week. I've also arranged it so that I'm not pulling an all-nighter when I have to work at midday at Marks.

I'd forgotten how tiring it is though. And how it's 9 hours of waiting to be able to go to bed! Yoh!

Puny Penicillin Pills

Check out these puny pills! That's right...I have tonsillitis again :D And for the record: Penicillin is much more pleasant to swallow than Augmentin. Although where I was 2 of those a day, I'm on one tablet, 4 times a day of these (for 10 days). It takes some planning, let me tell you! And it said on the packet that they should be taken on an empty stomach 1 hour before food or 2 hours after, and that was REALLY hard to plan. You don't realise how much you eat randomly until you can't! And I had to think about when to eat and what to eat so that I wouldn't run out of energy for my bike ride to and from work...YOH! It was HARD. But then an anaesthetist who lives on our road told me it doesn't really matter about taking them on an empty stomach as much as it matters about taking things after food, so I'm ignoring the empty stomach thing.

Be prepared for more 'philosophical' night ramblings from me: I'm staying up all night in my Granny's room to see if we can keep her in bed for the night. YAY NIGHTSHIFTS! But luckily my parents will pay me (the things I do for SA!) 

Passports

My passport has been renewed, flights have been looked at (but not booked quite yet...sort of need the new passport to come through!) and I'm studiously avoiding anything to do with visa's.

All is going well!

Family Reunions

Having so many people in one house wasn't actually that bad. My uncle David and his Girlfriend only arrived that morning and left that evening which reduced numbers somewhat, the Cornish Grandparents left early this morning then Auntie Kate and her son Ben leave in a few hours along with Uncle Frano.

All photos by Cheryl Law.

 (L to R, Back row to Front). My Uncles David and Frano, my brother Nathan then Dad.

David's girlfriend Isobel, Auntie Kate, Cousin Ben.

Granddad, my brother Seth, Mum, me.

Nana, Granny.

 

My maternal grandparents-who's 50th anniversary it was.

My mum (right) with all her siblings (L-R): Frano, Kate and David.

Family

I still occasionally feel like I'm still getting used to living in a family unit. Having brothers definitely takes some getting used to again! But this weekend is going to be a real challenge...we're having a sort of family reunion. At our house.

It was my maternal grandparents 50th wedding anniversary in August (I think) but because of school and other life commitments they didn't do anything with the rest of the family. But now it's half-term, EVERYONE has converged at our house. Usually there are 6 people living in the house: Mum, Dad, my paternal grandmother, 2 brothers and me. But in addition, this weekend we will have: Both maternal grandparents, my auntie and her son (my cousin), my uncle and his girlfriend and my other uncle. 13 people. Our house is big...but not that big! The reason everyone comes to us is because we're relatively central: my auntie lives way up north in Edinburgh and my grandparents live way down south in Cornwall.

It is, however, a minor miracle that everyone's managed to make it. One of my uncles is a sailor so he's almost always out of the country and even when he is here (here being Cornwall) it's usually only for a few days at a time. A pit stop if you will. And my other uncle we only usually see for a day or two around Christmas. The last time they saw each other was about 7 years ago and as far as I remember was more of a coincidence that they were both in Cornwall at the same time than any planning.

A friend of mum's is coming over to take a picture of everyone together to mark the occasion...we felt it was needed, so I'll try and post that up tomorrow :)

M&S Story of the day:

Damson is considered (by some!) to be a slightly unusual name but it isn't actually my legal first name. That would be Jessica...I know, I know, that makes me Jessica Damson Tregaskis. It seems my parents decided to go completely insane with the last two names then try and cover it up with the first one (even though they've always called me Damson)! So I'm on the system at Marks as Jessica, however when I started last week they told me they'd ordered a Damson badge but they didn't have a Jessica badge for me to wear until it came so I had a choice between Jenny and Debbie. I chose Jenny. All the people I work with know I'm called either Damson or Jessica so there's a bunch of people who call me Jess and about an equal amount who call me Damson. My line-manager-person-thingy today called across the cafe as so:

"Jenny...er Jess sorry...no that's wrong Damson, I'm so sorry!"

Although I have noticed some people are calling me Tamsin. So I basically respond to anything these days. I'm thinking of trying to persuade them all to call me Bill or Egbert or something just for fun!

Cycling.

This is a very rant-y post and I might get a bit graphic later on. Apologies. (You have been warned!)

The women I work with at M&S are very nice. They are also more protective than my mother, father, all grandparents, aunties and uncles combined (I might have exaggerated a little-my aunties and uncles don't know where I work). Now obviously I'm a cyclist and so, I cycle the 7-or-so miles to work however I do take the slightly longer route that keeps me off the A-road and mainly on B-roads with cycle paths. I always have very powerful lights on the front and back and usually I'll wear a day-glow cycle jacket or a reflective builder's vest. If I have my rucksack with me it has a high visibility waterproof cover and another red light clipped to it. I like to think I'm a safe cyclist, I did my cycling proficiency in year 5 (when I was 9 or 10) and I've been cycling on busy main roads for several years and have learnt a few tips/tricks to help me on my way-my parents have also shown me some. But one thing that really peeves me off is when people tell me to wear a helmet.

At work today, two of the ladies asked me if I had lights, a reflective jacket and a helmet. I said yes to all but the last. Their response was to command me to wear a helmet to work on Thursday (my next shift) or else they would nag me. Now I appreciate their concern (I also appreciate the lifts people keep offering me-even though I try to explain that I cycle because I want to, not because I have to!) but I have roughly 4 reasons for not wearing a helmet and they go as follows (and I am aware that they don't always apply):

1. I believe the more efficient and competent a cyclist so appear to be to drivers, the less they take notice of you. If you cycle in a t-shirt and shorts, especially at my age, drivers are more likely to see you as a reckless teenager who might suddenly swerve or change direction so I think they pay more attention and keep more distance.
2. Wearing a helmet may make you feel more secure and therefore take more risks. OK this is a sketchy one. My theory is that even subconsciously, the process of wearing a helmet makes you slightly less wary of cars/vans/lorries and could potentially encourage you to take more risks.
3. You get a sweaty head. Who likes having a sweaty head, especially just before work? Need more be said?!
4. A helmet probably won't save your life. I couldn't think how to paraphrase this one so let me explain. Most fatalities from cycling accidents are going to be because of crush injuries to the torso and abdomen (probably from falling under a HUGE vehicle and dragged) or blunt force trauma from where something slams into the side/front/back of you. Now I'm going to guess that in either of those instances a helmet would indeed help a little, but the amount of damage that has been done to every other part of your body means that the helmet wearing would've been pretty insignificant (and you're probably already dead). I did try to google this earlier and to prove this theory correct was remarkably difficult...but it's OK, I have a theory for that as well! I reckon that statistics for head injuries are so high because...oh wait, I forgot! Whoops! (Leave me alone it's gone midnight and I'm tired).

Anhyhooo, before this turns into a tired Damson rambling, I don't wear a helmet, I probably never will and yes, if I die from a bike accident where I landed flat on my head I'll look like a numpty but I'm willing to make that risk. My dad has a book of cycling rules (by the Velominati) and rule 5 is: Harden the f@*$ up...and with that, I bid you a goodnight!

Follow up:

This is just to further my earlier post really.

After throwing away all the bakery items again today (although I think the sandwiches and everything that was packaged got sold at the staff waste sale, YAY) I did ask whether it was possible to take some of the items home with me instead of putting them in the bin. Apparently it's illegal. It would be classed as stealing. Really M&S? Really?

However on a good note, it only took me 35 minutes to cycle the 7 miles home! Which is an improvement on the 45 it took me last night. I think the wind was behind me tonight and I didn't have to stop to put my foot down at all. In fact the only time I had to come to a full stop was at one crossing and I managed to balance myself on the button box to avoid moving my feet because yes, I am that lazy that I deem it too much effort to put one foot down only to lift it up again.

As my mum cheerfully says: Life is effort...then you die.

And with that, I go to bed!

Waste

Just a quick note :)

I had my first 'proper' shift at M&S yesterday which went OK. They made me throw out around 10-15 boxed sandwiches that went out of date that day as well as everything on the bakery (something like 11 scones, 5 croissants, a few slices of lemon drizzle cake plus more I can't remember) oh and a packaged millionaires shortbread which looked delicious. It nearly made me cry. I spent the whole of last year living on that food and just to throw out so much edible goodness was almost too much. If it keeps happening though, I'm going to ask if I can keep it and I'll have it for my lunch, I can give some to my brothers for their school lunch and I'm sure we can feed some if it to my granny for her lunch as well!

In other news I'm exhausted! My legs ache continually from all the cycling and I got totally soaked yesterday. I still enjoy it, but I cannot wait until my muscles firm up a bit and stop being such wimps!

Working.

I have my induction at M&S tomorrow and Wednesday-all day, then I start working properly on Saturday.

Today  I went to meet a new family about 6 miles away from where I live. I met the child, a little girl just older than 1 who is adorable! I'm usually fairly nonplussed by babies/toddlers, I mean they're great but I prefer kids who you're able to talk to. This little girl is incredible though! She's so interested in everything and delightfully chirpy and quirky, working worth her is looking like it's going to be great fun. And they've already booked me in for a day!

I've done a fair bit of work on my bike which has resulted in me becoming fiercely attached to it. When I say I've done some work on it, it's nothing challenging or extreme but more than I would usually do. I changed the stem for a slightly shorter one (which meant re-taping one side of the handlebars) then I put on new tires and inner tubes (one of which split so I've had to redo it twice) and today-after dad had to pick me up from Chorlton cause I had a flat and didn't have a repair kit on me-I got new lights and a D-lock so I've fitted those on, all ready for tomorrow! I worked out I'll be cycling around 200km every 2 weeks YAYYYY! I really missed cycling when I was in SA, can you tell?

Hamamelis Mollis

My parents keep around 20 chickens, and so we sell the eggs to neighbours. One of our neighbours has a big Chinese Witch Hazel bush in their front garden that smells amazing and when we were kids, on the way to school, mum would always say: "Oooh, smell that hamamelis mollis!".

Earlier, mum asked me to take some eggs round to one of the houses and when neither of us could find an identifying feature (or remember the number), I asked "Hamamelis mollis?" and when she confirmed, I knew exactly which house!

I just asked my little brother to take the eggs round to the family, he asks which house, I reply hamamelis mollis, he goes OK, see you later!

Ook, ek het 'n nuwe fiets! Dit is baie blou en lekker.

Kernow

I've had a wonderful little holiday in Cornwall with my maternal grandparents. I didn't actually do much while I was there-just relaxed-sort of! I went to choir with my Nana and discovered that a choir who's members are of the slightly older generation like to sing: "I want gin and tonic now" down the scale as a warm up!

I was also reminded, yet again, how short I am-but in a good way! My ancestors were all Cornish miners and would have been quite short from working down the mines all their lives. We went to Wheal Martyn, a clay museum where you can walk around the old site, see the quarry and observe all the waterwheels (and what a lot there were!) but there was also a lovely little tunnel with "MIND YOUR HEAD" signs all round it...so me and Nana walked through it, stretched as tall as we could (albeit tentatively!), and we did not hit the roof once!

Talking of ancestors: My grandad took me on a very interesting trip to St Clements. But first, a bit of background. I have my mother's surname - Tregaskis, not my father's. My grandad has done a fair amount of name-tracing/family-tree-gathering to the extent that I reckon knows most of the Tregaskis' in England and most if not all of them going back at least 600 years! So one day when we'd dropped Nana off at her embroidery workshop, Grandad took me to a church in St Clements. In the entrance arch of said church, there where 3 headstones that had fallen over or cracked so were now pinned to the wall to help preserve them. One of them had the year 1795 and the name Betsy Tregaskis. She was 19 years old, same age as I am now. And when we went into the church, on the list of vicars we found one John Tregascour-1489! My Grandad thinks Tregaskis is a misspelling of Tregascour as one generation is listed as Tregascour and his son is listed as Tregaskis. If you say Tregascour's it does sound remarkably like Tregaskis!

We also popped into the Eden Project as they have lots of butterflies in the tropical biome - lots of BIG butterflies, that gently glide along because when you're that big, who needs to flap!? And while we were there we wandered into the Mediterranean biome where there is always a story teller . Now when I was at choir with Nana, one of the alto's in the front row had an amazing pair of patchwork trousers, so after the rehearsal, we wandered into Truro to see if we could find the shop she'd bought them from. Alas, it had shut down. But there was new hope with the story teller. He did not have patchwork trousers but a wonderful knee length patchwork waistcoat. Trousers are (according to my Nana) fiendishly difficult to make-what with all the measurements and what-not, but a waistcoat it simple. So I am in the process of making myself a patchwork waistcoat. So far I've sewn the main patches on and I'm filling it out a little. It already looks incredible!

In other news, I got myself a nice Cornish flag to take back to South Africa with me!

Dankie Driver!

I've been in Nottingham with Sarah for the last few days-it's the first time we've spoken without the aid of electronics. I'm so glad I have Sarah in England, She's the perfect person to compare notes with: for example, is she struggling to adjust back to having parents that nag? Yes, yes she is! Or making sure I'm not the only one who doesn't seem to connect to my friends any more. It's also great fun to chat about the differences and first-since-getting-backs i.e first time we went outside alone in the dark (we both felt a ridiculous concoction of terrified and paranoia!), or what children/volunteers we have seen since we got back, followed quickly with how long it took us to realise that it wasn't said child/volunteer!

We had a great time on the double-decker bus. Especially when the bus driver got lost! We could hear him downstairs shouting for directions-and so followed many jokes about having used his '50/50' (wrongly at the junction), he'd used his 'ask the audience' to get back on track so he'd have to save his 'phone a friend' for taking the bus back to the station!

All things exciting!

R.E the moving my blog to wix: I couldn't move the blog there so I made the website and embedded the blog into it. so you can see the website here.

And Marks and Sparks phoned me today to say I got the job-I was very surprised! They left a message for me but didn't say I got it, just to ring them back so I presumed they hadn't left bad new on my answer phone.

And for your daily dose of demented: I'm helping my mum make a poster for the school where she teaches music sometimes. We have around 20 chickens and we sell their eggs, so mum wants to make a poster to explain what people should do if they want to buy eggs and how it all works. One of the steps is to write the child's name on the egg box so we were thinking of the eggiest names we could. this is what we came up with. We are maybe a little bit too proud of ourselves!

Hehehe

Moving.

I know, I'm hopeless! But I'm currently in the process of moving my blog to a wix based domain-I can edit and change more things and make it more my own. As soon as it's up and running I'll put a link on here. I will leave this as it is though so anyone that checks irregularly will be left a nice trail to follow to make it to my new one :)

Notes on English Babysitting.

Tonight is the first night I've babysat for a family in England since I left for SA. I've done quite a lot of child-care work but it was either with very young kids or one child on their own. This evening, the older child called the younger child to come upstairs, stating that the younger had to go immediately but wouldn't say why. I had to stop myself from either calling the older child downstairs, or stopping the younger one from going up. It was a very weird sensation. In the house, I would have found out the reason for one child calling another upstairs before allowing it, not to be controlling, but to make sure that either they weren't going to be messing around and therefore getting in trouble with the CCW, but also, on a very extreme-I didn't expect this to happen but it's something you have to be prepared for and aware of-making sure there were no shenanigans going on.

So it was very odd to have that reaction for 2 totally healthy, non-abused, 'normal' children.



In more sane news, you can tell I've been doing a lot of cycling recently because all the freckles on the backs of my hands have made a sudden appearance!

Blackberrying.

We went blackberrying today on the Fallowfield loop. The Fallowfield loop is an old train track that has been covered over and made into a brilliant cycle route. It's about 6 or 7 miles long and you can go from Debdale to Chorlton and if you can find it again, you can go straight into Manchester and only having to navigate the smallest sections of road. When Mum cycled into Chorlton the other day she noticed loads of blackberries ripe for picking and seeing as we both weren't working today, I cycled down and Mum drove Granny and we picked as many as we could. Unfortunately a lot of people had got there before us on other days and there wasn't much to get where we could reach, but I thought if we had a ladder we could rest it on the brambles and reach the plentiful supply higher up. So mum drove back to the house to fetch the ladder! We got at least 3 yogurt pots full, maybe a little more and I only got stung by nettles 5 or 6 times and the brambles only ripped my legs a few times (for some reason, I seemed to think that shorts were a good idea for shimmying up ladders set in bramble patches). There was one slightly terrifying moment where I thought I was going to fall straight through the bush: The ladder was resting on the knotted bramble branches and the actual ground was at least a meter below what the rungs were resting on and all of a sudden without me moving things began cracking and splintering, so I tried my very hardest not to fall down to the bottom of the ladder in my haste to get off!

But needless to say we got a good haul, my hands were good and stained and several people commented on our idea of bringing a ladder!

UPDATE: There's quite a lot of graffiti on the bridges and such on the loop, but all of what we saw was greatly child-friendly! "Only people who are ---------- don't put their dogs on leads" was seen (the ---- was where someone had spray-painted over a swearword) along with "so and so is a muppet" no word of a lie! We were wondering if people deliberately tried to keep it child friendly or whether someone had gone along and edited it. I love the idea of a sinister, threatening looking teenager walking down with a can of paint "oh no, that's not right that. You can't be putting swear words on the wall in front of the little kids" and painting over them. Or maybe a parent sneaking down to protect their kid, making sure there's nothing that might ruin their innocence!

Trying very hard not to fall!

Proud...either of the ladder or the berries...

Lovely juicy fingers!

MASSIVE NEWS!

I have some really big news I can finally release!

As you probably know, I will be going back to the children's home in February. When I said goodbye to my children's social worker I asked about a crazy idea that had been forming in my head for a while. I asked on the wild hope that it would be allowed, but I wasn't expecting anything to come of it. I definitely didn't think she would say yes. It was beyond my wildest dreams that the director of the home would also agree and I would have permission to go ahead with my mad plans. But that all happened and here we are!

I will be bringing 6 children back to England with me!

I originally wanted to bring all 14 that are currently in the house back, but obviously it just isn't possible, instead we have picked 3 boys and 3 girls some of whom aren't currently in Stepping Stones, but probably will be by 2015. I can't give their names out and the children themselves don't even know yet so I have to stress: If you are currently at the home, or if you are going to the home, please do not talk about this to any of the children or child-care workers. I am doing everything in my power to raise enough money to bring the kids here, but it is a lot especially on top of what I have to raise to get myself back out and I don't want the children to hear about it from ANYONE until it is guaranteed that they will be coming. Otherwise it could just become another empty promise, and I won't let that happen.

I have emailed several newspapers and TV/Radio places to see if they can run a story because I think what I really need is publicity. I also plan on writing to as many airlines as I can to see if I can get any sort of discount or sponsorship from them, as the flights will be the most expensive thing. I might see if I can get a scheme running where people can sponsor a child, so you might be able to pay for the petrol for a child to go to Chester Zoo or something similar. Something like Kickstarter or RocketHub. Rewards may include meeting the kids (although I think that's a fairly long shot) or seeing video's-maybe video chat with them? Not sure, that's just a base idea at the moment.

For now though, I'm just focused entirely on getting the money for them to come back. If you would be interested in helping in any way, please don't hesitate to get in touch!

Up in the Air.

Currently I have 3 things floating about that I hope are going to be major money makers:

1. Selling my soul: I have offered to sell my soul to a family that I do a lot of child care work for so my hope is that they'll say yes and guarantee me £5000 and in return I will provide child care, cleaning, cooking, all sorts!
2. I also have an interview at Marks and Spencer for a job in one of their cafe's. It's mainly late nights which is fine, but it might put a blight on some of my babysitting although it would be a regular, fixed, paid job which is really what I need right now, so I hope I get it!
3. I dropped my C.V off at the local dry cleaners who are looking for weekend help. Mum heard from someone that the pay is fantastic there, but it would only be Saturdays and Sundays so quite limited in that sense.

URGENT MESSAGE!

Hi, This is the only way I can think of to be able to contact someone from the home so lets home it works!

Amanda, pretty please can you email me? My laptop died and I lost a load of photo's and I was hoping you could take some for me!

If any of the volunteers see this and they can contact her, please tell her to email me!

Baie dankie!

Taking a break from life.

I'm trying to sort my room out, throwing away clothes I don't/won't wear any more and taking pretty much everything off the walls. When I first got back it didn't feel like my room, not that the room had changed but that I had. I've out-grown my room! So I'm taking everything off the walls and shelves and making it more to suit me. But naturally, I've reached the point where I've pulled everything out of the drawers, spread it about a bit and now I've lost all momentum and I'm bored. I'm hoping if I type a post, by the time I've finished I'll have a bit more self will!

I've been seeing a few people every day, trying to keep the number per day as small as possible. I feel much better than I did on my first day back, but I frequently get bombarded with memories from the house or Home which floor me a bit sometimes if I'm not expecting them. I've found a lot of people seem to expect quite a lot from me very quickly. My next door neighbours sent a paper airplane over the hedge on Friday to ask if I would like to childmind for 3 hours the next day, so I sent one back saying yes please! But then when I was childminding for them another neighbour came round to tell me how dissapointed he was that he didn't have my number because he REALLY needed me to look after his 3 that day, and seeing as I wasn't working next week I would be spending the whole time childminding for them. I kindly told him I would give him my number as soon as I had one but that I don't think I'm free next week (all lies, I hope he doesn't read this!).

Another family I went to visit today wanted me to stay for an extra 2 or 3 hours so I could help with homework and piano practise and made sure they'd booked me for most of September. One one hand, I really like this family so I didn't mind so much, but I'm not sure I want to do child care work for this 6 months. I almost certainly will be because it's where all my connections are and it's what I know, but part of me just wants a break from kids. Mum suggested me selling my soul to a family though. A deal that the guaruntee me £5000 which is what I need to go back, and in return, I will be at their beck and call. I will babysit and childmind for them whenever they need it as well as cleaning, laundry etc. Hopefully they'll agree, because that would make me so happy!

Reverse Culture Shock.

OK. So I am back in England. After something like 30 hours of flying where Project Trust or someone else messed up on almost every stage of the journey. But I'm back.

Everything is very stange at the moment, I feel like a visitor or a guest in my house and it almost seems like the whole of the last year was a dream. Everybody seems to be really excited to see me or meet up or whatever and it all seems a little overwhelming, I'm trying to limit myself to only a few reunions a day otherwise I think I might go insane!

Seeing my little brothers again was a HUGE shock. Seth, the youngest one has grown an awful amount and his voice has dropped which is just terrifying. I have to keep telling him to shut up because my brain can't cope with this amount of change. The other brother, Nathan hasn't changed that much but he's grown a bit and he's going to a music festival soon. Yoh, it's crazy.

I still feel quite shell shocked at the moment and don't really feel like writing, but I'll try and put up lots of small things more often instead of fewer big posts.

England

I am back in England, I arrived yesterday. I'll try and do a proper post in the next few days when everything has settled down.

It was epic...but it fizzled out in my brain.

Sarah and I took her little girls to the aquarium today which was lovely! We had 6 kids under the age of 5 so it was a bit hectic at times but they had fun and we had fun so a great day was had by all.

So much has changed since I first arrived, I can hardly remember a time when I felt like I didn't know what to do or feel totally at home here. I can remember when I first started working in my house and whenever the CCW left for her break and I was all alone with the kids I couldn't handle it, there was too much chaos. However the other day I was alone in the house with 7 kids and I had nothing to do! All their homework was finished and some of them were playing quietly in one room and the rest were colouring or reading in another-I had everything under control, even when more kids came home from school I just had to ask them to go upstairs and get changed, wash their socks then come back down to eat and they did it!

And as for Afrikaans learning, I had 2 goals at the beginning of my year:

1. Understand what the kids pray for every Monday when the Church Tannie comes: COMPLETE!
2. Memorise their prayer before food: COMPLETE! 

Op my soeltjie sit ek nou, Met my handjies saam gevou, Liewe Jesus hoor my dank, Vir my voedsel en my drank. Amen.

And now for some pictures:

Most of the kids and all the volunteers got a pair of toms (as in the free pair that get donated to a needy child in a 3rd world country) and because they have to be suitable for use as school shoes they're plain black and look like the pumps we had to wear for P.E. So I made a few modifications.

How we get them.

A pair I decorated.

Mine and the kids toms all complete.

 

The End is Nigh.

I leave here on the 14th of August. I will be home on the 15th. Tomorrow is my last working day and I keep having little emotional moments when I realise that things I can do with ease now I used to be unable to do just a few months ago or when it occurs to me that I'll be waking my kids up for the last time in less than 12 hours and waving them off to school in about 13.

I'm going to be working on a long post-possibly in 2 parts about how things have changed in the last year. I'm thinking the first part I will post just before I leave, and the 2nd part hopefully will be up about a week after I get back and how things have changed at home (or how I've changed and notice it more at home). So keep your eyes peeled for that because it should be epic!

Less than 22 hours.

Ok, I've explained the shift system here plenty of times so regular readers should hopefully get it. If you don't, find one of the posts from September last year and there should be something in there.

This week is my last short week, it will be the last time I work Wednesday and Thursday. But I thought I would finish on a long week seeing as I will be here for the whole of next week. It turns out my manager has decided to be 'nice' and give me a week off, so actually, this is my last week of work. EVER. Or ever this year as I'm coming back. I had made a few basic plans with my CCW about what we were going to do for my last weekend-we were thinking of having a small party and some of them have pocket money they don't ever get to spend so I was thinking of taking them to the shops so they could buy themselves something.

ARGH SO LITTLE TIME!

I've decided not to buy them anything because (I don't have any money) I'm coming back, instead I was going to try and bring back some DVDs or videos for them. My Nana send me a Shaun the Sheep DVD near x-mas and I've only just remembered to show it to them. They LOVE it! We used to only watch a Bratz movie and Camp Rock (2 of the worst films ever made-especially if you have to watch them both twice a day every day) whereas now we watch Shaun the Sheep 3 times a day. So I'm going to try and get some more Shaun DVDs and some Wallace and Gromit movies for them. Maybe some Dr Who as well!

So little time...

I have around 3 weeks left here. Suddenly time is flying by, it seems like only last week that my room-mate left and we had 2 months to go. I can't say when I actually fly cause I don't want my parents to know but it's between the 11th and the 18th...so soon!

I'm not sure how I feel about going home. Miserable. I really love it here and I'm trying to think about it as if I were going on an extended holiday home. One of the things I've heard from so many volunteers is how much you don't realise you've changed and nobody else seems to. I've spent a year overseas working and (as cheesy as it sounds) learning, I've learnt so much here and on first thought I don't think I've changed that much but if I think properly I really have changed. But my friends in England have been at university for the year and they will have changed obviously but I think less so and in a less obvious way. The only person I can talk to properly about this year is Sarah (I am so thankful I have her, if I didn't I might go insane!) but she is going on so many holidays when she first gets back then she's off to uni as well!

I've also been thinking a lot about how I'm going to tell my kids. I'm planning on telling them frequently starting from next week so they're all used to the idea but I think it's going to be hard. I'm fairly certain they all know I'm leaving pretty soon because I've made sure not to hide it.

Leaving.

One of my closest friends (Anne) left today.

It is a sad sad day.

Kids-gotta love 'em!

I went to the gym earlier and when I came back I had the most amazing greeting I've ever experienced. But first the back story:

When I first arrived there was a boy in the house let's call him B. B is usually really nice, he can be a hassle to work with because he has a very strong personality and loves to be in charge so getting him to do something can sometimes take some imagination! But he reminds me of one of my little brothers a lot, he is very funny, playful and he will do something just to get a reaction out of people (my brother does this ALL the time). He's physically one of the older boys in the house at around 10 years, but he is 10 years old mentally as well which in my eyes makes him the most mature of them all. It takes a while to build up a relationship with him, but once you do he's amazing, so kind and sweet! Technically you shouldn't have a favourite child but it's hard and I definitely have kids I like much more than others-I reckon it's fine as long as you treat them all as equally as you can. But B is definitely my favourite! If I could take him home in my suitcase I definitely would :) Unfortunately for me, he's just been moved out of the house. I think I wrote on my blog about the reorganising of the girls houses where they put all the younger girls in one house and all the older ones in another, well they've now done that with the boys houses so all the under 14s are in houses 11 and 12, and the over 14s are in houses 3 and 4. And my little baby B has been moved out of Stepping Stones and into house 11. I miss his personality in the house but at least I won't have to make him cry when I leave (hopefully) as he's the one child I think that understands the most about how when the volunteers leave, they tend not to come back-not the case for me obviously.

Anyway,

 When I got back from the gym today, I walked through the back gate and I saw him playing on the field a fair way away. I wasn't sure if he'd seen me but I was going to go and say hello because I hadn't seen him for a few days and I wanted to see how he was doing. But after I'd walked a few steps, he flung his arms in the air and yelled DAAAMMMMMMMMSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNN and started legging it towards me! He ran right up to me and jumped into my arms and gave me a massive hug, before telling me all about the football game he was playing with one the other boys who is still in my house. He said he was playing as England and he was winning (YEAH!) and the other boy came up to me and told me he was playing as Belgium (the other boy was very close with my room-mate who worked in the house and who was from Belgium and when the 2 play footie, B usually picks England and the other boy picks Belgium!)

On Thursday (18th July) it is Mandela day and South Africans are encouraged to spend 67 minutes helping others, so I have to spend my break talking to 20 people who are coming to play with the babies for 67 minutes. I love the idea of encouraging people to help others-if only for a short time, but I'm not so keen on the idea of a bunch of people coming in to mess about with the kids for so little time, it just feels like we're using the kids but...there's not a lot I can do, especially as a foreigner, lets just hope we can blow them away and they'll want to volunteer here or offer some other kinds of service to the kids or the home on another occasion.

PICTURE (after) PARTY

So here are the 2 pictures I promised yesterday, enjoy!

Me and Anne performing for an event.

Me and Anne breaking down while singing because one of the volunteers had been waving her lighter in the air.

PICTURE PARTY!

So I haven't been posting anything interesting recently, mainly because I haven't been doing anything recently! I was trawling through all my pictures earlier trying to find some nice ones for someone's leaving book and I found some that could come up here. So here they are! It's just a random assortment dragged up from the dregs of my hard-drive

When we took the kids go-karting (one of only 2 pictures where you can't identify the kids).

The other picture!

Anne and me singing and drumming-being musical gods.

 There were some more, but my computer doesn't like them at the moment so I'll try and upload them another time.

Tomorrow, Anne and I are going to Spier wine farm in Stellenbosch for a picnic! It's about £10 each (R150) but there is so much salad and biltong pate and nice-ness in it that we couldn't resist! mmmmmmm fooooood!

Working Again!

Yet again I seem to be working the weekend the kids move back to their usual houses at the end of the holidays. It isn't so bad it's just dull, I don't have a CCW today because she's been given the day off-I only have 8 kids though, but it means I have to prepare the house for all the others coming home. I helped the Tannie make the beds in house 10 and in return she kept an eye on my kids so I didn't have to watch them and make the house nice. I have to make up 14 beds (sheets, duvet covers and pillow cases on etc.) and pack away the children's clothes they took to house 5 and pack away any washing that's come back from the laundry during the holidays. We have a new boy and new girl in the house so tomorrow we have to mark all their clothes with their initials and what house they live in (for the laundry) and one of the boys is moving out so all of his clothes have to be taken to his new house.

The rest of the kids won't come home until tomorrow afternoon-possibly evening, but there's always so much to do at the end of the holidays! Then it's back to school on Maandag.

Disturbing occurences.

We're still in the 3 week holiday. And we're still bored! We made ourselves a holiday plan for things we can do and what days we're going to do them.

Yesterday we didn't have anything on the plan so me and Sarah walked to the windmill, then onwards to explore Durbs. There was just a lot of very big, rich houses it was quite depressing but we did get some nice veiws over Durbanville. It was also the opening or rather re-opening night of Mr. Pickwicks. Mr. Pickwicks is a bar/cafe in Cape Town that makes the most AMAZING burgers and milkshakes. It used to be on Long Street, but recently closed down and moved to Green Market Square and it opened last night. It was a bit rubbish actually. The old Pickwicks was really dark inside and felt sort of cramped but in an english pub kind of way whereas the new one is very open and light and spacious and unfamiliar. They also didn't have half the things they offered but we think they were forced to open too early because it was the 3rd time they delayed their opening. We're going to go back in a week or so to see if it's any better. We then went to a club called Jo'Burg. I don't drink so I find going to clubs fairly boring, but there were a few other sober drivers there so it was better. One of the new volunteers had his phone stolen which he was very upset about. Some new smart phone that had a 1 year contract. BUT he took it to Long Street on a Friday night, took it out in a club to take pictures and had pockets that you could have put your head in without him noticing. Let that be a lesson to you all!

Then today we went to Neighbourgoods market in Woodstock-delicious as always. We found some amazing dairy free, sugar free chocolate that was just divine! It was kind of bitter, but it was so smoooooth! Words cannot describe, urgh, I'm dribbling just thinking about it. After the market we went back to Long Street, or rather Green Market where there is a, well, market. We had the intention of buying souvenirs for our family and friends and what-not (we is me, Sarah and Anne). I went with one thing in mind and for the others, I planned on browsing and seeing if anything suited what I could remember of my family and friends. But once I got there there was no inspiration. I can remember my brothers for example, but I've been gone for a whole year. They've changed. I don't really know them anymore. And all the items at the market are just 'stuff', junk that gets forgotten about and thrown away at some point. I'd much rather have my family come out and let me intoduce them to things and give them memories (as cheesy and cliched as it sounds). So in the end I didn't really buy anything! I still have an idea for something I want to buy but it's more a present for my house than my family.

After than I got to do some drumming on the street again. As you do!

Tomorrow we were going to go to arch mountain but we've changed our minds and are now planning to eat at Mama Africa-maybe I can have a corcodile steak!

A New One.

I'm so incredibly tired. At around 4am I was thinking how remarkably awake I was. Then by 4.30am I can barely keep my eyes open. But I cornered the volunteer who sleeps in this house when she woke up and she says the unknown kid that's fast asleep in room 4 is a new girl, an there's another girl arriving today. From what I've seen peeking out from under the covers, this new girl might well become one of mine...I should find out her name!

SURPRISE! You have night-shift!

The last 4 nights (tonight being the 4th) Sarah has had nightshift. But when I say Sarah, I sort of mean me! Sarah was supposed to do night shift on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night. Instead, I did night shift Sarturday, Sunday and Tuesday night. The weekend shift was arranged: I wanted to work nights in the holidays (we're now in 3 weeks of holiday) as I've been doing some form of dayshift since the summer (December) hols and I wanted a change. Although I mentioned this to the volunteer who organises the shifts, I had to be put on day shift for whatever reason, but my manager owed me a MASSIVE favour so she was persuaded to turn a blind eye to me and Sarah swapping shifts, she worked 2 of my day shifts on Sat and Sun and I worked 2 of her nightshifts-same nights. In theory that was then me off for 18 days cause I haven't taken a holiday this year and I think my hours are getting quite high! However Sarah is ill so I'm working her shift again-but I don't mind :)

I'm just gonna whack up some drivel I typed up on Saturday night:

So I'm doing another night-shift! Probably the last set of this year. I was supposed to be on day shift today and tomorrow but my manager owed me a massive favour for singing extra songs at our leaving party so I was allowed to swap with Sarah and do 2 night shifts instead (as long as it was OK with Sarah). So I'm sat on a corridor yet again. The holiday shifts this holiday are 12 hours each: so day shift is 7am until 7pm with a 1 hour break and night shift is 7pm til 7am with no break because well, you sit in the corridor for 12 hours watching films.

Because I started at 7pm instead of 9pm all the boys were well awake and technically the CCW finished when I came on shift. Luckily for me, the CCW wanted to watch the film so stayed until it was nearly finished, but I still had to put around 10 teenage boys to bed on my own. Before I came here my Mum told me she thought if anything would have me leave early it would be my inability to ask for help. I am notoriously stubborn and if I every need help, I hardly ever ask for it preferring to struggle on unaided. I know it's ridiculous but I find it very hard to admit when I'm struggling. Since I arrived here I've managed to null this trait to a minimum although only on a professional basis. When I'm working I no longer refuse to ask for help, if I'm confused about something I'll ask and if I'm struggling I'll let my CCW know so she can help me. I'm still totally stubborn in a social or personal setting but it's worked for 19 years so far!

The house I usually work in has children no older that 11 so there is no doubt as to who's in charge (not that it's necessarily me-it's almost always the CCW unless she's on her break, then I have minimal control) but working with the older children is a challenge for me. I strongly dislike working with the older girls, they're very (excuse my language) bitchy and can flip from totally calm to scary quicker than it takes to blink. In fact, just find my post about honey bees and teenage girls it will explain everything (I hope). When I have to work with the older girls I tend to just hope they're in a good mood and try not to anger them. Usually they go to bed on their own at a reasonable hour and if they get out of hand, you just pray you have an active shift leader. The boys is a totally different matter. Maybe it's because the older ones seem so much older, but whenever I've worked with them I usually get forced out of the picture and one of the oldest boys in the house will take charge and order everyone to bed when he feels it's time. It's very difficult for me to let one of the children take charge over me. Not because it doesn't work, because it does. Better that I could ever do it. But it seems so counter-intuitive to me. I'm supposed to be in charge of the kids. I'm the oldest, it's my job. But on the other hand, I'm only just 19, some of the kids are around the same age as me (one of the boys I'm looking after tonight is only 6 days younger than me). I'm also a short-arse. It's hard for me to admit (I have little dog syndrome-I think I'm much taller than I actually am) but I'm only about 162cm (I think) and most of the old older boys are taller than me which counts for a lot around here! 

Yoh! It's quite long.

But tonight I'm in the babies house...YAYYY! Although I arrived at about midnight (when Sarah came into our room and asked if I could cover her) and I seem to have an extra girl! 2 of my girls are here, as well as a sister of one of mine and another happy feet girl, but there's another one who seems to be roughly the same length as mine but I have absolutely no idea who it is...better than losing one though I guess. Unfortunately a lot of them seem to be ill-the littlest baby (a boy just under 2) has a pretty bad cough, as does one of mine. The baby boy woke up a while ago but went back to sleep pretty easily. The debate is still out as to which houses are best to do night-shift in. With the babies there is more to do throughout the night that breaks it up (especially if it's a 12 hour shift) such as nappy changes and the really young ones wake up occasionally. But with the older kids, you don't get to sit on your mattress in your corridor until much later which makes a huge difference because you're only having to entertain yourself for 8 hours instead of 10/12. I suppose tonight is the best shift then: I started at midnight and I have to change nappies/wake kids up. Woohoo!

Gap Yah's and Saving the World.

OK. First off, I don't have facebook-I wasted too much time on it! But I'm getting LOADS of hits from fb and I'm curious who put me up there? I have a feeling it might be next years PT group or something given as the hits from fb are from all round the UK. If anyone knows where the link is, please message me or comment so I can say thanks!

Right, down to business!

So me and another volunteer were sat in the kitchen talking about our expectations before we came out and how they've changed since we've been here. Now I'd had a years worth of experience working with kids before I flew and I think I was pretty realistic on what would be accomplished in a year and the changes I would be able to make. In short, basically none! One or two new volunteers have arrived recently and it interests me how much they see their role as wholly world changing.

Let me get a few things straight:

• You are a volunteer, this is good.
• You are probably going to an institution that has seen many volunteers pass through each year.
• It is highly likely that the kids older than 12 will ignore you.
• No-one will be gushing with emotions that you are there to 'save them'.
• You are a foreigner. You cannot change national ways of life to suit your own. Even if you disagree with them.
• You will have to work HARD to get respect.
• The vision you have in your head of Africa. You know, that desolate mud hut scene with a starving baby gazing deep into the camera, telling you (with his/her eyes) that just £2 a month could feed a family or build a well or whatever...That's TV. It's an advert designed to part you and your money.
• You won't be working with solely black kids. I once heard there are only 5 black kids in my home. The rest are coloured or white. Kids from all ethnicity's can be abused.

You're gonna come out here as a volunteer, which don't get me wrong is great, but you're only here for a year. You have to scale down what you think you can achieve in so little time. And somethings you can't change even if you 'know' your way is better. In South Africa, they like to make things sweet. We find banana in the baked beans, pineapple in our potato salad and a lot of vegetables get cooked with sugar or cinnamon to make them sweeter. You may think of this a totally unhealthy and you might not enjoy the taste but that's because you weren't brought up with those tastes and habits. My kids won't eat pumpkin or sweet potato unless it is literally drowning in sugar. The kitchen cook it in cinnamon then the Tannie pours at least one dessert spoon full of sugar over it.

The home I'm at has an unusual amount of volunteers, around 30 at one given time. And those volunteers are always changing so every academic year there are maybe 50 or more volunteers that pass through. The scheme here has been running for 6 years I think, so the kids have seen hundreds of foreign teenagers come and go. Imagine how that must feel for them, especially if they've become close friends with an old volunteer. The younger kids will probably see you as a new plaything, but the older kids will ignore you at best. At worst, they will try to break you. It's fun for them, like when kids in school tried to make the supply teacher cry, they will do the same to you. If you show them a weakness and they don't like you...well...just try not to break :) Some of the kids might even be older than you. Try asking/telling someone to do something when you are shorter, younger and newer than them. It's also their home. They were here before you and will be here when you leave. They have to be here. You don't. It's hard. 

But if you work hard, show you're worth it and don't mess about you'll be fine! :)

Yet more sickness!

I haven't written for so long, I'm so sorry! I don't even have a good excuse other than laziness!

So what's been happening? Nothing actually! My hand looks much better, it turns out it's much deeper than I first thought and it's going to scar like nothing else but it didn't get infected and (surprise, surprise) I don't have HIV or Hepatitis. But I am sick AGAIN.

Just before Sarah left for her holiday (end of May-she doesn't get back til the 19th of JUNE...I'm so lonely) I had the beginnings of a cough that felt like it could get quite nasty. Most of the children in my house have had a cough that's lasted from 2 weeks to about a month so I just presumed it was that. Last week was my short week so I had Friday, Saturday and Sunday off (although I had to help in the office on Friday). On Friday I didn't feel so brilliant: my lungs felt sore and my cough seemed more persistent but I ignored it thinking it was just getting worse before it got better, plus I had 2 days to sleep it off before I had to work again. However on Saturday I was having trouble taking a proper breath, not to the extent that I couldn't breathe but I couldn't take a big enough breath to cough properly with out my lungs feeling like they were on fire and normal breathing made my lungs ache. I vowed to wait until the next day (Sunday) to see if it had gotten better or worse before I went to the medi-clinic. I did do a quick bit of googling to see what it might be and once I'd ignored all the diagnoses of lung cancer the most probable thing it came up with was Bronchitis, which apparently they just run a whole lot of tests including a chest x-ray but they can't give you medication cause it isn't bacterial so you just have to wait for it to clear.

On Sunday, I woke up to find my breathing much easier and less painful. I went to the kitchen to wait for the girl who had offered to potentially drive me to the medi-clinic and let her know I didn't need to go anymore. I still didn't feel 100%, I felt quite dizzy and spaced out and I had a bit of a headache. When I coughed it felt like my head might explode. I went back to bed and slept for a few more hours. When I woke up again my head was KILLING me. It was so painful! It was manageable if I lay still but the minute I moved it felt like someone was drilling into my skull and pulling my brains out. I promised myself and my room-mate I would go to the medi-clinic in the morning and I texted the volunteer-manager's-assistant-who-is-a-volunteer-himself to let him know I wouldn't be able to working the next day.

Monday I woke up and felt much better! Again! I have a slight headache still, my cough is ever present and when I cough my head still feels like my skull is cracking into a million billion pieces and if I take too deep of a breath it hurts and makes me cough more but I definitely feel more alive than dead!

I feel I should explain why I didn't go to the medi-clinic throughout all of this. Money. I have health insurance or medical aide as it's called here. Project Trust organised it. Now I have nothing against PT, they did the job of getting me out here perfectly-it was somewhat expensive, but I would never have found this place without them, so for that I am grateful. But I'm fairly sure all the volunteers are told before the training that we don't have to worry about paying for medical bills. Because PT is an organisation and they buy(?) the medical aide as such there is a very high excess fee/charge. Now as I'm sure most people know insurance prices goes up the more you claim, so if you get burgled every week, your house insurance would be phenomenally high. Same goes with our medical aide only it doesn't go on us as an individual, it goes for all PT volunteers. Basically we have to rack up £250 for medical bills before we can claim back anything. According to google £250 is R3960.30!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't even know how many times I would have to get Tonsillitis before I hit that limit. I think I would have to be airlifted home before I would be able to claim anything back. When you go to the doctors, there is a basic R500 charge just for seeing someone. Then it's around +R200 for antibiotics and prescription grade painkillers thankfully are +R20. So every time I go to the doctors it costs me R700-R800 depending on what drugs I need. *quickly consults google* that's like £50. I personally think PT should pay any medical costs that aren't covered by the medical aide-apart from injuries sustained from bungee jumping or sky-diving or something, obviously.

So lets end this on a vaguely helpful note: I know there are 2 PT volunteers following this blog and possibly more that are reading sporadically, so to any future PT vols, consider raising extra money and designate it specifically to any medical bills you might have to pay. You might get lucky and not have to go to the doctors at all in your year in which case you have funds for when you get back. But if you need any medical treatment at all, you'll probably be glad for it. I don't usually get sick in England, at most I get a cold once or twice a year, but I've had tonsillitis 3 times in the last 4/5 months and whatever this recent thing was. Sarah got foot and mouth, impetigo and countless other things, she's had to go to the hospital more than 5 times and she's still not hit the limit. This applies to any country as well, not just SA. Also, you'll probably be working with kids. Maybe live with them as well. Nobodies immune system is ninja enough to hold of 150 kids and 30 volunteers from around the globe for a whole year. No one.

Things what do bite.

Written yesterday at about 8pm


So today I got bitten again by a child. The first time happened before Christmas and was when a child didn't want to go downstairs and when I tried to carry her, she bit me. It was quite hard and my arm swelled up and went a little blue and hard but it was fine after a week or so. This time was tonight-about 30 minutes ago! One of the most difficult children was refusing to go to bed, usually this wouldn't have been such a big deal but she was trying to go into the boys bathroom then took to hiding in the boys bedrooms under their beds (bathrooms and bedrooms are stricktly off limits to the opposite sex). When we finally got her out from under a bed, she ran straight to the girls bathrooms and barricaded herself into one of the cubicles. The other child-care worker had mentioned to me that technically we aren't allowed to physically restrain the children unless we've been through the training for it-which I haven't. But this CCW told me to sit on the floor of the bathroom with the girl and hold her there at least until we had the other children in bed. I held her as lightly as I could, only tightening my grip when she struggled. I was holding her wrists in each hand and I had one leg draped over her legs to stop her trying to kick me. She was spitting on me and occasionally biting me but not with much conviction, just testing the water I think to see if I would let go. All of a sudden she grabbed my hand with her mouth and chomped down hard. Some of these kids get unnaturally strong when they're angry and boy was she biting hard. She pulled my skin with her teeth until my skin broke and I started bleeding.

Now broken skin from a bite means one horrible, horrible thing...I have to go to the doctors tomorrow :'( I'm fairly certain the child doesn't have HIV or Hepatitis (it is remarkably difficult-near impossible to catch HIV from a bite though), I still have to go just to make sure it's OK. I also have to write a report.

The best bit was when the other girls saw it, they kept asking me if I cried and when I said no, one of them asked if I cried in my head! One of them then kissed my watch to make me feel better. It's a pity the girl that bit me had covered the watch with spit and I was on my way to clean it off!

This is what it looks like today/now :)

PICTURES!

As promised, here are the pictures from the open gardens event on Sunday. They were taken on my mum's iphone so they're not brilliant quality but hey!

A Flower on (as my mum calls it) Tequila Terrace-My dad calls it Porridge Patio.

"It took me 3 mornings to get the Euphonium working after winter"

 (Email from my Mum)

My cousin Ben making CHOCOLATE! The kid's a genius!

My family amazes me at what they can produce!

CAKE!

Yesterday my parents opened up our garden for the local rotary club's annual fundraiser or something. We did it last year and raised around £700 total from the cake and tea sales alone. I wasn't expecting to raise as much this year because I wasn't there to help and tell people about what I was doing (not that my parents are completely incompetant). However this year I was able to send pictures and video's of me and the kids to use and it was the second year of the open gardens event. All in all, I was expecting to raise maybe £500. At a push, I was thinking £500 would be a good amount. If I raised £700 again, that would be wonderful.


My wonderful amazing parents clearly pulled out all the charm and cake they owned though. They managed to make me a whopping £1000!!!!! I've just spent at least 5 minutes sat in the kitchen unable to say anything other than the word CAKE! In an abnormally high, squeaky voice!

Hopefully my parents can send me some more pictures later but here's the one I have now of folk enjoying the day, thanks to everyone who went and donated money, you've just made my day!

Tonsillitis.

So the first time I got tonsillitis I wanted to post a picture of the pills I have to take for it because they're so damn massive. The first time, I was barely able to swallow them cause my tonsils were so swollen. But I forgot to take a picture.

The 2nd time I got it I also forgot to take a picture, or rather I remembered just after downing my last dose. But 3rd time's a charm so here you are!

3 Times, 4 Months.

I have tonsillitis again. YAYYYY! For the 3rd time in 4 months. I'd never had it in England before and now I can't seem to get rid of it! My boss was pretty angry at me though because I refuse to take any holiday and when she forces it upon me, I work anyway: last week she gave me the week off-although I was only supposed to be working Wednesday and Thursday, but on Wednesday I spent most of my day at the Beiber concert. Then Thursday I went to Stellenbosch with the kids because there was a golf day fundraiser there and we'd been asked to drum and on Friday was the home's annual fundraiser ball for which I also had to drum. Then the week I'm supposed to work, I get sick. I can see her point, I just can't help when I get sick though!

The timing is spectacularly bad though as me and Evlien had planned to take the kids on a suprise outing on Saturday. We have been planning it for nearly 6 months now and I will be so devastated if I can't go with them and some other volunteer gets to go, but my boss has said if I stay in bed for the next 3 days like I'm supposed to and I'm feeling better I can go with :) I think the conversation went a little something like this:

Her: You understand what I'm saying though, we gave you the whole of last week off to rest and get back to 100% but you did lots of extra things. You're a great volunteer but you have to rest when we give you time off otherwise you're going to keep getting sick.
Me: Sooo...does this mean I'm not allowed to work on Sarturday? *really hopeful, slightly ashamed smile*

I then went to my CCW to apologise for being off work and to let her know I would arrange some cover for myself for tomorrow, only to be caught by my boss when I was on my way back. And now I'm in bed, bored already.

GAHHHHH

Suprise!

Right. This is a bit of a long story. And an unusual one. Also, I'm zonked so this may not read very well.

Anyway...

Last week my manager came and asked me if I wanted to go on an outing with the older girls on Wednesday (yesterday). I said I would, but I was working-kids/work come first so if there's an outing and you're working 9/10 times you can't go. That was all I was told. An outing. On Friday, my manager came and spoke to me, Evlien and Sarah in our room to say that it had been an elimination process and anyone that had ummed and ahhed had been voted out so to speak. However she wanted us to go so unless we had said no straight away we were all going. We were told to be in her office at 2.30 on Wednesday and to be wearing takkies (trainers) jeans, a red, pink or white top and a warm jacket. We weren't allowed to have bags with us and to only take the bare minimum. We still knew nothing.

Because I knew I wasn't going to be working Wedesday afternoon, I let my Child Care Worker-Amanda-know so that she could prepare for not having me there. On Monday it was a childs birthday and I took another one to Clicks (see two posts previous) so I popped into the house to say hello. Amanda told me she'd seen a note in the Cokus (morning meeting for the CCW's) book about us filming/shooting an advert with the girls. I was pretty excited, it sounded like fun!

On Tuesday I went for an AWSOME picnic under a windmill with Anne (you pronounce the 'e' as an 'eh' sound for any non-germans!) because Sarah and Evlien had gone on a road trip to wild spirit. After our awesome picnic we went to the annex to do that amazingly sociable thing teenagers do which is sitting in 1 room with a laptop each and showing each other funny or strange videos. Some other volunteers came in who I knew were taking part in the outing, so we crept outside to discuss what we knew. We weren't allowed to talk to any volunteers that we knew weren't going though. Some bright spark had realised that Justin Beiber was performing (with his circus) at Cape Town Stadium and had got it into their head (and others) that we were going to see him. I thought this a fairly rediculous notion. There are something like +24 kids in House 1 and 2 as well as 7/8 volunteers and however many staff members. There was no way the Home could afford it.

In the end Sarah and Evlien couldn't come because they couldn't get back from their road trip in time.

The rest of us met in the office at 2.30. We were given some leaflets on HIV to read and Gender Based Violence. The assistant mentioned something about Desmond Tutu giving a speech. We were all given up to 3 children that we would be responsible for. We went to the activity hall to meet up with the girls and there was a radio station there. 94.5 Kfm said they were using us to film and record an advert for them. They would have us on a bus as if we were on a school trip and the radio would be on and we would have to pretend to be having a mini party on said bus. There were goody bags on the seats but we weren't allowed to look in them until they said. We all got on the bus and found seats, and were told to shut up so they could quickly do a sound check. The video is what they filmed. Watch the video then read on :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgyFseDCBHw



So we were actually going to a Beiber concert. Now I'll admit, I don't like Justin Beiber I think he's an egotistical fool and if I'd know we were going to a concert of his, I probably would have said no. But it was too late, we were on the bus, I was trapped! But in the end I really enjoyed it. The girls were so excited and happy it was an honour to share that with them. We were very close to the stage, they'd spared no expense on the tickets, we were in the first block, if you tried to go further forward you would have been on stage. He was late coming on-or at least he took his time: it said it started at 7.30, the support acts were over by about 7.30 and he didn't come on until 8.40ish. Some of the younger ones (some of the under 14's had been allowed to come) were falling asleep on the pile of coats we had and the adults were beginnig to discuss how late we would wait until we had to take them home as some of them had school the next day. All of a sudden all the lights on the stage went from off, to bright white and they all flashed up. Kids that had been asleep were awake and upright in miliseconds. I've never seen anbody become so alert so quickly! From 8.30 until it ended at 10.30, I had to girls alternating who was sitting on my back or shoulders so they could see. One girl is 12 and the other 13. Now they're both shorter than average but they did weigh enough! And they were so excited I nearly fell over several times because they were bouncing around so much! Another bonus was watching the social workers and my manager who I'd only seen in a professional setting before, dancing and jumping around like 10 year old girls, almost as excited as their charges! It was very funny!

So all in all, I had a very nice night, even if I would have chosen a different performer!

Much thanks to 94.5Kfm for organising it, and to the Home for letting some volunteers go and be a part of that with the girls. They've never been to something like that before and will (almost certainly) never get to be that close again if they manage to get tickets to something like that. It was a real treat!