Moving house- hooray

View from Hands Village
Originally uploaded by Heart 4 Orphans

I'm moving into a house where I am house-sitting for 3 weeks. I am sooooo excited to get away from the housing where I am now. I have a room to my own but walk outside to get to the shared bathrooms, and shared kitchen. There are lots of short team people coming and going regularly that also live in the rooms adjoining mine and being older than them and not being extroverted that lifestyle is 'old' now.
The couple who asked me to house sit is away teaching for the school holidays in Kenya, and need someone to watch the house and dogs, Lalie and Gruffy and cat, Spokie. It's a large house and very quiet. I love it.
My shoulder is very sore from moving all my boxes. Ouch.
I will miss this gorgeous view from my place now. Here's some pics from the sunrise this morning.

Eating Fried Caterpillars

Eating Fried Caterpillar
Originally uploaded by Heart 4 Orphans

They actually tasted very meaty, they were hard to chew but certainly not disgusting. They're called Mopani Worms here but are actually caterpillars.

I'm Normal

Well, you all know that I'm not really normal. If I was I wouldn't be here - giggle.

But my thyroid blood test did turn out normal. That's good news, and it only took 2 hours at the outpatient department of the hosptial today to get the results. Only 2 lines today instead of 7.

waiting WHOLE day for a blood test

I spent the WHOLE day today at the hospital in line for a thyroid blood test. EIGHT- 8 - hours.

I arrived at about 7:45, waited in one line to get told to wait in another line to get admitted to the hospital. None of these 'lines' are easy to find, and there aren't really direction or adequate signage. Then went to another waiting room where I had to wait to get called, then wait to get my blood pressure checked, then wait for the blood test...

...nope I'm not done. Then get told I have to see the doctor first, then wait for the doctor, then wait for the TWO MINUTE blood test. Then it was 4 and the Outpatient department was closing down.

The good side of it is that I got to see what it was like for the average person who needs cheap medical care. I wasn't really feeling sick, that would have been miserable, I was just wanting to make sure my thyroid wasn't acting up again. I met some neat people, two of whom had birthdays that day. One had a broken foot and the other, her hospital file was lost. They had no where to go for lunch so when they announced they were shutting down for lunch (1-2) I went out and bought some sandwiches and snacks to share around.

Very interesting day. The bad side it was a whole day, and I could have done many other things with my time. It only cost me $3 for blood test and doc appt, so the prices can't be beat.

Striped Pajamas

'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas' is an amazing movie. I sobbed afterwards. It makes me so sad to see how we as humans hurt each other so much, but start out so innocently and so able to love. I wish I could do more to help ease the suffering of the world.

Everyone drinks lots of tea here, all my herbals teas make the tea drinking more interesting. Hot drink is nice in the colder weather. We have a vacation day today so I'm going to the hospital to get a blood test to make sure my thyroid isn't causing me any troubles again. I don't think it is, but feel like I should get it checked out regularly.

Separation

This separation from Matt is much harder than I imagined. Saturdays are the worst as I don't have other scheduled activities. I'm surprised at how much I think of him. We talk most every day, but today got to skype for free for a few hours - that's a blessing.

Little Seeds

I met with Heather Drury today. She and her husband are just retiring from being in Africa for 22 years and started a program called 'Little Seeds' which provides certified training for pre-school/kindergarten teachers. They create their own training materials, provide 5 levels of training as well as course in psycho-social/emotional needs of children. They are short staffed and desperate for help.

I wonder if I wouldn't fit in better with 'Little Seeds' rather than Hands at Work? That's a big switch and a big decision. I visited their offices today and had a few good conversations.

Check out: www.littleseeds.co.za

Now it's winter

Watched 'Jock of the Bushveld' movie which is based on a true story which takes place right on the next property over which is a farm. There is a statue there of the dog who is the famous 'Jock'. If you watched it you could see exactly what the flora and fauna is like around here.

Still trying to figure out how I fit in here at Hands at Work. It's just not working out as naturally as I thought it would.

I think it's officially winter now. It's really cold today, probably could have pulled out my winter coat, but didn't realize it would be that cold. Two days of cold cold cold now.

Bored & Sad & Frustrated

Reading over a training document I downloaded from the internet to get ideas for the document we are working on. Each session is the same pattern over and over. 1) Introduce topic 2) Ask participants what they know about the topic and write it on large chart paper 3) Fill in anything from this list if it hasn't been brought up. Over and over.

It makes me 1) bored, 2) sad that this is representative of what is out there for people who want to help the emotional needs of children, 3) frustrated that someone would do all that work to create a training manual but just copy and paste from each session to the next session and change the topic. I can tell it's copied because the same sentence with a mistake in it is in each session.

Climbed a Tree - Wheee

Interesting church service at a large church.

Went for a long walk around and around the perimeter of the Hands at Work property. Since the property is on a hill it provides a beautiful view too. I thought it would be an even better view from a tree, so climbed a tree. I used to do that all the time when I was young. The result was a small scratch on my cheek from some brambles and some fun pictures. A highlight was seeing two monkeys scampering around, they even found their way over the high electrocuted fence which keeps the property protected (except from monkeys).

Frog hopped around in my shower today. Giggle. It shower in shared bathrooms which are in a separate building from my room.

Jackie's Birthday

Jackie's Birthday
Originally uploaded by Heart 4 Orphans

Today is Jackie's Birthday. She kept it a secret until the last minute so I took her out for dinner and a group joined us and then returned to celebrate with this Applesauce Cake with a J on it in chocolate chips. Isn't she beautiful?

a lot

I'm surprised at how many resources there are on the internet about OVC, orphans and vulnerable children. More than I would have thought. Whether they're useful or not, I don't know.

I may have also caught a virus, not sure if it's my laptop or the website. I'll need to work on this.

AIDS Clinic Director

I enjoyed a conversation with the Doctor who is the director of the AIDS 'ACTS Clinic' that is our neighbor here. Shared with her about my questions about how I fit in at Hands at Work, and she was encouraging and although doesn't have any specific guidance she let me know about some friends involved in some education ministry, so I called them and will meet with them next week.

http://www.actsclinic.com/

Struggling

Finished the t-shirt project I've been working on, they are now getting printed, and all I need to do is pick them up in 2 weeks.

Thanks to David and Marilyn for the great conversation this morning. I'm still struggling with my place here at Hands at Work.

Finished reading the second book in the "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series that my Mom gave me for my birthday AND paid to mail to me :) It's great. You should read it. I started book 3 now.

Feeling Useful

Purchased t-shirts for hours today from all different stores. After getting a good mixture then I'll take them to the printer and get 4 different styles printed on them, then they will sell them here and they'll be a good fund-raiser and PR project. I'm just doing the leg work of purchasing, pick up and drop off, but it's good to feel useful.

Huge Prayer Request

I have a huge prayer request that I can't make public, but I really need prayer for. Please pray.