Cradle of Life Animal Rehabilitation Centre!

Sometimes when it rains, it pours! And boy did it rain last night!  It  chucked it down for the whole night and we awoke to the most miserable weather ever! Also, I slept in because I spent half the night up thinking we were being robbed. Turns out it was just the black cat coming in from the rain......And there was me making escape battle plans and everything.

I needed to get a tetanus shot today for when I got savaged by the fence. So, on the way to our day out, we passed through Machadodorp, which is quite frankly, the worst town ever. It was so miserable, it kind of reminded me of what a zombie town would look like in the movies where everything is dead and abandoned. The first clinic we visited apparently wouldn't be helping whites any time soon, plus, I don't think I trust a place that has a box of free condoms on the counter in what they call a 'condotainer'. The next place was a hair salon/health centre. Only in South Africa can you have your hair done while you wait to die :p The nurse was very nice though and she got to us fast. I am proud to say I didn't cry like i did when the antiseptic was put on. Although she did say she was using a needle made for babies. I probably looked like I might freak out. Good job we found her, coz if not, Aly would have had to have given me the shot herself with one of the massive cow needles. Now that would have been an experience...

Moi in the erm 'health centre, hair salon'

Being so brave haha

Anyway, as this was the last day of our holidays before school tomorrow, we decided to get off the farm and go out to Badplaas Cradle of Life Animal Rehabilitation centre. It was stunningly built. We saw all sorts of animals such as tigers, lions, pumas, hyenas etc but we both agreed, seeing animals from behind a fence is kind of sad. They should be running free and wild. And plus, animals that they had breeding like the wolf and tiger arent even indigenous to Africa! But, apart from that, seeing the animals was amazing, The tigers were huge! And our tour guide Jackie was really great. Anyway, apologies for the appalling writing tonight. The O,P,L, back space and enter button no longer work on my laptop so i a having to use Alys plug in keyboard. My poor laptop.

 Look at that face!

 This was the biggest cuddle pot ever!

 SEE! IT IS REAL! THE MONGOOSE IS TRYING TO GET ME! OK, so it is a banded mongoose, but close enough...

 Funny Giraffe

 Tiger!

 Baby tiger 

Lekker Slaap everyone! School starts tomorrow and I need to sleep before the week begins again. Back to the old routine :) xxxx

"Anywhere you go, always take the weather with you"

Well, the drama didn't end last night. The fire raged on up the mountain. Me and Aly headed out to check on the maid, Sophie's house. We got there to find a dog chained up about to be burnt to death by a tree. He was so skinny and covered in ticks. I removed the little blood suckers and we let him loose. It was so unbelievably heartbreaking to see such a loveable dog in such a way. I just wanted to take him home and feed him up. But I just keep thinking, what if we hadn't gone out? what if we had stayed here and not bothered? Would he have burnt to death? Being here, on Aly's farm, where the animals are treated like royalty, it is easy to forget how badly other animals can be cared for, or not cared for in this case. I am just thankful we were at least able to save him for a terrible end.

 I most certainly don't feel at all homesick today. The English weather has followed me and it is BAIE KOUD! This has been a day of quickly getting all our jobs done as fast as possible so we can be inside drinking hot coffee and watching movies. I never used to appreciate films much back home, I would put one on every night and barely even pay attention to it as I simultaneously browsed Facebook, but here, we work pretty hard most days, so even getting time to watch a film is kind of a treat. Man, I sound like my Ouma/Gran, next I will be saying things like kids have it easy these days and I'll start every sentence with "back when I was young....". Speaking of my Gran, I just want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her ! I am sad I am not there, and I love you sooooo much, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been able to come here to the farm. I promise, swear on my life Gran, that you are going in the best old folks home when you are passed it :p

 Cloudy, overcast day! 

 Me and Baby snuggling up in the cold.

Cold day cuddles <3

School is all ready for the kids to come back in on Tuesday, we have organised EVERYTHING. It will break my heart when the little snot gobblers mess it up within five seconds, but never mind, hopefully my OCD tendencies for neat piles wont overcome me and make me beat them up the moment they touch anything haha. At least little Sara loves cleaning, I can always commandeer her to help me put it all back together.

 MJ helping me in the kitchen

MJ: The freshest produce there is!

I am attempting the impossible at the moment. I am trying to learn a new language, Afrikaans.I thought I would break with English tradition of being as lazy as possible with languages, and actually give it a shot. So, now in my spare time I am learning phrases to say and the words for things. Unfortunately,  I have the language ability of a deaf mute, the pronunciation elegance of a baboon, and the memory of a day fly. I struggle to remember ANY helpful phrases, but of course I can remember ALL the Afrikaans swear words like it were my own. Maybe this is a sign that I just need to be more aggressive in my learning and come across as really angry.

The only good thing about today is that it made running and cycling easy, instead of the mind numbing heat we usually have, What was not good was me singing along to the Disney soundtrack of Beauty and the Beast at the top of my lungs and bumping into a load of farm workers.....I can only imagine what they were saying was "stupid white girl". Anyhoooo, today is the last day of our "holiday", me and Aly are planning on getting off the farm for a day and going for a day trip somewhere. So Lekker Slaap everyone!

Since this was such a miserable day, here is a picture of a cute goat. Coz cute goats make everything better !

x

Fires and Fence Attacks

Well, today has not been a good day. It is the end of the month pay day weekend, so that always seems to spell chaos, mainly because every farm worker from here to Zimbabwe is completely pissed. The day started off so well, but went badly wrong when I tried to hold Caste the goat so that her baby Mia could drink. For some reason Caste will let the boy baby goat Zecko drink but not Mia, so we have to hold her. So off I went to try and do this on my own. Little did I know how strong that damn goat is. I reached out to steady myself when I lost footing and my hand slammed down on the barbed fencing. Feeling the wire puncture the muscle made me feel sick. I just wandered up to Aly and went "Aly,this happened". I screamed like a little girl when she tried to clean it with antiseptic. And it was not my proudest moment either when Aly had to tell the two young girls, LaLa and Zeta, who had come for a trail ride, to hold down her 23 year old volunteer as I screeched and squirmed.

My punctured hand. 

The barbed wire I sliced into......elegant as always

Bandaged up for riding. Let it never be said that I dont let the show go on!

The trail ride went off without a hitch and I saw another baby calf to make up for the one I didn't get to photograph yesterday.

Luckily, we got back from the ride before we got a call saying that had a fire had been started, most likely by someone drunk or doing it for fun. This weekend is the most dangerous of the entire year, marked on all the farmers calendars. It is the driest month there is, and if you mix alcohol with it, then you have trouble. The fire raged all through the forest in which we ride and came right up to the guest cottages. The heat was insane, and it spread so fast. At one point we thought the fire had jumped the road into the horses field but thankfully it didn't. A neighbor of Alys, called Johan had been out fighting fires since 2am this morning, and from the sound of things, he is still at it now. Absolute madness! Thankfully no animals we burnt, well, domestic animals anyway, as far as the birds of prey were concerned, today was their personal braai day, feasting off the burnt animals who couldnt escape fast enough.....

Rosie the Fire Watcher

Looking like a nucleur bomb in the forest....

Hopefully the rain will come and no more fires. Long stressful day! 

Lekker Slaap

x

Murphy's Law

Well, what a day not to have a camera with me! During a beautiful ride on Mr Bones in the mountains where I could see all of the gorgeous red cliff faces, I encountered a new born baby calf. It was sooooo cute! It was like Bambi on little spindly legs ! So adorable! Thats one of the best things about living here. The nature is friggen awesome. Every morning I have my coffee on the veranda, watching the sun come up and watch the weaver birds above the dam making their nests. And on top of that, we have Angel our Rebuck wandering around as well. I need to get more pictures of these things because it is amazing.

I spent the day enjoying the sun at the minute as the weekend is bringing a very cold snap with lows of 7 degrees! I will freeze! School is also in the middle of a makeover, we have a new fencing area for the kids to have their lunch, and Aly picked up some pavement slabs, so by Tuesday it should look loovvvvely! The inside of school is absolute chaos, so today me and Aly went through puzzles to make sure all the pieces were there and hadn't been lost or half chewed off. I have to say, I am not a bright girl. I spent a good hour actually making the puzzles to check them, when I suddenly realised I could just count the pieces.....So, I am clever enough to be a very bright six year old, but not quite smart enough as an adult haha.

On the news of our lost volunteer Jodie, thankfully, an old volunteer of Alys called Donna has agreed to come earlier to help us out, and fingers crossed she should be here by the 7th October. Hopefully I can manage the kids for four days on my own and I can return all of them at the end of the week to their parents alive and not missing any limbs or essential organs. I am actually really missing the kids. Anyone who knows me back home, knows me as the child hating woman. It is surprising even to me that I am looking forward to school being back on from Tuesday! They are a funny bunch and I cant wait to see them again, even Percy, who seems to insist on pooing his pants almost every time he comes into school.....

The new bike got its first proper ride today, cycled to Klipspruit and back. I cycled all the way there, almost all down hill and when I went to turn around I just had the realization of "I have made a terrible mistake". The slopping hills almost killed me. I would have the lowest gear and peddle for several songs on my ipod, then I'd look up and be no bloody closer to the top of the hill than I was ten minutes ago. But alas, it was fun, watching the sunset as I rode back was beautiful. .

Sadly no photos today, but I shall get the camera up and running again for tomorrow :)

Lekker Slaap x

Town trip, Bikes, and Babies

Well, another hot day. This morning all the staff (minus Big Marcus who is terrified of horses) went out on a ride. It was really nice actually. The language barrier stops me from getting all that close to them but it was fun to take some time out and go on a trail ride with them. Salan also didnt come on the ride, which was kind of hilarious because everyone said he was getting fat and needed to exercise more. Later on we found he had taken one of the new bikes out on a ride. I asked Aly why and she said "Salan has gone for a ride, because he is getting fat". So at least one of the bikes is being put to good use!

Lydenrust Disney Production- One woman and her goat: A journey of self discovery

Me and Mia

Our poor Manama who is in the wars at the minute with a sore back and tummy. Here she is ready to be healed by the beemer. Jinx is on stand by as nurse. 

Today was town day, Alys most hated of all days, so straight after the trail we headed out to Lydenburg for all the groceries. It is a mammoth task which takes around four hours to do. And this week was worse as it is months end and we had to queue in the bank for aggggges. One thing I do miss about England is that at least we dont have queues going out the door and only two cashiers on. I think Aly was ready to kill someone. We chatted with a lady and discussed the fact that the power is being completely switched off in Lydenburg on the 16th October because the people of Lydenburg pay the municipality who in turn are MEANT to pay the electric company. But, as with all politics here, it is so corrupt and have used the taxpayers money on new cars and houses. The municipality owe the electrical company R146,638,549.43 (£9,775,903). So, in a couple of weeks, all of Lydenburg is gonna be well and truly screwed. And what is worse, the municipality don't even have the money to pay for it, so have asked the people to write letters to appeal to the electrical companies compassionate side......Thankfully, at the farm here, we pay them directly so we shall remain fully lit, but it is horrible to think of the stand still Lydenburg and the surrounding areas are going to be in soon.....

In the middle of town they have an actual British cafe! So patriotic seeing the British flag. Kind of....

Tomorrow is pay day for the workers here, so everyone is round at little George's house getting ready to party, and we managed to catch Christine to give her the baby clothing donations for her baby Deana. One thing I am surprised about here is the level of enthusiasm in the adults when given anything. The resonating feeling I pick up on is almost, "thanks, where is the rest?". It is so odd because, as I said, the children are sooooo grateful for all they receive. This is why the school is so important. It is hard to explain, but, by giving them something to be proud of, by treating them as special in a world where almost all feel like nothing, we are giving them the self esteem and appreciation to become individuals who give back to their community, as Aly has done for them. It might sound hippy-ish, but for things to get better here, it has to be a community effort.

Christine and baby Deana

 Lekker Slap

x

Feeling hot hot hot!

After our cold snap at the weekend we are hitting 35 degrees here now and it feels like walking in honey. It is soooo hot and muggy, I cant believe it is only spring here.

The goats are definitely all in the spirit of spring. Socke and Sansa are my resident hairdressers at the minute, if I have any hair left when I return to England it will be a miracle! Sansa literally chews the hole thing and I'm left with maize covered drooly hair for the rest of the day. Thankfully one of the great things about living in the middle of no where is that there is no one to impress haha but I'm sure the goats think I look lovely to them.

Chloe getting her morning cuddles, which she demands before even trying to drink, and Socke attempting acrobats on my shoulders!

Special picture for Uli. Such a cuddle pot!

"I like diss"

Resident hairdresser Sansa giving me the chop!

I have to say, I never used to have an appreciation of goats, but being here on the farm I have grown to love them so much. Such characters. I truly enjoy just sitting with them and watching them play :)

Wendy and her kids arrived today for her weekly ride and we had an awesome trail ride today, very fast and very furious. I loved it. Riding here is like riding in some kind of Disney land and I still have to pinch myself when I see the mountains every day!

At the minute I am training to do a marathon so I can raise money for the school and so after the trail ride I did my daily run which I think killed me in this heat, but hey ho, it is all for a good cause and I'm sure I can guilt trip enough people into giving me money for the school. Also, my new bike is friggen awesome! I have been playing on it all day and feel like a kid at Christmas with a shiny new toy. Even if I have to go a tiny distance I take the bike instead. Lurrrrve the bike. Plus, I need to start training as well for when the holidays are over and I have to cycle up to Klipspruit Combined School to help out on the afternoons. But in the mean time, the bike is mine to play with. Cade particularly loves it as well, he follows me around on it, and it is hilarious to see him running after me like I am mummy sheep.

On a disappointing note, the new volunteer Jodie who was supposed to be arriving on Friday sent an email today to say that she was not coming any more due to a change in circumstances. This has kind of left us in the lurch. School is definitely going to be interesting when there is just me there haha fingers crossed I don't kill them! So, we are currently looking at last minute people to come and cover the time Jodie would have been here, but unfortunately most of them sound like spiritual weirdos who have found the light in organic food and just want peace. We are still looking..... haha

And of course, the update on the Christmas boxes. We made a huge dent in the amount of stuff we had, giving away tons of baby things away now to various families in the valley (as babies are not babies for long and need the stuff now) and Sophie (the wonderful maid) got a whole load of new clothes for her teenage daughters. I even got some nice new dresses that wouldnt fit anyone we knew, but alas, where I will wear them is a mystery. Dresses do not do on farms.

And finally, in a hilarious turn today, Shirley the shop keeper called me today. Me and Aly met her in Nelspruit when looking for a going away present for Uli. She was a lovely lady, but decided I must meet my future Afrikaans husband immediately. She literally took my name and number and said to look out for her call. She rang today to invite me to her sons birthday party on Saturday and that she has invited "a lot of people" AKA the future Mr Morrison. I can''t go due to it being months end and us being soooo busy here on the farm, so I just told her that my knight in shining armor must come to the farm.....and be prepared for that shiny new armor to be covered in goat spit within 5 seconds.

Busy busy day and tomorrow is going to be even worse. Town trip, shavings, school clear out, wood etc. Aly is already hyperventilating at the thought of town. I told her to adopt the foetal position. I will keep you posted.

Lekker Slaap

Vegetarians on Braai day!

If anyone has ever been to South Africa, you will know that it is a nation of meat eaters. The braai is what the British would call a BBQ, but if you called it that here, you would probably end up beaten up. As there is a big difference between a braai and a BBQ :p

Traditionally, the family would roast lots of meat and eat it with pap and baked potatoes.
Now, as Aly is a vegetarian, I have essentially become one too.

We celebrated national braai day with cheese sandwiches and a fruit smoothie.

We are a sham and a travesty to the name of South Africa.

"Lazy days"

I honestly dont know what to do with myself!The school holidays are out and I dont exactly know what to do with myself with the kids! God dammit. There was once a time when I longed for holidays to get here, but now, I can't wait for school to begin again!

Today was a typical day, rode Mr Bones and walked on a trail, before heading into town to visit the Welgemoed's. They have ten beautiful Great Dane puppies. I was seriously considering putting one under my coat and just keeping hush about it. Aly is most definitely my new mum here, every time we enter a feed or pet store I am like a child going "Allllllyyyyyy can I have a puuuuuuppyyyy?? I promise I will look after it myssseeeeelllllllf". But, with seven dogs at the farm, perhaps I should just walk Murphy instead. Or, just steal one of the baby goats, put a collar on it and make it my new dog.

During our visit we were able to pick up the bikes Aly had bought off them. I was beyond excited, and getting a new bike is like Christmas to me. Although, I was very upset to find it was too bloody hot to actually try them out when we got home. But, its a bit cooler now, I may go try them out. If I cycle places instead of running I may get less people pulling over in their cars asking with concern if I need a lift. Aly says this is probably because I run in my horse riding gear and look like Ive fallen off my horse and lost it. This could be true.

Christmas sorting began today and we spent the afternoon making piles of clothes for each individual child to go in their Christmas box. There were some amazingly cute outfits, which I wanted to give all to Patience because she is just the cutest little girl ever! Except for when she got off the school bus last week and decided to have a wee right in front of me. All I saw was her bare ass as I said goodbye for the holidays. Happy memories......

On the town trip today me and Aly were discussing the differences between England and South Africa. She couldnt believe that if you have a kid and dont work, then you get a free house, income support, child tax credits etc. Or if you just cant be bothered to work that you get money given to you for no reason. I have always been against chosen unemployment, but being here has greatly enhanced my appreciation of other countries work ethic, and the shame I have at the majority of the British who choose not to work, but to spend their time lazing around, and then ironically complaining about foreigners stealing jobs.

Oh, on a personal note, this is day 29 with no sugary sweets or crisps. I think I may be getting delirious when I started googling pictures of doughnuts ... Luckily, Aly made us strawberry smoothies which will hopefully tide me over :D Anyways, another day is done, and I smell like goat.....so I think it is time for a bath.

Tears, Trails, and Odd jobs

Uli left today at 6:45am from the farm. I am generally not one to cry, but we were all in floods of tears saying goodbye. I can't believe she had been with us for six whole weeks. The time has flown by and I have no idea where it went, but I want a refund so I can get the time back and for her to be back with us! That being said she is heading to some wonderful sounding farms around South Africa and I wish her all the best. I certainly intend to go visit her in Germany for hiking and the German Christmas Markets!

Work never stops here, and as soon as Aly was back from dropping off Uli we had a pony ride trail to do. I foolishly sad I would lead one of the two young boys.......My fitness is truly appalling. I could barely converse while we went up hill, but I think he found it amusing!

The family we took on the trail are staying in Palomino cottage, they are truly wonderful, and even brought donations for the school! So, in a bid to not get too down from Uli leaving, me and Aly went through the new things and made up little christmas presents for the kids. They will all get a pencil case with a pencil, pen, ruler, sharpener, scissors, glue stick, and coloured pencils. It might not seem like a lot to anyone back home, and I know for a fact that if I gave any of the six year olds I know a pencil case as a present they would be looking up at me and asking where the Xbox was! But here, the kids are so deprived in so many ways that I am genuinely excited to give them these on Xmas day.

Cade "helping out" in School with the donation!

Next job on the list was the volunteers wall of fame. Brumby House has a big wall at the entrance which we set to work at. Now, I've always considered myself a strong, independent, capable girl. So, painting the words 'Volunteers wall of fame' and hammering in some nails didn't sound too hard......Aly fired me after five minutes......I have not an artistic bone in my body, and after she saw my attempt at the 'M' and the 'E' in 'Fame' I thought she was going to have a stroke, or potentially kill me :p So, hammering became my job, not only did I manage to make holes in the walls with nails that didnt even go in right, I also hung them wonky. So, all in all, if today has taught me anything, it is that DIY is not for me, neither is art haha. But! I can recite, word for word, every line from the film Mean Girls....Sadly, this is not a skill I can use on the farm,  unless we were trapped in the feed room all night and we all needed entertaining.

 

Christmas gifts and Cold snaps

Today is volunteer Uli's last day at the farm. She will be leaving tomorrow early on to get the Bushveld taxi in the morning after six weeks on the farm. She is such a wonderful woman and I am sad to see her leave!

Sadly, on her last day, the English weather must have migrated here because it is FREEZING. I don't know how I will survive in England ever again as it is only 15 degrees here but it has prompted me into wearing two jackets, gloves and hat.I will never survive in the cold northern area of England ever again. I may just have to stay forever because no one can live with this cold (and to think, I was once a foolish teenager who went clubbing in the snow with only a dress on.....foolish days....I have realized the error of my ways now....OK, I wasn't even a teenager, I may have done this only a few months ago...hmmmmm)

Yesterday, a couple named Dean and Claire brought all the donated future christmas presents donated from Aly's sister Pat Gold and Jacqui. A huge thanks to them as we now have a huge amount of presents for the future Christmas boxes! While it is only September, when you have 35 Christmas boxes to be made up for everyone from the kids, to their parents and spouses, you need to be organised! We offloaded and began the sorting through of adult and child xmas presents, and I am honestly ridiculously excited to go out on Christmas day to give them out!

One of the things I am most sad about in staying in South Africa is that they do not have Halloween here. I feared that I would miss out completely this year, but alas, all is not lost. In amongst the delivered Xmas gifts was plenty of dressing up gear. So, on the 31st October, I WILL be wearing a full on Elvis outfit (with guitar) to town. I may look a tad bit mental, but you can't not celebrate Halloween! (pictures to follow)

Currently we are on half term, and there is no school until the 1st October so in all honesty, it feels like a very long day! Especially considering it is so cold that all I want to do is hide in bed and eat chocolate all day. OH! and I'll tell you what is a blessing and a curse. We live MILES from anywhere, so it is the WORST thing when you want chocolate and you know you wont see a shop for another week. So, on the upside I'm coming back skinny, on the downside......I WANT CHOCOLATE!

This evening, during the feeding time I was about to start scooping the horse feed when you can imagine my surprise at seeing all these rats in the bucket. We will have to relocate them to a grassy field far away haha. The picture below, is me messing around in the feed room. Honestly, I need a Rosie Wall of Fame. I have literally no vanity whatsoever......

And finally, the Welgeomoed's stopped by and we had coffe. Lindie, Jonny, Mene, J.L, Leonard are like a second family here, I LOVE THEM. 

Anyway, that's the end of my first post. Sorry for it being so rushed. I shall have better posts tomorrow when I am not so rushed and I am not trying to launch the whole blog in one night!

Lekker Slaap (Good night)

x