Hello all. Today has
been a good day, woke up with a spring in my step, bright eyed and
bushy tailed, and then Sansa and Socke (the baby goats) chewed
through yet another pair of my headphones. I was just feeding Chloe
and listening to a bit of Lady GaGa when they went screechy, now I
know Lady GaGa is a bit eccentric with her singing but even I noticed
when she started sounding like nails on a chalk board.
I took Duncan out on a
morning ride round the dead forest that was taken out by the fire and
we had last week for a bit of a look round at the damage. It is
really weird, there are no leaves or grass, or even branches on the
ground, it is just completely covered by black ash. Like black snow
or something....eerie.
Its getting hotter, and
Duncan took a nice dip in the dam when we were finished. I cant wait
for Summer to finally be here so I can go swimming in the dam with
the horses! Exciteedddd for that!
Little buggers. It is as if butter wouldn't melt
The dead forest
Chilling in the pool
Ahahahahaha
Our new student Liefie
had returned for another day of school, and still no parent or adults
of his to explain him. In the end we found out he is the son of the
manager at Forest Creek Lodge, and he is pretty well off. He
certainly has a very nice car. But it is really unfair, Aly has
parents begging everyday for their kids to come here, and he just
dumps his without even asking! And what is scary is that Liefie is
five years old and he couldn’t even do the easiest of puzzles,
Patience who is still three was doing tougher things than him.
Sometimes I wonder about how much of an impact this school is making
educationally to them, but when I see kids like Liefie it is
painfully obvious how under stimulated and under nurtured the rest of
the kids in the valley are. I am so proud of our ones. I have very
little patience, but they are all so wonderful that I can be as
patient as a saint for them (even if I am pushed to those limits
after twenty minutes of going over the letter J with Jane, constantly
saying “This is J, J, J, J for Jane, J, J, J, J, JJJJJJJJ.....Jane
what is this?” her rely? “Mam, pink?” AHHHHHHHHH!) Today we had
a busy day, we played musical chairs with the kids and omg it was soo
much fun, I think I got a bit too into it when I had to be told by
Aly to maybe let the kids win.....Then we had puzzles and colouring.
They were so sweet, as we had these brand new jumbo colouring books
donated and often the kids will rush the colouring and make it into
an absolute mess, but when I told them that if they did them well
that they would be going up on my wall, they were so precise with
everything. It really is adorable when they look at you with so much
pride at precision crayoning haha.
Me and Sara :)
Could not stop laughing at Thando when she took the wrapper off her bottle to use as what I can only assume goggles?
Mad as a hatter
It was town day today
so of course Aly was on the verge of a coronary heart attack. But, I
still managed to force food into her, despite the stress levels. I am
her feeder at the minute and I am determined to get some weight on
her! So I am being the epitome of a Stepford Housewife, preparing
breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. She still groans when I bring
her yet more chocolate biscuits to eat :p The guys at Alzu animal
foods were there as usual, and I tried my hand at carrying the 60kg
sacks of feed for the animals, and I like to think they were
impressed when I could do it. I AM THE HULK! And if you will notice
in the picture where I am standing next to a guy, this is the one who
teases me and tells me I eat lekker ….. He is evil to me haha.
Also, my shopping speed at Pick and Pay (the grocery store) is now a
fine art. I can be in and out in less than twenty minutes, which is
quite impressive considering our groceries for the week come to
R1,500 (if you go over 1,500 you get free chocolate muhaha). Also!
There was a man with a friggen parrot on hisshoulder today! It was
awesome. Seriously, anything goes in SA. If this was England, he
would probably have been escorted out for some reason. We are so
boring in England! No parrots on shoulders anywhere! Also, it is kind
of cute, all the kids walk around bare foot here, like around in the
shops. I don't know why but it is kind of weirdly cool. Anyway, then
it was back t the farm, a quick run, and rellllllaxxxxx.
Pulling my weight!
Oh yeahhh
Parrot in the grocery store!
On a particuarly bad
note, one of the staff, Little George's brother is badly ill. He
cannot stand or even sit up. The ambulance was called at 12:30pm and
it didn't even get there until 6:30pm! Aly said we should feel lucky
it wasn't six days..... Absolutely ridiculous of them. When one of
our little kids Sara's Mum had a baby last week, not only did it also
take hours to get there, they demanded anything they fancied from her
house before they would even help her, despite it being a breach
birth. Truly appalling. This is South Africa I am afraid and the
government has destroyed it. I just hope that the brother is OK.
Although, it seems to be a common phrase around here that you go to
hospital to die in most cases. So sad :(
UPDATE- Just had a text
from Aly who went to the hospital to get George. The brother Patrick
has died. I didn't even know him that well except for visiting, but
this is truly horrible news :( Feeling exceptionally sad right now.
All my thoughts go to George and his family. Sad day.
Rhino beetle
Lekker Slaap
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