All the fun of the Farm

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

Art and Crafts Day!

Woke up today to the sound of Baby the cat howling in my ear. From the moment she wakes up (usually around 5am) she will not shut up. She will sit by your face and meow until you get up and feed her. If I didn’t love her so much I would throw her out (and trust me I am the only one who does, coz she is evil personified and will claw your eyes out coz she feels like it. If she was a human she would be Hitler) Anyhoo, the start of the day was the same as always, cornflakes and coffee on the veranda, then bottle feeding and beemering Manama. THE SUN HAS FINALLY RETURNED! I was deliriously excited about this! No longer do I have to dress for Siberian temperatures! The bikini is coming out ! And when I say bikini....I mean jodhpurs and a vest....I can't be wearing a bikini on a farm, dont be ridiculous. But I felt saying bikini had more of an impact on the kind of weather changes here. But, anyway, I'm rambling, I talk far too much about the weather on this blog. I am definitely British.

Today was our arts and crafts day at school. The kids loved making the flowers and the glitter pictures (I never want to see glitter ever again. We had six stations set up, glitter pictures, stencils, necklace making, paper cut out, magic crayon pictures, and flowers. I always find it funny when the boys seem to enjoy the more girly projects than the girls do. Oupa did so well with his glitter picture and was sooooo precise with it! Jane would not listen when I told her how to construct her flower, she basically had paper on a stick but she looked ever so proud, and it is often best not to argue with Jane, she can give a look that can curdle milk. I reckon one day she is going to be the leader of some kind of mafia hit squad, so I would prefer to stay in her good books haha. We also had a straggler today, Chris’s brother Liefie (pronounced like Leafy) just turned up to come to school. He is only three and looked like he had no idea what was going on, but he was a sweet boy and very bright, I mean, he flower was better than Janes haha. After break we also took them to do their hand prints on the volunteer wall of fame. I thought Aly might pass out from nerves when we were doing it, after the fiasco with my awful painting, I dont think she would have been able to take it if the hand prints had been messed up :p But, all went smoothly and the wall looks lovely now!

 patience and Thando showing off their flowers! Very proud!

 I turned around and found Chris and Liefie looking at me like this haha

 Look at that concentration!

 I made diss!

 Getting messy for the wall!

 Looking good!

put your hands where I can see them guys...

Oh my good god though, I didn't think school would recover from the arts and crafts. It literally looked like a bomb had hit it. I did my best at tidying up, but by that point I was ready to just accept the new lived in feeling....

In the afternoon I went on a run, purely on the basis that if I don’t get fitter, I will die trying to get to Klipspruit every day for school with the little ones. I think I lost about a stone in weight from the sweat alone, I looked like a running tomato. I am so glad that where I run is not used often by people. Plus, running is a bit of an overestimation of my abilities, more, a shuffling tomato. But running always sounds more impressive haha. Later on Wendy arrived for a trail ride with me, Aly, and Marcus, and we headed up into the mountains. It was such a beautiful trail with the sun setting behind the mountain and the view of the dam. Absolutely stunning! Sometimes I forget just how amazing this place is, but when I go on a ride here, it just makes me feel like some kind of woodland princess, or if I'm feeling geeky, I pretend we are the Fellowship of the Ring, hiking towards Mordor, which actually fit today since behind the mountain there was a big fire and smoke pluming up, so it did look a tad like the Mountain of Doom. God, I am so cool, why these Afrikaans farmers are not lining up outside the door for me and my hobbit ways, I do not know! In other news that clearly adds to my cool hipness, I have taken up knitting. Yes. Some people come to South Africa for the adrenaline sports, the quad biking, the sailing, the hiking, the safaris, but no, I have come to knit scarves! Actually it is really fun, I've been sitting at it for hours already and I think I am a little addicted!

 My position on the horse is getting better! From sack of potatoes to Frankie Dettori 

 On the road

Beautiful sunset ride <3

I get to skype with my best friend Kat tonight, one thing I will always miss being here, is my friends. I love them so much, and I do hope they appreciate the post cards I sent them. Although, by South African postal service standards, I will probably be home before they get there! Anyway, I am going to have a bath, skype, then continue my awesome knitting before another day starts. I don't know where the time goes here, one minute I am waking up, and the next it is bed time. Not nearly enough hours in the day! Lekker Slaap! xxxx

Back to School!

Today marks the two year anniversary of Alys foreman Aprils death. I never met this man, but from the pictures I have seen and the joy and inspiration he seems to have instilled in life and death, I know he was a great man. I do know for a fact that he would have been unbelievably proud of Aly and the school she has built in his memory. This is truly a sad day, and I wish I had been able to meet this remarkable man. I am just grateful of knowing Aly, and the fact I've had the chance to be part of this world. With this school April's memory will never die, and his daughter Sara will undoubtedly go on to have a happy, joyful life. R.I.P April.

Do you know what it is like eating your cornflakes in the morning, minding your own business, and then finding you have a mad chicken behind your seat who crows in your ear? I almost pooed myself this morning when it happened. I swear, I am going to put MJ the rooster in the next soup I make if he keeps this up. It is finally warming up, although you wouldn’t guess it from what I was wearing. I have an interesting collection of hats here in varying degrees of madness. I got myself all ready for the day and headed off to feed Cade and Chloe and I almost died again, Godfrey the evil goat, had gotten into the nursery and was staring right at me as I fed Chloe. Me and Godfrey have never gotten on, ever since he rammed me up against a fence and pierced my stomach with his horns. He is pure evil; just his face can put the fear of God into anyone. Haha, so no, not a good morning in terms of animals this morning, but at the rate I am going to have so many animals on my black list that I am gonna be able to cook a beautiful spread of MJ soup and Godfrey burgers.

Today was the first day back at school for the kids, ironically, only five turned up! The rest were sick! But this often happens the week after pay day as the parents are mostly inebriated and don’t care for their kids as they should. But, in the end it was a blessing in disguise as we have no other volunteer here until Monday, so a small class was A-OK with me! As I was setting up school and Aly went to get the kids I got a frantic phone call from Aly saying it was Patience’s ‘birthday’ today. It is not in fact her birthday for another two weeks, but the parents rarely have any idea what day the birthday is on, so it turned out they decided it was today. Apparently they let the kids know by dumping cold water on them when they are sleeping. I am dubious about the legitimacy of this tradition, but to be on the safe side, I am glad I don’t have a birthday while I am here! So, we had the two birthday girls Charlotte (turning 6) and Patience (turning 4) in their crowns (I had to frantically make Patience’s in about 4minutes due to the late notice, but I don’t think she noticed. I have seen far too many episodes of Art Attack to not be able to make a crown in lightening speed). We are missing our last volunteer Uli very much; especially her guitar playing, I just don’t think my musical efforts with the tambourine cut it with the kids, no matter how well I rocked it. Sadly, I am musically challenged, and the best I can give you is a damn fine recital of Yankee Doodle on the piano…..we don’t have a piano.

Birthday Girls! Charlotte and patience! Soo cute, they were so excited by their crowns!

Working on a puzzle

It was a good day of puzzles and colouring, followed by playdo. They didn’t quite grasp the playdo idea when they just kept telling me to make things for them. Not quite what I had in mind, but it was a nice ego boost to see their astonished faces when I made a fried egg and a car. In the end they got into it and started making cakes and pretending to sell them. Grace was quite the prudent sales woman and demanded her cake back when Chris would pay the R5 for his slice haha.

Oh! And we have a new patio coming along! It is being built outside so the kids have somewhere to eat, and so when the rain comes, we aren’t knee deep in mud when trying to eat a sandwich. It is looking really lovely and I can’t wait to post pictures of it when it is finished. The school is looking so nice now, so proud!

After school Aly and I spent the afternoon making arts and crafts stations for the kids to work at tomorrow. We spent ages on it and I think they are gonna love it! Although, I may regret saying that when we have to clean up the horrendous mess I am envisioning. Oh god, the glitter is gonna be everywhere. It’s gonna be like sand, it will get everywhere, we will sneeze glitter….I will not be responsible for any glitter related accidents that may take place tomorrow haha

In other news, I got a call from the teacher Taryn from Klipspruit Combined School (the big school where Grace, Charlotte, Sara, Maggi, Chris, and Oupa are heading to in January) and hey would like me to go help out with their grade one to three’s after I am done with my school 1:30-3pm. I am going to see what it is like, I need to see if I can manage it because it will end up being a looooong day for me if I do that, especially since I need to cycle half an hour there and back to do it. But I would love to. The kids are left for two hours to their own devices until the bus comes and I am sure they would benefit from a bit of Rosie madness. But we shall see how I do when I start on Monday!

Anyway, good evening all. Glitter madness tomorrow. I shall keep you updated as always  xxxxx

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