"You is kind, You is smart, and You is important"

Hello! Today has been such a good day. For no huge reason other than how I happy I am to be here. Donna and I both rose, bright eyed and bushy tailed for our 5am bike ride. Yet again, neither of us brought a camera to take a picture of the sunrise! Dammit! But I promise a glorious picture tomorrow. I think starting the day with a cycle puts me in a great mood, no matter how the day goes, I have accomplished something! When we got back it was time for the babies to be fed and for jobs to be done. The goats have a new house now, after destroying their last one in the storm. They absolutely love it, even if it does have a slopping roof and they fall off.

 One of the new babies from the triplet brood!

 Kayla, playing king of the castle

poulos enjoying a biscuit. He followed me around for ages after I gave him it. I think he thought Christmas came early

 The winners of our colouring competition, Chris and Maggie. Look at those faces!

 Charlotte 

 "Let them eat cake"

Ali had loads of jobs today so Donna and I manned the farmed and fetched the kids. We had a colouring competition the other day and we picked the best ones this morning to win a small prize. We decided on Maggie and Chris, and it was one of the highlights of my time here seeing their faces when they realised they had been picked. Chris sat open mouth and clasped his hand to his face when he understood what just happened. They were so unbelievably proud when their pictures went on the wall, it was so, so, sooooo sweet.

Someone's mum had clearly been baking because as a healthy start to their day, they all had massive slices of cake to eat. They were so happy. And the cute thing is, they always share their food. If one comes in with no food, they are always so quick to share everything they have. My god it is hard to type when you have a cat on your chest, meowing in your face. I dare not move her or I will return looking like Scarface. So I will do my best to make sense as I type, but this is increasingly difficult as I cant see the screen. Anyway! I was with the little ones today for education time, where we really try and focus on the basics that they will need in school. Unfortunately, despite knowing the ABC song backwards, none of the little ones could even tell me what the letter 'A 'was. So, I decided to make it a project for them to absolutely know it. I went over 'A' about a million times, wrote it on the blackboard, came up with a dozen things it began with, said it a few more million times, when......

Me: “Percy, what letter is this?”

Percy : “Chicken?”

I had to basically chew my cheek to try not burst out laughing at that. It is moments like these where you really do need to laugh or you will cry haha. Also, when practising the letter A themselves, I was quite worried to see that their interpretation of A looks a lot like a mutant tadpole. But, there was light at the end of the tunnel, they all got better with practice, and Thando and Liesbeth's 'A's were actually pretty decent.

Cade the lamb paid us his daily visit to try and eat whatever educational pieces he could find, it is quite funny how scared the kids are of a lamb, although after the chunk he took out of Donna s thumb when she was trying to wrestle playdo out of his mouth, perhaps they are wiser than we are!

We had to cut school a little bit short today, a big storm is constantly threatening us at the minute, and it seems to be only a matter of time before our roads become the newest roller coaster slide in town!

After school we all had lunch and I went on a run, now, the direction I was running was quite bright and clear, and then a quiet song came on my ipod and all I heard was a tremendous crash of thunder, and right behind me it was all black, grey, and icky. A lot of people get killed in South Africa from the lightening, so I was a tad worried, but thankfully just as I was thinking of ways to avoid the lightening, such as hiding under a tree, Ali arrived.

Ali : “Get in or the yellow mongoose is gonna be soaked!”

Also, just so everyone knows, DO NOT hide under a tree if there is lightening. This apparently why most people end up dying. So, it is a good job Ali turned up or I could have been fried, that is, before I start frothing at the mouth from the rabies haha.

And so ends the day, I just want to be vain and brag about the tea I made tonight. Stuffed bell peppers with sweet potato fries.I am so proud of it, I feel like Nigella Lawson of South Africa. I am definitely getting a hang of this cooking business, and unless Donna and Ali are terrific actors, they seem to enjoy what I give them. I don't think they are lying. I mean, Ali didn't hold her tongue when she told me that I run in a very “amusing way” hahaha.

The peacock flirting with MJ

So, all in all, a great day, just for it being a day here ! One more day of school and then the awesome long weekend commences as well! Eeeeeeeeeee excitement city! But I am off to bath and watch a film now, and unwind from today. Lekker Slaap all! xxx

The Cloud Game

Well, somehow I managed to drag my sorry ass out of bed this morning at 5am to go for a bike ride before the sun came up. It was sooooo nice riding along and watching it rise from behind the mountains. The sun beams were all yellow and pink on the clouds, I am just sad I didnt take my camera to get a few shots of it! So, returning, triumphant from my cycle, I even had enough time for breakfast. Donna is gonna come with me on the ride tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed I get up, coz my God it really took it out of me. I am writing this now with matchsticks holding my eyelids up. Definitely an ultra early night for me I do believe!

Today was a busy day at school, we had another random newcomer called Syabonga. We already have a Syabonga, so this made it a bit difficult. Syabonga one and two we had to name them. We did some lego in the morning, and I was quite upset when none of the kids were that impressed with the wall I made. I guess a wall isnt very exciting, but all in all they seemed to enjoy it. I got quite into my building. I miss lego. You reach a certain age when buying kids toys for yourself is just weird, so it is great being here, I can play with all of it and just pretend I am doing it for the kids. We have had confirmation today that Magdelene is indeed going to the big school in January. They got their acceptance letters this week and she is off. None of us can believe that they are actually doing this, she is going to suffer there so much. But there is no reasoning with the parents. We just have to try and get her as prepared as we can for it. Such a shame.

Today we also did our town day. But first we had to drop off the two dwarf goats that have been terrorizing the farm for the past few weeks. Ali took them in as a favor to a guy in town, but it soon became apparent exactly why he was getting rid of them. They are the most psycho goats any of us have ever seen. So we were very pleased to get rid of them. The man who gave them to Ali has been no where in sight, and even though we have seen him in town he kept saying he was in Johannesburg. He blocks calls and texts, obviously refusing to acknowledge the goats he so badly doesnt want back. When we finally found their farm, and boy they didn't make it easy, only the wife was around. We sharp left the goats with her and left as soon as possible. For our next job we had to get the tires changed on the bakkie as I think we were one trip away from crashing into a ditch. But it took an hour and a half so we headed up to Spur for a drink and accidentally ran into Johnny, Mene, and J.L Welgemoed. We all chatted and talked about the upcoming weekend, which I am beyond excited about! QUAD BIKING! Before going to do grocery shopping. I can now resist all the delicious food at the bakery there. Living on a farm in the middle of no where is doing wonders for my will power with junk food. I will return to England like a svelte gazelle. Sadly, it will be winter there and I will have been used to 35 degree heat, so I will have to wrap up in about fifty layers of clothing to keep me warm and thus make me look like ive gained a few stone haha.
On our way back from town I started making pictures out of the clouds, and me and Donna were discussing a particular cloud of whether it was a dog or a crocodile. "yes, its a dog, you can see the ears", "no, that's the jaw of the crocodile". When Ali interrupted our magical moment by saying "guys, its a bloody cloud" haha .We also saw a whale cloud, a poodle, and a duck being run over by a bus. Simple things for simple minds i guess....

Oh! and we have had the very first birth of triplet goats here! and unfortunately, they are ALL boys! They are so adorable. Ali has named them after the Welgemoed guys, Johnny, J.L, and Leonard!



Anyway, I cant write any more, I am so tired. I need sleep badly! Night night, Lekker Slaap! xxx

Storms in Africa

Last night we had a wonderful storm. The lightening and rain were so beautiful to listen to and watch. I love lightening, and hearing the sound of hard rain hitting the ground. The rain washes everything clean and leaves such a fantastic fresh smell in the air. Watching the bright white light flashing through the trees was so awesome. Although, I am sure the lightening knew when I was watching it, because it always struck when I looked away! So I started looking out of the corner of my eye haha it worked! I am Rosie the Storm Watcher. Semi tempted to try and get struck by lightening because surely I am bound to become a superhero after being hit by African lightening. It will be like that programme Heroes. I want to have telekinesis or something cool like that. Oooo like Dr X from X Men! Poor Murphy though, the beautiful white Alsatian of Ali's was so terrified. He kept trying to hide under the desk and squeaking. Poor little lamb. Apparently, even the goats were terrified, we emerged this morning to see their house completely decimated. We can only reason that the poor things all tried to cram in there to hide. Or, as Godfrey was there AGAIN, they were probably trying to hide from him and using that house as like a women s refuge centre.

Murphy, jumping up on me for cuddles coz he was scared! Such a puppy!

The destroyed goat house, with them still in it. Godfrey at the front, terrorizing the neighborhood as usual

 It is thoroughly miserable here at the minute. The weather is putting me in a terrible mood. I just want to adopt the fetal position and hibernate until this is all over! And whats worse, is with the rain last night, it brought mud. I had no idea that thirteen kids could drag around so much dirt. The school was like an indoor garden scene from the Chelsea flower show, I was just waiting for flowers to start popping up from under the floor boards. We also couldn't play "duck, duck, goose" as this requires sitting down, and as much as the kids didn't care about sitting in the mud, both Donna and I had too much sympathy for their poor mothers who have to do their washing, to allow that! So, today was more of an indoor day, all of us crammed in there trying to keep warm. The kids are getting so good with the puzzles, and they are so bright. I always talk to them as if they can understand complex English, and I really think they are starting to understand actually. When I was explaining about finding the edge pieces and the straight lines, and I you could just see them soaking it all in. They were just so proud when they finished their big puzzles, like so proud. It is definitely one of the best feelings at school when you see them accomplish something and praising them for it. It is actually really quite special !

Absolutely love this picture of Thando, Such pride!

 Magdalene, with her 48 piece puzzle. Such a clever girl <3

This kid should be in commercials for being this cute!

 I know this might sound preachy, but the "bike" that Chris is holding in the middle is literally half a bike. It has only one wheel and the handle bars, but the kids get so much joy from it is unreal. It makes me think of how unappreciative some kids can be when I see how happy our ones can be from some of the simplest things. Even if those things can be viewed as trash. 

Apparently, we have heard some ridiculous news, that Magdalene's parents are trying to get her into the big school for the start in January! Magdalene is only 5, and we cant even fathom why they would be attempting to do this. Not only is she so young, she is also plagued with bad health. She has been off school for the past three weeks, unable to eat and getting dangerously thin. She is often exhausted by the end of our four hour day and sometimes needs to take naps. How on earth they think she can cope being at school for eight hours, and with teachers who have zero sympathy and a great deal of affection for the cane, I do not know. We think it might be because, due to her amazing progress, like all our kids, the parents think they are little Einsteins now who must be pushed ASAP. Absolute madness.

My baby. Manama. She neighs to me now when she sees me <3

The rest of the day was taken up with running and cycling. I do believe I can certainly upgrade myself from the "shuffling tomato" to a higher state of "jogging tomato". I am very proud. The wonderful thing about being in Africa is how active you can be. Not only is it lighter for longer, it is warmer, and you just want to be outside. You want to go and do things like hiking and riding around the mountains. When there is not lazy things to fall back on like TV, and when you have animals that rely on you, it has certainly given me a sense of responsibility and I am feeling so much better for it. In other news on my personal growth, I am now cooking every night and feeding Donna and Ali like Kings. I swear, i am turning more and more into my Gran every day. She is the kind of woman who will kill you with food, I will drive the half hour to her house and she will need to feed me because of the long arduous journey I have just completed haha.

Anyway, Lekker Slaap all! xxxx

Settling In.

Hello all! It is bloody cold today. The sky has been over cast and grey all day. But it always makes me feel good to know that as England is plunging into the depths of winter as we speak, with its six hours of daylight and minus degree temperatures, I will soon be wearing bikinis, swimming in the dam and having braais in the afternoon sun! I cant tell you how miserable it is in England in winter. .I mean it isnt great at the best of times, but when you wake in darkness, go to work, and leave in darkness, it makes you want to shoot yourself. Not that I am being melodramatic or anything.

Anyway, today was Donna's first full day on the farm, and she was reunited with her baby Chloé. She definitely remembered Donna and it was so cute to see her cuddled up to her! As we entered the stable yard we were greeted with a free and wild BooBoo, who had used her new found freedom to get as far as the hay. Little piglet. Unfortunately for us, Godfrey, who is mad with sex hormones had ended up in the nursery again so we all had to scarper pretty quickly. I swear to god, if Godfrey was a human, he would be facing twenty five years in prison for battery, GBH, and sexual harassment. I reckon he would also be a skinhead biker as well. But anyhoooooo! We are a bit short staffed at the minute as Little George left for Hazyview today for his brothers funeral. It is so sad! and Simon had the day off, but hey ho, we managed. We girls don't need any man, we can handle ourselves.. Well, Donna and Ali can. I on the other hand scream at antiseptic spray, spiders, and DIY. But, if you have an issue with a fluffy rabbit, then I am your girl....unless it is a rabid bunny, in which case...no. All the kids were so excited to have Donna back and it was such a relief to be able to split the class and get things done in groups. It is so hard to keep the kids focus when there is only one of you. And no matter how many times I shout "quiet" in Zulu, they go back to talking five seconds later. Maybe they think if they arent looking at me, then I cant hear them haha. We had a session with playdo today and all the kids had great fun cutting out ice creams, and making biscuits and cakes, which I had to pretend to eat. And then Cade the lamb came to school and actually ate the playdo. I thought he was going to choke to death, so we were alll trying to wrestle it out of his mouth when he bit Donna really hard. Drew blood and everything, see, I'm telling you, rabid sheep, its the future.....

 BooBoo on the run. 

 REUNITED!

 picture perfect. Tammy in her "king of the castle spot!

 I reckon someone is getting help at home, but very happy with Maggis work!

 Hmmmm Magdaline with her ice cream

 Thando is sooo cute!

Break time naps 

Sadly, I have to update that I never made it to Klipspruit school. I had a serious talk with Ali and we agreed that the time would be better put towards our school and it is just too much to cycle there every day for just an hour with the kids. I feel really bad, but I am going to try and use the time towards some more arts and crafts and sports things for our kids. It does break my heart over those kids, but our school is the priority!

So, in the end,  it was a good day of settling in,  got my run in, which is always good with the cold and drank a lot of hot coffee. Come on sun, come back to us, we miss you! Also, I am so excited for the weekend! We have the Welgemoed's coming to stay for a couple of nights, and then on Sunday, Ali and I are heading to Marloff park for a couple of days...and they place we are staying at has a pool! Eeeee so excited!
But yes, nothing too dramatic happened today, but I hope you have enjoyed reading. I shall update you all tomorrow ! Lekker Slaap xxx

p.s the knitting is coming along wonderfully. Ali says I am ready for the next stage of knitting. Oh yeah!

Welcome back to Donna!

Hello all, apologies for this being late! But our new volunteer Donna arrived tonight so we have been spending the evening having dinner and reminiscing over her last visit here. Donna is returning for her second stay at the farm after spending six weeks here a few months ago! So I think she is pretty excited to be reunited with the animals tomorrow, she already has Jinx, her bed time sleeping pal back ! Ali treated us to her finest cooking tonight, and when I say this, I mean she bought us pizza from the takeaway in town, but damn it is the best dish she has made so far!. I ate too much and I think my stomach is going to burst from so much pizza. I havent had sugar or sweeties for six weeks now and I think the BBQ chicken has pushed me over the edge. Sadly I am not getting any sympathy for this and no one has offered to rub my tummy.....outrage.

"They are eating my food I tell you"

It was sooooo hot today! I rode Mr Bones and went on my run early on because once that heat wave hit I was out for the count. I spent most of the day by the dam knitting and listening to music and watching movies. I tidied school to prepare for another school week beginning and made everything pretty. I start at Klipsruit Combined school tomorrow, Christ knows how I am going to handle cycling there and back in the mid day heat, on the plus side, I am going to have legs like Lance Armstrong. Although, he was recently busted for performance enhancing drug taking.....and I dont know the names of any other famous cyclists, so we will settle with the notion that my legs are going to be damn toned by the end of this term. Which is good, coz when I die of heat stroke I will still look good at the wake in my open casket. Fingers crossed I can communicate with the kids and make some kind of a difference to their day!

Jinx, chilling with me in the shade. 

Today we also had a couple come visit to take a look at the farm for their engagement pictures to be taken here. They are doing nine different themes, in nine different locations including Kruger Park. If I had that kind of money I would be putting it towards open bar at the wedding. But this is probably because I dont have a romantic bone in my body and this appeals to my alcoholic tendencies haha. I am literally like that old Gran at christmas who hogs the whiskey and complains about "this love nonsense" and if you want a real commitment, get a dog, or invest in a safe return stock company. Anyway, they are planning on doing a 50/60's theme here in authentic swimsuits in the dam with the horses. I am not sure when anyone in the 50/60's did this but it should be a fun day to watch them shooting it when they come out in a few weeks !

The baby goats are so friggen cute! I spent lunch time with them just sitting in the pen watching them and oh my gosh, the way they jump around and frolic is so sweet! I want them to stay like babies forever. This afternoon I had a wonderful phonecall with our old volunteer Uli who is still travelling around South Africa. We all miss her so much and I truly wish she was still here. We have decided that the two new baby girl goats who were born yesterday are going to be named Rosie and Uli. Uli says this fits because we are like sisters now <3 Broke my heart a little but damn, Rosie and Uli are great names haha. As Donna has arrived bottle feeding duties will be passed over to her since Chloe is her baby. When Chloe's leg was smashed by Marula, even the vet thought the leg was going to have to be amputated, or worse for Chloe to be put down, but Donna stayed up every night with her and coaxed her through it and miraculously you wouldnt even guess now that she had ever been ill. I am excited to see Chloe's reaction tomorrow when Donna goes to see her !

 Tyrion the baby dwarf goat!

 Uli the goat! So cute!

 Rosie the goat. She even has my ginger hair!

 Uli and Rosie with their Mum, enjoying a bit of vegetation. 

Socke <3

All in all, this has been the perfect lazy weekend to recharge my batteries for the coming weeks. Welcome back Donna! And good night to you all. I am sure tomorrow will be far more chaotic than I can imagine. Please pray for me that I survive!

Lekker Slaap xxx

Day at the Dam

Ahhhhh, such a lovely day. The sun was shining and I have had a very relaxing day of spring cleaning, running, and reading. Unfortunately Godfrey had once again gotten in the nursery, and Pierre was trying to rape Chloe and Kayla. It was absolute bedlam this morning I have to say. So, I have decided that all boy goats are evil and should be castrated or turned into goat meat skewers the moment they are born. So, I took on the role of body guard, I got myself a big stick and walloped any goat who tried to get my girls haha. I am the goat hero. Oh! And speaking of the goats, we had yet another new arrival this afternoon!. One of the dwarf goats had a baby boy, and since I am on a quest to name all the goats after Game of Thrones characters, I really want to call this new one Tyrion.....coz they are dwarf goats! GENIUS (only GOT geeks will get the genius of this idea, well its kind of genius, basically the character Tyrion is a dwarf man. Well, at least I make myself laugh.....). But ahhhhhh the goat is soooo cute. It has huge bat ears and looks like a Disney drawing of a goat, not a real one. It is horrible to imagine he is going to turn into his older brother (who also got chased when he tried to get Chloe) because right now he is adorable!
After my shift ended as official goat bouncer, I decided to make myself useful and so I spent the morning doing Spring cleaning. I generally don't clean as a rule, but every couple of weeks or so I will go on mad cleaning splurges, where everything is nice and neat and tidy. And I promise myself every time that I will KEEP everything like that, but alas, five minutes later it looks like a bomb has hit it once again. But hey, I tried!

The dwarf baby!

In the afternoon, the Welgemoed's came round for a visit and we all had an afternoon sitting by the dam drinking cold drinks and watching the kids and dogs swim. I would have gone in but it is still too cold for swimming! It was so lovely just sitting and talking and not having anything to worry about it. We are also trying to organise for them to come and spend the night here next weekend so we can go quad biking, then have a braai by the dam. I cant wait! However, next week, the dogs can stay in the house! They were such a nuisance, if it wasnt Harry drooling on everyone, it was Murphy hitting people with his sticks, or Charles wacking his tail in your face, or Justin ......being Justin haha. But ah it was mucho fun!

I really have very little else to say about today, it has just been one of those lazy days that we all need. R and R! Tomorrow we have the arrival of a new volunteer, exciting! and there are lots of jobs to be done, so it will be full speed ahead tomorrow. But right now I am going to spend the rest of today in utter zen relaxation. I will just leave you with the pictures of today and bid you all goodnight!

 Mene giving herself a facial

 Murphy catching water

 The terrors!

 x

Rosie Had a Little Lamb

“Rosie had a little lamb

Whose fleece was mucky black

And everywhere that Rosie went

Cade would never just turn back

Cade isnt bright and he isnt smart

For one, he will eat an ashtray for a start

And although he should be weaned onto water

We love him too much to ever send him to slaughter”.

My personal rhyme about Cade the lamb. Oh my days, I went on my run today, in the middle of the day, in the blazing sunshine, and ran for about twenty minutes before I just turned round and saw that Cade had followed me the whole way. He looked like he was about to keel over, but was clearly not bright enough to make his way home. Sheep are not the brightest of animals. So, it was a very short run today. All the farm workers were laughing so much as I walked past them being followed by a mad sheep. He was hyperventilating and everything. .Silly, silly sheep! Then, when I got him in the house to give him some milk he decided to eat the cat food. I swear, this sheep has one solitary brain cell banging constantly against his skull! Other than the sheep fiasco we have had a pretty good day all things considering. We all saw George this morning and my heart just broke for him. He is such a good guy and it was horrible to imagine him in pain over the loss of his brother. I can only hope he finds comfort in knowing we are all thinking of him. It makes me feel ridiculous at times like these when I think of me panicking about rabies and the yellow mongoose, when real people are actually dying and they receive no real medical support or help.

Cade, absolutely knackered after his afternoon jog. 

In lighter news, we had a full house with all the kids today at school. I took my copy of Cosmopolitan to school with me to read in my break, but of course the kids were amazed by it. Charlotte kissed all the models on the lips and they seemed to thoroughly enjoy picking out the clothes they liked haha. They didn’t seem to appreciate me reading out their star signs, but I really don’t think five year old Liesbeth really needs to change her career direction as the sun rises over the Virgo moon. They DID seem to understand when I was reading about a modelling competition where you got R15O,OOO for being “Miss Veet”. Now, everyone wants to be a model haha.

Since it was hot today we went for a nature walk down to the river and to have a paddle about. The water is still freezing but that didn't stop the kids from submerging themselves in the water. Then, after taking their clothes off to keep them dry, they decided to play at “washing” their clothes and actually getting them wet. I don’t want to know what their mothers will say when they get home, but alas I did try to get them to see reason, but they just laughed. I did draw the line though at Patience sucking on her own sock like gum. Such a pretty little girl and then she opens her mouth to reveal her dirty socks..... If I were her relation I would take pictures of these things to show to her future boyfriends haha.

 Thando, Jane, Grace, Oupa, percy, Chris, and Siyabonga. Sharing is Caring!

 Charlotte checking out the fashion tips

Heading out for a walk. 

After school I was in such a lazy mood that I did very little else, the weekend has already taken hold of me and I am submitting to relaxation. So it was a chilled afternoon of knitting, listening to music, trying to go on a run, then a sunset ride with Ali. The horses were as lazy as me, and after the fifth attempt at getting them into a canter, we gave up and just walked. But that was fine by me!

Oh! And we have some new arrivals! Blinkers the goat had twin girls this afternoon! So me and Aly spent a good half an hour just watching them trying to stand and laughing at the attempts. That is, until Godfrey came along looking for something to kill or make babies with, so I sharp cleared out. I really want to name the goats after more Game of Thrones characters. I already have Sansa. So the options are Arya, Cersei, Brienne.....but they aren't really goaty names. I may need to rethink. But anyway, I am going to continue my relaxation and go have a bath, watch a film and knit myself into a coma. My Friday nights are wild!  

 New babies!

 Soooooo cute!

 " I can do it, I can, I can!"

 proud mum with her babies

Godfrey.....the goats are in the trees now.....

No one suspects the peacock....

Lekker Slaap!

x