Church

Ronas took us to the Hosanna church on Sunday morning. It is proper black, African Pentecostal. The worship was great. The songs were incredibly repetitive, (no more than 8 words per song!) but the sense of joy and the level of enthusiasm was unbeatable.

There is a young lad who leads some of the worship, probably aged about 14, who has the most amazing voice. He was incredible to listen to.

The sermon was less than exciting. They had a visiting preacher from Australia, who spoke well, but wasn’t terribly original. Andy got bored and went outside to play with some kids. A great time was had by all. Except the little girl in red who insisted on playing on the swing until she threw up. Ho hum. We're doing kids work here next Sunday.

Not So Wildlife

Africa the Safari capital of the world!!!!

Despite being on the borders of the Kruger National Park. We have not been inundated with unwelcome visits by wilderbeast or even (luckily) mosquitoes. On Day 1 we saw some Vervet monkeys in the trees but haven't seen them since on the campus but have spotted them as we've been going to the YFC centre.

We were beginning to think that there was just about no wildlife here. But then we got talking to Porsha. 2 weeks before we arrived a black mamba was found curled up, keeping warm behind the computer in the admin office and a dog was recently killed by a snake. There are black mambas and spitting cobras and also massive pythons in the surrounding forests. Andy went to look for some but didn't come across any.

Being told by Porsha the place was full of snakes, immediately made Cathy check for snakes everywhere she sat down and under the bed etc.

I told her that the most dangerous animals in Africa were hippos but she replied hippos can't hide under your bed.


Here's the wildlife we have seen :

One Pigeon and a Bee-eater. We have also seen many lizards but they tend to move to fast to photograph.

In the lake there was recently a hippo which people kept well away from.

Water Shortages

We have been catering for ourselves. A group of South Africans staying here on holiday donated us leftovers from their brie (BBQ). Sausages, pork kebab and T bone steak (whoever heard of leftover T bone steak????!!!!). Needless to say, we found a good home for it...

Saturday afternoon was spent helping to mop up the results of a burst water pipe. The corridor to the kitchen and the computer section of the library were both flooded. Andy then spent several hours helping to locate the burst water pipe. This eventually required digging up most of one the kitchen floors.

During our water logged adventures, we met Porsha, who we had dinner with. She was very impressed with our chicken stew, rice and beans.

Water supply was intermittent for a couple of days.

Shopping and Other Adventures

We awoke last Saturday, to discover that the gates of the college, where we are staying, were firmly locked. There are 2 gates. One for pedestrians which is sometimes open and sometimes padlocked, and one for vehicles, which is remote controlled via mobile phone. It looked like we might be permanently imprisoned. Fortuneately, someone called Albert was going to White River, our nearest town, and we cadged a lift.

We explored the street stalls, down town shops and local off licence, got ourselves a South African sim card for the phone and had a South African breakfast (almost completely indistinguishable from an English breakfast - some things never change!) at a local cafe.


Andy sampled the local beer with his breakfast - some things never change! (Castle Beer isn't bad. No bitter here though)

We wandered around the town closely watched by townsfolk as we found out later when we were debating where the taxi rank was. A stall holder interrupted our heated debate and told us "you got out of the car here you went down there around and back to the crossroads". Ever get the feeling you're being watched???!

This proves that we totally inconspicuous and blend readily into the south african scene.

We were the only white people at the "taxi" rank. The little minibuses they call taxis remind me very much of the gwa-gwas in the Dominican Republic. Cheap, crowded and badly driven. Never missing the signature cracked windscreen. We got dropped off at the end of the road and were immediately offered a lift by a ciagrette smoking Africaans man in a pick up and a turquoise shell suit.

The Lull Before the Storm??

Yesterday, we actually got to do some shopping. Ronas took us to the 'Pick and Pay' supermarket. Which looked a bit like Kwik Save and had the pricing structure of Waitrose. However, we now have food. Hooray!!
Given that wages are probably not great, food presumably consumes a large proportion of income. Rice and pap (whatever pap is...) and beans are staple diet for many locals.

On the way back from the supermarket, we passed a young man who'd evidently been run over. Much to our distress, he had many onlookers, but no one helping. Our host did not seem surprised or distressed by this at all, and had no intention of stopping. Perhaps life is cheap...

Today we have nothing much to do except enjoy our surroundings. These pictures were all taken from the grounds of the Africa School of Mission where we are staying:

Perfect blue skies!

Our first workshop

We did our first drugs workshop this morning. Lots of teenagers. We really enjoyed it. Here are some pictures:

We've Arrived!

Not quite 24 hours after Sean left us at Heathrow Airport (we thought his giving us a lift to the airport was a generous act of friendship, but he insists it was just to make absolutely sure we left the country), we arrived at Nelspruit airport.













Nelspruit is in the Kruger National Park area, and the airport is lovely. Fashioned like a hunting lodge, it is the only thatch roofed airport I've seen. Very upmarket and well supplied with gift shops selling essential items such as wooden giraffes.

We are staying at the Africa School of Mission, very close to the edge of the park.













We're very much out in the country, surrounded by hills and lovelieness. Slap bang in the middle of nowhere.

We saw 2 monkeys when we arrived, which Andy has been trying to track down and photograph ever since.












The accommodation is great. We've got a large room, somewhere to cook food - there's a kitchen in the college (when we eventually get chance to buy some) and a bathroom.

Yesterday we managed to fall asleep until after the office was closed. We wandered around aimlessly and bumped into an American missionary called Sandy, who does palliative care in the community. She introduced us to an Australian called Val, a middle aged crocheting missionary nurse who took pity on us and fed us cuppa soup, chips and lentil and fruit cake (much nicer than it sounds!). She was very amused that this would be our first meal in Africa. It wasn't quite, Ronas, who collected us from the airport, had already furnished us with KFC. She also gave us some cereal for the morning and more fruit cake.