Am writing this in bed on Wednesday night but have had no internet all day so know i can’t publish it till at least tomorrow – it has been such a full day though that I felt the need to write while things were fresh in my mind.
The people here are desperate for rain – the rivers are drying up as i said before but we woke to a lovely hot sunny day again. I never thought I would want to see rain but it is oppressively hot sometimes and so so dry - it is sad to see the dying crops. Bryan gave me a full tour of Beautiful Gate and much has changed since last time i came. Some new buildings have sprung up for a start and the foundations laid for another building to house volunteers. I spent what i hope was a profitable time chatting with Bryan in the chapel before heading one of the baby houses to give a baby her lunch out of a bottle and playing with a few children and then enjoying my own lunch beautifully prepared by Anita and her parents in law.
At 1 p.m.there was a ‘Time with God’ for all the staff in the chapel and I was introduced as the most important lady in England next to the Queen! Not sure I really fit that bill but by now i had finallymet all the staff. I had previously confessed to Bryan my difficulty remembering names and having been in Beautiful Gate all day I really do not know if i could address more than 2 of the staff by name!!!
I have learned from Ray some basic forms of address but they do not roll of the tongue easily. Ladies are addressed as ‘Mer’ so I am ‘Mer Jenny’ which works well for me. My name seems so simple compared to the very long and complicated Basotho names.
After lunch is sleep time for the children from 1-3 so I spent a pleasant hour with my book sitting in the grass – I actually fell asleep over it which is a real treat for the middle of the day.
At 3 pm everyone seems to wake up magically and it was time to put shoes on to go out to play for an hour on the play equipment. It was hard work and i seemed to spend my whole hour pushing a roundabout round. Some of the older children went mad on little ride on bikes. Jelly and custard was served at 4 and i thought how my work colleagues would have laughed at me trying to shovel jelly and custard in (this is the Mrs Dobson who avoids class R because they are too small and scary!!!) Still totally out my comfort zone it was bath time and lots of little bodies lined up for a dip in the bath after which i was given a big pot of vaseline and instructed to rub it on every clean dry little body. These children are adorable and so trusting as they snuggle up to have their skins shined. Into pyjamas and then more feeding time with sausage and beans and pap being the evening meal! I managed to successfully feed 2 little ones but the 3rd who was just having porridge and was very little was more of a challenge!
I really admire the house mothers who manage to successfully look after 15 children of different ages and get them all fed. I struggled to know which ones had been fed and which ones hadn’t! The noise level was high and it was with some relief that the house mother told me I had finished and I could go!
Before i left Ray brought a little boy in to meet me who is very dear to my heart. When i first visited in 2007 this little boy had just been brought in to Beautiful Gate. I can’t even begin to pronounce his name let alone spell it but he was very very poorlyl. He had TB and was HIV+ and was expressionless and sad. I have a picture of me cuddling him and he just snuggled up to me. In 2009 I met him again and he had become a robust lively little boy and today I met him for the 3rd time. He is gorgeous, tall and strong and healthy. He is one of many of Beautiful Gate’s success stories – without them his little life would have been cut short and he would not have had a chance of living.
My days work done I had to change to remove the remains of baked bean dribble from my clothes and it was with some relief that dinner was soon to be served. We were having a big family meal together and 13 of us sat down round a long table and enjoyed lasagne and garlic bread and salad. I am very excited that I have been invited to a party on Valentines Day in Nando’s! There is to be 7 of us I think (5 girls and 2 gentlemen – lucky them). I feel very privileged to be invited and it will be an experience to look forward to. It is to celebrate friendship and I do feel that i have made some good friends out here already. Laury even feels familiar enough to peel my sunburnt skin off my arm – she has a fascination with my peeling skin that no amount of creaming or oiling will stop! It’s not pretty!
Before dessert we played a 4 nations game of cricket – Australian, South African, American and English. As the only lady playing I am pleased to say I showed the men who the best nation at the sport was! The England team would have been proud of me!
Ray heads back to Cape Town tomorrow and I cannot thank him enough for travelling up here with me – I know i would have found it a lot harder on my own and it has not been easy anyway. I am feeling much more settled in now and this is feeling like home. I have met some really lovely people who I hope i will meet again during my stay and am beginning to find my niche in the life of Beautiful Gate.
By the way if anyone reading this knows Tania S-W – please pass on to her that the little hats were well received and I have a picture of KB the PR guy trying one on – they will be so useful when it ceases to be 30 degrees plus out here!
Hope internet returns tomorrow .....................till then i am heading to sleep – its tiring stuff in the heat at high altitude!
Jenny x
No comments:
Post a Comment