Thursday’s antics

Today has been a very hot day just right for spending in the sun playing with the children. I was supposed to be helping in the soft play baby area this morning but plans changed and I ended up in playgroup which was fine. Christian and Shane were working on the bathroom and drilling which terrified the children so we had to take them outside from very early on. I got all the kitchen equipment out which many of my friends had donated last February and I was pleased to see that it had been very well played with in the last 18 months. There was still enough there to occupy them for a good couple of hours before snacktime.  After snacktime I got some board books out which they absolutely loved and we sat in the Sun and read them until lunchtime.

Lunchtimes In my house are  very calm because the older children are still at school so it’s only a matter of feeding 5 3 and  4-year-olds (2 of which have extensive special needs) three tiny babies and one 1year old. Yes that means it’s calm - you should wait and see what happens when the 4 older ones are there in the evening. For that reason I try and take the older ones to the library after Dinner each night just to give the house mother a bit of a breather and let them concentrate on putting the younger ones to bed.

Over lunchtime Andrew, Peter and I drove into  Maseru central to meet up with the director and coach of the rugby Academy of Lesotho. The office was downtown and it was an interesting drive negotiating taxis and pedestrians coming to us from all different angles. We had to park a fair distance away as the car park was just full of taxis and it was gridlocked. I had 4 parking attendants trying to direct me to different parking spaces because they all wanted my money but luckily Peter being local was able to fend off unwanted attention and unwanted offers of car cleaning. Whilst i am Walking about very happily now with no crutches, trying to negotiate the pavement past the market was quite a challenge and i wished i had bought a crutch with me just to keep people away. Meeting the rugby coach and the man on the ground at the rugby academy was really inspiring and I can’t wait to get home and try and encourage some local rugby clubs and even football clubs to donate some of their old kit. What they are doing is going to schools and teaching them how to play rugby, boys and girls alike, and in so doing teaching them how to care for themselves and be healthy and be part of a team .the 2 guys are typical rugby players, gentle giants who are fulfilling their passion for sport and trying to introduce rugby into this football playing nation. When we left them and finally got our car out of its parking space, Peter wanted to do a bit of shopping so I drove to the mall where he went grocery shopping and Andrew and I grabbed a burger from steers fast food outlet. When I say fast food I don’t mean that speedy as we had to wait a little longer than you would expect in England but it was very tasty burger and we managed to eat it before Peter came back. I did get into rather a mess with mine with sauce coming out of every angle. Back at Beautiful Gate we went straight out to play with the children and I took some of the other older children to some quiet reading again pretty intense heat.

After feeding the children tea we cooked for ourselves and had some fishfingers and potato wedges which I was very impressed with. The three of us sat outside in the early evening darkness and listened to the crickets  - there are no frogs yet this year but the crickets made up of the lack of croaking. After dinner Andrew and I went by torchlight around the pond to visit Lindiwe and Peter while Christian had a shower after his exhausting day and a bit of relaxation time. Over the past four days he has removed 24 sinks and replaced 12, has built five Baby Baths, And removed and replaced one toilet. That’s him done - he is exhausted and tomorrow I think he will be spending the day sorting out the cupboards in our kitchen which do not shut  properly and playing with the children. He did a great job helping to feed one in my house this evening. He has also been out and about quite a bit visiting other child care centres and some of the homes of the maintenance team. 

It has been a calm day but we are all tired. Tomorrow is our last working day and then Andrew flies home on Saturday and Christian and i will leave early Sunday morning. It has been a short visit this time but long enough with a broken foot ( which is doing very well - i took a few steps minus my boot this evening)  and with a few other challenges. I have had such a wonderful time and it is great to be back among old and new friends sharing in this work. Christian and Andrew have been brilliant travel buddies although as you can imagine they have teased me mercilessly about pretty much everything.  Anyway, enough now. Time for sleep...the sun will be peeping round my curtain at 5am....

Thank you for reading.

Jenny x