a love story...

maz outside 'love story' HQ

this week has been a bit of roller coaster and as we look to leave for england tonight on the eleven hour flight from cape town to london we thought we'd update the blog for one last time from south africa.

its always hard to end a road trip but this one was especially long and we knew the end would result in us leaving africa for at least six months. over the last few weeks we had driven over 4400kms through some stunning scenery, met up with some amazing people and enjoyed each others company during the long drives between destinations.

after leaving anthony in kenton on sea on monday morning we drove to port elizabeth where we spent the evening with some friends who run an awesome charity called love story (more of which later) and then endured the long 700kms drive back from port elizabeth to grabouw, this journey is pretty straight forward but there are long stretches of road which can get a little boring and the whole trip took us just over eight and a half hours, however as we arrived we were welcomed by our good friends ali and sandy who shared a wonderful and welcome meal with us.

feeding on the streets of port elizabeth

the highlight of the week had to be our flying visit to the guys in port elizabeth, luke and elaine are friends of our eldest son, chris and his wife claire, who met in bath a few years ago. upon returning to south africa they have undertaken to give something back to the lowest of the low via their charity, love story. on monday evening we had the pleasure of joining their team as they shared a meal with the many hundreds of homeless people living on the streets in port elizabeth city centre.

young man outside government buildings

love story is so much more than handing food out but this daily programme ensures that those in most need get a health meal, monday it was a lamb soup served with rice a pap. 

it was a truly humbling experience to serve these people who came from all walks of life, white, coloured and black all congregating in front of the city hall at 6pm to receive this meal served with love by the dedicated team who not only fed the people but had opportunity to talk and pray with them as the familar faces come back each night.

elaine watson (on the right) with willie and his wife

over the last six and half years of living in south africa we have continued to see people divided by race and even though there have been many steps forward over the last twenty years, mainly under the leadership of nelson mandela, the picture south africa paints is of a new rainbow nation with everything sorted and everyone happy, however it was the poverty and desperation that joined these people together on monday evening and for anyone to get to a point of walking to a feeding station and opening themselves up shows that we have a very long way to come before we can truly say that there is harmony and peace in this incredible country.

so it is with heavy hearts that we sign off on this part of our journey but we pray that the good work that we have started will continue and that the lives that we have impacted will be changed for good forever.

ongoing travels in south africa

outside our cave home!

well we are now entering our fourth week away from the Village of Hope and the people and faces of those we know and love often come into our minds, thoughts and conversations, we pray for them and the continued work that they are doing.

we can’t believe it’s been a week since the last update, and although our week was slightly less full than the time we spent in Uganda time continues to fly past.

coffee break from the dusty roads

the onward journey from the cave accommodation we stayed in in the Drakensberg mountains down to Kenton on sea took us through some breath taking and also challenging scenery, we were so glad to have our faithful Jeep Wrangler which performed a sterling job in navigating the dirt and sand roads along the beautiful Drakensberg mountain range with the tiny country of Lesotho atop of the great peaks.

dusty maz and dusty luggage

our first overnight stop of the week was at a beef farm just out side of Kokstad, still in Kwazulu Natal I think, and we arrived after a hot and dusty day, the top of the Jeep had been down for all of the journey through the twisting and turning 4x4 roads so we had to dust everything off before unpacking into the self catering house overlooking a stunning lake.

our view from kokstad beef farmhouse

leaving the mountains and the dirt roads behind we soon connected back up to the N2 (the national highway between Durban and Cape Town) and encountering some busy road works which are transforming the single carriageways which traverse the long undulating landscape which resulted in long hold ups behind large trucks and the over 600km journey seemed to take an age to really get going.

our journey was made even the more challenging when we were stopped at a routine police road block, knowing that the Jeep’s road tax was up to date and that I had my driving licence in my wallet gave me a sense of security when we drew to a stop and the Xhosa police lady came ambling over to chat to me, however to our great despair she had a very antagonistic attitude and upon seeing my UK driving licence she immediately told me that I was committing a criminal offence as the licence wasn't valid in South Africa (of which we knew it was as we had double checked over the last six years of living and working here without any issue with the traffic police in the Western Cape) and that we had to pay an on the spot fine of R1500, around £80 or $150, which we didn't have.

she had already taken my driving licence and requested me to drive to the next town, leaving Maz by the side of the road, to get the money before she would give me the licence back, she then walked off towards her colleagues and waited for me. I’m now gonna cut a long story short and as we were keen to get out of that very tense situation I got out of my car and approached her with the only money we had which equated to quite a large sum of Rand in my hand, she gladly took this and only gave my licence back after asking me to apologise for committing this offence!

with over seven hours of driving ahead the rest of the day was a little tense as the police were really out in force and with no further funds in hand we were worried that a similar event might happen at each check point, thank God we weren't stopped and in hindsight we should have been more brash with her, perhaps taking her name and maybe even a ‘selfie’ with her as she was really out of order.

kenton where two rivers meet the sea

the rest of the week was spent at the beautiful seaside town of Kenton on Sea, a town surrounded by water, the kariega river to the east, bushmans river to the west and the sea to the south, the beaches are truly stunning and it was great to spend some time chilling, reading and recuperating after the long drives.

over the weekend we joined Anthony Geard, our good friend and Thembalitsha board member, in Adelaide in the Eastern Cape, where he was completing the purchase of a new property that will be used to start a new project in that area. It was fantastic to be with him as he signed the deal and looking at the town which sits between Fort Beaufort and Bedford there seems to be a need for the types of projects that Thembalitsha have developed over the last fifteen to twenty years, maybe to include a day care centre and to work with the youth via a sports outreach programme similar to that which we have used and developed at the Village of Hope.

singing group girls in adelaide

within minutes of our arriving some lovely local girls who were attending a sing practice next door were busy sharing their stories with us, they told us of their schooling, their sporting abilities and gave us a rousing rendition of a local xhosa song of which we were well acquainted so joined in with my laughter from the girls who couldn't believe that we knew it.

we spent the night with some friends of Anthony’s (Gary and Kate) on their farm in the middle of the bush in what was built as a British barracks in the 1830’s as the British pushed into the xhosa homelands, the barracks were huge and to think that they had been built there to secure the British positions in the frontier war was humbling and overwhelming from both stand points…..I trust that that xhosa police lady that we had encountered early in the week wasn't taking some revenge on us!

maz feeding the orphaned sheep!

after attending the local Baptist church service on Sunday morning, which was an eye opening event with the vicar’s family arriving from all around the world to celebrate the 90^th birthday of his mother, the family were quite musical so it wasn't a traditional service by any means, we returned to kenton but the trip to church was great as it was so good to meet some local people and chat with them about the challenges they see in their tiny community.

the british barracks in the middle of xhosa lands! 

we now enter our last week in South Africa for at least six months and with a few things to tidy up before we leave we can hardly believe that this time next week we will be visiting family in England and sorting the next stage of our trip, however we do hope to provide one more update before we leave South Africa on Thursday so watch this space for more info on what we will have been up to.

uganda and back

stunning sunset over lake victoria

we are currently staying in a cave in the truly stunning drakensberg mountains, the border between south africa and lesotho, this has become a space for us to chill out and rest after what has been another busy week sharing with the team at cherish in uganda.

before we go too far we really want to thank rachel parsons, a young lady whom i met through trevor waldock (more of whom later) last year for inspiring the vision for the wonderful work that cherish are doing via their projects near entebbe on the shores of lake victoria. rachel is no longer leading the project but the passion, skill and dedication that has enabled her to step down has similar hallmarks of our journey with the village of hope and to be hosted by the incredibility welcoming larissa who worked with rachel since the start of the project in 2007 was a real joy.

we came to know of rachel and this awesome project from our friend trevor waldock who served on the board of cherish and helped them through some tougher times with his skills on leadership. trevor is now in south africa where he is setting up and extending his ‘emerging leaders’ charity and we thank him for connecting us with the team at cherish.

after driving from cape town to durban we jumped on a plane, firstly to johannesburg and then onto entebbe in uganda, the international airport that serves the ugandan capital kampala, although the flights were quite short, 45 minutes from durban to joburg and just under four hours from joburg to entebbe we arrived in the dark although it was only seven o’clock in the evening. entebbe not only sits on the huge lake victoria but almost straddles the equator so the sun was very consistent in its rising and setting, seven in the morning and seven at night.

fishermen trying their luck at what the birds do so well..

we had joined larissa and her team to discuss community development and the pitfalls and highlights of setting up a project from scratch and although we had the amazing benefit of coming under the already well-established thembalitsha foundation our experiences were pretty similar. unfortunately for us the new project managers, brent phillips and his wife leah, were called away to the united states on some family business so were unable to join us but we had the pleasure of meeting chris and rebecca viola who are heading up the 'driven international ministries', chris and rebecca hail from dallas and are currently in the process of selling up and moving to zambia to start their own project in the slum areas around kobe, it was interesting to work through a well ordered programme of topics which allowed us to share our experiences with these guys.

chris and rebecca were also joined by their friends ben and liz boutin couple of prayer warriors who were seeking God as to their involvement with the driven ministries, ben and liz had very interesting stories and also bought along their youngest son, Jeremiah, who at 15 months was into everything

moses and sam

although cherish has some volunteer accommodation we were hosted at a country lake resort on the shores of lake victoria, the sights and sounds were incredible, fish eagles soared overhead swooping to catch fresh water fish that were lying beneath the surface of this incredible lake. hundreds of pide king kishers joined in the fun and with the local fishermen casting their nets into the still and clear waters it was hard to pull oneself away from the beauty of it all.

with temperatures in the high thirties during the day and never dropping below twenty at night there seemed to be little use for our hoody’s and long trousers which we had bought along for those colder evenings, however these garments came to the fore as we donned them with glee to fight off the Lake Flies and mosquitos which literally swarmed in during the early evening.

our days were spent at the huge plot that serves as a base for all the cherish projects, a school for over 250 children from the local village, homes for around 40 children infected by HIV and their house moms who live with the eight children to a home, plantations of banana’s, potatoes and tomatoes, complimented the newly built chicken runs where over 500 layer hens produce eggs that are sold to the very lodges where we and other tourists stay during their time on and around the lake.

two new projects were also just taking shape, a massive piggery, pork is very big in Uganda and the project is looking to cash in on this, and secondly the highlight for us was the newly built clinic which will mainly focus on HIV, which is an incredible problem for the area, this will serve the local community some of whom live on the islands on the lake and who have great distances to travel to get medical support.

we met the new doctor and heard of the team that she is building around her as she seeks to open the new facility on the first of april, there are bigger plans a foot as a separate maternity ward and then an inpatient unit are to be built to compliment the day clinic, this was inspiring as the need is so great but the workers are few.

the doctor waiting for her patient outside the new clinic

it was great to chew some ideas around and some of the key topics that we discussed during the week were- 'ministry verses organisation (what’s the difference)', - 'spiritual development, hiring, evaluation, salaries and firing', - 'why do we educate and how do we do it?', - 'social work, intake, care plans, resettlement, empowering families'. all of these were great to focus on, the passion and professionalism shown by cherish towards its mission was to be complimented and as we look back over our time with the village of hope we held similar ideals and models which gave both myself and maz a great sense of work well done and which we hope will be continued well after we have gone.

the team in discussion

we met up with some of the key leadership staff of the organisation, the accounts manager and a very passionate social worker who heads up a team of five, soon to be extended with the opening of the clinic, it was great to hear a man so passionate about the well-being of the community, the effects that cherish will have on it and it’s children. we also met up with the operations team, and with over 100 employees (teachers, grounds workers, drivers, social workers, house moms, kitchen staff etc.) their commitment to running a tight ship was fantastic.

maz at the community meal time!

we could go on and on about this trip but just wanted to say that there was a real sense of family and a united front on what was to be achieved and how that was going to be done, this came through from the farm hands right through to the teachers and leadership team.

egg production cherish style'

a particular highlight for me was the shared lunchtime meal, where all the staff came together to eat a communal meal, cooked under a simple outside lean to and mainly consisting of simple pap and beans, following the food some of the guys played cards (no money involved) and there was a great sense of fun and family.

the only down side to the trip was the time we could have spent with brent and leah, but we are sure that we will visit again to see first-hand the opened clinic and to chat more about the future.

end of an exhausting first week!

saying goodbye to rainbow smiles!

wow what a week it's been. its gonna be quite hard to capture everything in one post but we'll give it a go.

rob and his pizza weber conversion kit!

sports mentors with frank pienaar

firstly we had to say our sad goodbyes to the incredible team at the village of hope, we had quite a send, on friday our rainbow smiles children hosted us at a 'pool party', then we enjoyed a pizza night using rob's new fangled contraption (see photo) with our team, then i (tim) had the pleasure meeting francios pienaar with our sports mentors at the elgin country club rowing regatta, the prayers for our journey we received from the elgin united church were very moving however once we had arrived at our first destination on our journey i received some devastating news that my good friend, oggie, from the waterworks community had passed away suddenly, with food poisoning it turns out...she will be sorely missed and i can't believe that i wont see her again.

me and lindi at WSU university

our trip to durban has also been full of highlights, from interesting farm-stays in the overberg and garden route regions of the western cape to stop overs with a good friend in the university and cathedral blessed grahamstown, it's not quite oxford but is quite impressive for africa!. days were filled with long drives through some amazing scenery in the transkei (eastern cape) where we stopped off to see an ex-colleague who is starting university near butterworth, but the highlight of the week must be the meeting up of one of our little ones and his grandmother in their xhosa village about 40 minutes north east of idutya.

maz traveled in the back of the jeep for the last 40 mins!

herding the sheep

after meeting just of the N2 (national highway) we stayed over in their simple rondavel for one night, maz was encouraged to cook the freshly killed chicken whilst hosting three neighbours who had 'come to tea' (really it was a rouse to see the white people who were visiting), whilst maz was busy with that i played football with the newly purchased ball and then went out to collect the 60 sheep, 8 goats and two cows who joined the one less numbered chicken population and the pigs.......although rural with no running water or electricity the 70 year old really does run a tight ship and caring for a busy 8 year old seems to come naturally.

maz preping the chicken for the evening meal

we continued through the transkie stopping at a backpackers with some interesting people in port st john and then ending up in durban after a six hour journey on the back roads filled each moment by sights of villages on hill tops, children waving and cattle intruding our progress with taxi's trying to under and overtake at any venture.

maz outside the xhosa hut where we stayed

tonight we are staying in durban, having enjoyed a local curry and watching an wonderful light display with the lightening lighting up the sea against a backdrop of a blood red moon rising, tomorrow we take the plane to uganda where we will be joining some like minded people from a project similar to the village of hope by lake victoria and others who will be sharing stories from as far away as malwi.

what a week, highs and lows but as we look forward to a new week we still have hope in our hearts and God leading our way.....

...we're not sure of our internet availability over the next week so we will probably update in around 10 days.