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.