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Sorry for not updating my weblog for a while. Since the beginning of my stay here the number of Weblog subscribers has grown every week, which I am really happy about, but something that also raises the bar. The fact is I have gotten a bad flu and was not able to leave my bed for several days. Nothing to worry about, but the flu had unfortunate timing as I got it in my weekend going to Capetown. As a consequence I haven’t seen a thing of Capetown and I am forced to return to it in the future. After all this moaning about my disease, let’s get on with the good part of my update. Here is another long short story.

On Thursday I bought some yarn, in the colours pink and purple, to teach the older girls how to make friendship bracelets. A lot of girls have a hard time concentrating, so teaching them was actually harder than I initially thought. Till now (I’m writing my weblog on Monday night) most of them are not able to make a decent one, but I will keep on trying till they master the technique.
 

The same day we left early to go with some girls to the volunteer house. We went with B., N., N. (which is one of my favourite girls), A. and P. P. is kind of the gangster, always trying to be cool. I think there is more to her, but I did not have the chance yet to see the girl behind the mask.

This weekend we went on to St. Lucia. It was an early Saturday morning, about 5.30, when we left from the volunteer home. We did not go alone; Pete was our tour guide and some volunteerd from Mother of Peace, which is another Be More project, joined us.

Yesterday was a day of many events. First of all it was freezing cold, so all the children had to stay inside. At Agape there is a tv, so I watched Lord of the Rings part 1 with B., N. and M. on my lap. Yes, they are all about three years old and already watching Lord of the Rings. That same morning we learned some youngsters counting in English through a card game.


At our break we went for some coffee in a coffee café in a kind of mall nearby Agape. The walk to the mall is awful; you first have to go down for a 100 metres and then go back up for another 100 metres. Every time my caps are burning, and I wake up everyday with muscle pain in my ass and ties.

Hi Everybody!

This is my third day at Agape. The flight and transfering went well and were actually quite easy. Only my flight to Joburg was delayed so I had just a hour to get to my flight to Durban. It was a really stressy moment because our bagage came on the wrong belt, so after waiting a half a hour, an employee from the airport came up and told us. After getting my suitcase I went running to the check-in, but it was already closed. So I started chouting I had to catch my flight and the employee at the check-in reopened check-in just for me, which was real nice of her.

Our home is really nice and more luxurious than expected. Actually South-Africa is more developed than expected. Also at the orphanage or as the director calls Agape our 'family home,' everything looks really nice. The only things actually missing are a lot of toys and some children have very few cloting items.

Hee iedereen,

Ik ga bijna weg en de spanning begint nu al te komen. Ik zie vooral tegen het overstappen op het vliegveld van johannesburg op, maar het zal allemaal wel goed komen. Ben druk met voobereidingen bezig; koffer inpakken, lonely planet lezen etc. Als jullie op de hoogte willen blijven van mijn avonturen daar, meld je dan even aan voor de mailinglijst! Er zullen ook veel foto's komen!

Iedereen alvast fijne vakantie! LOVE

'Agape' is een kinderweeshuis bestaande uit ongeveer 45 kinderen die hun ouders aan AIDS verloren hebben. Het weeshuis wordt gerund door drie 'aunties'. De kinderen hebben vooral veel aandacht en liefde nodig, en daarom worden er elke maand 5 a 6 vrijwilligers naar toe gestuurd! Waarvan ik er binnenkort een zal zijn:)

Dit weekend heb ik mijn Be more trainingsweekend gehad. Daar heb ik al een van mijn medevrijwilligers ontmoet, een meisje genaamd Berber. Zij is al eens op het project geweest en kon me er dus veel over vertellen. Ik heb al wat foto's van verschillende kinderen gezien en namen gehoord als Boy en Peaceful. De kinderen hebben eigenlijk Zulu-namen, echter deze zijn voor de vrijwilligers niet uit te spreken. Ze hebben dus Engelse namen erbij gekregen.

Nu ik naar de training ben geweest, kijk ik nog meer uit naar mijn grote avontuur!:D