Cape Town Day 2!

Day Two!

We had another fun filled day here in beautiful Cape Town. We got up this morning ready to take the ferry over to Robben Island at 9am. We were getting ready to eat breakfast at around 7:45am when some of The Team House employees asked what we had planned. We told them our Robben Island plans and they told us there was no way that we would make the 9am tour. It apparently takes a little longer to get there than we thought. We made a phone call and agreed to pay a little more to change our tickets to the 11am tour. We ate a delicious breakfast and got ready to leave around 8:45. We were on our way and the GPS turned off! We tried plugging it back it and playing around with it but it was not working. We did not have a map on us but we knew that we needed to go north. We asked cars next to us a few times for directions when we were stopped at the traffic lights but we made it! The ferry for Robben Island leaves from the V&A Waterfront. We went to the ticket office and got our tickets and then walked around a small bit of the waterfront because we had some spare time. Around 11am we boarded the ferry to head over to the island. The ferry had 3 decks to it but we were towards the back of the line so we got stuck on the bottom deck on the way to the island. It was a 30-minute ride to the island. Once we got on the island we got on a bus that took us on a tour of the island. We learned more of the history of the island and got to see the sites. The island was used for almost 400 hundred years to imprison slaves, political and religious leaders, mentally ill, leprosy sufferers, prisoners of war and most recently and what most people know it for, the political opponents of the apartheid in South Africa. After our bus tour we got to go into the high security prison and learn more about what life was like for the prisoners during the apartheid. The men that lead the tours of the prison were prisoners of the island themselves during the apartheid. It was fascinating to hear their stories. The highlight of the tour for most people is being able to see the cell that Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years on the island. It is crazy to think what life must have been like. I still have so much more to learn about the apartheid but this was really neat to learn about such recent history of South Africa. After the prison tour we headed back to the ferry. We were some of the first ones on the ferry so we got to sit on the top deck! We had a beautiful view of Table Mountain all the way back to the main land. We all agree that this 30-minute ferry ride was our favorite part of the day! We then spent the next two hours continuing to explore the waterfront. Late afternoon we decided we had enough and started to make our journey back. We decided that since we were going to pass the car rental place that we would see if we could switch out our faulty GPS. Well it turned out that the GPS was fine and it was the car that was faulty. So we ended up trading cars and we are driving a VW Polo I believe. It is not near as cute but Katy says that it is easier to drive so that is a plus. (Katy has been our driver here and we are giving mad props to this girl. She learned how to drive stick in South Africa when she got here 4 months ago. She is a champ in the city track, driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road and learning stick in a new car!) Once we were finished with our car/GPS drama we went to grab some dinner and head back to our place. We opted for the faithful Mugg and Bean for dinner and then enjoyed some time using our unlimited Internet. It was another fun filled day and we are already looking forward to what adventures we will have tomorrow!

Cape Town Day 1

Cape Town!

The next few posts will be all about Cape Town. They will be nothing fancy but they will give you an overview of our days. Maybe I will continue to go back to them and add more as time goes on but quick and simple is the name of the game for now. Most of the pictures will be posted on facebook, friend me if you want to see them!

Day 1

We started off the day bright and early at 3:20am. I got up and took a quick shower, finished packing and ate a small breakfast. Then Brady came to pick Cassie, Katy and me up at 4am to head to the airport. Check in and security were really easy at the airport and we were set to board our 6:05 flight. The two-hour flight went well and flew by compared to the flights to South Africa. When we landed in Cape Town we waited to meet up with Nicole who went to St. Francis Bay for a few days before. While we waited we got breakfast from Subway! I had a macon, egg and cheese sandwhich. Still not sure what macon is exactly. We then headed over to Avis to pick up our rental car. (I looked and it is a Chevrolet Spark. I made sure to check just for you Grandpa. J) Once we had our car we piled our bags and ourselves into it to make the drive to The Team House where we are staying. The Team House is great! They host missionaries and mission groups in Cape Town. Everyone here is so friendly and makes a personal effort to learn each of the guest’s names. We are staying in a room with a big walk in closet, spacious bathroom and bedroom with 4 twin-sized beds. Our view is the ocean for as far as we can see. It is perfect and we have a feeling that we are not going to want to leave. Once we got settled in and met a few of people who work at The Team House we got ready to check a few things off our site seeing list. We headed over to Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. This area is the southwestern most point of Africa. Not to be confused with the southern most point of Africa. To get up to the lighthouse and see the best view, we made a one-mile hike uphill at Cape Point. It was so worth it once we got to the top. The view was breathtaking. We were able to see all of the mountains that surround the coast. Ocean and mountains all in the same breathtaking view! After these two stops we headed over to Boulder Beach or as it has become known to me, Penguin Beach. It really was a dream come true to walk the boardwalk and see these beautiful birds. I loved every minute of it and could have spent hours watching the penguins talk to each other, swim and walk along the coast. I am so glad that I was able to get there. After the penguins we walked to the Seaforth restaurant for some dinner. We could actually see some of the penguins from our table outside. It was perfect. I ordered the line catch of the day, which was blue Nose fish. It was very good. We ended our evening with a run to McDonalds for ice cream. It tasted exactly like home and that was so good. We then headed back to The Team House to enjoy our unlimited Internet and a beautiful sunset right outside our window. It was a great day and it was only day 1. We are very much looking forward to the next few days of this adventure!

Week 10

Week 10

Well it has been a week and I am so ready for this Cape Town vacation! 16 hours and 2 minutes until the plane takes off but really who is counting!?!?!

Changes at the Baby House

This past week we had lots of changes at the baby house. One of the starfish kiddos went to a different home so that his special needs could be better met. Two of the big babies moved down to starfish. One of the small babies moved to big babies. And we got 2 more small babies! It has been lots of fun to have two of the big babies that I know so well down in starfish. They have been working through the transition. It is a new room with new kids and new aunties to get to know. Because they know me from big babies they have been by my side whenever possible, which is cute but it makes it hard to move or do really anything. The small baby that moved to big babies does not like that he does not get to nap as much I have heard and so he falls asleep while he is out playing and all the kids are talking. One of the new babies we got is very small. She is about 4 pounds and 6 weeks old. She was born very early but is just precious. The other one is a little boy so this brings the boy count up to two in small babies. 2 boys among 9 girls! I believe that we will continue to see more kids moved around in February also! Rumor has it that we will be getting one more in starfish and that should mean another person working as well. Yay for 3 adults with 10 toddlers! It is so hard only having two people down there.

Creepy Crawly Things

We have met our fare share of bugs here recently. I posted the picture of the crazy bug that Katy found in her room. We also had a big centipede in the bathroom that Katy and Nicole share a few days ago. The icing on the cake though has been the scorpions that we found in the flat. Nicole, Cassie and I were hanging out in the flat and Nicole’s dad called her. She moved her backpack and grabbed her phone and when she did a scorpion ran out from under her backpack. It ran under the couch so Cassie and I moved the couch and found it. Neither one of us wanted to kill the thing so we put a drinking glass over it and would take care of it later. Then Cassie stayed in the living room to call her mom. I walked over to the kitchen and then to our bedroom and as I did I saw another thing in the entryway to our bedroom. I looked at it and sure enough it was another scorpion. Well I did not like the fact that we had one in our house but two means that there must be more somewhere. I put a glass over this one as well and also went to go call home for a little bit to vent about other things that had unfolded throughout the day. After our phone calls Cassie and I decided that we had to kill these things in order to sleep that night. Neither of us could so we went down to Nicole’s room and asked her to come up and help us. She did and both of them were killed really well. Neither of these scorpions were very big but one of them did put its tail up when we removed the cup to kill it so it was mad and ready to hurt us. We had to shake out our bedding well and just a say a little prayer to keep them away while we slept. So far we have not found another one thankfully and we pray that it stays this way. I have had enough of the creepy crawly things around here to last me the rest of my stay.

Starfish Kiddos

I have enjoyed my time down in starfish but some of the kids are driving me nuts. A few of the kids are really good and most of the time they will follow directions but there are a few that will deliberately disobey what you tell them to do. (I am sure that all you parents know what I am talking about!) It is so frustrating especially when what you are talking to them about is so that they or others don’t get hurt. There are sweet moments though that make up for it. The other day when the kids were watching Barney and I was sitting on the couch taking a rest because all the work was done for the day one of the girls ran up to my arms and crawled into my lap. She then looked me dead in the eyes and took my face in her hands and touched her forehead to mine and gave me a big hug. She just had a little love that she wanted to give auntie! It was so sweet and it really does make the hard parts of the day not seem so bad. Two stories of the two extremes of working with 9 toddlers.

Starfish Songs and Prayers

There are many songs that we sing and a few prayer that we say before we eat that I thought I would share.

-The prayer is to the tune of Fraira Jacquea and it goes (the end line is just said and the we yell AMEN),

Thank you Father, Thank you Father

For our food, For our food

Many many blessings, Many many blessings

Amen, Amen

God bless our food before we eat, AMEN

-One of the songs the Aunties sing during Bible Story time goes

Kingdom come by fire by fire by fire

Kingdome come by fire by fire

Kingdom COME! The kids yell the last come each time with hands in the air.

-One more for now is for whenever the kids answer a question correctly or need some positive encouragement for doing something well. It is to the tune of Old MacDonald.

(child’s name) is a clever girl, EIEIO

(child’s name) is a clever boy, EIEIO

EIEIEIO, EIEIO

The kids love to hear their name in this song.

I will put more up as I keep learning them. It is so much fun to sing with them when they know the song.

Orphan Safe House

This past Friday I had the day off and so did some of the other girls. We tagged along with Brady and Candy to an orphan safe house that they visit every Friday. They go and hang out with the kids who range in ages from 17 to about 3 I would guess. All of them are orphaned and live in this house. Candy and Brady do a Bible lesson with them and then just spend some time loving on them. I loved my time at the orphan safe house and am looking forward to going back on more of the Fridays that I have off. It is fun to have real conversations with the older kids and chase around the little ones.

Odds and Ends

-       Most of the movies that we watch take place in the States. Many times I will see something in these movies that I really want. They can be simple things like going to a park at home, a bowl of Lucky Charms or just be surrounded by everything familiar. It is really something to experience movies in this way.

-       On the way to the Orphan Safe House this past week we pasted a zebra on the side of the road just like we have horses on the side of the road at home. It was behind a fence just like the horses are also. Much cooler than seeing a horse though.

-       We had girl’s night this past Monday. It consisted of take out from Steers, including ice cream, watching Charlie St. Cloud, painting nails and listening to One Direction. Moments like these are some that I really love here and will really miss when I get home.

-       I was bit for the first time this past week. I did not see it coming but she was so excited from all the tickles that I was giving her and this was the only way she thought to respond. The little girl who bit me was HIV but she did not break the skin so I am safe. Thanking the Lord for that but she did leave a pretty good bruise.

-       Many of the aunties have commented how much the kids in starfish love me. Whenever I get on the floor or go sit on the couch they come running. It is really sweet but sometimes we have to go over personal space because as much as I love them, it can be exhausting to have 9 kids on you at the same time!

Prayer Requests

I have two specific prayer requests at this time. The first one is for transportation. There has been a lot that went on recently with transportation that I am not going to get into but we do not have a car that the volunteers have access anymore. Prayers for a miracle, and until then that we can find many willing people to help with simple tasks such as grocery shopping. I have joked to my parents before that I will probably cry when I see my jeep at home again and I have to believe that it will not be a joke. I am so looking forward to having my driving freedom back at home and will forever have a changed view of those that need help with transportation. The second request is for health. The past few weeks the toddlers have been passing around a cold to each other and I pray that none of us working with them catch it. Thank you for all of the faithful prayer this far in the journey. They are felt and have made a difference. Keep them up!

A verse that has come up over and over again since I have been here comes from Paul in the book of Romans, Romans 8:28. It reads, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” I had read it once from scripture when I first got here and it really hit me but I just kept hearing it or reading it in other things that I read. I looked it up again the other night and just feel in love with the whole passage that it comes from. The title of the section in the NIV Bible is More than Conquerors and that alone I find powerful. The rest of chapter 8 after verse 28 reads, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God had chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died- more than that, who was raised to life- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This is such an incredible promise that God gives us and it does mean that we are more than conquerors! Praise the Lord! This is the promise that I am leaning on when things get hard and they have and I know that the hard is not yet done. I hope that you can find a bit of encouragement from this today as well.

Loving and missing you all at home,

Emily

P.S. You are going to be spoiled with Cape Town updates often this week because we have Internet at the place we are staying! It is the small things in life friends, unlimited Internet for a whole entire week. I think I just might be more excited than a kid on Christmas day! 

Pictures for Week 10

Katy found this bug in her room. It was not alive. We did hear though that these bugs can grow really big and they jump on people and spray this black sticky stuff at them. Don't worry though because they are not poisonous. 

We got a crazy rain the other day again along with some hail.  

So much rain!

Living room in starfish

Dining room lined with higchairs

Other side of the living room

This picture is taken from the living room looking into the dining room on the left and the kitchen straight ahead.

The saying painted on the wall

One of the starfish bedrooms with 3 cribs

The other bedroom with 7 cribs

The dark room. This is the clean laundry that is waiting to be folded and put away by night shift. 

Week 9

Week 9

Starfish aka Toddlers

The toddler section of the baby house is known as starfish. The name comes from the widely known story of the man walking on the beach. This is the story is you have not ever heard it, A young man is walking along the ocean and see a beach on which thousands of starfish have washed ashore. Further along he sees an old man walking slowly and picking up one starfish after another and tossing each one gently into the ocean. “Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?” He asks. “Because the sun is up and the tide is going out and if I don’t throw the further in they will die.” “But old man don’t you realize there are miles of beach and starfish. You can’t possibly save them all. You can’t even save one tenth of them. Even if you work all day your efforts won’t make any difference at all.” The old man listened calmly and then bent down to pick up another starfish and threw it into the sea. “It made a difference to that one.”

 I made the transition from big babies to starfish on the first. So far it has been crazy. There is so much to learn and the day is not near as relaxing as in big babies. I thought that 14 big babies was crazy but 8 toddlers is beyond crazy. I say the words no and come ALL THE TIME! The kids are super adorable and I really love them but wow can they drive me up the wall. There are a few special needs in starfish that can make the day tricky as well. One of the girls has autism and is nonverbal and one of the boys has CP. 4 of the kids have HIV. One of the boys came in with scabies and TB but is on medication and is much better now. I should be fine health wise being around all of these different illnesses as long as I am smart and follow the precautions that are in place for us. I am not at all worried. One of the tricky parts of starfish is the discipline. There are two things that we are able to do to disciple the kids. We are allowed to slap their hands when they disobey or we can put them in the dark room. The dark room is the small 3 foot by 3 foot square that is like a hallway of sorts. One of the baby rooms is on the left another is on the right and the kitchen also comes off this hallway and there are doors on all of these rooms so the hallway can be closed off and dark, hence the name dark room. The dark room is essentially a time out. The dark room is not always the most effective punishment but it can be nice for the adults to have a time out away from the kids as much as getting the kids away for a few minutes.

Starfish Schedule

7:am- We get the kids out of bed and put them directly into their highchairs to eat breakfast.

7:15ish- We start feeding the kids breakfast. They have porridge everyday for breakfast and they are great eaters for the most part.

7:45ish- We bathe the kids. Each of the kids gets a bath everyday. For some of the kids we have to wear gloves when we bathe them because of the HIV and other illnesses that they have. This helps to protect us from getting anything. When we bathe the kids we change their diaper, brush their teeth, wash their bodies, wash their hair and put lotion on them. This process is a slippery ordeal everyday. Everything is wet at the den of bath time with 8 toddlers. After the get out of the bath we just put a diaper on them and send them to play. After everyone is bathed we then get them dressed in the living room where it is much more dry. This keeps their clothes for the day dry.

8:00am- First round of medications. Many of the kids get multiple medications each day. One of the little guys has 10 different medications that he must take everyday. Each of the medications needs to be given on time.

8:30am- Bible Story time. We read a story from the children’s Bible to the kids everyday. We also spend time clapping for Jesus and praying with the kids and singing. When the aunties pray here most of the time it is out loud and usually in their native language, which just sounds like a lot of sounds to many of us. The kids then pray and it is just a bunch of sounds and it is so cute to hear them.

8:45am- We have learning time. Each of the days we focus on something different such as numbers, letters, colors, shapes, animals and so on. This can be a trying time as the kids are not the best listeners.

9:00- Exercise time. We get out two big exercise balls and spend time with the kids rolling them on the balls.

9:30am- Milk time. The kids all still get formula for young kids. Two of the kids drink from a bottle but most of the kids drink from a sippy cup.

10:00am- We have tea time. Each of the people working take 15 minutes at separate times for a quick break. The kids are just having free play during this time. We also take time to hang laundry and such during this break time. We also give out more medication during this time.

10:30am- Snack time. All the kids sit on the tile floor and we have a snack together. They love snack time.

10:45am- Educational craft time is what the schedule says but most of the time it is coloring or play-doh. Most of the kids just try and eat the crayons or play-doh so this time is usually really short.

11:00am- Outside play as long as the weather is nice. We have a patio area that the kids can ride the ride on toys on and also a grass area with swings and a slide. Everyone loves this time because we are in a new space and have more room.

11:45am- Lunch. Right before lunch we change all the kid’s diapers. The kids eat all of their food mashed together. After they finish eating they also get a small glass of water. They drink their water out of a plastic cup without a lid. They are pretty good at it.

12:00pm- More medications have to be given out.

12:30pm- Nap time. The kids take a nap and the aunties have devotions before lunch.

1:00pm- I take my lunch break.

2:00pm- I go back and sit in the living room for starfish while auntie goes out to take a break. The kids are still sleeping so I usually take a book to read. It is really nice to have such a long break.

3:15pm- Get the kids up and change diapers. We then all sit down for a snack. After snack they get a tiny glass of juice also. During this time we are also putting the kids in their pajamas.

3:30pm- Music time. We play games with song like London Bridge is Falling Down, Ring Around A Rosey and Head and Shoulders, Keens and Toes and so on. The kids really love this time.

4:00pm- Free play time. This can be inside or outside depending on the weather and how the day is going.

4:45pm- Supper time. The kids eat baby cereal for toddlers every night for supper.

5:15pm- TV time. We put a movie on for the kids to watch. We watch the likes of Barney, Teletubbies and Winnie the Pooh.

6:00pm- Night shift comes and takes over for the next hour with the kids before they go to bed.

The days are really busy and unlike in big babies we do all of our own cleaning in starfish. We have to clean the kitchen and the bathroom and bedrooms and living room everyday. It makes for a really busy day. I am still adjusting to the days and the naughty behavior but it has been fun. I am excited to write more about my starfish adventures during the month.

Dinner Out

The other day after work we decided to go out to dinner together. We went to Mimmos, which is in The Glen. Mimmos is an Italian family restaurant. It is delicious! I ordered a pizza and even had leftovers to take home with me. We also got dessert. I have heard about the cookie brownie sundae from Mimmos for the last 2 months and finally tasted it the other day. Heaven in a pan. It is a fresh baked cookie and brownie that is made in a little skillet on the stovetop. It is then topped with ice cream and chocolate and even has the cherry on top. It was so good and I know that I will be having at least one more before I leave. It is just a good thing that Mimmos does not have Internet or we would be in trouble, it is that good. While the food was great, the company was even better. It is so fun to be able to go out as a group for a simple thing like a meal and just chat. Conversation usually starts with the babies and then moves into childhood memories and stories about friends and family from home. I am so excited to see what the next few months bring us together!

Prayer Request

All three of the baby houses are getting close to capacity if they have yet already reached capacity. We are praying here that loving families step up to adopt these beautiful babies so that we have room in the homes for the new babies that are brought to us. As much as we love the babies here I think that we love seeing them leave more because we know that they are starting life the way that it is meant to be lived, with a family.

Sending my love from South Africa,

Emily

A Few Holiday Photos

Christmas turkey and sparkling cider. 

Renita and me

I took way to many pictures of our food. Vegetables! They were tasty!

Dinner was pringles, gummy bears and cake. l-r is Cassie, Renita and Nicole

The delicious cake covered in glitter!

I already wrote the holiday post but here are a few pictures to go along with it!

The Holidays

Week 8- The Holidays- Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

 Pictures to come!

Baby Dedications

On the 23^rd I was able to go to another set of baby dedications at Berea Baptist Church. I went with two of the other volunteers, Cassie and Renita. There were 5 babies from baby house 3 that were being dedicated. We were picked up and then went to get the babies from baby house 3. These are not the babies that I usually work with and it was actually my first time meeting them and seeing baby house 3. Renita has worked at baby house 3 a few times but not in the last month. It took a little time but the babies did warm up to us strangers after a little while. Once the dedications were done we walked over to baby house 2, which is right behind the church. Cassie and the other aunties gave the babies bottles and let Renita and I go back and sit through the rest of the church service. We went back to the baby house to help load the back in the car after church just as one of the local new stations was finishing an interview at the baby house. We were not interviewed but we could be on the news here tonight! You just never know what kind of surprises are going to come here!

Christmas Eve

We all had the day off so we slept in! Then I did a little cooking and cleaning. After lunch we all went and lied out by the pool for a while. It was so much fun to be able to say that we hung out by the pool on Christmas Eve. Then we showered and got dressed up a little more than shorts and t-shirts to go over to Candy and Brady’s house for a Christmas Eve party. Candy and Brady are missionaries from the States that have been here for just over a year. They have 4 kids between the ages of 13 and 6. We had pizza and Christmas goodies. We sat around and chatted for a while and then we were able to use some of their Internet to Skpye home. We finished the evening by watching Merry Madagascar. It was a great day spent in really good company.

Christmas Day

Here is a play by play of Christmas day because I know that some of you are waiting for it! I worked for the day and it was great to be able to spend the day with the babies, the volunteers and the aunties. We got the babies up in the morning and dressed them in new clothes. They were not Christmas clothes but they were clothes donated to the baby house by a company and all of the babies matched. They looked very cute all dressed up. The morning went on like normal with bottles, play time and cereal followed by their morning nap. After their nap and our teatime we got busy. We were delivered a turkey in the morning along with vegetables and potatoes. The turkey was already cooked and we just had to make the rest of the food. The aunties started the vegetables, zucchini, butternut squash, and potatoes roasting in the oven. They also started cooking some rice on the stovetop. We gave the babies their bottles. Once the babies had finished their bottles and the cooking was underway we got busy with a Christmas day photo shoot with the babies. First we got a few pictures with all of the babies in the baby house. We brought the toddlers upstairs and go the big babies and toddlers all lined up. Then we brought the small babies over and took a few pictures. After the pictures we took the small babies back to their room and took the toddlers back downstairs but the photo shoot was far from over. Everyone has ‘their’ babies. In whatever areas you work you become more attached to some of the babies and they become your babies. Everyone knows whose babies are whose. Because we have our babies we took a few ‘family photos’ with them. The Christmas tree is right near the fireplace so it was the perfect setting for some family pictures. Each of the volunteers had a turn with their babies and I played photographer with my new camera for the photo shoots It was so much fun and we got some very cute pictures. I also have my family picture with baby A, baby T, baby P, and baby L. I love it. Once the photo shoot was over it was time to feed the babies baby food. After lunchtime for the babies it was naptime for them and lunchtime for us. We had a great meal with all the vegetables, rice and turkey and complete with sparkling apple cider. Yes even me the picky eater found that zucchini and butternut squash are pretty good! We then had dessert of canned peaches with custard and homemade whipped cream, German cookies and a cake that was brought over in the morning. It was a great meal filled with excellent conversation about Christmas traditions. After lunch was cleaned up it was time to finish the day with the babies by giving them their bottles and playing for a little bit before bed. Once we were done with work we went back to Renita’s flat for the rest of the evening. We were planning to jump in the pool before we left to say that we went swimming on Christmas but it was storming and had gotten much colder out so we had to skip that part of the day. We had a dinner of junk food including cake, cookies and gummy bears. We then read the Christmas story in German and in English before watching a Christmas movie together, painting nails and drinking hot chocolate with candy canes. It was a different Christmas than I have ever experienced but it was a great day.  It was a Christmas that I will never forget.

The babies

This past week was my last week in big babies for at least the next month. In January I start working with the toddlers. I thought I would share a few more of the funny or sweet stories from the big babies recently.

-       Baby is A is a little girl around the age of 8 months. She is small is size but huge in personality! She is a happy baby and loves to play. We have recently started calling her the bully of the group and have had to talk to her about this. She is always crawling over to someone, she then crawls on top of the baby to pin her/him down and then proceedes to take the helpless baby’s toy away. He does this all day long. The baby next to her can have the toy that she wants but she will first find the place where the most babies are hanging out and go crawl all over them before she tackles the baby with the toy that she wants. When she crawls over all the babies she is not silent and sneaky about it either, she lets out her baby A roar. It is soooo funny. It is so hard to get made at her for being mean to the other kids because she is just so darn cute! She has the biggest most beautiful eyes and the most precious smile. Hopefully she will start to grow out of this phase but for now we will just keep pulling her off from other kids and talk about being nice instead of being a bully.

-       Most of the toys that the babies play with are plastic because they are the easiest to keep clean. We doe have some wooden toys and a few stuffed animals that are washed at least once a week. One of the toys that we found recently was at the bottom of a basket that we don’t use much. It was a little baby doll. It was just sitting on the floor the other day and baby T was crawling around. He came across this doll and just looked at it. He then would touch it but quickly pull his hand away and yell after he did. This continued for a long time and finally he just started to cry. We had to take the doll away from him. Not sure if he was just scared of it or thought it was another baby that had something wrong or what but it was funny. Baby T is not the only one to have a funny interaction with the doll. Baby Z started to cry the other day and we could figure out what was wrong. She had toys in front of her including the doll but was just not happy. Finally we picked her up and moved her. She was fine. Late on she started to cry again and we saw that she was looking at the doll. We brought it over to her and asked her if that is what she wanted and she started to cry harder. She is terrified of this doll. Needless to say the doll has been put back away for right now.

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day

I have gathered that the New Year is a really big deal in South Africa. Everyone does something for the New Year and is excited to celebrate for at least a week in advance. For New Year’s Eve we all had the day off from work but we did not do much during the day. We did have plans for the night though. We went to a missionary family’s house for a party. It ended up being two missionary families and a few more young adults along with the 6 of us from Door of Hope. We had pizza and other goodies for the night. It is also one of the family’s traditions to make music videos. There are groups that get together and pick a song and put together a little routine to the song. Then they are preformed for the video camera. Once all the videos are made then everyone sits down and watches them all. The six of us made our video to Baby by Justin Bieber. The video turned out really funny. I would not be surprised if it ends up on facebook. We stayed until midnight and prayed in the New Year together. It was a really neat experience. We ended up getting to bed around 1am and had to be to work the next morning at 7am. I ended up getting about 5 hours of sleep. I started off 2013 working my first day in toddlers or the starfish program. So on five hours of sleep I went and cared for 8 toddlers for 11 hours. It turned out to be a really good day and I think that I will enjoy this month with them. They are a funny bunch of kids and I will have some great stories from them. It is fun to have kids that will respond with words. One of the little girls, X, always come up to you and says auntie and reaches up to you to be picked up. It is the sweetest thing and melts my heart and I just have to pick her up every time. There are a few kids that will also come up to you whining mama. It is heartbreaking when you hear it. You just have to give them a little extra loving when you hear it.

A Second Home

I was not sure when I got here that South Africa would ever feel like home but the feeling is starting. I have grown to love the babies, the aunties and the volunteers. The volunteers have become friends and even more than that they have become my South African family. We will forever share a special bond of serving here at Door of Hope together and I love that. No one will understand this part of our lives like each other. I am looking forward to the nest 4 months that I have left in this beautiful country!

Odds and Ends

-       Candice has arrived! She is a volunteer that will be here for the nest year and she is from Australia. It is fun to have another accent in the house. I am excited to get to know her and say that I have a friend in Australia now too!

-       It is HOT here. The past few days have been really warm. The babies and we are sweating up a storm. It has to be close to between 85 and 90 degrees I would have to guess.

-       Renita leaves on January 2. She is the volunteer from Germany. This will be the first really emotional goodbye for me. It will be hard to see her go. She has been here for six months. I have loved getting to know her and she will be missed around here very much.

-       I believe that the day after Christmas is a bigger holiday here than Christmas Eve is. We went to The Glen on the day after Christmas to get dinner and Internet for a little while. By 6pm when we got there everything was closed already except for Mugg and Bean and a few other restaurants. After dinner we walked around for a little while and found Santa’s chair so we took a few pictures in that before we went home for the night. It is crazy how much fun an ‘unexpected’ trip to The Glen is!

-       I am really missing the 24 hour Meijer just a stone’s throw away from home. The grocery stores close usually between 6 and 7pm here. It is tricky to always have transportation to get to one and be picked up before 7 pm unless it is a day off from work. I will be so thankful for my own vehicle and ability to get around when I get home. Such a little thing that I took for granted before I left.

-       The Cape Town countdown is on! 2 weeks from today we fly out for almost a week of vacation bliss! Cassie, Nicole, Katy and I are very excited for a little time away and to continue to explore South Africa. I can’t wait to a big body of water again and experience dreams come true when we go to Boulder Beach or as it has become known to me as penguin beach.

-       We have been passing our time here in the flat by reading People magazine…from 2010. We are catching up on the gossip from about 2 years ago. It is really comical to read these.

-       We got a package from Talitha. She was a volunteer that was here for about a month when I first got here. She is from the Netherlands. It was so fun to get a Christmas gift of goodies from the Netherlands.

-       On Sunday when I was working we were commenting that we were seeing a lot of white butterflies all day long. It was not long after that that thousands of butterflies appeared in the sky. They were everywhere. It looked like it was snowing there were so many butterflies. We have heard that this will happen again with the yellow butterflies.

I have recently read Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 entitled A Time for Everything. This is what it reads in the NIV,

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.”

This is the wording that the Message uses,

“There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:

A right time for birth and another for death,

A right time to plant and another to reap,

A right time to kill and another to heal,

A right time to destroy and another to construct,

A right time to cry and another to laugh,

A right tome to lament and another to cheer,

A tight time to make love and another to abstain,

A right time to embrace and another to part,

A right time to search and another to count your losses,

A right time to hold on and another to let go,

A right time to rip and another to mend,

A right time to shut up and another to speak up,

A right time to love and another to hate,

A right time to wage war and another to make peace.”

I have bolded the phrases in each passage that have especially stood out to me the past few days. It is interesting to see where the phrases line up and where they don’t. While reading this I started to continue it and write a few phrases that apply to my life right now.

a time to be in South Africa and a time to be in the States,

a time to work and a time to be off,

a time to be employed and a time to volunteer,

a time to be together and a time to be apart,

a time to have adventure and a time to rest,

a time for people to come and a time for them to leave,

I could have kept going and I plan to while writing in my journal daily. These verses and this exercise really helped me to see the importance for every moment that we are given. There really is a time for everything.

Happy New Year to you all! I pray that this year is filled with blessing for each of you. It has already started that way for me and I am excited to see what God has in store for 2013 because I have to believe it is much better than I can even begin to imagine!

Emily

P.S. I am blown away every time I get on the blog and see how many times it has been viewed. We have passed 1500 views already! Just a friendly reminder that I love to read the comments when they are posted, so don’t be shy!