The headline this month has to be the near completion of a new home that at team of students from Stuttgart University have not only built for us, but also designed and funded which is an incredible answer to prayer.
The house has been created using local materials, straw, clay, water, local timber and much thought has gone into the using recycled materials where possible. The fronts of the kitchen cupboards are made out of old ship sail, the windows in the kitchen and bathroom from old washing machine doors and the insulation (other than the cob style walls) is made from fibre made of old plastic bottles.
The house will be used as part of our volunteer accommodation. Initially it will provide Rob, Em and their children with some space away from the shorter-term volunteer unit. They have been living in the volunteer unit since they arrived over 18 months ago and are very excited about their new home! In turn this will also enable Mel Kidd (another long termer) to move into her own room and hopefully give her some much-needed privacy.
Over the past month we have watched the students mix the clay and straw walls, tread them down around the substantial timber frame, install the roof and ceilings, and generally throw themselves into making this home. It’s a great addition to our project and they’ve done it with such enthusiasm (working all hours God sends) and dedication and produced something that they can be proud of which will stand the test of time.
There is still some work that needs to be done. Floors and the concrete work tops need sealing and we will need to wait for another month or so for the cob walls to dry out before we can apply the final finish to the inside and outside walls.
The weather has continued to be a blessing to us with temperatures still in the late 20’s or early 30’s most days however the nights are getting colder as we near winter so we can expect the rainy season to be on us very soon.
The children have just enjoyed their first of two ‘autumn’ holiday’s playing in the garden, around the jungle gym and making regular visits to see the new house being built. Whilst the German students haven’t had much time to be with the children they have grown to love them and their visits to check if they are still working!
A few of our ‘discharged’ (such a harsh word for the miracles that these children are) children were able to visit us for the morning as we celebrated our second birthday - Yes, I know, hasn’t time flown! Also the little girl who now lives with a new foster mom in Khayelitsha wanted to come up and spend some of her holiday with us. This was really precious and encouraged us to think that the children do have an amazing time with us and that they want to return to visit when they can.
We were able to provide a home for a short time for a baby boy who’s mother was in hospital having tests and treatment for ‘multi drug resistant TB’. It was a joy to be able help out in this desperate situation; one of many that we see in our community every single day.
We (me and Maz) are going to make a long, but exciting, road trip over the Easter weekend to visit one of our other discharged children who now lives in the rural Xhosa homelands of the Eastern Cape. It’s actually very close to where Nelson Mandela comes from. We were invited to come and stay by his Granny who is keen to show us around the area. She is desperate for a ‘Village of Hope’ in that area which is where many of our Black community come from and where the AIDS virus has taken an even more devastating toll on the local people. Who knows there may be a calling to create a Village of Hope II?
Sports Outreach & Community Work
The work that we are doing in our local community with the 9 – 15 year olds has once again extended back up to 5 areas. We have reconnected with the boys in the Waterwerks informal settlement which, aside from our Iraq squatter camp, must be one of the poorest areas in our town with maybe 20,000 people living one on top of another in basic tin and timber structures with little or no sanitation or electricity. That said, the kids are wonderful and we have identified a new local leader who will help us with that project.
It really is a privilege to be able to share some basic sports and life skills along with bible stories with these children each week. The students from HAN university in Holland have also helped us to introduce a health section to the programme which has been fun. We’ve started to teach the children how to wash their hands and when to do it and will be moving on to dental hygiene over the next couple of weeks.
Our numbers are growing and the children seem to enjoy themselves. Arron is doing really well with his team in Rooidakke (more on them later), and Sophie Child has made a huge difference as we try to introduce Netball into that area too. We also have 3 committed local mentors who are really stepping up to the plate as we invest in them so they can invest in their peers.
The new Dutch students helped with the organising of our first sports Saturday of the year. 11 boys’ soccer teams and 3 girls netball teams made up of the children that we work every week in our communities, joined us at the Elgin Country Club for a morning of fun and competition. The German students provided much needed hands on support as team managers and really got into the event wearing their team colours and encouraging the children, win, lose or draw!
After the 90 or so children had received their prizes and a bowl of hot soup (slightly out of season given the sweltering temperatures - however that was probably the only hot meal of the day that they would have received), the Dutch students challenged the Germans to a 9-a-side football match! This was not necessarily the best idea given the history of the nations but a great game was had by all! I played for the Dutch team who, because of me, Shane (our American volunteer) and a Dutch girl, were the weaker side compared the German Team who Arron played for! The result? Well let’s say that history repeated itself with the game being decided by a hotly disputed penalty which was given by our English ref, Rob House, in the last minute of extra time...You can guess who won!
The prize for the winning boys’ side is to take them down the mountain to play a match against one of my friend’s sides in the Lwandle Township. That’s happening this coming Saturday so please pray for the Rooidakke under 16 team as they play against a very good Lwandle team. We need to find them all football boots or trainers before they can compete which may prove a challenge.
Animal Antics:
With the new house taking up a lot of our thinking time it’s hard to know what else to write about, however we have now got 4 little laying chickens who are providing a regular supply of eggs to our children’s unit. The pigs are growing and Arron is keen not only to turn some of that into bacon but also to extend our livestock to include turkeys, which we have heard are very tasty around Christmas time!
Our New Look:
You may have already seen my blog post about our new logo but this is the first newsletter since then! We are very excited about our new look and are busily starting to apply it to all our documents and communications. Of course we are indebted to Mel Kidd, our onsite long term volunteer, who just happens to be an Art Director and created the logo.
Good Food For A Great Cause:
We had a very successful evening a couple of weeks ago where we had the opportunity to raise the awareness of the charity locally and get a bit of extra dosh too! A local chef, Gordon Manuel and his wife Emma, offered to host a meal for us at their restaurant, which is on one of the many stunning wine estates close to here. They provided the venue and their skills for free and all we had to do was pay for the ingredients for the meal. We managed to fill the restaurant with local movers and shakers who bought tickets for the gourmet food which Gordon provided. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the evening where we were able to share a bit about what we do and show a short DVD. We are hoping to do another similar event later on this year. We also raised not far off £1000 which is not to be sniffed at!
Volunteers:
We have been joined by Shane Johnson from the InFocus church in Augusta, USA. He will be with us for 3 months and joins Sophie our other longer term/short term volunteer. It’s great to see returning people and we trust that he will enjoy his stay. That said, we have had a stomach virus going around not only the volunteer unit but also within the German building team and all of our volunteers have been hit by that over the last month.
We have already hosted 10 volunteers on the project this year (and that’s excluding the German team) so we are happily busy. We even have bookings for people who want to come and volunteer for 2012 which is amazing – and very good forward planning! So if you are interested in coming out any time soon don’t be slow in applying!
Grandparents Again!:
We (Tim and Maz) are also celebrating the birth of our second Grandson, Elijah, who was born late on Sunday 10th April. We will be returning to England to make a short visit to see him, as well as planning in time to make a visit to the German University, which we are very much looking forward to.
Events
The prayer day which we organised last month was extremely successful. Thank you to all those who signed up to pray on that day. We are already seeing amazing breakthrough since the event. You can read more details about it from the blog post earlier this month. It makes us wonder why we didn’t think of doing it before! We are planning another one for October which will coincide with the Thembalitsha Foundation’s Birthday. We will keep you posted with more information nearer the time.
We are planning our annual Cycle for September and we still have places available for a the 10k London Run in July. Please get in touch if you would like more details. We are also looking at doing a charity ball for World AIDS Day this December.
If you have an idea for an event that you would like to organise for us do let us know as we would love to have more things planned in the diary for this year and desperately need more people to be doing stuff for us. We will do our best to support you in making it successful.
How You Can Help
We are never short of ideas on how you can help us out!!!!
• Become a regular monthly giver - Regular givers are like gold dust to us!!! You can download a standing order form from our website – don’t forget to sign a gift aid form if you are a UK tax payer
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise £1000s with enough enthusiasm! We also have annual walks, runs and bike rides. For more information contact us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk
• Pray – Sign up to the prayer newsletter. Prayer is just as vital to us (if not more so) than money! We can’t have enough people committing to pray persistently for us. Sign up at prayer@thembalitshauk.org.uk
Volunteering
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff out here in South Africa. It can be a fantastic way to give (and receive!) However, we do have some criteria you have to meet in order to apply. For more information on Volunteering for the Village of Hope please download the INFORMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS documents from our website (www.thembalitshauk.org.uk). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!
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