lots of 'rainbow smiles' at the beach...

which colour are you gonna choose?

snacks on the beach

on friday we spent an eventful afternoon with the children from our HIV support group, 'rainbow smiles', as we took them to the beach at gordons bay...eventful in many ways, for some of the children this was the first time at the beach, somewhat crazy to think that it's less than 20 minutes from their homes but in their world it's a million miles from their day to day surroundings. eventful as hardly any of them had a change of clothes, let lone swimming kit and a beach towel, not an everyday item when you live in a home with no running water or electric, eventful as we blessed them with a visit to the ice cream parlor and gave them the option to chose a flavour....not something that many of them have ever had the chance to do before, eventful as some of the ice creams ended up in the sand!.....eventful in the fact that rob's faithful landrover broke down just as we arrived at the beach and we had to not only tow that to the garage but also try to work out how we to get the number of children back up the mountain, all with seat belts, and safely back to their homes.

too much choice!

for us at the village of hope these are some of the items we have to deal with on a daily basis, the disparage between those that have and those who have never had, the fact that most of our vehicles break down at least once a month and with the cost of repairs and fuel rising this is an increasing drain on our resources, in fact the toyota bakkie is back in the garage after a week off the road with gearbox problems!.....but none of these things seem to matter for that short couple of hours when we were able to bless these 15 children who attend our weekly club with some fun and games at the local beach...

..the lives they live are very complex, living with HIV comes with it's obvious health issues but the social and economic issues that surround and overwhelm them as perhaps unseen by many, but to see the joy in their eyes at the sight of the sea, the sand beneath their feet and the happiness at being able to be a child for just a moment as they splashed around in the water was another amazing experience and its great to be able to invest in their lives in this small way. so we want to thank all our supporters for the funds that are donated so we can do what we do for these very special kids.