bruno gone but never forgotten!

our little bruno is missing!

yes that's right our wonderful little jack russell, bruno, has gone missing. a week last saturday he went out on a 'run' with one of our volunteers, and never returned. we think that he followed a bike race which was taking place in the mountains around the village of hope and ended up at the elgin country club, where he was seen on saturday afternoon.

what happened next we don't know, did someone take him home, did he get lost on his way back or did he get into trouble with a snake or a snare?...we have put a 'wanted' article in our local paper but we haven't heard anything since that came out last friday.

whatever it seems like we have seen the last of him, which is a real shame cause he was a real character around the place, the children in the unit loved him and he was the first dog that i had ever owned...and i miss him :-(

birthdays and a new child

party time at the village of hope, again!

once again we are back up to a full compliment of 9 children here at the village of hope, it's wonderful to offer a child in desperate need a home but there is always a sense of the depth of the problem that created the need for that child to be placed with us. this new 18 month old girl comes from the iraq squatter camp area of grabouw and the family are struggling to keep her on the anti rectro viral treatment that will suppress the HIV that is attacking her immune system.

we have already been to visit the mom and dad at their home and we are expecting them to make their first visit to see their child this morning. we hope that the time that this little girl spends with us will enable us to not only stabilise her condition but also help her family understand her complex needs.

yesterday afternoon we were able to throw a party for a new little two year old girl, who not only celebrated with her new friends but her mother bought up a cake which is fantastic news and shows the commitment that she is making towards her child which is very encouraging.

watermarks...identifying the maker

on saturday morning we were fortunate to visit the barnard gallery in newlands, cape town, to view the exhibition by duncan stewart called watermarks. we only met duncan a few weeks ago, as our good friend set us up to stay over with duncan and has wife natalie in their home in port elizabeth as we traveled to the transkie (see ealier post).


we were so blessed to meet this amazing man, who has a living faith in christ and who challenges people through his art to think beyond ourselves. it was great to hear duncan speak, not only about the art, but what inspired him. his work has such depth and can be viewed on many different levels, watermarks is subtitled 'identifying the maker' and duncan explores the use of water within this work and asks the question of what watermark would we have if we were held up to the light, would we have the makers watermark?

if you are in cape town, or even south africa, then please take time to visit the gallery on main street in newlands and be inspired and even challenged by the depth of the art that duncan is exhibiting.

have a look at his web site here and visit the gallery's site here.

11th birthday....for our eldest boy..!

joy at seeing his birthday cake...
he didn't really eat it as he loves meat!

today our wonderful eldest boy here at the village of hope celebrated his 11th birthday, maz and the team organised a party for him, with loads of sticky cake and sweet things, however his favorite food has always been inyama, or in english 'meat'....therefore there was plenty of biltong and pepperoni pizza for him to feast on.

inyama......meat pizza

the day wasn't all joy and presents as he had to make his scheduled visit to the red cross children's hopsital for his check ups. maz, mel and one of our house moms left at around 5.30 this morning, yes it does need three of them, one to push the trolley with his oxygen in, the other to push his wheelchair and the other to carry the wads of documents that he has accumulated over his little life.

presents as well!

i hope the photos will show a very happy boy, with the rest of the amazing children that we provide a home to here at the village of hope, enjoying his party. sorry no full face photos or names due to their protection on the internet!

this little piggy went to market....

mrs pig having her last piggy back!

well we didn't have to take the piggy to market just to the man with the gun....yes that's right our male piggy is off to make us some much needed bacon, ham and sausage tomorrow morning, after his 5 months of piggy bliss at the village of hope.

we have really enjoyed having him around and we think arron's experiment with the pigs has gone very well. i suppose the proof will be in the pudding (nice black pudding to go with the sausages!) but we have already decided to keep his 'wife' as the next plan is to get her another husband who we hope will provide us with a constant source of piglets for us to grow on.

it was quite a sad moment as i took the photo, she is making the most of the piggy cuddles, as you can see!

sister projects

for those of you who have visited us in grabouw you will know that the village of hope isn't the only thembalitsha project in the town, in fact our 7 bed inpatient unit called thembacare was established in 2006 and it was during the visits that we made to that amazing project in 2006 and 2007 that inspired me and maz to not only move to south africa, but also to the town of grabouw and set up the project village of hope....wow that was a long sentence!

each wednesday i run a small 'church service' at thembacare where the staff and patients join to praise God for the work he is doing through this team, i would encourage you to visit their blog, which is usually updated monthly with their newsletter,  and i think this months news is well worth a read as it includes the work that the wonderful outpatient palliative care-workers do as they support over 450 people, infected by HIV and TB in our town.

follow the link here to the thembacare grabouw site (you will notice the similar look to our blog with new logos etc!) and if you think you could provide some much needed financial support to ensure that we continue to provide a much needed service to our community then please contact me!...

sunday at the dam

the long walk to the waters edge

the village of hope is a full time project, the children we care for live with us in our children's unit and are looked after by a dedicated team of local 'house mom's' who work a 12 hour shift rota. other members of the team (including our volunteers) start each day at 8.15 at our morning planning and prayer time and finish their day by around 5pm, sounds simple hey! but as with anything that involves kids, especially those living with HIV, and a project involved in social issues there really isn't a 'clocking off time'...therefore we need ensure that we have 'cover' both overnight and during the weekends...

each of our volunteers take turns doing 'weekend cover' and we are keen for the children to understand that sunday is special and that God loves them, therefore the people on weekend cover either take the children, and house moms, to a local church, or spend sometime singing, reading bible stories or creating an activity around that story.

children playing at the dam, they all got every wet by home time!

last sunday afternoon we (me and maz) took the children down to the local dam, which is looking very empty at the moment. it's always a special time as we show the children new things, spending time travelling in the back of our bakkie (pickup) is a highlight of any trip and the children just love to explore. whilst we were down at the waterside maz asked the children what song we could sing, and without hesitation one of our little 4 year old girls piped up, 'fishing for Jesus'...which was so apt given the surroundings.

please continue to pray for us as we seek to not only provide a 'home' for these precious ones but also show them that even though many of them haven't known the love of a family that God does love them and that they are special to Him.