summer time fun...

katie and her babies

last week the local schools closed for summer so we have had a bit more time to spend with the children in the unit who are already crawling off the walls and proving to be a bit of a handful to our dedicated house moms, who are also nearing the end of the year and having to plan and prepare for their own family Christmas.

katie has been preparing some morning time activities for the older children but as we celebrated another public holiday on tuesday we decided to take all the children, house moms and volunteers to the local beach for an afternoon of fun. looking back it seems that we have done this each and every 'heritage day' and it's amazing to see the children's reactions as they get time to play in the sand and swim in the sea.

greg's castle

they are such a pleasure to be with and i think every child dipped their toes in the sea with some taking it a little bit further by actually trying to body board!.....greg made a huge and complex sand castle trying to replicate the french island setting of mont saint-michel but one of our more challenging (in a very sweet way) boys had other plans and duly knocked it down before greg managed to finish the moat.

moms it the beach!

beach soccer

on wednesday morning it was the turn of the sports outreach children to have some time at the beach, we work with over 450 children each week so it was a bit of a mission trying to plan for all of them to attend the day that they look forward to all year, however as around 250 of the children are under the age of nine there was no way that we were going to put ourselves under pressure to take them (there will be a 'next time' for those children as they grow up into our senior clubs), so that left around 200 who would have loved to have come.

happy kids

in the end we booked two 60 seater buses and with the help of our sports mentors, volunteers and willing others we end up taking over 75 children from four of our daily clubs, it's always hard to chose how to run these things but as many of our children return to the eastern cape for Christmas we are confident that most of the children who remained in grabouw were able to join us.

fun times for the girls

as you can imagine looking after 75 children on a wide open beach with an inviting sea to entice them is no mean feat but we are thankful to say that none of the children ended up as shark bait and apart from a badly cut foot (which occurred as one boy stepped on a piece of discarded glass whilst playing football) everyone returned to their homes in grabouw in one piece!

greg came up with a novel idea to split the children into ten separate groups with two leaders responsible for that team, we then placed netball bibs on the children, all an array of colours so our team leaders could keep a check on the children in their group. this worked so well and i'm sure it provided the beach with a riot of colour as the children ran in and out of the sea, having the time of their lives.

a riot of colour in gordon's bay

it's always great to see the children playing and being truly free for a few hours, leaving the cares of their complex lives behind and having fun together. this is one of the day we will miss when we leave the project in february but trust that our team will continue to offer both these wonderful opportunities to both the sports outreach children and those that we care for in our 24/7 unit.

special thanks to lisa baldry for the wonderful photos!

beach days, new babies and mentors help....

happy christmas meal

house moms and our eldest girl enjoying the sea

nana on the beach!

we have been enjoying some balmy summer weather over the last week or so and fittingly after the funeral of nelson mandela on sunday the country celbrated its annual public holiday, 'the day of reconciliation' on the 16th december.

mommy maz building castles in the sand

grace with our newest baby boy

helping mentors

on the 15th we held our 'christmas dinner', which was cooked for us by barbara and my mum (tim) and on the public holiday it was a chance to take our wonderful children, our house moms and some members of the thembacare grabouw staff for an afternoon of fun and games at the local beach. the weather was great and the kids had a great time digging sandcastles and jumping in the surf.

after our sad goodbyes to two children on friday, see earlier post here, it was fantastic to be able to take in our newest child, a seven week old baby boy who has been placed with us after some very trying home circumstances.

who's got the frog eyes

the weeks seem to be flying by at the moment and although the schools have broken up we have been holding our sports outreach during the afternoons as normal, however with the mentors at a loose end in the mornings we have been able to provide them with a chance to earn some extra pocket money as they have joined us at the village of hope, clearing wood, cutting grass and generally tidying up around the place.

its been great working with the mentors, they are an amazing bunch of guys, willing to learn and keen to make a difference, we are blessed to know them.

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.

being a blessing and being blessed!

the girls netball team from rooidakke

during our journey into the unknown here in south africa our western thoughts and minds are being constantly challenged. today was another one of those days as we were able to bless around 20 children from our local community with a day at the beach and a burger and chips, which most of us would think nothing of doing either during a summer holiday or if you live 20 minutes from the beach here in grabouw on a weekend afternoon, however for these children this was a very very special experience of which they may have never known before or ever have the chance to experience again in the very near future.

beach cricket south africa style!

a game of 'beach tennis'

we all really enjoyed the luke warm sea, the hot sun and delicious burgers whilst having the opportunity to play some beach cricket, tennis and a game football, including a mixture of other people from the beach joining in our impromptu game which was a major success.

the day was made possible by some of our wonderful volunteers, from england, holland and an australian who provided us with her lifeguarding skills.

tomorrow we will be taking the some children from a local farm, whilst on thursday we will be taking two further groups from our local community sports outreach.

all the above is wonderful however what really hit me was the fact that about 20 minutes after i had dropped the children to either their tin and wooden shack or simple breeze block homes in the informal settlements in grabouw, i was able to take a shower to help cool me down and remove some of the salt and sand which had attacked my body during the day, with the knowledge that many of these children, and thousands like them in our town, live in homes with no running water or even electricity let lone a shower.

however i thank God that we were able to bless the kids, whilst also remembering we are constantly receiving blessings ourselves and giving thanks to God for that is the important thing!