Blogs from Howick, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Africa - page 2

This was a very busy week following the fun day. I was very fortunate to be given the task of distributing the masses of food wherever it was needed. So, on Monday, Gugu and I sorted out what the Family Centre could use in the meals for the week, then we made food parcels for all the families looked after by the centre. Then I took enough food to the hospice for all the families they look after there, including all the home based care patients. On Tuesday, I sorted out lots of food & dropped it off at another feeding program in the township. I had to take Linda's bakkie (pick-up) to fit it all in & I even reversed through a tiny little gate without even crashing! You would all have been so proud ... read more

The illness actually lasted for the entire week and I ended up taking the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off sick, but I went back again on Thursday due to extreme boredom more than anything else! I’m not really sure what was wrong with me, I definitely got my cold back that I had generously shared with the whole Family Centre in my first week, but I was also feeling very breathless, light headed and dizzy, which made standing up or moving quickly quite hard! I spent Monday & Tuesday just chilling out, not really doing anything but resting. Then on Wednesday I felt much better & it was also Shelly’s birthday. Shelly is an incredible lady. She’s the wife of Grant, the Director of Ethembeni, although that isn’t what makes her incredible! She is one of ... read more

Well here we go.... I left off on Wednesday morning at the clinic, from there we went to the Family Centre, where we sorted out the food parcels. Each week, every family that attends the centre (37 in all) receives a food parcel, which is particularly useful over the weekend when the Family Centre isn't open. That week, the food parcels consisted of 1 onion, 2 cups of mielie meal, 1 cup of rice, 1 cup of sugar beans, 1 tin of beans and a packet of gravy mix. These food parcels are so important because otherwise the families quite literally have no food, it is one of the really practical ways that Ethembeni help. During the afternoon, we cleaned the Family Centre from top to bottom, which is quite a large task! Luckily, we had ... read more

Hello all! I would like to say a massive apology to everyone for the lack of blog entries over the last few weeks - I certainly have not started as I mean to go on! Unfortunately, the internet has not been working at home (the telephone line got struck by lightening!), we do however now have the internet at the Family Centre but it has been so hectic over the last few weeks, I haven't had a few spare minutes of peace to write an entry! Well it's now 9:34am and I'm due at the Ethembeni Hospice in 26 minutes, but I will try to fill you in a little bit on recent activities. I do, however, hope to write in more detail about the last couple of weeks, when time allows! Wednesday September 30th was ... read more

Hey all- I wanted to update about my adventure this past weekend- not so exciting as the drakensburg mountains, but hey- you can't climb mountains and swim in incredible wonderfalls every weekend, right? This weekend we followed a hunch after seeing a flier in a music shop. Kyla and I had ventured to find a music shop last week one day after class- she needed new strings for her guitar. We found it, made friends with the guy working there, and asked him about the flier- which advertised a show in Howick, Syd Kitchen had just come back from his US/UK tour (we didnt know him but he was locally well known). The guy, Paul, gave us the details but he wasn't sure how we could get there without a car- so he gave me the ... read more