Women's Day Holiday

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Following breakfast with Mama and Bishop Hendrick, we met with Bishop Hendrick to discuss our itinerary for the next two weeks.

There are so many things we'd love to achieve and we will do our best.

We hadn't realised that today was a holiday. It is Women's Day. We went into Siyabuswa where there is a new shopping mall. A lady in the queue told Tim and Robert they should be buying us ladies cake as it's Women's Day. Their response was not positive and said it wasn't healthy. Sigh. Never mind, we'll get our own another time!

During lunch the Bishop entertained us as he told us about how he killed a snake with his bare feet! We'd been talking about the beautiful kittens which Evelyn's cat gave birth to a few months ago. There are three ginger kittens left (the others have gone to new homes) and they meet us each time we go to the house. Evelyn loves her cats but also has them to keep away the rats and reptiles. (You have to imagine the words 'rats' and 'reptiles' being pronounced with a rolled 'r'). Apparently cats are very effective snake killers! And so this led to the story of 'How Hendrick Slayed a Snake'.

One night Hendrick awoke to take part in a Prayer Chain. It was midnight and it was his turn to pray. He got up and was walking up and down the corridor. Up and down. As he turned once more, he found himself face to face with a Snake. It moved across the room and along the corridor. He had no where to turn and nothing with which to protect himself. As he thought 'Lord what can I do?' his eyes fell on a carpet rug. He snatched up the rug and tossed it over the snake. The snake stayed still and Hendrick jumped onto the rug. Up and down he danced. Up and down. And the snake was Dead. No one was bitten, no one was hurt. And Hendrick continued with his turn in the prayer chain.

Several of us decided to take more care if or when we got up in the night.

Later in the afternoon we went with Hendrick up to the school to have a look. We were especially pleased to see the new buildings for the Early Years. We're looking forward to spending time there with the children and staff.

It was great to see colourful displays of work and posters up in so many of the classrooms. The classrooms which the team from Park URC painted in 2012 still look good. Hopefully we'll be able to paint some others this time round. There are some new gardens too.

This evening we had another tasty meal with Evelyn and Hendrick then sat down to watch a silly film.

So for all those wondering how we are - the news is good and we've begun to test out all the different flavours of SA chocolate, one bar at a time. If you're lucky you might get some on our return :-)

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