Happy Valentines Day

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Tuesday 6th was my first visit to the Claremont Rotary Club. The President Roschelle lives around the corner from the AVIVA house and kindly gave me a lift. They meet in the very very fancy Kelvin Grove Club (which is like a mansion and was a former gentlemans club whatever that was, before letting the women in a few years ago!). Everyone was very friendly, I met a couple of Welshies who had relocated to Cape Town, someone from Britsol and a couple from Holyhead in SA for 3 months. I spoke... a little Welsh this time... oh dear, and we exchanged banners again. Not sure about my leave of absence - I think I have a higher rotary attendance then some rccb members in Cardiff!!! :-) It was great fun. The club is quite rich, they raise 72K plus and organise the Cape Town cycle race which is huge and on 11th March this year. They have a Presidents Challenge thing where every Rotarian can choose a charity to give R2000 to from the general RC Claremont Kitty , and Jaap Dekker who I sat next to at dinner has extremely kindly decided to donate his money to the orphanage, so that is amazing, and a massive thank you to Jaap and Claremont Rotary.

After the Rotary meeting I then went out with all the girls as it was Katie's last night with us. We went to Long Street.. as usual! I was sleepy and it was a trance kind of place we went to (Fiction), but it was fun and we rolled home about 3am ish!

Weds 7 Feb we are all a little sleepy (or substitute sleepy for hungover in some cases) so a very relaxing day in Obs, said goodbye to Katie although she is still in SA so am sure we will see her again. We now have a new volunteer Laura from UK who will be on the same shift as me. Went out to the Mexican restaurant in Obs (again!! as it is so good!) and took a doggy bag home - its really common here to have the left overs boxed up to take home which is great.

Thursday I went out on my own to Camps Bay. It was beautiful. I took a walk along the beach, relaxed and read a book, and walked around the shops, had smoked salmon for lunch which was fab, and took a cab back to the AVIVA house. Went to Obs Cafe for drinks in the evening with everyone, which has just been refurbished and is very good. (I sond like a travel agent I should be getting comission for this blog!!)

Friday was Bap. I peeled vegetables in the kitchen with May the cook, who sang as we peeled and was great. I have never seen such a big stack of vegtables before, and I was very grubby afterwards. I tried to cut onions but kept crying so we had to leave them for a strong african woman to come and chop!! The bigger kids are at creche now on weekdays from 9am-3pm so we went to collect them at 3pm, tried not to forget any of them (which happened earlier in the week!! They are all in different classrooms). Creche is basically a building across from the baby house, but they get to play with different kids which is nice. Although our kids cry when they go so I know how a mum feels when its first day at school for their children...!!
It rained a lot this shift and some of the children cried becasue I dont think they knew what rain was!!

Sat I had a 4am start with new girl Laura. I did babies bathtime, and it took forever as they have more clothes to put on now as it is a little colder. Also once I had put the nappy on I forgot if they were a boy or girl and couldn't decide whether to put them in pink or blue.... I did toothbrushing for the first time on my own, and some of the bigger kids Moses who is a girl, Ameli and Nomenyana helped me out as I didn't know a few of the names - I've learnt almost all of them though. The names are weird here eg Nalady is a boy, Zolela is a boy.. etc
I hung out washing as it had stopped raining - they do a lot of washing here!!

Sunday had a lie in til 9am as the other three volunteers took the early shift. Went to church which was a lot shorter than last time's service. A bit hectic trying to fit the shoes on the kids, and not all of them have shoes that fit! I gave out crisps again for snack time which I really liked, as the kids do love them and its great that they can have a packet to themselves as they have so few things that are just theirs.

Monday was another 4am start, I did bigger kids this time, and forgot that Moses and Knock Knock as we call him go to school so I dressed them in normal clothes then had to undress them and send them off to get their school uniform instead. But they did forget to tell me they had school too!! OSme of the kids are good at English, others don't speak much but you can kind of understand what they want, They all know how to say AND ME!! as it they want a go at a piggyback or some food or a cuddle etc. Xhosa is their first language, and it involves clicks kind of how you would make a noise to a horse, but a lot different clicks and x, c and q I think are letters that click!! By the way the kids bite, punch, kick, slap and pinch..each other and us volunteers!!!

Back at the AVIVA house, we all went straight out to Muizenburg which is where Gary's surf school is,(another AVIVA project) and Donna and Ed are volunteering there - two people we met who staryed at the AVIVA house before thier project started for a bit. Anyhow, there was now 11 of us.. and Gary took us sandboarding! (pictures to follow!!). It was a 20 min drive and we went to this steep hill with a sand stip in the middle. We were asked if we were goofy or regular. I assumed that meant had I sandboarded before if not I was goofy but it was surfer dude talk for left or right handed! We had to wax the boards, which were bascially like a snowboard, but just elastic loops for your barefeet, which you could fall out of. The better you waxed the faster you went.. we were rubbish at wazing.. also the sand was a little damp from the rain the previous few days. Anyhow we were there nearly 2 hours, hard work walking up a sanding hill, I fell over a lot, but didn't hurt, had a few good runs. We all went for a beer afterwards then headed back home to Divas the pizza place in Obs which is fabulous. After we went out to... Long street!! And Cool Runnings and Zula which are the two main bars there I guess. Then we headed to Monday Live, a club with Monday as a big student night. It was R40 away in a taxi so not far. Was a lot of fun, typical UK pop mucis then they finished up with a jazzed up version of nelly the elephant which only I knew! Got a cab at 3:30am a little worse for wear perhaps?

Tuesday 13th went to camps bay again, but this time with the other girls from the Bap shift. We relaxed on the beach and I had a tatoo done, a lizard on my ankle, just a henna one that lasts 3 weeks in case anyone is worried!! A little sore from sandboarding, it was great though - the first proper time I had been really active in Cape Town. I went out to Claremont Rotary again, whcih was a 'valentines' do with partners and they had a Greek restaurant mostly to themsleves. I went round to Rochelle's and had a lift over. (couldn't find the doorbell so loitered outside... as it was high gated house) There were about 50 people there, Claremont Rotarians and their partners, inner wheel and other guests. I sat next to a peadiatric consultant who specialsises in HIV/Aids and works in the hospital across from the Aviva house, and one of his patients is... one of the Bap baies!! Kiketso who is one of my favourites as he has these big gorgeous eyes and is very sweet. Hes not seriously ill by the way. Anyhow it was great to talk to Dr Paul and hopefully I can go in and vist his clinic next week, and find out some more about his beadwork project! The food was great, and there was dancing too, and the secretary asked me to dance so a had a whirl on the dancefloor which was fun. Greek music then some disco music too. I got home and was so excited about meeting the paediatric consltant that I woke one of the other Bap volunteers up to tell her! I love international rotary :-)

Anyhow I hope everyone has a great V day.
Lots of love Mich


PS

Liz -enjoy half term!!!!!

MJP I'v lost my password to your scrotary site but I will try and find it.. and blog as I have things to say :-)

Amy = met a US chap called Eric who has just done Tambotti. He says it was great, quite remote, you stay with a British family who are wonderful, there's good showers etc, half of it is maintenance of the area and other half research eg how many of this speicies are there. He was one of 2 volunteers at the time, so it may be good to bring a friend or check how many volunteers are booked in the same time as you. Try and get some time either side to spend in cape town where you can stay at AVIUVA house. DON'T book the cape town orientation 5 day tour package through AVIVA in advance, easier to book it individually here, and also cheaper despite what they tell you!! Hope that helps!!

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