A Post A Day

From now on (depending on our internet availability of course) I'm going to try my best to do a post a day. Whether nothing has happened, and I'm just posting a nice picture, or if I'm telling a story of what I've been up to, there will be a post! 

Of course, saying that, we are most likely going to Zimbabwe for two weeks, starting this Friday, so our internet time will be close to nothing.. but once we're back, expect lots more posts from me! 

Feel free to keep me accountable, and comment if I'm not keeping my promise :) 

Erin's brilliant plan: jump into the pool at night, fully clothed! And then spend the next three hours freezing cold and dripping wet until we could finally go home. Excellent. 

Its Official! ...

... In July of this year (2010), my family and I will be leaving South Africa, and moving up to Uganda to work at Kibaale Community School! 

We will be taking over the role of the Dyke family with a few small changes. We won't be the "directors" of Kibaale, but instead the Canadian liaisons/consultants for the new Ugandan director. I'm not exactly sure what that means, or even if I have it completely right, but one thing that's for sure is that in a few months we will be back in Kibaale for good!

Of course, now that I have all these friends here, and am getting involved with more and more stuff, its going to be way harder to leave SA than I ever thought it would be. Thinking of leaving my friends, and the kids here, and (on a very materialistic level) the mall within 35 minutes of where we live... its going to be very sad to leave! Ah why are goodbyes so hard? 

But for now we still have a few months here, and then lots of time over in Kibaale... where I hope lots of my friends will come to visit! (nudge nudge)

March 26th

Last Friday was a special day for our family (which, incidentally, none of us remembered until today :P) because on March 26th, it was exactly 6 MONTHS since we left Canada!!

Wow, that seems so insane! So many things have happened since we've left, and yet it seems like just yesterday that I was bawling my eyes out at the Vancouver airport.

I miss all of my friends in Canada just as much as ever, and I love you guys like crazy; I'm also loving all my awesome new friends here in South Africa, I probably wouldn't be surviving away from home without you guys!!

See you next year Canada :)

Howsit?

While in South Africa, not only have I made some great new friends, I've also learned some great new words!

Here is a sample of the South African vocabulary:

- Howsit? (a greeting)

- Shame (like "Aw, bless" in England. used if anything sad[ish]/pathetic etc happens)

- Hectic (used for anything possible.. if you don't know how to describe something, someone, a place, a smell, a time, a movie, a book, food, anything etc. use the word hectic!)

- Is it? (don't really understand this one, kind of used for anything as well. Ie "I just woke up." "Is it?" or "My mom doesn't feel well." "Is it?" etc. .... haha it doesn't really seem to mean anything much at all. I usually answer with "It is!" just for fun, they don't get it :P)

I'm sure there's quite a few more, but those are some of my favourites, and the most common ones I've heard. :)

Oh, and is it just me, or is a big paper cutting machine thing used in an office usually just called a "paper cutter"?? Because they call it a guillotine and that really confuses me. :P

PS I'm not making fun of anyone here, I love them all!! Some of their language is just crazy :)

Bushbuck Ridge

On Friday morning I went to a community meeting out in Bushbuck Ridge with my dad, and some of the other Hands at Work people. 

It was a 2 hour drive both ways, for only a half hour meeting.. but there were a lot of cute kids there! :)

It was cool to see all the workers, they were so encouraged by the fact that we had taken the time to go and see them, and speak to them. 

Back At Mac Mac!

Not a whole lot more to post at the moment, but I thought I'd put a picture of our second, more recent trip to Mac Mac pools up. I still haven't found my bathing suit, but I decided to jump in anyway :P

Its so gorgeous there!

Forward Education

For the past week or so I've been able to go to two different Care Centres in Masoyi (Lula, and K2) and be involved with the Forward Education program, with Carley and Alexa who are two of the volunteers from the UK. Its been really nice to get involved with something finally! Plus, we even have our own special Forward Education t-shirts ;)

The program is basically an after school program for students in grade 7-12, to do homework, learn life skills, and just give them the motivation and skills in order to graduate and pursue their goals and career. The program was set up and organized extremely well by some previous volunteers/Hands staff, but since them everything has kind of fallen apart. Along with little organization or structure, some of the younger grades are now also being included (grade 4-6), which makes it difficult for Nobile (the woman in charge of the program in both care centres) to teach the older ones. 

What we're doing is that Carley and Nobile (no idea how to spell it, I apologize! Its said Noh-bee-lay... with a click at the beginning) are taking the older ones, grade 7-11, and giving them a structured two(ish) hour program, with lessons, homework time etc. Meanwhile, Alexa and I are taking the younger ones, and supposedly doing the same thing with them, only on their level. 

Yesterday however was the first time we split up, and it wasn't quite how I pictured it. By the time we finished we had double the amount of children we started with (including a few grade 2 students, who knew almost zero English) and at the end they kids just left when they felt like it. Its going to be a bit of a challenge to actually do something productive with them! A lot of the older students in our group however, seemed to really enjoy it, and actually got something out of it; several of them were saying, "That was so fun!" as we left, which was nice to hear :) 

I don't have any pictures of the F.E. program yet, but here are a few pictures of my last time at Lula.. I got a bit caught up in the baby house, and didn't end up joining Alexa and Carley with the older students until about half an hour before the end :S But really, those little ones are just too cute to resist!! 

I spent ages with this little one, she loved posing for pictures!

This is Precious (the baby) who I got to cuddle for ages, and her big sister, AYANA! :)

CUTE!

This kid was hilarious, I taught him to say "peace" for pictures :P

And just in case anyone is curious, here's a picture of my bedroom (I share with Megan, but this is my bed :) ) :

And mine and Megan's living room in  our little apartment: 

We love it! 

God's Window and Mac Mac Pools

The other day we went out for the day with the volunteers; we had such a great time! Here are just a couple good pictures from the afternoon :)

Group Shot at God's Window!

Mac Mac Pools.. 

I didn't go in (my bathing suit disappeared that morning, very upsetting, especially in the boiling hot sun that afternoon :S) but here's three of the Wiebe clan at least! :)

Safe and Sound

We arrived back in South Africa on Saturday afternoon, tired but safe :)

We were met in the parking lot (after a four hour bus ride from the airport here to White River) by our family, and the minute the door was open, Moses and Ayana hurtled themselves on top of us, shrieking at the top of their lungs.. we felt very loved :)

When we got back, our apartment was cleaned and decorated, and our favourite treats were waiting on our table... all in all a very nice home coming! Although we were sad to leave our new friends, and our beloved Uganda, it was nice to feel so missed and loved. 

Now that we're back, we're looking forward to getting to know the new volunteers here from Canada, Germany, the UK, Australia, and the States.. most of them are 18-mid twenties, and its nice to have all these new people around my age to hang out with!

Anyway, there's a crazy snake story to tell, but as my mom LOVES to tell it, I will give her the opportunity to share first (assuming that she's actually going to get going with her blog eventually!) before I say anything. I'll just say it involved a black snake, our kitchen cupboard, a mop, and a crazy mother. ;) Ahh good times in SA