Nasty taxi

The second half of my second week in South Africa proved to be interesting. On Wednesday, SJ and I took a car load of young Zulu children to a zoo (where we met up with more volunteers and more Zulu children). I think we had 9 children crammed into our car - health and safety does not appear to exist in SA. These children were great and were singing in Zulu as we drove to the zoo. Not sure exactly what they were singing, but it sounded like 'nasty taxi, nasty taxi, I want a pasty'. SJ filmed this little ditty and should she post it on youtube I will provide the link! The zoo itself was relatively small and only housed smaller type animals like raccoon, meercat and the likes. The zoo had monkeys though, not as inmates, but as a band of thieves. These monkeys were awesome and would come over and steal yoghurt pots from the children as they tried to eat their lunch. (Most houses in SA have bars on their windows, this is to prevent monkeys from entering). My sister Jane had a car load of children too and one had puked big time all over himself and a number of others. The way back from the zoo was almost as entertaining as the first. We had a car load of sleeping children, except one who had pee'd herself. Jane took precautions and gave her 'sick' child a plastic bag - he wasn't sick again, but he wet himself!

Wednesday night was spent at the creche (which is also used as a church and houses Go go too). A kind Zulu lady called Vesta had prepared a Zulu meal for us volunteers. The meal was nice and was essentially a curry style meal. Delicious! Following the meal, there was much praising God and shouting and singing in Zulu style. The sky was lit up tonight with flashes of lightning too which was great.

Thursday was spent at the BEC. The BEC is an acronym for the Bible Education Centre, what I called 'the book shop' in previous blogs. The shop was not so busy today but kept us occupied all morning.

We had another big meal Thursday night, cooked by volunteers. This was equally as nice as Vesta's meal. All this eating and little or no exercise will have to revert when I go back to England.

Friday morning was not so great. Everywhere was flooded due to big rains in the night. We spent the morning doing little work and visiting a local shopping mall.

Friday afternoon was spent at Happy's. SJ, Simon and I picked up Nazipho en route. Nazipho is an ex Happy's student who had left about 1 year ago. Nazipho is wheelchair bound and suffers with arthritis. Help4Happy's supported Nazipho and she now has an electric wheelchair. Some of you sponsored me last year which supported Help4Happy's, so a big thank you indeed! On reaching Happy's, it wasn't the usual hectic place I had become used too. The rain had flooded the grounds so most pupils were indoors. This school still requires much support, it houses around 200 disabled pupils with special needs. 1 wheelchair bound girl spoke to me and informed me that her mother had died in 2004 and when not at Happy's was 'looked after' by a family that 'found' her. This story sounded okay till she told me that this family abuse her and she asked for my help in moving into a care home. How sad. I did not know the expectations of this child, but she told me she loved me before I left. This was a sad day really, as I was saying goodbye to the pupils. One particular albino pupil was never really tactile prior to today, this day he held my hand tights before I left. I have so many stories and memories from Happy's that I'm sure will last a life time.

SJ and I took Siphiwe (a Zulu volunteer) home from Happy's. Siphiwe is such a great guy and we have had a lot to do with home during our stay in SA. Will miss 'my brother'. Anyways, on this run home we passed a dead body on the side of the road which was a little grim to say the least. This body was near to the place where those wooden homes were being built - those homes that had no running water, only 1 room, no electricity and no toilet. These homes cost about £100, peanuts to us, but a large amount of money over here. If my story in SA has had an impact on you in any way, please dig deep and sponsor my next project. My next project is the construction of a well in Kenya (refer to previous blog entry) and you can help by visiting this link:  http://www.agapeinaction.com/tim_taylor.html