South Africans have little to be thankful for, yet thank God for everything

Sunday was an interesting day spent in SA. We went along to a Christadelphian Ecclesia (church) armed with our new Zulu Bibles. The service was a mixture of Zulu and English. Most of the prayers were in Zulu, but the lecture (exhortation) was in English and prepared by a volunteer (Simon). Bible readings were first read in English and then read again in Zulu. SJ and I were doing well following the Zulu passages. Our singing in Zulu didn't go quite as well. The Zulu singing is full on energetic and they stand, clap and bang their Bibles as they sing. As my sister Jane stated in her blog, the South Africans have little to be thankful for, yet they thank God for everything.

Most of Sunday was spent as a rest day. It was a good day to catch up on emails, to write blog entries and reflect on the past week. I am planning on raising funds for a project called 'Agape in Action' (agape is another word for love) and the project had sent me an email stating they were prepared to build my web page - watch this space! Sunday evening was spent planning project work to be completed in the week ahead, here in Durban, South Africa.

Monday morning was spent dishing out soup in the poly-clinic again. We were with different volunteers today, one of whom had a disability herself - she only had one arm. The other volunteer drove us from our base to the poly-clinic but was sadly stopped by the police en route. Because she was not in possession of her driving licence, she was fined 1,000 Rand, that's about £100! This weeks soup smelled so much nicer than last weeks though people initially appeared a little reluctant to take up the offer.

In the evening SJ, Kim and I went to Happy's. We played a whole bunch of games as per normal. Today, I helped one pupil with her tourism homework. A number of pupils all had exams this week - well wishes to all. One pupil, namely Miss Faith had added SJ as a friend on facebook and said we should get married. Miss Faith took me on a tour of the school and showed me where the girls grew vegetables and hand washed their clothes (SJ helped scrub). We spoke about village life - she could not believe that my village had electricity and running water. In her village, clothes were taken to the river to be washed - if I took my clothes to the river then folk would think I was mad.

On Monday night, SJ and I had some 'us' time. We went for a meal at a place called 'Nourish'. The meal we were served was lovely. It appeared as though the African restaurant staff are keen to swipe your plate or cup away as soon as you have finished (or in the case of SJ before).

We were again at the poly-clinic on Tuesday to serve out tea and coffee. This would be our last visit here (probably) and in a funny kind of way I will miss it. Following the visit here we went to 'go go', the granny group/creche for the last time too. Go go is in Marianhill (not Cleremont) and it such a wonderful place.

On Tuesday night, SJ, Kim, Si, Cam and I went bowling. This was fun, despite the fact that SJ and I were quite naff. The amusements in Africa are similar to those in the UK from about 20 years ago. The original 'Out run' being an arcade favourite. Kim looked great - SJ and I had dyed her hair blue! And if things couldn't be more bizarre, SJ, Kim and I all ate snails prior to our bowling experience!