We're Back!

After another long journey we left a very hot South Africa and have returned to a rather cold England. It was another interesting journey that included a delayed flight from Durban, a mad dash through Johannesburg airport and the niggling doubt about whether our bags had made it on to the same flight.

However all was well and my colleague Dean met us at Heathrow with our lunch, before we boarded the coach back to Cornwall and after reuniting Lydia and then Mike with their parents the rest of us arrived in Truro at 4.30 to a warm welcome from our families.

Personally I had an early night and slept well, and I'm sure the other members of the team did too!!

When I have a bit more time, I'll fill in the last couple of days and add some photographs. In the meantime thank you to all those who were following our journey and leaving comments and apologies for the hiccup in the middle when we lost the internet connection.

Kokstad Day 2

This morning we went back to the Diocesan Office and were joined by the ladies from the Siyafundisa - Teaching Our Children project. They took us to a very poor area of Kokstad, where houses were made of mud or what ever other materials that could be found. No one had jobs and many made their living and found their food on the nearby rubbish dump. The ladies visit regularly and help the families to get ID Cards and provide health advice. It was another eye-opening experience of the inequality of provision in the country and on how easy it is to be left behind by the system.

In the afternoon we visited an Anglican Convent, this is quite new and the nuns are still working through how they can best serve their communities. At present this is by making clerical vestments but they visit parishes with the Bishop and hope to establish a formal role within the Diocese. There are only 7 nuns at present and currently they are very young compared to nuns in England. most are in their thirties and forties with only one who was in her fifties. (We thought of leaving Claire behind to join them!)

We also spent some time shopping for souvenirs, so parents, siblings don't worry, genuine African gifts will be coming your way!!

This evening Wendy (our host at the B&B) cooked us some traditional African dishes, Babote and Milk Tart - delicious!

We will be meeting the Diocesan Orphans and Vulnerable Children's worker tomorrow morning before we head for Durban and our epic journey home. This will probably be our last post from Africa and we look forward to being reunited with our families on Saturday!

CEDARVILLE - Day 11 / Kodstad Day 1

It was an early start and a farewell to our hosts who have been most wonderful in putting up with us all. For some, parting from their host's dogs was also a sad experience, but so far it appears that none have been smuggled into bags as has previously been suggested! David packed up the minibus and we set off to Kokstad.
We arrived at Diocesan Office where we met Bishop Milbo who showed us the Counselling Service that is run from the grounds and the container that was provided by the Diocese of Truro. The service is well used and in the last month alone X people had had consultations.

We are staying at a lovely B&B, The Planes and have en-suite rooms and TV's! After checking out our rooms and dropping off our bags we walked into Kokstad for some lunch. In the afternoon we met with some of the youth team of the Diocese of Umzimvubu including two who we had met on Saturday with St Stephen's youth group in Matatiele. We also met the youth chaplain and the archdeacon with responsibility with youth.

They related how supporting youth work in the Diocese is a struggle and how difficult it is to get around the parishes. We shared experiences and examples of our own and realised that many of the issues faced were common to both Dioceses including rurality and a decline in interest amongst young people. Then it was back to The Planes and a chance to chill out before our evening meal.

CEDARVILLE - Day 10

Today we went to Ramohlakoana and met with Revd Peter and Sindy Ledena, who last year were visitors in Cornwall. Again we had a very warm welcome with lots of singing and hugging. Revd Peter's parish covers a large area up to the border with Lesotho and includes seven other churches or stations. We were at St Paul's, where we had a short act of worship and were taught more Xhosa hymns, before driving to visit one of the other churches St David's. The scenery was amazing with the Drakenberg mountains nearby and over them the border with Lesotho. Once back at the rectory we had a look around the Old Rectory, which will become a respite centre. The Diocese of Truro has raised some of the funds to enable this to happen. Work on the building has been delayed by negotiations with the local community and the local government, but the result is that the project will be even bigger, the local chief has given more land and now the plans include a respite centre, a clinic and counselling service and provision for the elderly. We were given a traditional African lunch of Shepherds pie and pumpkin! Before we left gifts from Bishop Cornish School and Carbis Bay were given to Peter and Sindy and Sindy passes on greetings to the Mothers' Union in our Diocese.

We drove back to Matatiele where we had an appointment with the Diocesan School, St Monica's. This school is a primary and middle school with older pupils transferring to other schools for the final few years of their education. It was PE afternoon and Mike and Tom soon joined in with the cricket practice where Mike was taught how to bowl. The school choir also performed some songs for us and we donated some sports equipment to the school.

We then went back to the project for the street boys and this time met with the youth worker Bertram, who was from Cameroon. We had a short tour of the building and an explanation of how the project works. It was homework time when we arrived and the sight of teenage girls caused a bit of a stir, though when we began to chat with the boys themselves they were initially quite shy!

After a stop for a milkshake and ice-cream it was back to Cedarville and we had a short time discussing all that we had seen and done during our time there. The common themes to emerge were of the hope that was in the place, despite desperate poverty and how the school children we met had hopes for their futures.

As this was our final evening we had a splendid meal together, curry, and Cathy and William came to join us. At the end of the meal gifts were exchanged with the girls receiving bead necklaces and the boys fridge magnets. We gave Cathy and Val some momentos of Cornwall and the Diocese of Truro.

CEDARVILLE - Day 9

This day turned out to be a vit of a disaster in that nothing we planned seemed to happen. We had arranged to go to Masakala Guest House for a traditional African meal, however, communication failed and we only discovered this after we had arrived. Therefore it was back to Matatiele where we ended up descending on a Coffee Shop and ordering lunch for 16.

We then went to visit a project associated with the orphanage that worked with street boys and provided them a home and education. It has a very good success rate with boys staying with them until they leave school. The project also helps them find work. However, the house warden there was not aware that we were coming and so we felt it best not to intrude. So we went to the supermarket and stocked up on sweets!

After some time at Cathy's house (where Tom's stitches were removed) we went our separate ways for the evening.

CEDARVILLE DAYS 7 & 8

On Saturday morning we finished the hay boxes, this time the polystyrene was kept under control and the job finished very quickly. In all we made 11 hay boxes which the care-givers will demonstrate to those in need. Eventually these will be distributed to those in need where, hopefully they will cut fuel costs for cooking many of the staple foods eaten here.

In the afternoon we visited an orphanage in Matatiele, the children were aged from babies to 16, but they only accepted children between the ages of 0-3, therefore the older ones had lived there for most of their lives. The children were lovely and so pleased to see us, we gave lots of cuddles and played lots of games. They took our hats, bags and sunglasses as soon as we arrived and then played with them.

We reluctantly left as we had arranged to meet the youth group of St Stephen's Church in Matatiele. We walked in and they sung a welcome before we introduced ourselves and started to mingle. Soon after there was an act of worship - involving English choruses and Xhosa songs, you can guess which were the more lively! Fr David was even seen to lift his hands in the air in worship.

Also there were representatives from the Diocesan Youth Department who gave a gift of a T-shirt to each of the young people, who are now 'Engaged in God's Business' or so it says on the back! Then it was time to eat, and a good spread had been provided for us. All too soon it was time to return to Cedarville, which was in darkness due to a power cut. Those at Val and Kips had power restored quite promptly, though those at Cathy and William's had to wiat until Ten O'clock for power to be restored!

On Sunday we attended St Mary's Church were Fr David gave a talk for All Saints and there were three other clergy in attendance. This was quite a traditional Anglican Communion Service, though some of the words in the service book were slightly different and would cause us to stumble. At the end of the service we gave the six care-givers who had helped us with the decorating a Diocese of Truro T-shirt and a t-towel as well as a small financial gift to thank them for their help. They were great fun to be with and it is a shame that we will not be seeing them again.

Afterwards we came back to Val and Kips for lunch and members of the Board for the Palliative Care Project joined us. The afternoon was spent playing cricket in the sunshine, we could almost have been in England on a June day, and had to remind ourselves that it was actually the 1st November!

CEDARVILLE - Day 6

Today we went back to Cedarville Public School, where we gave them our gifts of stationery, sports equipment and lego. We were each given certificates from the school for Community Development in Cedarville and the Headteacher told us that the school motto was 'Enter to Learn; Leave to Serve', but that we had entered to serve and as we left we had learnt. Then some of the girls performed some more dances for us and the choir sung some Xhosa songs and Silent Night. We then went outside and taught the children some parachute games, they all got very excited and did not want to let us go when it was time to say goodbye.

Our next stop was the Pre School and Creche where we gave some toys and craft equipment. We then visited the Cedarville GI (Griqua Independent) School in Cedarville, where we gave them some books and stationery. The Headteacher there showed us around the different classes, some of which were just large wooden garden sheds and he was hoping that we would spend some time decorating the classrooms there, however we have no time left. The pupils there were having a 'Civvies Day' where they got to wear their own clothes.

After lunch, snow came to Cedarville as we began to make Hay Boxes. These are used for cooking where the dish is brought to the boil and then placed in the box to cook slowly in its own heat; however, nowadays the Hay is replaced by two beanbag sacks, one on the bottom and one on the top. The team either cut or sewed or stuffed, and it was the stuffing of the sacks with the polystyrene chips that made Val and Kip's garden look snow covered!

In the evening we had a Braai, with beef, chicken and Vurst. Feeling terribly English we all ate outside, wrapped up in coats, hats and blankets as it was so cold!

CEDARVILLE - Day 5

We had a wonderful day today, we carried on painting at the school and some of the young people insisted on painting each other! We managed to finish painting six classrooms altogether, and the teachers were very pleased with the result. We also talked to the local children and talked a lot about 'High School Musical' and Tom being Zack Efron!



After a wonderful lunch of soup and rolls we had chill time. In the afternoon we went to Matatele and had amazing chocolate milkshakes at the Matatele Milk Depot. On return to Kip and Val's we spent some time debriefing within the team the work we had done at the school and the impact that that would have had on the young people and children there. We then spent some time in prayer and devotion, thinking about God's Love for people and that our motivation for everything must be out of Love.



It is unseasonably cold here at the moment, it's not too bad and warmer than the UK, but we are enjoying the log fire at the moment.

CEDARVILLE - Day 4

Today we were at the school by 8.00am for assembly, there had been a thunderstorm in the night and it was still raining as we arrived. The children lined up outside by class groups and began by singing the Lord's Prayer in Xhosa, which was very beautiful and moving. David then gave a short talk about Zaccheus.

Then we began the painting. We had three classrooms and fortunately some of the care-givers that we had been with over the last few days came to give us a hand. Some paint ended up on people rather than walls (Mike & Rose you know who you are!) but we still managed to almost complete the rooms by lunchtime. the school was so impressed that they asked if we could do more rooms tormorrow.

At the end of the morning some of the girls did some traditional Xhosa dancing for us, and they had changed into traditional dress (mainly beads). Some of the other girls were singing for the dancers and the whole experience was enlightening even though some of the dancing looked painful. Other groups of children also got up and recited poems for us.

After another amazing lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing as a group, and the group staying with Kip and Val had THE most lovely steak supper!