Heritage Day at Ikhaya

Well today was the last day for this term and Heritage Day celebrations at Ikhaya which is basically a good reason to sing, dance, eat and generally get excited about all things South African!

This is just a small selection of the photo opportunities we had but what a great event. Each class of children took turns at sharing something they had prepared and we were all encouraged to dress in traditional clothes.

Highlights included the National Anthem in Xhosa, Afrikans and English, zulu and 'gumboot' dancers (originating from early miners) and a presentation on Xhosa culture. Mark and myself had worked with the children to create a hand printed rainbow and I was able to share about the Rainbow Nation (in English, not quite ready for xhosa yet!). The younger children learnt 'I can sing a rainbow' and signs with me.

It was also an apportunity to bid farewell to a couple of  staff who are leaving and great to see how appreciate everyone was (pass the tissues :))

So we may not be in touch so regularly over the next week as we have borrowed a car (please pray for safe driving!) and tomorrow we are leaving Margy's and heading to Port Elizabeth via the Garden route. Itinary as follows:

Sat - Drive to Bontebok National Park and stay at Swellendam
Sun - Stay at Plettenburg Bay
Mon-Fri - Port Elizabeth for Vineyard church conference and Addo Elephant park (hopefully)
Fri-Sun - Oudtshoorn to visit Cango caves and possible ostrich ride!
Sun eve - return to Hout Bay hopefully to permanent apartment :) and Term 4 at Ikhaya!!

To be continued....

Just a quick one

Mark sorts the food with Mhinti

A small selection

As well as paying for transport and food for a trip to Table Mountain and an educational trip to Kirstenboch Botanical gardens, Ikhaya staff have chosen to use some of the money we raised for food parcels. These go out to some of the families who have no or very low income and/or more mouths to feed during the school holidays where Ikhaya is closed and a daily meal is not guaranteed. Parents are informed of this service at meetings but it is down to them to ask for the help. I was pleased to meet a couple of the mums today - I don't know if they knew we had been raising money for them but I was happy to receive a hug and humbled that they recognised us as people who are here to love and support their children. Anyway big love and thanks to all who have donated towards History Maker and what we're doing here x

Breakdowns, braais and (break)dancing

So after a rather wet Sunday, Monday brought good weather and a chance to experience our first braai on Bank Holiday for Heritage day aka braai day. We thought we'd take a short walk in a different direction before getting our lift so after 2 hours and a rather large hill later (Hout Bay - Constantia Nek restaurant for those familiar) we arrived! (think someone was having a laugh at my expense when someone got an image of me walking a mountain path at a prayer meeting last night... It seems that our calling here goes far beyond working with the children as just as we reached the top there was a funny sound, bit of smoke and a rather strong smell and we had to come to the rescue of a couple who we think had a broken fanbelt (I say we..Mark was pushing the car to safety with the help of a nearby tour guide while I comforted the driver's wife as she commented "this has never happened to us before"!!)

Eventually we grabbed our lift and went to Nicky (director of Ikhaya) and Rob's place for our braai. Mark was insistent his first braai king experience should be photographed! Not dissimilar to the English bbq but much more adventerous than just your usual burgers and sausages :)

Braai kings

So after another interesting few days it was time to return to Ikhaya ready to practise for our Heritage day celebrations on Friday. We are working with the older ones and (in our very limited experience) supporting them to share about Xhosa history and culture. Enthusiam is putting in mildly as they practise their drama and dance! We don't really need to understand everything  - their sense of joy is great. 

Let us know if the bold type works better 

Bye for now Nay x

Xhosa men scene

TAXIS, SHOPPING, FRIDGES ............

Hello Hello

Well it's been an interesting few days since our last post. The weather has taken a turn and we feel almost at home now in the blustery rain that we are currently experiencing (that's what you get when you boast about good weather). We have been busy at Ikhaya and there has been alot of new people that we have met (most of which I can't remember their names).

Our new tempory accomodation at Margy's house is great and we have a wonderful view looking out over the bay and surrounding area. We have had some great meals over the last few days with some of our new friends. Margy is an amazing person and completely random.

The view from Margy's garden

Margy's house

Ikhaya
We did some English with the kids on Thursday after a quick game of Rugby between the volunteers and the kids. On Friday our trip to Table Mountain was unfortunately postponed until the 12th of October due to bad weather. This did however mean that there was a whole afternoon free for some fun with the kids and after making 70 hotdogs Nay got all the kids to teach us some of their favourite worship songs. This quickly escalated into a massive sing- along that lasted over 20 minutes with the kids belting out some traditional songs and some of the staff (Noxy, Mhinti and Sytske) dancing. Next week is the last week of the current term and it is being finished off with a Heritige Day celebration that all are invited to join (which should be amusing as Nay is trying to volunteer me to join the Zulu dance). Tomorrow is a bank holiday so Ikhaya is closed and the tradition is to have a braai (BBQ).

Taxis
South African taxis are a unique experience and I'm not talking about the kinds of taxis you get in with your wife and she never gets out. The main safer taxis that are used are small - medium sized mini buses that have set routes. They all cost 8 rand (about 60p) regardless of the distance you travel and are shared by a various number of passengers wishing to go to the same place. They are a great way to get up close and personel with the locals as they don't let a small thing like their being no seats left or your personal space get in the way of letting 20 people in a 14 seater minibus. These cabbies seem to love having random stickers or messages in/on there cabs the best to date are "IN THE OLD DAYS  WOMEN USED TO COOK LIKE THEIR MOTHERS - NOW THEY DRINK LIKE THEIR FATHERS" and the funniest was a taxi which had covering the whole rear of the car "THE AUDIBLE VOICE OF GOD SAYS - GIVE UP SMOKING" Still despite the constant amusement that these taxis bring me,  they are a good way to get about as long as you don't mind someone sitting on your lap.Payment is made to the driver by passing each person's money forward to whoever is in the front seat and you can trust any change will be given back to you (even if that means negotiating with the person next to you!)

Shopping on Saturday
After yet more fridge moving in the morning, it was inevitable that the day would come  that Nay would want to go shopping! Fortunately Sytske (dutch girl from Ikhaya) was on hand to take us around the suberb of Wynberg. The aim of this shopping trip was that we had all decided it would be good to have some authentic outfits (although they were made in China) for Heritage day. It was a busy day and we had a little showing from the sun which made that bit more bearable.

Nay and Sytske in their chosen outfits

After several hours of shopping (and a tea stop with some cake) we headed back to Hout Bay and headed down to the harbour were had a nose around and a butchers at the cruises that go to seal island and whale watching (saving that for better weather) before buying some seafood and heading over to Steve and Celeste's place for dinner.

Today we enjoyed our first trip to Shoreline church where the Pancaldi family used to go and yet more coffee and cake!

Until next time, that's all folks

Joe's house in Margy's garden (Xhosa style)

Week 1 (the round up)

So we have survived our first week in Hout Bay and its been an interesting week.

(mark)
We have seen a lot of the beauty of this amazing place and have met some wonderful people. The generosity of the people we have met to date has been breathtaking.

Our trip to the world of birds on Saturday was a great experience as a lot of the birds had young chicks or were due chicks soon. 1 of my favourite pictures was of a Black Swan and its cygnets. Also there were some other animals like various species of Monkeys, Turtles, Lizards and Squirrels.

A Black Swan and its cygnets

Mark is a bit slow to come out of his shell

On Sunday we went to the Vineyard church in Kenilworth. Nicky (the director of Ikhaya) was kind enough to pick us up and take us. This was very similar in set up to DNA (our local church) and was alot of fun. This was followed up with an invitation to go to one of the home groups (with Nicky) this was at Penny's place in  town (I think, Im losing track of people's names as there are so many new faces) and we were treated to a great meal and a fabulous peanut butter style cake (made by Briony). I'm sure we will be spending more time with this group as they all seem to have a great passion and are very funloving people.

The week at Ikhaya has been very busy and we have made lots of new friends. The staff already joke that they feel like we have been there forever. The kids are great fun and I've managed to do a lot of different activitys with them: Football, Rugby, Reading and Writting. I've also been helping out with some of the general maintinence of the land helping Phila (the grounds keeper) with some gardening and in the rescue of a donated freezer from a house that was literaly on the side of a mountain and had over a 100 steps (the number of steps and the difficulty of the freezer rescue will increase each time I tell the story). The kids are great fun to be with and have an enourmous amount of energy (and noise). Funniest momment of the week for me was when I was showing one of the kids (kanye) my West Ham tatto and then have to explain that are a top flight english club that play in the premier league (you had to be there).

kids settlling down to their evening meal

Kanye takes one look at the tattoo and asks "WHY"

So onto week 2, we have now moved in with Margy who has a lovely house situated half way up another mountain (yay more step roads to climb) we have quite a few plans for the weekend which include shopping in town (I'm sure Nay will fill you in more on that) and a braai (BBQ) on Monday as it is a bank holiday.
And tomorrow weather permitting we will be taking 105 noisy kids up table mountain home of a hundred screaming baboons. (should be an interesting mix).

TTFN

P.S. Sheeps stomach is really tasty emmmmmmmmmmmmmm

(Nay)

1 week down and our adventure has just begun. I have to agree with Mark that the people we've met so far are amazing especially those who are prepared to give so generously when they have so little themselves. I don't think you can ever walk through Mandela park (township) without some sadness but the initial shock has been replaced to some extent with a real sense of hope.

Reading afternoon

The staff and children at Ikhaya are amazing although I'm not entirely sure how we are ever going to learn all the names (especially being a special ed teacher who's used to a class of 10!) however we are slowly building up relationships. The children are cheeky chaps as apparantly I have "boy clothes" (my practical fashion) and they even started calling me granny today (not encouraged by Mark of course :P). They also seem very interested in my skin and especially counting moles...that's one maths lesson for you!!

There is an African saying that goes "Your child , my child" and that just reflects the ethos of this place -we  are so often quick to blame the parents but it kinda makes you question the role we all have to play in bringing up our children (wherever they are from!).

Now we are at Margy's place and it's great to meet her especially as someone who knows the Pancaldis and Joe (our friends who run History Maker - the charity we are supporting). Ikhaya is definetly a Joe place and we're happy to be carrying on with something of his earthly work. I know Joe would never want to take that credit but it's great to be in the country which he loved and inspired him. When we make it to Table Mountain I'll be thinking This one if you Joe :)

So as Mark mentioned this weekend we are going shopping for some traditional African outfits as the bank holiday is for Heritage Day and we are celebrating with the kids next Friday with traditional music, food and dancing. Watch this space for photos of Mark in his zulu performance..........

Mark 10 v 13-16 Don't push these children away. Don't ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the Kingdom.

Some photos around Ikhaya

work/eating area

staff office

kitchen

work./eating area

view from the top

library

computer classroom

play area

work from last term

learning kitchen

play area

outside view

view of local area

nearby house

local area

view from bottom

First Weekend

Beach!

Meal at Dunes thanks to Grandma and Grandad Goody

Well our first weekend has past and we were very busy.

The weather has been amazing (yeah just thought id rub it in). We talking 25-30 degrees with a slight breeze and not a single cloud in the sky.

Saturday we went to a bird sanctuary called "WORLD OF BIRDS" which has an amazing array birds and also funnily enough some monkeys. A lot of the Avery's were walk through so you could get quite close to them. There was a moment when one of the cape hawks flew across the Avery and launched a carcass at me (MARK) which sent nay scurrying across to the exit.

Sunday we went to the Vineyard church in Cape Town with Nicky from Ikhaya. The people there were very welcoming and it was quite similar to our church back home. Its good to see the worship PowerPoint bouncing around as they tried to keep up with the singers and the usual chaos at the beginning of trying to get people to sit down. (well it made me chuckle).

After we got back from church we walked to the beach and had lunch at a lovely restaurant called DUNES were we tried some BOK (small deer), Fish and some of the local cape wine which was lovely.

We have meet quite a lot of nice people already and can see why this is such a lovely place.

stay tuned fro more updates through the week.

Mark and Nay xxxxxxxx

A white pheasant (I think!) at the World of Birds

Springbok (soon to be our starter :P)

Plan if!!

Entrance to ikaya

Where we are staying...for now!!

Kirstenboch botanical gardens Day1

Kirstenboch botanical gardens Day1

Hi all

Well so far so good. We are currently sitting in the office at ikhaya and  the sun is shining.  As soon as you walk into this place the hope and love for the kids and families shines through. A hug is never far way! It's quite a shock initially to see the township right next to the bigger houses but it's such a beautiful place with the backdrop of the mountains. We are going to settle in for a few days and then hopefully begin to lead some sessions and next Friday take the Table Mountain trip.

As far as our accommodation is concerned we are on "plan if"! We are currently in a holiday apartment about half hour walk to ikaya which Kim and Ian have kindly arranged for us. After that the plan is to move into the extension of the Roberts' house which is currently being finished. Celeste and the rest of the family have been great with lifts, dinner and sharing info so far. Celeste took us to the Kirstenboch gardens after we arrived which is also somewhere where we should be going with the children.

love
Nay and Mark x

You can check out where we're going at http://www.ikhayalethemba.com/

Au revoir

Hi all

As most of you will know we fly to Cape town tomorrow to spend 3 months working in an afterschool project.

Here we will (technology working correctly) keep you up to date with our little adventure and post some pics.

See you in December!

The Snells xx