A tale of two islands

Greetings one and all

Another busy week in the life of the Snellings....

IKHAYA UPDATE

 

We are getting stuck in with teaching the older kids which has lead to some "interesting" cooking lessons, the start of a worship drumming group and discussions on the Olympics, HIV and yet more moles! (the skin type that is!). On Tuesday we were able to skype with my parents and my class at Lexden...the children here haven't quite got the hang of the webcam yet as about 10 of them were all crammed round the camera but it was great to start making the connections!

 

Kirstenboch

 

 

On Friday we took the children out on the second trip funded by our supporters to Kirstenboch botanical gardens. Unfortunately the weather was a little on the wet side but all the groups (42 kids in total) managed to have a walk round as well as join in indoor activities including flower collages, plant investigation and interactive food chains. There were less people then planned so we all mananged to go on the coach arranged with Kirstenboch which was yet another opportunity for singing and dancing. This, topped with the extra lunches the children all received, made for a great trip for all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday we are having Market Day which is basically Ikhaya's summer fete to raise funds. There will be stalls selling second hand clothes, bric a bric and Mark will be on the braai. Having had a few weeks where funding has been a concern here, God has provided the finance for ikhaya to run fully until the end of January so hopefully this will be another chance to raise support.

 

 WHAT ELSE HAVE WE BEEN UP TO THIS WEEK?

 

Seal Island

On Wednesday morning the sun was shining and the sea was calm so we decided to take the trip to seal island which is basically a small island about 15 mins from Hout Bay Harbour which hosts a colony of 1000+seals. Beautiful!

 

 

 

Robben Island

Having enjoyed some fish and chips and live music at Hout Bay Harbour on Friday night, on Saturday we took the trip from Cape Town waterfront to visit Robben Island Museum - where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years.

In true African time, the ferry was running a bit late but the bonus was a spontaneous performance by a gospel choir who were keeping themselves entertained while they waited. Music runs in the blood here. Amazing!

 

The island is named after the Dutch word for seal and before it was used for prisoners, was a site to send lepers, those with diasbilites and anyone else deemeed as "outcasts', unable to live with the rest of the city.

 

 

We had a tour of the prison by an ex-political prisoner which I found very moving as he described his experience and the conditions he and his comrades survived in. He said he didn't hold any grudges against the authorities and was obviously proud of his fight for equality here. Having recently finished Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom, it was interesting to see and here it all in real life. Very humbling...

 

 

 

 

In the evening we watched West Province thrash the Sharks rugby team in the Currie cup. I decided that I would support the winning team so changed my support half way through! A great time with friends at Melt's who is the leader of Kenilworth Vineyard church - another wine drinking ex-rugby playing vicar!!

 

Chapman's Peak

 

 

Not very far from our flat is the start of Chapman's Peak drive, a beautiful coastal route which we decided to walk yesterday. A bit tough on the old legs but so worth the view. In fact walking has been a bit of a feature in our time here as we take the half hour hilly trip to ikhaya every day and back. It's been the best way to get to know people around Imizamo Yethu (township)  which (as I keep reminding myself) we would have missed out on if we were able to afford a car here. Joe, you would be proud of my walking boots :)

 

 

Well nearly time for our computer class to start

With our love especially to what we hear is beginning to get a chilly UK xx

 

 



A closer look at Hout Bay

Hello everybody Peeps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been a busy week since our last post. We have had a lot of good lessons with the children from computers, cooking, reading and writing to Rugby. The kids are great fun to be around but can become a bit of a handful when dealing with them on mass.

Township entrance sign

Township sewage system

 On Tuesday we took a tour of the township with a guy called Afrika (Yes that's his real name). Afrika took us on an extended tour that included the clinic where they treat HIV/AIDS and TB among many things. Afrika explained that the township was originally set up for 2500 people but to date the population was more like 40,000. It's amazing how some of these structures stay up as many of them are nothing more then a wooden frame with flimsy bits of metal used as a skin. There are some concrete built properties which were built by an Irish charity though I'd say there was at most about 200 of these.

Township view

A lot of the properties (98%) don't have running water and have the use of a shared toilet with anything up to 50 other families. As part of the tour we looked inside several of the homes. The occupants were very welcoming and had a lot of pride in their homes. We managed to get to talk to a lot of the township people and it is a testament to them that they are both creative and resourceful when it comes to making a living. The vast majority will happily work all the hours to provide for their family.

Feeding a seal at the harbour

The rest of the week past pretty quickly after the tour although a stomach bug has started to now make its way round the staff at Ikhaya. I've managed so far to avoid it, nay was off ill for a day. Fortunately she recovered in time for the weekend which due to some dodgy weather saw us explore a bit more of the harbour area where we found a small market (bay market) which was a pleasant mix of stalls selling jewellery  art, food and drink which had a very similar vibe and atmosphere that you might find in Camden. After a tasty lunch (and the purchase of some spicy olives) we walked along to the area of the harbour where the boat trips go from, unfortunately as the wind was picking up and the weather getting worse we were unable to take a trip to seal island.

Sunday we went to a church service at Ikhaya which was attended by a lot of the families from the township that have children at Ikhaya and many people from the kenilworth vineyard group. It was an amazing service that even the rain couldn't dampen. After the service we again went exploring this time on the other side of the harbour at the start of the Chapman's peak trail were we visited the smallest pub in Africa and had a tasty roast lunch.

We have another busy week ahead as we are taking the kids to Kirstenboch botanical gardens on Friday.

Bye for now
Mark and Nay xx

Term 4, Table Mountain and (Bus) Trip

Life at Ikhaya

Well on return from our road trip last week saw the start of Term 4 at ikhaya which will take us through until 7th Dec (in SA schools have 4 terms a year, with a long break over Christmas). We will mostly be supporting grades 6-8 (top end of secondary) with Mhinti which will cover Sisa's work (he has been released to begin church planting in the township). Sessions include cooking, ICT, English comprehension and life skills. Thursdays have been handed over to us so Mark is getting thrashed by the boys in rugby and I am working with a musician called Gideon who is interested in starting a project with children with learning disabilities in the future.  We will be teaching and sharing worship songs in view for the older ones to lead worship themselves when they leave the project to begin their own thing in January. It's quite a challenge (as working with teenagers always is!) but we are beginning to build some good relationships. Language isn't really a major problem as most of the children here speak very good English, however they do sometimes need reminding to use it rather than Xhosa! (we are learning a few phrases and have become Noma (the housekeeper's) pupils :)) 

Discussing music

Table Mountain

On Friday we finally managed to take the children to Table Mountain (one of the trips we were raising money for). 70 African children + 6 minibus taxis + cable car = an interesting experience!! The taxis there alone were exciting enough...they can  only be described as mini party buses as the children asked for "volume, volume" for the music which could give any Ibiza club a run for it's money! Remember the lack of seat belt rule and you can imagine the scene :)

After waiting for the cable car, Mark, myself and the other staff took the rather unsuccessful role as crowd control as soon as the door opened. Thankfully we all survived but you have to feel sorry for the guy one the radio with his attempt at telling the group the rules on the mountain! At the top we were given some information about the natural sights including the 5 venomous snakes that live there and then we stopped for lunch ( 100 hot dogs lovingly prepared by us and some of the kids at ikhaya!) before heading back down. 

One of the things I have noticed is that the children are photographed by any tourist at any given time (we don't count as tourists if we're working at ihaya hehe). Now whilst I agree they are a beautiful "attraction" it seems very strange to me that people find it OK to do this without asking permission at least. The kids however seem to like it and will pose at any given opportunity :)

Anyway a short but sweet trip was had by all (I think Mark and I will be returning on our own before we leave though!)

Preparing lunch

Cape Town bus tour

So like all good cities these days, CT has it's own hop on hop off bus tour which we took over this weekend. 

Saturday - Peninsula tour took as round the beautiful beaches and into the city where we stopped at Victoria and Alfred waterfront, Company garden, canal cruise and South Africa museum to name a few things. 

Sunday - City tour which included Table Mountain (viewed in 101 ways!),  District 6 ( a residential areas which was wiped out during apartheid) and ended with the wine tour. We only made it to one vineyard but nice to sample the local produce and share with friends at a braai in the evening :)

So we are now settled into our flat where we'll stay for the remainder of our trip. We are right next to the harbour, shops and access to public transport so a bit of comfort at the end of each day. It is blowing a bit of a gale today though so I can definitely say "oh my hat" (a phrase used at ikhaya or possibly SA in general!). Til the next time..Nay x

Road Trip

So on Saturday 29th of September we started a road trip to Port Elizabeth (and back) in our trusty steed a 1.4 litre city golf (lent to us by Rob's Mum) and have covered over 2000km which is a greater distance then travelling from John O Groats to Lands End (and back again). We have seen many wondrous sites from Baboons having a turf war across a main road to a Nay almost being thrown off of an ostrich's back whilst at a farm tour. This trip saw several miracles happen the main one being that I managed to stay awake for the whole journey and did not fall asleep once.

Nay and our trusty stead at Bontebok national park.

Driving
It's fair to say that our South African cousins mostly like to travel at speed. They tend to sit as close to the rear of the car in front as humanly possible if the car in front is not going fast enough which is not to dissimilar to back home. It's always interesting to drive with Nay as the quiet and polite Essex girl we all know and love disappears and a ragging torrent of abuse streams from her lips which is generally followed by a quick apology and a blessing to the passing driver that has passed within several inches whilst taking over on a bend.  SaturdayWe started at 8am from Hout Bay and made our way through the suburbs to the N2. We travelled for several hours across some breath taking scenery until we arrived to our first stop off point at Swellendam where we stayed at a backpackers hostel in a shed (an actual garden sized shed with a double bed).  We went to Bontebok national park (just outside of Swellendam) where we were hopping to see some Boks and some Zebra. Despite driving around the whole park we didn't really see many animals but the scenery was beautiful. Later that day we headed to a pub that we had found in Swellendam and watched the South Africa vs Australia rugby game (supporting the spring boks - sorry Ryan). After that we went back to the hostel and stayed in the garden shed.

Bontebok national park

Our (Shed) accommodation in Swellendam

Sunday
We got another early start as we had a lot of distance to cover to get to Plettenberg Bay where we were hoping to get some relaxing beach time in the 25 degree clear blue sky that had been forecast. After several stops and some minor diversions (accidents and road works) we arrived at about 12-12.30ish and booked into another backpacker hostel which had lovely rooms (not sheds). After exploring the area (on foot) we found a lovely sandy beach were we settled down for a quick tanning session. Later that evening we had a great meal (seafood platter) before heading back to the hostel.

Plettenberg Bay

Monday
The final leg of our journey started well as we continued down the N2 passing fields of Ostriches and entering into the Tsitsikamma national park where we saw a Baboon sitting at the roadside waiting to be fed by passing motorists. We did however got slightly lost coming into Port Elizabeth and spent 2 hours driving around lost before a kind garage employee drew us a map to get us back on our desired route. After arriving finally at Fountain Vineyard church we registered for the conference and was giving our accommodation which was with a lovely couple called Divan and Lenee and their 2 excitable dogs a Ridgeback and a Terrier. We then spent a few hours on the beech enjoying the sun before making our way to the hosts. After unpacking we made our way down to the Fountain Vineyard church for the opening of the conference (Nay will fill you in more on this later)

Our hosts at Port Elizabeth

Tuesday
We had a full day of conferencing with a lovely walk along a beach on the Sacramento Trail .

Port Elizabeth Sacremento trail

Wednesday
This was a great day as we went to ADDO Elephant park which was amazing. We spent all day driving around the park and saw some wonderful animals. We saw many types of Boks and Antelopes, Elephants, Snakes, Tortoises, Water hogs, Water Buffalo, Monkeys, Zebra and an amazing array of birds from Ostriches to Cape Hawks.

A pack of Elephants take a pit stop at a watering hole

Thursday
Was another full day at the conference which ended in a banquet including some live music and Mark being one of the few people in traditional African dress!
Friday 
Another early start as we started our trip back towards Cape Town. We made our way back down the N2 for a while before driving onto the R62 and heading towards Oudtshoorn where we visited the Cango Caves before having a braai in the evening at our final pit stop.

Nay in the Cango Caves

Saturday
We went to Cango wildlife ranch and Cango ostrich farm which was where nay nearly got thrown from an ostriche's back. At Cango wildlife ranch we saw some of the rare big cats from a WHITE lion to a White strip less Bengal tiger. This was followed by a private tour of an Ostrich farm which was an interesting experience.

Mark and a cute bird in Cango wildlife ranch (before it took a dump on my shoulder and flow away)

Nay straddles an Ostrich before nearly getting thrown off.

Sunday
Our final day saw us cover a lot of distance on the way back to cape town and our apartment in which we will be staying for the remainder of our trip. We saw a lot of baboons as we passed through the mountains and after a slight detour made our way safely back.

Some thoughts from the conference....
So our conference in Port Elizabeth was the 30th anniversary Vineyard Leaders event. Nicky (director of Ikhaya) and her husband Rob invited us along as they have been involved in the Vineyard movement of churches for a long time etc. Basically in the mornings and evenings there was a time of worship (led by Tony Sanchez and some great songwriters from the area) bible reading and preaching from different people including Christy Wimber (one of the founding members of Vineyard).
These things can get pretty intense but a great chance to meet some different people and think again about who, what, where and how. As we consider our future and the rest of our time here we have been challenged to think more about what God is up to rather than asking "what are we doing?".

Knowing what Mark has already said about my driving it was quite funny that during one of the meetings I got a random thought/picture about a map and a sat nav. We were then asked to pray for each other and the guy next to me (who will hopefully accompany Mark to watch some footie in Cape Town) prayed (not knowing what I'd just written down) that God would guide us like a sat nav .... We'll have to wait and see whether a Yoda voice from heaven appears!! 

If you've got to the end of this then thankyou for reading and goodnight :)

love

Mark and Nay xxxx