Hello all.
Thought I would take the opportunity of a spare few minutes to jot down an update of what I’ve been up to in the last few weeks. Crazily, I’ve already been here 2 months, and we’re no longer the ‘new GAT’ and people are starting to ask when we go home. But that’s a scary thought, so I just say we have another 3 months to go!
I’ve been up to a fair bit over the last few weeks, so I’ll just try and remember the most significant stories. As a team, we’ve had a few adventures this month starting with our car (Taz) breaking down after a girls night out in Montecasino, leaving us stuck for a few days whilst Taz got repaired, but people were kind with their cars and we managed. Our second adventure was a little more exciting- on the 22nd May we went off to a beautiful place called Mountain Sanctuary Park, about an 1 ½ out of Cosmo. In the morning, we had planned to travel early with Jackie and Steve, but as their car was in the garage we went ahead ourselves (in hindsight, a mistake!) as someone had said it was easy to get to. They were wrong! The first turning we took led us up a mountain track, which we then got stuck up and had to be towed out, and then when we tried to find the next road to it, we somehow ended up driving around the mountain. Anyway, 5 ½ hours later we arrived, but only had 2 duvets between 5 of us in a log cabin- it was freezing! Jackie and Steve had meant to come on the Friday but as it was late only arrived on the Saturday, and they were the ones who had our bed stuff. Anyway, the weekend itself was a really nice break, and we had time to reflect on our experiences so far and to spend time as a team, praying and chatting. We also went swimming and climbing in the rock pools which were stunningly beautiful but again, pretty cold. Brrr. At one point, Sarah, the boys and I climbed a little waterfall and used it as a slide, but just as I was deciding whether I wanted to go down, I slipped and the decision was made for me! I don’t think I have ever laughed so much, it was very very amusing (and I have bruises to account for it!).
Back home, we’re done a few community projects- Oasis ran a ‘knit-a-square’ day in which blankets were made (Beth and I were on child care so we got to paint faces) and a ‘One Love’ day- both days run in schools in the community, engaging local people with projects we are running and were both good fun. Clinic continues to be crazy busy, but I’m enjoying it more and more, and I’m really starting to see the affect it can have on people in Cosmo City, and hearing lots of stories- both sad and encouraging.
The team have all been a little under the weather for the last week- we all managed to catch bugs/cold’s and general things at the same time, so please pray for good health for us all (I’m a little cold-y at the moment) for the coming weeks. Personally, we’ve been up to lots of lovely things- seeing Sex and the City 2 with the girls, out for drinks, out for meals with Oasis staff, and meeting with a home group on a Wednesday. Last night we visited a local church with a friend Audrey for a worship evening and it was a great experience- just to enjoy some time with God. As a team I think we’re building stronger and better relationships (no storming yet!) and we’ve also been adopting Steve into our team. (this involves lots of cake trips and weekends together).
I could go on and on, but I’ll wrap up now- hope everyone is well, and please send all your news.
Much love, Laura x
Monday 31 May 2010
Monday 10 May 2010
May Update
Welcome to May- almost winter here, whilst you UK-ers start to enjoy the sunshine (I received an e-mail from Starbucks today saying summer is almost here, and it made me sad.) Last night we experienced our first proper African storm- very loud and dramatic, but luckily our house stayed dry.
The last few weeks have been very busy here, and all of our team have been getting involved in far too many projects to name, but we all love it. I now spend a good amount of my week working with the Community Health Team in the 4 clinics that they run throughout the week- 2 in a settlement called Itsoseng, and 2 here at Cosmo City. It’s an amazing, hectic place to be and we now see more antenatal patents here at Cosmo than the official government clinic over in Zanspruit. Last week I assisted with the Doctor and midwives through the week and saw my fair share of both inspiring and heartbreaking stories. One woman we saw and prayed for was healed of chronic back/leg pain and we saw her leg stretch out so they were equal (amazing-praise God)! But on Tuesday we went on a home visit to see an older lady who had sores in her mouth and on her body and she was offered a HIV test which she took. The test confirmed that she was HIV positive and we sat with her as she tried to take in this news- very sad, but she can now start treatment and receive support which is good news. During the clinics I usually help out with notes and statistics, pharmacy and general helping a hand- it’s all a good learning curve for me. Hopefully this week we will be able to start up a milk bank, providing HIV + women (about 1 in 4 of the women at the antenatal clinic are HIV positive) with formulae milk so to reduce the risk of mother to child transmission.
In the pre-schools, we’ve been doing lots of singing, dancing and today we took them shakers which they loved whilst at ‘Wonderful Me’, a program run in primary schools about self esteem, we dress up as various insects and act out stories- it makes for amusing photographs!
At home we’ve been busy too- on Beth’s birthday we had posh breakfast, went out for a lovely meal and then had a cake party with a few drinks back at the house- I don’t think I have ever eaten so much in one day before! We also had an election sleepover and then on Saturday we waitressed at an event one of the Oasis staff had at her house. All in all, a pretty busy time, but we managed to sleep it all off on Saturday morning. We have finally got rid of the mice we hope, but they’ve been replaced by ants so still struggling with the animals.
We’re still continuing to go to Godfirst church in the evenings, a newfrontiers church run by PJ Smythe and we’ve almost finished our tour of local churches so we’re hoping to go more regularly to a church called Liberty Church- a mostly African church but the sermon at least is in English which is always helpful. We’ve been made to feel so welcome there and we all enjoy the dancing style worship.
In terms of prayer requests, I think the poverty here is really starting to hit home, so please pray that my and the team’s hearts stay soft and that we can really feel like we’re making a positive difference to people. And secondly for energy- all our activities need a fair bit of energy so please pray I can keep going and not flag or get tired. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.
Love, Laura
The last few weeks have been very busy here, and all of our team have been getting involved in far too many projects to name, but we all love it. I now spend a good amount of my week working with the Community Health Team in the 4 clinics that they run throughout the week- 2 in a settlement called Itsoseng, and 2 here at Cosmo City. It’s an amazing, hectic place to be and we now see more antenatal patents here at Cosmo than the official government clinic over in Zanspruit. Last week I assisted with the Doctor and midwives through the week and saw my fair share of both inspiring and heartbreaking stories. One woman we saw and prayed for was healed of chronic back/leg pain and we saw her leg stretch out so they were equal (amazing-praise God)! But on Tuesday we went on a home visit to see an older lady who had sores in her mouth and on her body and she was offered a HIV test which she took. The test confirmed that she was HIV positive and we sat with her as she tried to take in this news- very sad, but she can now start treatment and receive support which is good news. During the clinics I usually help out with notes and statistics, pharmacy and general helping a hand- it’s all a good learning curve for me. Hopefully this week we will be able to start up a milk bank, providing HIV + women (about 1 in 4 of the women at the antenatal clinic are HIV positive) with formulae milk so to reduce the risk of mother to child transmission.
In the pre-schools, we’ve been doing lots of singing, dancing and today we took them shakers which they loved whilst at ‘Wonderful Me’, a program run in primary schools about self esteem, we dress up as various insects and act out stories- it makes for amusing photographs!
At home we’ve been busy too- on Beth’s birthday we had posh breakfast, went out for a lovely meal and then had a cake party with a few drinks back at the house- I don’t think I have ever eaten so much in one day before! We also had an election sleepover and then on Saturday we waitressed at an event one of the Oasis staff had at her house. All in all, a pretty busy time, but we managed to sleep it all off on Saturday morning. We have finally got rid of the mice we hope, but they’ve been replaced by ants so still struggling with the animals.
We’re still continuing to go to Godfirst church in the evenings, a newfrontiers church run by PJ Smythe and we’ve almost finished our tour of local churches so we’re hoping to go more regularly to a church called Liberty Church- a mostly African church but the sermon at least is in English which is always helpful. We’ve been made to feel so welcome there and we all enjoy the dancing style worship.
In terms of prayer requests, I think the poverty here is really starting to hit home, so please pray that my and the team’s hearts stay soft and that we can really feel like we’re making a positive difference to people. And secondly for energy- all our activities need a fair bit of energy so please pray I can keep going and not flag or get tired. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.
Love, Laura
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