Johannesburg Snippets

We were blessed to spend some time in Johannesburg and help out with activities happening there.  We thought to share some of the highlights of our trip.
There were so many things happening as the new Adieu centre was being completed and we had to get the rooms and all ready for the first group of volunteers who were arriving a couple of weeks later. There was building, moving, cleaning and lots of planning done to make sure everything was done on time. The centre is completed and looks amazing and will be a great help to host volunteers in the future.

We got to help make food parcels once again and also go and do food shopping for the parcels. Lilandi and I (Liezl) got the job to buy the food and love doing so. We go and buy the food on two different days as there is not enough stock on the shelves for us to buy our complete order on 1 day. As you can see below, Lilandi had to climb on some canned foods to reach the last of the soy packs. There is always something new to do when buying food.

Lilandi climbing on tins of food to reach more soy boxes

As always giving out the food parcels is one of my favorite jobs. To see the smiles on the faces of those getting food just makes my heart burn to do more and be able to help more and more people!We give the children each an orange and an apple to eat on the walk back home.

Food parcels given out at Aphiwe

Other distribution we were also involved with was that of the creche equipment. A company gives funds which enables us to buy creche equipment for 5 creches. Hendri and I got to distribute the equipment to some of these creches. Packing the car was "fun", trying to fit all the things in without popping blown up balls or breaking white boards or tearing open packs of stationary with the sharp edges of the tables and chairs. Hendri got it all in and off we went.

Fully packed car

Unpacking at each creche

When we arrived at the creches the children and teachers would smile and sing and be so happy to receive all these new things. Hendri's favorite part would be to go to a class room where the children are all sitting very quietly and doing some work, he would then open this black bag and throw and kick the balls into the middle of them all, not even 2 seconds and the entire class room is now screaming, running and playing with these new balls, as soon as the chaos has been stirred up he would leave and we would find the next creche to have some fun.

Playing with their new Hoola Hoops

After a ball was thrown in the room

Happy and excited with new toys and equipment

We had a lady call and inform us she had some blankets to donate. Lauren and I (Liezl) were the ones who had to go and pickup the donation. As we got to the gate of the house we see these signs warning about a dog, we both have a look around the yard from behind the fence and see no sign of any dogs. We pulled up to the garage where there was another sign saying "beware of the dog", both of us now are a bit scared to leave the car, but as we could not see any dogs we got out anyway. We met the lady and started packing the blankets from her lounge to the car, still no sign of ANY dogs we thought that she must have been lying and it is only used to scare people away, BUT then just as we went in for the last bag of blankets a dog appears from the back room, it was a poodle, haha we were now not as afraid of this very scary dog, we give this big sigh of relief and start turning to leave the house, but to our surprise another dog appears, this time a much much bigger dog, a German shepherd with about 5 others following !!! We froze as we weren't going to try race this dog back to the car, we waited for the owner to show us some kind of sign that all was going to be okay, after sniffing and almost bumping me over the German shepherd was satisfied that we came in peace and he let us go.
It was a large donation too! We were glad only two of us went to pick up the blankets as there was absolutely no space anywhere in the car on the way back home.

back seat of the Isuzu packed with blankets

Back of the Isuzu also packed with blankets

The GrR (Grade R) courses and extra classes we got to experience first hand. Lilandi and I went to a few preschools where she demonstrated and taught me how to do the lessons. These courses and extra classes we will be starting in Port Elizabeth.

Throwing bean bags to one another

Throwing bean bags through hoop

Colour and shapes game

Lauren and I then also got a chance to do the lessons with two different school groups. They were brought to the Aphiwe Good news centre. We do activities with them outside, they then have a snack and then we do more indoor activities. All the activities are worked out to help them be more school ready.

Having their snacks in the sun

Balancing on 1 leg and catching a bean bag

One of my favorite moments was when we got to give Sunday school lessons again at the Aphiwe Good News centre. There were so many more children than when we left. Hendri had a group of 9 youth, I had close to 20 and Otilia had about 8 or so youngsters. As I was teaching my class I looked out the window to see how Otilia was teaching her children in the nature God had created, the children sitting on the green grass, in the warm sun with a cool breeze blowing the small tree above them. I thought this just the perfect picture on how we can teach children about God!

Sunday School out in the warm Sun

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