December 2010 Camps: The first week

Hi Everyone!

Well we are finally here in South Africa! After a gruelling 66 hours of travel time, the Canadian team arrived safe and sound in Nelspruit at the Mission House with Heather Stephens (Mamkhulu.org). Delays were caused to start with in Vancouver as we were boarded at 9:30pm but did not depart until about 2:00am (we were served our dinner and watched movies while sitting on the tarmac waiting for clearance due to a minor dent in the plane). We landed in London but alas our connecting flight had long since left as well as the final flight to Joburg for the day. It was a blessing in disguise as we were then put up in a lovely hotel near the airport, had a great sleep in a very comfortable bed and the team was able to go into London for a visit. We left at 6pm for Joburg and had a good flight arriving at 6:45am. Our shuttle bus arrived at 11:15am however were not able to accommodate our 15 suitcases and 2 members of the team (Ali and me) stayed behind to wait a further 4 hours for a subsequent shuttle. Heather Stephens and staff were there to meet both shuttles and take us home to settle in for the next month. So we left Vancouver Tuesday evening and arrived in Nelspruit Friday evening all safe and sound but very tired and jetlagged as would be expected!

Saturday we all woke up very early as is usually the case and this was a day of exploring, shopping in the mall, and arriving home mid afternoon to a party being organized for ourselves 2 youth leaders, and Brooke Keller (our fellow Canadian youth who is volunteering until May 2011) who all had birthday's recently. Great fun was had by all … mind you the Canadians faded quite early and slipped off to bed plus the party finished early as many of the youth leaders had to catch buses and taxis to get home to their townships.

Sunday we all woke up early again and went off to Church then another visit to the mall. We relaxed in the afternoon with a swim in the pool to cool off and watched a few movies. We chatted about the week ahead in preparation for the two weeks of camps (Youth Leader Training Camp and Hope Camps at the 6 schools around Daantje - elementary and high school).

The Canadian team received their new camp names:

Megan Young: Nomcebo

Megan Trussler: Zincle

Kaitlyn Hamner: Katiwe

Ali Noble: Nomusa


Monday we were up early and listened / watched a rainstorm. We had breakfast and were out the door by 7am by that time the rain had subsided. We headed first to Penryn College which is a beautiful private school in Nelspruit (Grade 1-12) and is where Heather works part time. Brooke toured the girls around the school. We were there to meet with another driver who was transporting 6 youth (13-14 years old) who were coming out to the Litsemba Centre to volunteer for 5 hours of painting to get it ready for our upcoming Youth Leaders Camps next week. It took about 40 minutes to drive out to the townships and Heather shared a bit of the history of the area. We all arrived and our Canadian team met some of our Youth Leaders and had a tour and discussion about the Centre. They then rolled up their sleeves and got to work with the Penryn youth sanding and painting a few of the rooms. They all took a lunch break to enjoy some local 'peri peri' chips and drinks and finished up their work around 2:15pm. It seemed the youngsters from Penryn were more into paint fighting, i.e. wearing the paint, than putting it on the walls but the Canadians made up for their slacking and a couple of them showed great expertise on plastering! Great work girls!

Everyone came home and relaxed. A couple of the girls have had a bit of a stomach bug but it seemed to pass quickly. Jetlag is quickly dissipating and we are all settling in. A few are feeling homesick and their bodies will hopefully adjust to the culture shock, heat, diet changes and environment.

Tuesday the girls will be returning to the centre to help for a few more hours and then return home to rest up. Wednesday we hope to attend a Food Program for Orphans led by two of our Youth Leaders – Pastor Sthembiso and Thuli (along with baby Blessing).

That's it for now. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to prepare for the next two weeks of camps and do some local exploring.