Getting started

Sunday 8th January

Church at 10 this morning which was so refreshing and we were given such a lovely welcome by LIV Church. We had the rest of the day off so a girl called Iona and I went into one of the clusters and found some children to play with. There were 3 girls and a tiny boy who couldn't have been older than 1 and a half! It was so amazing to see how well the 3 girls got on as they are all sisters in their home. After we’d played with them for a couple of hours we took them back to their house where their mother  (mumma Pumzie) invited us in and we talked about cooking and what we had been making with the food and she gave us advice on how to use samp and we told her how to make apple crumble. The culture here is so different to home but it is amazing to see such a different way of life. I am enjoying myself here more than I ever thought was possible, everyone is so kind and you’ll never walk past someone without stopping for a conversation even if you’ve never met them before!

Monday 9th January

Devotions at 8 this morning which was just worship and welcoming new people on the village. Then we had team building activities in our barracks. Our first challenge was to go round the village finding eggs however in your pair, one person was blind but could talk and the other could see but couldn't talk. Each pair had a clue of where to go on the village and in my pair I could see and Rachael could talk and I had to lead her up the hall to the finance ladies office then without talking get her to ask one of the kids how to ask for an egg in Zulu which she then had to repeat to get the egg. After both teams had their eggs had to come up with team names and a song and dance. Then we did variations of egg and spoon races before we had our first bootcamp! After which Iona and I went back to play with the kids from yesterday as they wanted to play with us again. Very tiring day, yet I still stayed up ridiculously late chatting with people.

Tuesday 10th January

Very tired when waking up! We had our first teaching at 8am this morning with the title ‘A mustard seed yes’. Afterwards we got told our groups that we would be in during activities on the village and exercise groups. Then we did an obstacle race on one of the kids junglejims before we had some lunch. Then we did 60 second challenges before our first try of insanity. Jono was nice and gave us the easiest video however it was not easy at all… It was 40 minutes of non stop cardio and muscle focused exercise and safe to say everyone was very sweaty and tired afterwards. Then I went and played tennis with Iona, Lara and Danny before showering and having dinner and an early night!

Wednesday 11th January

Another early start for another 8am teaching this morning before going out onto the village to help where help was needed. I went to one of our leaders house to help make personalised invitation cards to be delivered to all the girls 13 and above to a programme the village run called Beloved on a Saturday which I will hopefully be helping out with. After that I helped to make dinner before coming for some wifi.