Home Based Care Training

Saturday morning was the start of the realisation of a dream Paula has been carrying for Chris Nissen Park over the past 2 years. In the last 6 months the ladies in her cell group have received 2 sessions of HIV/AIDS awareness training and this was capped on Saturday by a whole morning of Home Based Care training. Over her months of visiting people in CNP it has become all too evident that many of the ladies are in fact doing the job of a home based carer with very little (or no) training, few resources and less than ideal environments.

Eli At 11 Months

Eli is 11 months old today. Wow, where did the time go?

We can't really express what a sheer bundle of joy he is and what a blessing he is to our family. Joel simply adores Eli and that is clearly reciprocal! 

We look forward to Eli being able to walk and keep up with Joel, as it looks like they'll have a lot of fun together (as long as Eli leaves Joel's train set alone).

Garden

Here's an update on how the garden is looking now that Spring is over and summer is allegedly with us (we say allegedly as it's been raining for 2 days, but it is very warm). The grenadilla bush has simply continued churning out its fruit so no complaints there. It's a pleasure to watch different plants come into bloom at different times. The Aloe Vera has finished flowering and now looks quite plain, whilst other bushes and trees are looking fantastic.

Eli

Dean's replacement lens arrived today (he smashed his old one at the Choices do - whoops!) so he had to fiddle with it and take a few piccys before the light went completely and Eli was very obliging. Joel on the other hand scarpered as soon as he saw the camera.

Chris Nissen

I had an excellent afternoon in Chris Nissen catching up with friends and visiting a few others that I hadn't seen for a while. I always enjoy spending time in Dina's house and today was no exception as Basil & Mary were there with a neighbours daughter whom they look after during the day. Lytton (Dina's grandson) was there with a friend as was Dina and we all had a good laugh and chat. I then went and spent a bit of time with Vissy, I'm always stunned at how well she looks! God has been so faithful in answering our prayers for her. We were convinced about a year ago that she had only days to live, and here we are a year later and she looks really good. Praise God!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Going to the Nature Reserve for tea on a Sunday afternoon seems to be becoming a bit of a tradition. Thankfully it stays open until 7pm during summer so we'll be able to enjoy many more lazy afternoons and evenings there. As you can see from the photos below, the boys really enjoy going. Joel loves seeing Spikey (the porcupine) and Eli seems to know that there will be plenty of food available!

TT Bike Races

Joel had a ball at the Twinkle Tots Bike Races this morning. He almost won his heat, but apart from that he loved being with his friends and just generally charging around the car park at his nursery. Needless to say the boys were very lively! Eli enjoyed himself too as he attempted to eat all the gravel on the car park, he failed but not for lack of trying!

It was a really good fundraiser for the nursery and everyone seemed to enjoy cheering for their kids and chatting with other parents.

Hope you enjoy the photos and the video below.

Bike Race - Preparations

Joel's nursery are holding a 'Bike Rally' tomorrow and there are prizes for the best decorated bike, so Joel & Daddy set about creating a masterpiece. Joel loved using 'real' paint and could barely contain himself. The biggest struggle for Daddy supervising was trying to persuade Joel to wait a while to allow one colour to dry before using a different one. Anyhow, he got the hang of it and did a sterling job.

Eli Standing

Here's a video of Eli standing. He's getting really confident now and has taken one step on a few occasions so he's sure to be walking soon. Scary thought!

Eli

We took this photo of Eli this morning as he was showing off with his standing. He's been standing freely for a while now, but yesterday he took his first step and took another this morning. Having has a child who didn't move for 18 months it's quite scarey having a monster who's been moving since he was 4½ months old! Eli is a week short of being 11 months.

Chris Nissen

I had an interesting morning in CNP today. His first task was to deliver a load of toys and two cupboards to the newly established créche in the community. This créche is a bit of a mixed blessing for us, it's great that at last there is something for the kids and their parents, it means that I can no longer use the containers for my bible study on Thursday mornings.

There's Mischief In Them Thar' Hills

Joel seemed to spend the whole of Sunday getting into mischief one way or another. Here's a sample of some of his antics plus a couple of cute shots of Eli to counter balance it all. Check out Joel's novel use of peas over on Finnie's In Focus

P. W. Botha

I wasn't planning to comment on the death of P.W. Botha, most realise that he was an anachronism from another time. An ugly reminder of the dark days of the apartheid regime of the 1980's. However, two things have come out of his death that warrant comment. The first thing is 'historical revisionism' and the second is 'forgiveness'. Clearly the second is by far the most important so I'll concentrate more on that one once I've dealt with the first.

Update On Our Week

The week in summary... It started last Saturday when Dean & Joel went to our 'Launchpad' camp near Grabouw. Dean was the official photographer and Joel was the able assistant! Look out on our PhotoBlog early next week for more photos of that. On Thursday, Dean was again the 'official' photographer, this time for Choices, our pregnancy crisis counseling centre. Dean has done a few bits for them and really enjoys serving this BRILLIANT ministry.

Health & Study

The good news is that Dean doesn't have TB! Praise God!! The bad news is that he's going to have to see the Dr. and try to sort out his cough and wheeziness as it's been going on for quite a while now. Dean is really frustrated as he can't shake off the cough but really doesn't want to take any more antibiotics. Probably the biggest frustration is not being able to go cycling, he's missed two rides this week and one last week, so he's trying to sort out a ride for tomorrow.

Firefox 2.0 - Rediscover The Web

In case you're not aware, Firefox version 2 has just been released and can be downloaded from their website. I fully recommend it!

Ditch Internet Explorer today!

Sunday Afternoon

The weekend was quite manic with a lot of runnig around, with not much family time to be had, so yesterday afternoon we had another picnic tea in the Nature Reserve. The boys love being there and it really is a lovely place. The only shame is that it still closes at 5.30. Thankfully in Nov' they extend it to 7.30 which will be much better. As we were leaving we were treated to a rare sighting of a Bontebok calf, we were all pleased with that! Normally the mothers keep them hidden for quite a while but this one was only a few days old and proudly parading around with the herd.

Sickness & Stuff

Please pray for Dean as he's struggling with his third bronchial infection in a short space of time. Dina and others in Chris Nissen have nagged him to have a TB test so he'll go and get that done on Monday. Dean's sure he hasn't got TB especially having read up on the symptoms. However, it is possible that he keeps getting ill from his incredibly regular contact with TB sufferers in CNP. After his last illness Dean had barely recovered when he took a few TB patients to the clinic in his car. Such close proximity when your immunity is low is not great! Please pray for a sustained period of good health for him.

Rainbow

late this week a 'black' southeaster was blowing which brought a bit of rain too, but the best bit was the rainbows we kept seeing. This one was just peeping over the Schapenberg and is seen from our bathroom window.

Bakkie In Action

In our recent post: 'Nothing Of Note' we mentioned the fact that we had changed Dean's car for a 'bakkie' (pickup in English) to assist us in our work in Chris Nissen. Here at last are some photos of the bakkie doing exactly what we wanted it for.

Concepts Of Eternity

Not very sound theologically, but quite entertaining.