Giraffes, spiders and tissues.....

Hi there,

I already finished my first week in Tsepo ya bana. I get to know the routines more and more and I hope the children get to know me more and more.

Last week on Thursday we finally brought F to his new home. He was supposed to be leaving the 1st of April but there was something wrong with the paper work. Two months is a long time to wait for a 12 year old….

He was super excited to go, it was interesting to see his new place and see how it all works here with the social worker.

Just before we left a spider bit me, it hurt really badly!

Luckily I didn’t have to see a doctor, so it wasn’t that worse. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the spider so I was a bit worried to sleep in my bed again…

Haven’t seen or felt the spider anymore…

As the days pass by I’m getting more and more used to the place. I try to sit in the sun during my breaks, as it’s much colder inside my cottage. Maybe I will get some tan in the end XD

The holidays are almost starting and this weekend was a good practice for when all the children are at home.

They had a 4-day weekend because of Youth Day, so it was good way to see if I could keep the children busy all the time. Because it is so cold during the nights it’s not really possible to use the pool. So during the holidays there isn’t much else to do than playing. Luckily the weather is nice enough to play with water and sand outside, they really like that so that will keep them busy for some time. All noses from the kids are still running, so I have a bunch of tissues with me all the time.

Sometimes you hear the Jackals or maybe even hyenas around the fence. I have seen some really nice birds, ostriches, giraffes etc. But there aren’t a lot of animals around now because it’s too dry here. There isn’t really much to eat. Just before I arrived there were elephants, so I just missed them, a shame. I have more time to see the other animals ;)

Yesterday we ate a real African dish, ‘Pap’ which you eat with you hands. M told me she  did put cutlery with my plate. I haven’t uses I though, I showed them I could eat with my hands too, maybe I don’t do it exactly how it’s supposed to but anyway I finished my plate :D. I tried ‘Pap’ the first time when I visited Soweto (next to Johannesburg) in April. The ‘Pap’ the mama made, was with a nice fish sauce and spinach. I did really like it.

I finally got the chance to have the baby on my back, like all African mums do. It was really nice and easy and so the baby joined us on our morning walk around the property. It is really just done with a towel so you will have to watch that it doesn’t get loose. You can feel it immediately so you will definitely be in time.

I’m getting more and more used to the cold nights, early mornings, running noses and nappies.

X