Sports

Hello :-) Ok, so I'm not exactly the most sporty person you'll ever meet!- but on Friday and again on Monday I joined Tim and one of the young mentors to play cricket at different townships. Despite my lack of sports skills, I actually quite enjoy going because it's a chance to meet the amazing children in the community. The Village has a partnership with a Dutch university, which involves several students coming over to SA to help implement a sports and educational programme. The next couple of students are due to arrive soon, so until they do Tim is just running an informal group which runs every afternoon.

There's always lots going on at the Village of Hope, with people busy carrying out their different roles and responsibilities. Tim and Maz do an amazing job at directing and managing the project, and they rely upon God to guide them and strengthen them in all they do. Today Maz took one of the little girls from the unit to hospital as she hasn't been very well and has been losing weight :-(

This morning I went out with the nurses from another Thembalitsha project, Thembacare, which involves going on foot into the townships and visiting out-patients with them. I didn't actually do anything, but it was good to go into the community. I also found it difficult. I don't know whether, after twenty one years of living my privileged life in England, I'm ever going to 'get used' to seeing the way people live here. In many ways it's a vibrant community, and not all the houses are impoverished- some people have TVs, music players, little gardens outside, or some tiling on their floor. However, there is such a mix of the different gradients of lifestyle within the townships that I feel as though I'm an alien who's just landed on earth- it's still overwhelming and surreal, and I can't seem to clock that it's reality, especially as I return to my comfortable bed and shower at the volunteer's unit. Some people are fine just as they are- this is their normality, and they are happy and appreciative of what they have. Yet I sometimes feel very guilty and helpless when see the very poor shack houses, especially when I just feel like I want to get far away from it. I'm comforted by the fact that our God is the same God, whereever you go, and that He will continue to change lives here in Grabouw.