Rats, dead cats, drums and cheese.....

It's been a while and I've yet to write my April newsletter (sorry!) so I thought I'd do a newsy blog bringing you upto date on my adventures.

Life has been ticking along nicely here. The weather is very autumnal and almost wintry, although it will still get a lot colder! I'm trying to ration my layers, use of my fire and use of my electric blanket so that when the real cold hits I still have some options for keeping warm. I'm fortunate as my flat isn't too bad. The front room which is my loung/kitchen stays lovely and warm as it has the sun all day. So I can still have people over without fear of them freezing. But my bedroom doesn't get any sun so it's very cold in there already. My sisters coming to stay in June and I'm hoping that the extra body will warm it up a bit!

My car is still off the road, but is now in the process of being repaired. After much arguing with the garage I've given up on them paying for it as the only money they've offered me was illegally obtained. They are unbelievable. There is no sense of right and wrong, all they want is to sell as many cars as possible and they don't care if someone is killed because of their faulty workmanship. I have heard that in the past they have pulled a gun on a customer - as my Dad says, it gives new meaning to the phrase 'cowboys'! So knowing that and feeling very uncomfortable around the manager, I have decided just to leave it. Sadly that means that once again they've got away with selling a dodgey car, but it's pretty tough for an english girl out here to make a difference in this kind of situation! So a local mechanic is now fixing the car, and he's a lovely trustworthy man, so I feel good about it. I should have it back on Monday which will mean it's been off the road for almost 7 weeks. Very frustrating when I've been paying insurance all that time!

A couple of weeks ago I went on the church 20s winter camp. We went out to Golden Gate National Park which is very near here. It's a beautiful place - very mountainous. The weekend was excellent. It was a great time of getting to know people better. We played some fun games, and as there were only 5 whities out of 40 people, none of us from SA, it was hilarious cultural confusion all the way! Trust me by the time a joke is translated it's not funny any more. We went on a 'hike' into the mountains which was spectacular but revealed I have developed a fear of heights in certain scenarios. This was scary for me as there were no paths and some of the walk meant climbing up exposed sandstone with no grip. I came back down on my bottom! The low point of the weekend was the rats who lived in the kitchen and weren't that afraid of showing themselves. At least the snakes were hibernating!

Last week when I was out doing my Mapheo visits with Mashoeshoe we came across a toddler entertaining a crowd of small children by running around holding a cat by it's tail so that it's head bumped along the ground. When we intervened it quickly became apparent that the cat was dead and had probably been dead for some time. While Mashoeshoe was telling the kids that dead cats are dirty so not good toys, the little one ran off thinking he was in trouble. He ran straight towards the main road but thankfully fell in the ditch before he got to the road. He was very upset, so I ended up having to cuddle him. It was hard not to freak out as he was filthy, now very snotty, and had been playing with a dead cat for however long. As soon as I got home my coat went in the wash and I jumped into the shower!

This term in Mapheo we are looking at spiritual gifts and talents. The kids have been having a great time trying out different skills like sport, art and sewing. My favourite week was the music week. I had a group of little boys who I took around the 'stations' to try out different music things. They got to make a shaker, learn a (very) little bit of drumming, and shake percussion instruments to learn about rythm. They had such a fantastic time, as did I! It was also great to see some of them learn how to throw and catch a ball on the sports week. The next day during free play all they wanted to do was play with the balls.

The last few weeks I've started having people over for lunch on Sundays. It's been really fun squeezing people into my little lounge and getting to know them better. It's also been fun trying to adapt recipes so that I can make them here. It takes quite a lot of patience and sometimes imagination to take a recipe I have no trouble with in England and make it here. The things available vary so much, and I haven't sussed out what's a cheap dinner option here. The other day I had a good laugh on the phone with my parents. I was asking my mum for a recipe for 'moroccan chicken' - a yummy chicken and rice dinner she makes. As she went through the list of ingredients I just kept saying 'oh I can't get that'. By the end out of a long list of stuff all I could get was the chicken, the wrong kind of rice, the wrong kind of chick peas and the olives! Needless to say she didn't bother to go through the method. But I have realised that as wine is so cheap here, I can afford to cook with it! So this week I made a lovely 'coc au vin' dinner. And this week for the first time in 5 months I managed to buy bay leaves! Yay! But can I find a garlic crusher anywhere?? But this week there was genuine Irish cheddar in the supermarket so I'm looking forward to enjoying that. And if you can afford it you can now get parmesan as well. And rice infusions pringles. And last week there was a new cadburys called 'biscuit and fudge'. It was yummy. It wasn't in stock this week. I wonder if we'll ever see it again or if it was delivered to Bethelehem by accident like the Maltesers were once. But avo season is almost upon us - buttery avo's for about 20p each. Happy times :-)