Settling in at Agape

Thu, 30 Jul 09 13:18:31 +0200

We have now been at Agape for nearly two weeks and are getting used to the daily routines at the centre. The mornings are spent looking after the pre-school children, which usually means a lot of pushing swings! We also help out with serving lunch and putting the kids to bed for their afternoon nap. The school-age children get back between 3 and 4, and after they have changed and washed their uniforms we supervise homework class. Twice a week we have a group of the older children back to the volunteer house, where we cook a meal and watch a movie that they have picked out for themselves. On Tuesday we were able to visit one of the schools that the kids attend (there are four altogether); Shauna and I got to take the grade 2 lesson, which was a lot of fun!
Last weekend we went on our first trip, to St Lucia and Hluhluwe-Imfolozi game reserve. We saw a lot of hippos on the lake and three of the big five (lion, buffalo, rhino) in the park, as well as plenty of giraffes (Shauna's favourite); no elephants, but hopefully we will spot those when we go down to Addo after we have finished volunteering. On Saturday we are heading up to the Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg and Lesotho--we can only hope that it won't be too cold.
I have posted a small selection of pictures below--we have several hundred more, but they take a long time to load!
Take care, and I will try to blog again soon,

Mark

On our way at last!

Sun, 19 Jul 09 09:08:26 +0200

It has been more than a year since our placement at Agape was confirmed, but it is finally time for us to head out to South Africa. We are flying via Dubai and Jo'burg, so we have a long trip ahead of us. I am really looking forward to being back in SA and to meeting the kids and staff at the children's home. I will try to post an update (with, I hope, some pictures) in a week or so.

Mark Taplin

Settling in at Agape

On our way at last!