Firstly, thank you for all the comments and birthday wishes I received last week! We really appreciate them!! x x x
Saturday & Sunday
Last weekend the nursery was short of staff so we were drafted in to help instead of working in the main house. Along with the other volunteers, we were put on the schedule, which is basically an hourly rota of where you need to be. There are many different jobs and age groups you can be working with, from the newborns in the nest, to the Grubs, to the Fledgies, to the Creepies and then the oldest group in the nursery the Lions.
The grubs at feeding time.
Kingston, one of the Lions, playing with TLC’s pet turtle.
Either Bandili or Sandili, one of the twins who has just been promoted to the Lions.
Another of the Lions, Julia in her pretty orange dress.
Other practical duties include wishy washy, washing up all the baby cups, plates, bowls, cutlery etc etc and also ‘SP time’, which involves helping to feed Sabrina, Faye and Rowan who have disabilities and need a little extra care.
The babies all have similar routines of sleeping, playing, feeding, changing and washing. In two days it’s amazing how many different things you can end up doing!
Taking the Creepies for a walk.
Working in the nursery was fun and different to what we were used to so the time flew!
Monday & Tuesday
On Monday and Tuesday it was back to business as usual with school and homework help. On Tuesday we took Benjamin and Kieran out to the library as part of their home schooling assignments. We had to find books and research navigational aids such as compasses and the polar stars as part of their geography work. It was great fun and on the way back we took them for a drink at Mugg and Bean.
Benjamin with his strawberry milkshake.
Kieran and his Mocha, which apparantly he drinks all the time…
We drank milkshakes and lemonade. Kieran on the otherhand had a Rocky Road Mocha, which we thought was a bad idea since he has a heart condition. He really wanted it though and insisted he had drank coffee lots before. Luckily he was fine 
Wednesday
On Wednesday morning home schooling was much better and Kieran and Benjamin were much more responsive. On Tuesday, during Maths in particular, they were a bit hard going and losing concentration. They really struggle with basic maths and numbers, lots of the children do. Today however, sitting with them and doing the times tables was great. They were really enthusiastic and did very well!
Lots of the cars have been breaking down recently with only two still working. This has made it a real struggle as TLC needs transportation to run the whole operation. From taking volunteers to and from the airport, to doing the many school runs each day, taking the workers home, doing the shopping, taking the children to their various dentist, orthodontist and doctors appointments and even taking us to Misty River, there are many things that require the use of vehicles. Hopefully the broken cars will get fixed soon!
In the evening, lots of the children had a dip in the pool.
Frogman Similo.
Sibu puts Heidi’s glasses on.
Ready to roll – the Tiger’s bikes ready to ride.
Sibu in his hoodie.
Mbali playing with Heidi, we do lots of playing with the children whenever we can.
Thursday
After our early 5am start today, things went as normal until suddenly, during homework time, Thea burst into the room and told us to look sharp as the deputy prime minister of Zimbabwe was coming to visit. We’re still unsure as to why she came to visit, we think she may have been in the area and known one of the people involved with TLC. Even so it was quite exciting having the two big 4x4s pull up and lots of bodyguards get out. They had a tour of TLC and then left. All the children and dogs were very well behaved so I think we made a good impression. Not that many people were really interested in them, I don’t think the Zimbabwean government are the most popular of people.
In the evening lots of the volunteers (about 22 people in total), including us, went to one of my favourite restaurants Moyo. It was a leaving do for a couple of the volunteers, one being Jet, our Dutch Misty River neighbour.
We all had a great evening at Moyo.
Jet, who is one of our neighbours at Misty River will soon be leaving. We’ll miss her.
My favourite thing about the restaurant is the atmosphere. A singer walked around the restaurant playing his guitar. The waiters and waitresses walk around in beautiful African dress.
One of the waitresses.
One of the trademark things about the restaurant is the face painting. Everyone has a different design painted on their faces using the black and white paint.
Zoe Jarvis, one of Thea’s daughters came with us.
Our good friend Becky Johnson.
I think I had the best tattoo of everyone. My footprints were so cool!
Tommy, one of the main house children, with his design.
It was a lovely evening and the food was amazing.
I had South African springbok fillet wrapped in a brandy marinated chicken breast served on mashed potato, baby spinach and a sherry-cream sauce followed by a cinnamon mousse cake (dark chocolate mousse cake served with a berry coulis).
My cinnamon mousse cake, mmmmmm!
Heidi had a traditional lamb curry cooked in a special masala blend, served with sambals of coconut, bananas in yoghurt, fresh chillies, onions and tomatoes, fruit chutney and crisp popadums.
Heidi’s lamb curry. She couldn’t manage it all so I had some, yum!
YUM!!
Friday
And finally today, which was a very busy day. The morning was great fun (apart from the 5am start of course). As part of Kieran’s and Benji’s homeschooling curriculum, they had to go to a museum. We went to Sci-Bono, which is the equivalent to our science museum but is suited mainly for kids.
It was so much fun!!!
It’s basically a warehouse full of toys, games and activities…all educational of course! Kieran and Benji loved it and so did we! We were like big kids in a big kids toy shop!
Benji plays with his ten green bottles making different sounds.
The crazy mirrors were great fun.
Benji loves cars so he was thrilled when he found this BMW, which he could climb in and out of and play with all the instruments.
Lots of the activities were football themed due to the recent World cup. For example, there was a shooting test where you scored more points if you could kick the ball into the top corners of the goal. Heidi got the highest score of all of us of course!
One other game which I’ve always wanted to play is called Mindball. It’s a clever game which requires you to relax to win. I’ve added a video of Kieran playing Heidi. You basically have to relax your mind to make the ball move towards your opponent. If you are the most relaxed and the ball reaches their end you win. I’ve always wanted to play as I think I can make my brain switch off and relax really easily. Turns out I was right. I beat everybody. The screen shows your brain activity on a graph and mine waves were really low. Kierans on the other hand were off the scale, he blames his tooth ache!
This afternoon was again a bit hectic. We had lots of bits to finish off. Now we’re back at Misty River its time to relax knowing we can have a nice lie in tomorrow. We’re also going to watch a live football match tomorrow evening with some other volunteers and some of the kids. We’re watching a team called the Kaiser Chiefs. We’ll report back next week!
Dog of the day Sasko. She is so cute and cuddlie but a bit dopey and sleepy.
Sasko scratching her back.
Mighty and Similo’s Life Lessons
This week Mighty and Similo are joined by special guest Christian (no me, one of the boys previously called Chance and now called Christian) to explain what you should do if someone comes looking for a fight. It’s a bit chaotic!!
And a little bonus video this week of the Tigers showing off their swagger.
I bet I could beat you at the mind game Christian….unfortunately I’m not there to prove it so let’s just pretend I did anyways
hehe.
Sasko looks very cute! Can you give her a cuddle from meee? (not Heidi lol)
x x x x love yous
Love the photos, the children are so beautiful. How funny was that clearing your mind game, I was watching it before seeing Heidi’s face and then realised I was making the same face as her!!! Funny Christian was so good at it!!!
hehe, very cute. loving the life lessons and kingston with the turtle is very cute xx