Photographs

I thought you'd like to see some of the children we've been working with. Sarah has put some photographs on facebook but I asked her to take some of me and the children too.

I hope you like them!

Certificates

Today we were giving out certificates to the children who have been doing the phonics work this year. The children have done really well, and have improved a lot. They were very happy when they got their certificate, and I think they were proud of the work that they have done.

Sarah and I will be finishing our work in the schools next week because the schools will be getting ready for Christmas the week after.

We will also be going to a game reserve before we come home, and I am really looking forward to seeing the animals.

I hope you are all ok. Are you doing anything exciting at the moment?

Hi everyone

How is school going? Have you started Christmas stuff yet? Sarah says that she doesn't feel like it is nearly Christmas because it is so hot here, and it feels like summer.

The boys and girls in one school (Rosehill) understand us and their teachers speak English to them all of the time, although they have found a couple of words more difficult. The children in Amaoti 3 find it more difficult because they don't speak as much English, especially the younger ones. That is why Sarah is here though, to help them with English, so that is good, and they are finding it easier.

It sounds like you had lots of fun in your holidays, well except poor Megan. Does it still hurt? I've never been to Blackpool, maybe someone will take me there sometime. I love fireworks. They don't really do much here. Hope you had a nice time watching them.

Thank you for praying for us! And thanks for the questions.

Bye

One month in

I have been in South Africa for nearly a month now. Wow!

Sarah has been working more with the teachers this week, and most of them have started to do parts of the phonics lesson in their classes. It is very exciting to see, and the children definitely enjoy the lessons. One teacher told us today that she thinks that it is helping the children in her class, which is so great.

I hope that you have all had a nice school holiday!

Hunderds of children

This week has been good. Sarah and I have been into lots of classes and Sarah has taught hundreds of children. They are very happy to see us, and very enthusiastic about learning English. What is your favourite lesson at school?

We saw some of the children practicing for a school play on Thursday, and they were very good at singing and dancing.

It is your school holidays next week isn't it? The next holidays they have is at Christmas. They have a long time off at Christmas, it is their summer holidays.

Sarah says that they start school at 8.00 and finish between 1.30 and 2.15. It depends on the school and the age of the children.

Bye!

A big day!!

Sarah was very excited and quite nervous this morning as this is her first day actually teaching the children! She found out last week that she will teach up to 200 children a week, which is loads compared to how many she had in Scotland! But I have met children from Africa before, and I think these children will be so happy to be at school and to have Sarah teaching them things, so they will listen carefully and work hard. But we're very pleased that so many of you are praying for her because we both know that will really help.

Keep sending me questions because I really like answering them! And I have a question for you - how many hours do you spend in school each day? I'll ask Sarah to tell you how long boys and girls here in South Africa stay in school for so we can see if it's the same!

First week.

We have had a busy week finding out what we will be doing while we are here, and meeting lots of new people.

Today we went to a market, which was very nice. The weather was warmer today too. It's been rainy but warm, although the people here think that it is cold. Sarah is a little worried because she thinks that it is going to get a lot hotter, and she's not used to it like I am.

Next week Sarah will be teaching in lots of classes and I will get to meet lots more children. We are going to church tomorrow, which will be nice because everyone I have met has been very friendly.

Keep checking this blog, and I will try to answer any questions etc. Sarah hasn't taken any photographs yet so I think I might have to have a go so that I can show you what it's like here.

Well done! Yes I am in South Africa, and I am with Sarah.

Well Natalie I got here by flying on an aeroplane, well 3 actually, and it took ages, but I am relaxing now and getting ready to meet lots of new friends tomorrow.

I have only met one child so far, and it's Zach who is Rachel and Phil's son. They are the people who are looking after us. They live here in South Africa, and help lots of people here.

I've not seen any Giraffes yet (good question!) but I am hoping that I will soon.

So far I have eaten lots of aeroplane food which isn't the best, and some pasta too. Did you know sheep like pasta Jack? Well I do anyway, I am a unique sheep though.

I will be back in December and will keep telling you all about the things I get up to until then.

The questions are great! I would love to answer some more soon.

Anyway we are off to bed soon, so sleep tight.

Mercy

I'm on my travels again!!!! Where do you think I am?

On our way home...

Well,we are finally on our way home! Everyone is feeling a bit sad about leaving all our lovely new friends in Tanzania,but we are also so happy because we had a fantastic time, and God really helped us and did some great things in people's lives while we've been here.

Yesterday was a bit different again,we spent the morning at an orphanage. Ialways like meeting boy and girls,and it makes me so happy when I see ones who don't have parents to look after them being so well cared for.

Then Mark suggested we could do some touristy things,so we went on a drive up a mountain.It was SO SCARY! Mark said - and I agreed - that the road wasn't meant for cars. If I had nails I'd have bitten them,but I don't so I just had to close my eyes and wait till we stopped. When we did we still had to walk for about 20 minutes,but then we could see the most amazing views. It was so beautiful and that was only half way up the mountain!

Well I'm lookin forward to getting home and seeing everyone again. And in two weeks it will be Treasure Hunters Holiday Club,and I'm very excited about getting to do another one so soon!

Goodie bags and goodbyes....

We are all feeling a bit sad this evening because today was our last day with the children at the after school club. But it's been so much fun and the children all seemed to have a wonderful time. We gave them all a goody bag to take home with them at the end and they loved them! It was sad to say goodbye,but so good to know they all had fun and learned more about Jesus being the light of the world and how much He loves them - and so wonderful to see some of them decide to accept Him as their Saviour.

The work at the clinic was all finished yesterday so we all had some time off this morning and went shopping. That was fun,but when the other girls all decided to get a hairdo, Idecided to stay with Mark and give that a miss! My lovely yellow wool has never quite recovered from the last time someone tried to give me a new hairdo!

Tomorrow is our last full day and we are going to visit an orphanage. I am really looking forward to that!

Snakes! (and ladders... :-])

Hello!

I am so amazed at the amount of work this team has been getting through! When we got here, we wondered if we would get the INSIDE of the clinic finished. Well, the inside is all done and today we started work on the OUTSIDE! Everyone is working so hard and having a great time doing it all too... It is so hot though - they are all saying how hot they feel but none of them have wool like me, it just makes me soooo hot and bothered!

The after school club has been fantastic too - we had about 130 children today. We started playing snakes and ladders with them and they got so excited about it! Even the adults are loving it. It's a huge outdoor board, so it takes up a whole wall. And I think you might have heard the screams of excitement in Scotland whenever someone got a 6 on the dice! To tell the truth, I don't think they knew what the dice was for before we showed them. The team are beginning to wish we had more days here, and I do too! I think they should all be like me and come on trips like this whenever they can.

The work on the clinic is going so well we might get some time off on Friday - that would be good as everyone is a bit tired now. Then we'd all have plenty of energy for the last day with the children!

We're having a brilliant time!

Hello again!

It's been a hectic few days but lots of great things happening! We had so much fun at the Mikumi park and we saw lots of wild animals - lions, elephants, giraffes, zebras, impalas, baboons, water buffalos, crocodiles and even some warthogs! The others on the team went to look round a snake and spider park but Mark and I decided we would rather not see those...

There has also been some wildlife in our rooms, but not so interesting - cockroaches! I hate cockroaches as much as I hate mosquitoes really, but they both seem to be everywhere I go. I heard a loud shout from Mark's room last night too - apparently something alive (a small alive thing I think...) popped out of his wardrobe. I didn't ask what it was, I was just glad he dealt with it!

We did 3 services yesterday at Bethel Temple and they were excellent! Mark was really pleased with the team again, they all took part by leading singing, giving testimonies or even preaching. We all thought Mark did a great job too! We also met some of the children who are going to come to the after school club so that was great fun.

It was such a busy day today - we started off by doing more work at the clinic, then we went to get ready for the children's club. It was brilliant! 120 children came (that sounds a lot but we were told there could be up to 600!). We are telling them about Jesus being the Light of the World. I think they all really enjoyed themselves and had a great time. I'm sure they willl bring friends with them so we could have even more children tomorrow!

An amazing week!

We have had an amazing week and got so much done already! A LOT of painting.... Yesterday we did another two rooms and the hall. It's always great to be with a team who work so well together and work very hard. I think Mark is very pleased with everyone.

Today we are going to Mikumi Park on a safari - I am so excited! I hope we will see lots of different animals, the lions are my favourite. Whenever I see all the different kinds of animals God has made it reminds me of how amazing He is! I'll write more later and tell you what we've seen.

Painting!

Today has been fun as we got on with some painting in the clinic! First though, David and Jayney had to go and buy paint, so I went to the youth service at the church with Mark and the others. It was very interesting and a great time with all the young people. We painted two rooms today, I helped a bit although I do have to be very careful as it would not be easy to get paint out of my lovely yellow wool. The others on the team didn't seem to mind so much if they got a bit of paint on them or their clothes. We had a great time doing it though and Mark said he was very proud of everyone!

This evening we are meeting with the children's pastor and his team to start getting ready for the kid's club that starts on Monday. I am so excited about that! I have been to kid's clubs at home in Scotland and in lots of other countries and its one of my favourite things to do! I'm sure all the boys and girls who will come will have such a lot of fun, and the team will love it too...

We're here!

Hello! We arrived in Morogoro at 2.30 am local time - way past my bedtime! And that was after getting up at 3 am back home in Scotland... So everyone has been very tired today. We were at the Amibilis Centre and were shown round the different areas of work going on at Bethel Temple. It was all very interesting and we enjoyed meeting the people here. We start work tomorrow on painting the clinic, so everyone is turning in for an early night...

On my way to Tanzania

Hello everyone!

I'm off on another trip, this time to Tanzania! I'm going with a team of 6 people - Mark, David, Natalie, Teri, Jayney and Cealla. Cealla is my friend from XStream (and KFC before that), we've known each other for years so it's great fun to be going on a mission trip with her. I've been waiting a long time to go on this trip, Mark and the team have been planning it for years and I can hardly believe it's actually happening today!

We set off at 6 am today, which was very early for everyone. And it will be nighttime when we arrive in Dar-es-Salaam, but we'll still have to travel to Morogoro.... A lot of travelling, but we are all very excited about getting there, and I'm hoping I can see some of my friends again because, of course, I've been before.

The team have made lots of plans for this trip. They will be doing painting and repair work in a clinic, and also running a children's club - there could be hundreds of children at the club so they feel a bit nervous too! As well as all that they will be doing some speaking at the Bethel Temple church services. This is a new experience for most of the people on the team and I think they are going to have a great time!

I'll write more when we get there...

Photos from Haiti

Hello everyone!

I'm back home now and have had time to recover from our busy trip and the jetlag, so I thought I would put some photos on here for you to see some of the children we met. There were thousands of photos taken! They are all great, but these are some of my favourites:

These are the people on the team

The children have lovely smiles!Florence lives in the orphanage. Her family died in the earthquake and Florence was found buried under rubble 3 days later

This is the youngest little boy in the orphanage. He also lost his family in the earthquake.

These two photos are of children collecting water for their families. It's much easier for us to turn on the tap!

The children loved playing parachute games.

They loved singing songs too and, in this photo, they are doing an action song.


A very cute little girl!

Coming home!

Hi everyone!

Well, Mercy and everyone else on the team in Haiti are now on their way home. It's a long journey so please pray for them! They've had an amazing times - there have been lots of difficult things to see and handle, but they've met lots of amazing people too and I have a feeling they might not be quite the same again! Mercy is looking forward to letting us know what she's been up to and showing us some photos.

They were in the Scotsman newspaper yesterday too! If you want to look it up online, here is the link: http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh/scots-helping-to-ease-earthquake.6192537.jp

Ruth

Football with a new friend!

Steven was so happy yesterday because he got to meet the little boy he sponsors here in Haiti! He came down with his Mum, and they played football before and after lunch. Steven gave him presents, including a Scotland football shirt! I think it will be really good now for Steven and this little boy because they have met and know what each other is like. Steven is still working hard, he's now doing things at the hospital.

Yesterday Peter was helping another man called Joe to build a shelf unit for the missionary house and he also fixed the ice making machines. I bet everyone here was really glad those were fixed because it is so hot here!

Some time to chill...

Hello again!

well, there has been some time for the team to take it easy, but not much! But no-one is complaining because they find the people out here so amazing with the way they cope with life being so hard, especially after the earthquake. It's a priviledge to be able to be out here helping them and getting to know them.

Church on Sunday morning was amazing! It started at 7am which seemed sooooo early. The church was full of people - even though it's a small village there were about 400 there, and they all wore their best clothes and looked so clean and tidy which must be very hard when you think of the difficulties they have living here. Ruth told me before I left that the time was going to change in Scotland last weekend - I bet you'll all be very glad our church doesn't start at 7am!

Steven is happy today because he has got the water turned on in the missionary house they've been working in. The only thing left to do is to dig a septic tank outside (I won't tell you what that's for!) but they asked if some of the local people could do that so they could earn some money and Steven said he didn't mind at all! He's going to supervise but I think he will manage to sunbathe a bit at the same time...

A Party!

We have had a really amazing day today! We had a big party for children from the orphanage. It started at 10 am and went on till 2 pm. There were 62 children, the youngest ones were 2 years old and the oldest ones were about 10 or ll. It was such fun with lots of games and the children all had such a great time! Some of them had a really hard time after the earthquake here, but it's good to see how well they are being looked after now and it was great to see them laughing and having a wonderful day. We also gave out some clothes and presents to the children and they were so happy! Peter took some photos so I'll be able to show them to you when we get back.

Well, we've nearly been here a week and it's been soooo busy - the guys have worked very hard and are quite tired. But the work they are doing will make an amazing difference to the people living and working here so that's really good.

Lots of work getting done here!

Hi everyone! This is a very busy team I'm with here in Haiti. I've been watching Steven - he started out by putting a UV light into the missionary house, he then repaired the main into the hospital operating theatre, then he pumped lots of water back into the orphanage's water tanks - they had had no water for 15 days - and he taught one of the young boys we've met here how to fit a wash hand basin. I thought that was such a good thing to do because now that boy can do something really skillful and useful! Steven also repaired a water outlet that was letting too much water escape and he's done lots of small jobs too.. I can hardly keep up with him, and he's only one of all the people working so hard!

There's also a mobile clinic team of about 20 people with their interpreters who leave at 7 am every day for a long hard journey to a town called Gros Mangles - it's about 2 and a half hour's journey from where we're staying.

A Very Long Journey....

Hi everyone!

The last we heard from Mercy was last night (Sunday), when they were preparing to make a 10 hour coach trip to Haiti. I expect they were already all very tired by then as they left Dunfermline at 4 am on Saturday morning and had very long flights! Mercy promised to be in touch whenever she could, but since the earthquake the phone lines and internet connections have not worked so it has been hard for people to keep in touch.

Meanwhile, here's some info on Haiti that you might not know yet:

Haiti is in the Caribbean. It is the Western one third of the island of Hispaniola between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean.

The climate in Haiti is tropical (that means it's often very hot!) and there are lots of mountains. People in Haiti speak two main languages: French and Creole. The capital city is Port-au-Prince. If you watched the news after the earthquake you would have heard quite a lot about all the damage in Port-au-Prince.

8 million people live in Haiti. It is a very poor country and life there was very hard for people, even before the earthquake. Lots of people are unemployed, and people don't earn much even when they do have a job. Three quarters of the people have no running water and, outside of the cities, most people have no electricity. Almost half of the children of school age have never been to school, and half of the adults have never learned to read or write. That's why it's so important that people are willing to do different things to help the people in Haiti.

Lemonaid is just one of the groups that does work to help Haiti. Next time I'll tell you some of how that got started and what they do.

Ruth

I'm going to Haiti tomorrow!

This is the flag of Haiti

Hello!

I'm busy packing at the moment because tomorrow I am off to Haiti with Ruth's brother Peter and her nephew Steven. They are going out there with a team from Lemonaid of Vine Church in Dunfermline. I've never been to Haiti before but it will be fine because Peter and Steven haven't either so we will all be the same. We are going to an island called Lagonave, where there is a mission hospital. We leave at 4 am tomorrow so I'll have to get an early night!

You probably know there was a big earthquake in Haiti a few weeks ago. This is the 4th time a team from Lemonaid has gone out there since then. They are taking tons and tons of stuff with them for the hospital! I bet Peter is really glad I am quite small and light as he already has lots of heavy stuff in his suitcase. I'm not packing much either as that wouldnt help at all, and sheep don't need to take much with them when they travel.

Peter and Steven are going to try to repair some of the equipment and vehicles that the people working in the hospital really need badly. We should get to meet lots of new friends too which will be great!

It's not going to be very easy to keep in touch with everyone at home as mobile phones and the internet aren't working in Haiti just now. But I'll write on my blog if I can, and Ruth has promised to write some interesting stuff about Haiti on here for you to read too. Please pray for us!

Photos from Ghana!

I've got some photos to show you, but first I'm going to tell you about some of the other things that happened in Ghana before we left.

One day I was watching the news with Jim when we heard a report about a big fire in an oil refinery near Acra. One of the admin buildings was damaged by the fire, and most of the stuff inside it was destroyed by the water the firemen used to put out the fire. The really amazing thing was that there was a Bible which was totally undamaged, even though all the books all around it were spoiled!

We also went on an outing one day and visited two castles which had been used to keep slaves in before they were taken to Europe and other places. We heard that those poor people were chained up in horrible conditions, and had to sleep on the floor next to each other. I was very shocked and sad to hear that lots of slaves were even brought to Britain until 1807, when slavery was abolished here.

That same day we went to Kokum National Park and we walked along rope bridges 40 m high! I was so glad Jim was carrying me because my knees were shaking so much I think I'd have fallen! It was amazing to look down and see the treetops in the rain forest. There were no animals out because it was the wrong time of day - I think they mainly come out a dawn and dusk. That seemed very sensible to me as it's cooler here at those times.

Just before we left we visited a Primary School and all the children came out to meet me and we had pictures taken together. I met a little girl who is also called Mercy and we had a photo taken of the two of us. The children were so friendly and invited me to live with them, but I told them I had to go back to Scotland to the children who are my friends there.

It was good to be coming home, but it was very cold in Scotland, and Jim and I had got used to the very hot weather in Ghana!

My friend Mercy!

Meeting some new friends

In one of the churches we visited. The singing was very good and I helped with the translating

Roadblocks, earthquake warnings and near kidnapping!

Don't worry, it was me that was nearly kidnapped, not Jim! There were lots of children at church on Sunday and they all loved me... One little boy loved me so much he wanted to keep me, but Jim knew how much everyone in KFC would miss me so he held on tight to me! He took photos of me with them so you can see those when we get back.

The people here are really loving to hear Jim talk and are going to make recordings so they can listen to everything he said again after we leave. That was so encouraging to hear! It takes a long time to go anywhere here because the main roads are so busy and there are so many police roadblocks - we were stopped at 8 one day on the way from our hotel to the church! Then, when we get off the main roads, the way is just over dirt roads - Jim even had to get out of the car one day to move rocks out of the way. Acra is a very large city so it can take ages to get around.

We were woken up one night by a lot of commotion outside. We wondered if people never go to sleep here! The next day we found out there had been an earthquake warning and people had been told to get out of their houses as it was safer outside! The pastor had got a taxi from his house all the way to the hotel so he could warn Jim, but by the time he got there they had decided there wasn't going to be an earthquake after all, so he decided just to go back home and not wake Jim up. We were very glad to know he had been so caring about us - and also to know that you are all praying for us back at home!

The mosquitoes are being very annoying and Jim has some nasty bites on his leg. Please pray they get better and that his malaria tablets work well!

Teaching by torchlight!

We are having an amazing time - plenty of strange things happening and lots of great things too! It turned out that so many people wanted to come and hear Jim speak that they couldn't all fit in the church! So we had to have our meetings outside. The first night it rained so much that they had to cancel the meeting, but the next night about 70 people came! It was great having a meeting in the open air, but of course it was night time so it was dark - and hard for Jim to see his notes! It's not often that we have to rely on torchlight but this is just that sort of trip... Jim was sooo good speaking to the people about God and afterwards 5 people accepted Jesus as Saviour! It was wonderful.

When we first got to the hotel, Jim was given a "Welcome pack". It had a kettle, a loaf of bread, tea bags and a tin of condensed milk! Very unusual... There wasn't even a knife so Jim had to eat his bread the old fashioned way (that's breaking bits off the loaf!) Thankfully, being a sheep, I'm fine anywhere in the world as long as I can find some grass to munch on.

I'm in Ghana!

Hello! This might come as a bit of surprise to some people, but I am in Ghana at the moment! I am here with Jim Storm from church. He has come to meet up with some friends he has know for a lot of years and he's going to have a very busy time!

It is soooo hot here, 30 degrees - I'm already wishing I was back in snowy Scotland! I realised on the way here that I didn't bring my scarf with me, but I'm glad I didn't now... We are staying in a hotel - they gave Jim a mosquito net but there's nowhere to hang it up in our room! Jim managed to wrap it round himself to keep the mosquitoes off, but I dont think that helped him feel any cooler.

I'm so glad Jim is here to keep me company, but please pray for him as he's the only one who can speak at meetings or talk to all the people we are meeting so it's going to be really hectic for him.

That's all for now but I'll try to write more later!