A non-baby post

I think working with the Ikhaya kids was the highlight of our time in Empangeni, but we did spend some of our time with people over the age of three as well!

Christmas and New Years

We had all sorts of fun over the holiday season—a total of five parties! One was at Ikhaya with the kids. Our next was on Christmas day was with an Afrikaans family (Thanks again Janita!). One tradition they had that we really liked was to start the day with communion. The rest of the day was amazing: great food, fun company, good times! The food was delicious—but different. It was mostly cold cuts and salads—which makes sense since Christmas in South Africa is the middle of the summer. Our next party was at “our” house—we were housesitting with Luisa, the other Ikhaya volunteer. We made a more traditional northern dinner with pumpkin pie, chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc.

Our next party was on New Years and it was with some of the younger crowd from the church we attended. We had a lovely fondue meal and stayed up to ring in the new year together (all of us except Amanda, that is, unfortunately she was sick and so she stayed home and went to bed early—she's feeling better now though...). Finally, on New Years day we joined our neighbour Helma and her family for a more German meal to welcome in 2010.

Our first weekend off

Amanda, Luisa, and I all managed to get a weekend off together just after New Years. We decided to take the time to do a bit of sightseeing. We ended up heading to St. Lucia with Duane—a friend from church. St Lucia was cool—it's a nearby area which is home to the highest concentration on hippos and crocodiles in South Africa. It was a great day—we had a picnic on the beach and saw both hippos and a giant crocodile—what more could we ask for! :) The next day after church we just chilled with our friend Elinor at her neighbour's pool. It was fun to think that we could hang out outside during January in our bathing suits without freezing! I think it hit the upper 30's that day!

The volunteer excursion

Mel and Sean—the directors of Ikhaya—very kindly took us on a excursion the next weekend. This time we went to the beach at Sodwana—one of the best snorkelling areas in South Africa. It was beautiful—and the snorkelling was great. I've decided I'm quite addicted to snorkelling and I really need to find more time to indulge. The beach was beautiful too—and we managed to squeeze in the time to built a sandcastle too.

More animals

Luckily we just managed to squeeze in another game reserve before leaving South Africa. We went on this excursion with Angus—another friend from church. We spent the whole day out and saw lots of game. We even almost saw a lion kill! The animals kept kindly walking across the road in front of us: first a rhino, then some zebras and impala, then a buffalo... It kept on like that all day! It was a definite highlight.

p.s. Once again, this post is both very late and short on pictures. If we manage to recover our pictures later I'll add more...