Chasing three 13-year-olds around Rome

Rome...the eternal city: one of my favourite places in the world! In Rome, history is a living thing that assaults all your senses! In Rome, you can just walk down the street and the history soaks into you from the ground! In Rome, history sizzles and crackles in the air! Ahhh...Rome... These were the thoughts that ran through my head as we planned to meet Milo, Devon, Janae, and Aasta in Rome. However, in my daydreams of Rome, I had forgotten two rather important details.

One: It was Holy Week. It's well worth experiencing Rome during Holy Week, but it does give the city a whole different feel to it when you're sharing it with a million pilgrims and other tourists. (The picture shows St. Peter's Square on Sunday morning--and there were still thousands of people slowly making their way through the security gates and into the Square!)

Two: Our niece, Devon, is fourteen and our cousins, Janae and Aasta, are thirteen. Oddly enough, their idea of a great vacation isn't spending the whole vacation wandering through ancient ruins... Now that I think of it, I've met very few people who share my affinity with ancient ruins, so probably their age had nothing to do with it! ;) Actually, being in Rome with the girls was lots of fun (especially since they graciously allowed me to ramble on about all the historical sites we saw--I tried to keep it short, but, come on, it's Rome)! It's always interesting to see a place you love through someone else's eyes. Besides, after eighteen months, it was just great to see them again!

Anyways, after that really long preamble, what did we do? Well...here are a few highlights!

One of our very first stops was the Colosseum--always a good choice. We went to view it the first day, then we went to visit it the second day, on the third day we visited at night, on Friday we watched the Pope's Good Friday address there, and finally we went the day before the girls left just for one more look... You can't over-visit the Colosseum! :) The picture (as you can obviously see) shows a group of gladiators battling it out to the roars of the crowd (or perhaps the confused looks of the other tourists).

I'd never been to the ancient site of Ostia Antica (the old Roman sea port), but I'm glad we decided to go! I admit to being pretty skeptical when the literature compared it to Pompeii (one of my favourite ancient sites), but after going I accept the comparison--though not the claim that it's a better site! There was lots to see: ancient mosaic floors, a theatre, graveyards, an old cafe (complete with mosaic menu!), and, of course, the ancient toilets which we thought we'd try out...

After Ostia Antica, the girls all voted that they'd seen enough ancient sites for awhile and wanted to head to the beach. There is a beach at Ostia, but it was still March and Rome isn't THAT far south. Okay, there was no snow on the ground, but that doesn't necessarily make it warm! The girls, however, still firmly maintain it was warm and even went swimming (or wading anyways...). The rest of us think they're a bit insane, but considering the family they come from, that's probably a good thing! :)

One of the other highlights of any trip to Italy is, of course, the gelato. Just thinking about it now makes me salivate! Much to our delight, we found the best gelato store in the whole city a day or so after arriving. It was the oldest store in the city (or perhaps the country...). It had the widest vareity, the cheapest price, and, hands down, the best gelato I've ever tasted! Since it really is an essential Italian experience we were forced to go every other day or so...but we figured that all the walking we did made up for any additional pounds that came with it!

To help work off the ice cream (and also because it was fun), we decided to head up to Villa Broghese Park and rent some bikes...well actually a couple of surreys. We then proceeded to try and not hit anyone while biking through the park. Amanda, Milo, and I took one surrey and the girls took the other. As good guardians, we showed the girls where they had to get back to on the map just in case we got split up. However, we also said we would stick with them--which we did for about five minutes before getting lost. After peddling along for about twenty minutes or so I looked at the map and realized I gave them the wrong directions. Now they were lost without directions on how to get back. Oops... Luckily, they were smarter than we gave them credit for, and they found their way back without even refering to the map! Good thing too, 'cause we didn't want to pay for another hour...oh, I mean, we were very worried about them... :)

What else? Well, we taught the girls lots of good travel tips and were very good role models! For example, we explained the importance of always carrying your own toilet paper and pointed out that the primary importance of MacDonald's is that you can go there to pee for free! We also ensured that they ate correctly (see two paragraphs previous), kept a close eye on them at all times (see previous paragraph) and that they never strayed out of bounds at any of the sites we visited. (The picture was their idea, I'm sure of it!)

Obviously, there are a lot more stories and a lot more pictures--but they won't all fit here. Check out everyone's facebook for more and ask for more stories next time you see us!

England and Scotland

We arrived in the UK at the beginning of March and headed out to Benson. RAF Benson is where our cousin, Stewart, is stationed. It's quite close to London and a brilliant base for touring the country. We arrived and did absolutely nothing for several days! As Stew would say, it was ace!! :) Our three weeks in the UK were strictly for the purpose of having a holiday.

It was great to spend time with Stew and Mimi--always a highlight! We did some touring around together, had some barbeques in the yard (a bit early, but heck, we're Canadians!), hung out, cooked food, and chilled. What more could you ask for?

Another highlight was seeing some very good friends from Thailand: Ross and Sonia Wilson and their three girls. They've recently moved back to England from Thailand so we saw them in October 2009 in Thailand and then March 2010 in England. I spent my birthday there with them in Oxford--a very quiet one amazingly enough! Maybe I'm getting old... Nah!!!

Yet another amazing friend from England gave us some contacts for Scotland (thanks Jane) and we visited Edinburgh and then the wild moors near Tongue, Scotland. It was absolutely fantastic. Yet another place I think I need to go back and visit. The moors were stunning--even if it was still the end of winter and nothing was blooming. One day it was so windy that we almost couldn't climb the hills in the moors because the winds blew us over. The news that evening said they were actually gale-force winds. :) Cool!! I've wandered the moors in Scotland through gale-force winds...

Our other preoccupation during our tour of England and Scotland (Stew lent us his car so we bombed about in that) was locating ruined castles, abbeys, manor houses, towers, etc. Especially the free ones--not only for the obvious reason (they were free...) but also because they seemed to have the most character...and the fewest tourists! Our hands-down favoursit was Greenknowe Tower in Scotland! It was brilliant--you could still climb it up until the fourth floor! How cool is that?!

What else? Loads, really! Plinking away with the air rifle in Stew's garden, touring London with Mimi, birthday cards from Becky, Katie and Kezzie Wilson, staying with Fiona and John in Edinburgh, sleeping in the car next to the snowbank, sleeping on the floor and then the radiators at Stansted airport, Oz kebabs... :)

Hmmm... perhaps I really should just write a book...

Until then...onward to Rome!

Schools and orphanages

Our time in Ghana was almost exclusively spent in schools and orphanages. We taught everything from preschool to junior high and every subject from English to Science.


Our first two weeks were spent in the Liberian Refugee Camp just outside of Accra. It was an interenting experience! Just before we arrived several of the teachers at the Emmanuel Lutheran School left due to the financial difficulties the school is having. Therefore, instead of arriving and helping out with English and Bible classes, we arrived and I was handed the entire courseload for the 5/6 class and Amanda was asked to take over Math and English (and temporarily Ghanian History!) for the 8/9 class. We were given less than 12 hours notice.


Exciting times!



Things went well, though. The kids were fun--though definitely ready to push boundaries. They wanted to know why we wouldn't cane them...and I admit to wanting to cane a few of them from time to time! :) Things are defintely at different standards there, though. The administration of the school was a bit chaotic, and just the fact that Amanda and I had university degrees made us w ell qualified to be teaching there. Many of the teachers had only about a week of actual teacher training. I'd love to see a training program for both the administration and the teachers put on there over a month or so.

After we left the Liberian Camp, we went west to the towm of Tarkwa. We only stayed there for about 5 days, but while we were there we helped out in a daycare and at an orphanage. We taught songs and stories to the daycare kids and played games and did origami with the orphanage kids. It was fun. Once again, it was sad to see the lack of training and education amongst the staff at the daycare. There were two little boys there--one definitely had Downs Syndrome and the other probably had Cerebral Palsy. Unfortunately, the staff treated them both quite harshly and basically said they are retarded and can't learn. When we talked to them about the boys they were stunned to find out that there are people with Downs and CP (though they didn't know those names--they just said they were retarded) in Canada. They thought it only happened in Africa when babies were born too early.


Our final stop was Asiama. Once again we helped out in a daycare, a school, and an orphanage. We especially enjoyed working at the daycare and school. Amanda once again dazzled the science students with practical hands-on lessons. I think the students in the other classes were really confused as to why their schoolmates were trying to push over a tree!! (They were talking about the importance of soil...) Another highlight in Asiama was meeting another missionary couple--Larry and Cheri--who have just moved there from the States and plan to stay between five months and five years! :)

And that was it! One month gone in a flash! On our drive back to Accra we also had the chance to stop off and be tourists with Frank--the president of the ALC in Ghana and our contact in the country. We dipped our feet into the Atlantic, visited Cape Coast Castle--the place where thousands of slaves were sent off into Europe and the Americas, and toured Accra.


It was a great trip and Ghana is definitely a country that I will be returning to some day (hopefully) soon!

Unexpected Namibia

Do you know how you sometimes wake up and unexpectedly find yourself in a strange country? Well, that's been happening to us quite frequently lately and...

...what's that? That's never happened to you? Really?! :)

Well...it tends to happen to us somewhat frequently—and it's happened again! Two weeks ago we suddenly found ourselves in Namibia...outside of the capital city of Windhoek...on the YWAM base...

Go figure!

****commercial break**** due to computer problems this next part of the blog is written a month after leaving Namibia.

We originally went to Namibia because the Ghanaian High Commission in South Africa wouldn't issue us visas for Ghana, but the Ghanaian High Commission in Namibia would. (Confusing, I know, but that's bureaucracy at work right there!) However we decided this with less than a week's notice, so we didn't have a lot of time to plan our time. (I know! We don't really plan much, but we do generally plan a little!)

Luckily, some good friends in Thailand put us in touch with the YWAM base in Namibia and they kindly offered us a place to stay, which was really fantastic! The base was located just out of the city and it was beautiful! While there we hiked and canoed and got a chance to just relax a bit--very nice.

We didn't relax too much though, 'cause it's more fun to be involved! So...for four days we helped paint at Community Hope School. Community Hope is a school attended mostly by orphans or vulnerable children. There are just under a hundred kids, I believe, in grades one to six. After painting classrooms for four days, we ended up teaching for a day. Well, Amanada taught actually and I assissted since we taught science! It was really fun--Amanda taught soil science, so she explained to the kids how she collects bug farts to see how healthy soil is! Then the kids got to be scientists too and go outside to observe some soil samples we set out. In the picture they are looking for microorganisms in the soil--which they can't find because they are SO SMALL! After volunteering at Community Hope, we moved over to Beautiful Kidz for the last three days. Beautiful Kidz is a daycare for orphans and vulnerable children. The facility also runs kids and youth programs as well as some community development work with women.

One evening we joined some of the YWAMers for a homemade pizza party. It was great fun. The directors of Community Hope, John and Suzanne Hunter, hosted the party. It was all homemade in an outdoor pizza oven and the results were fantastic. The company was pretty good too. :) Some of the DTS (Discipleship Training School) students were there as well as the guest speaker and her husband, Reona and Albert Joly. We really enjoyed getting to know everyone--I wish we'd have been able to stay longer!

However...our visas came through and next we were off to Ghana!

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...

Ikhaya Likababa

It's funny how things work out sometimes, isn't it? Amanda and I knew our mission trip in Randfontein was finished at the end of November and we didn't know where we were heading next...so...we posted that on Facebook! And...sometimes the internet is a wonderful thing! :) A friend I used to work with had some cousins who were volunteering at Ikhaya and so my friend gave us the name and we followed up on it. We contacted the director and a week later we jumped on the bus and the rest is history!


Ikhaya is a Babies Home for abandoned babies in Enpangeni, South Africa. The idea is that they only have babies for a maximum of six months in which time the kids are adopted or fostered. When we arrived there were four babies/toddlers (one baby, three toddlers), plus another part-timer (a former Ikhaya baby who is in the process of being adopted by the directors). By mid-January, though, another two babies has arrived, so the house is currently at maximum capacity. Anyone out there looking to adopt? :) The maximum capacity at the moment is six children, but a new house is almost finished. When they move to the new house they will be allowed to have up to twenty-two kids.



The kids are great! (What kids aren't?) I especially enjoy the "triplets". No, they aren't actually triplets, but as they are all the same age and all living at the same place it seems like they are. One little girl speaks English quite well, but the other two are still learning. One of them primarily understands Zulu, while the other understands more Afrikaans. They ARE learning though--and it's so much fun to watch how quickly they pick it up! (I don't think I'll ever here the words "Oh no!" again with out thinking of one of the little boys here who's picked up that expression and uses it constantly!)


I don't think I'll type much more, instead I'll let you experience Ikhaya through pictures. Enjoy!

Ikhaya Christmas party (not sure what I'm doing--it looks like I'm begging for food)

The toddlers all love the babies--but occasionally they get a bit carried away! We caught one of them trying to pry this baby's eyes open after he had fallen asleep...











Note: one of the reasons this post is a few months late is that we're currently pictureless. We'd appreciate prayers for our external hard drive which quit working. When we recover our pictures we will post photos to go with the following antidotes: One of the first activities we did with the kids was finger painting. They loved it once they realized they didn't have to eat it...although one-year-old Ruthie, our part-timer, did still manage to eat quite alot! *sigh* We also tried baking with the kids. It went pretty well, considering there were three three-year-olds and a one-year-old! The neighbours who are on the same property just had a dog who had seven puppies! The kids--especially this little boy--were enthralled.


That's it for now! There'll be a bit more about Ikhaya in the next post.

A few Randfontein highlights

African frogs

The frogs have made it to Africa! (If there's anyone out there who doesn't about our frogs yet...then they haven't known us very long and can email us for a youtube link if you want more info...) The first time we made frogs here was my favourite. Bright and early one morning, shortly after we arrived, we went out to the small shack village of Seferbuilt (commonly called "CY"). While there, we went around the village and prayed for people who were sick or in need. As we walked through the village, several of the young kids began to follow us at a distance. After we found them waiting outside of several houses, we couldn't hold back any longer! We quickly folded a frog and showed it to them--after that they all wanted one so we sat down in the road and folded frogs for the kids that shyly gathered round us... I think they were probably the shyest group of kids we've ever met--perhaps that's why they stand out--but the grins they gave us when they managed to hop their frogs were the same as the grins we get from kid everywhere!

500 Lions

Amanda and I often act out Bible stories for kids and our favourite is Daniel and the lions' den. Normally, I play the role of Daniel, Amanda is the 500 princes, and a volunteer is the king. We told this story at one of the schools we visited. It was not an ideal setting--it was a cold and blustery day, and despite this, the assembly was to take place outside! We were cold, the kids were cold, the staff were cold, and the wind was so loud it was hard to speak loud enough for the over 500 kids to hear! But...we forged on forward--I was yelling at the top of my voice to be heard over the wind--it was one of the hardest, but most fun, retellings we've done! The kids were the lions in the den--and man were they enthusiastic lions! I'm sure alot of their enthusiasm came from the fact tha,t as lions, they could jump and roar and therefore warm up slightly, but whatever the reason their enthusiasm really brightened our day. It was a great experience!

People...

It's rarely the countryside or history or the beaches that really capture me in a country. Those things are generally beautiful or fascinating...but it's the people that make or break a country--not the scenery. The same can be said for South Africa. From the Bishop and his family to the waiter we had several times at one of the local restaurant, the people we met in Randfontein so many marvelous people! These wonderful ladies in the picture took care of us while we stayed at Chris and Henrietta's... We miss all of you guys and can't wait to come back! Lots of love from us.