Our time at Refilwe has begun! We have only been here a couple of days, and are still taking things in through our jet-leg fuddled minds, but our first impressions have been that this is a place that will quickly become home for us.
There are many different things going on here: agricultural projects, medical programs, a school, a childcare facility, organic farming, an adult education program and many others. It will take us a while to fully understand what goes on here and who that we meet is involved in what. David (a staff member who oversees the volunteers here) took us on a tour on Friday to show us the layout of the place. It was a strange feeling to be walking around, feeling disoriented and unfamiliar with everything, yet knowing that over the next year we will come to know it in detail. It is the same feeling with meeting people for the first time and struggling to remember their names and faces.
To the left is "St Francis", the house we are living in and sharing with Amanda. It's a pretty decent size inside, with 3 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. The house is as big as the two large windows in the foreground. The piece of the building that is jutting out is a part of the Computer Centre that is used by the kids here. We went shopping this afternoon after church and stocked up the pantry and the fridge: nothing like food everywhere to make you feel at home!
To the right is a photo I took this afternoon, with a few of the Refilwe kids playing games on our front porch. Right now we couldn't tell you exactly how many kids live here as part of Refilwe's Foster Care program, or what most of their names are- but you can expect to hear more about them as we get to know them. I will explain some more about this particular program sometime soon.
In other important news, Cliff has quickly settled back into a culture that has cricket on TV every moment of the day (if it's not live, there's replays, and if there's not replays there's the news...). Mandy has no choice but to learn the ins and outs along with everyone else, although people here seem to be fans, not many people actually know how to play. Cliff, of course, sees this as a personal challenge to train himself a proficient team by the end of our stay.
We expect that this week will see us starting to get involved with the programs we will be working with for the rest of the year. Hopefully we'll be able to get into a routine in terms of blogging so that you can keep updated with our beginnings here. Thanks for stopping by!
