Saturday 11^th August

by Toby and Cameron

At 6 o’clock three very tired bodies appeared outside the house at Ekukanyeni to partake in a dawn walk. Two hours later after the sun had fully risen over the mountains, they returned to find the rest of the team emerging from their beds to the smell of a cooked breakfast lovingly prepared by our hosts Stephanie and Iain.  After most of the team had eaten their way through a four course breakfast, they returned to their rooms to finish packing their belongings into their respective suitcases, they said farewell to their hosts and set of down the mountains. 

On their way back to Siyabuswa (over rivers, mountains, through forests and grasslands, over tarmac and dust roads) they stopped of at the nearby town of Groblersdal (which was still 2 hours drive from their destination) for lunch.  After an hour and a half lunch stop, they set off, again. After two hours of further travelling they arrived at Siyabuswa to find that two more visitors from Reading had arrived a few days after we had left for Kruger. The other visitors were a drama teacher from Highdown School, Katy, and her husband, Tom. (Which was quite a shock for Cameron as the visiting drama teacher was his old drama teacher). 

They proceeded to unpack and have a few hours of rest before the big celebration!  The celebration commenced with granny, and a few other of the ladies from Siyabuswa, singing and worshipping.  After that Pastor Jack (who looks a bit like Zebedee from the Magic Roundabout) began with a few opening words.  The main body of the celebration commenced with the group receiving gifts from the people of Siyabuswa and the collage.  Immediately after that the team presented gifts to some of the people of Siyabuswa.

One of the main things presented was two communion sets presented to Dr Hendrick and the Alathea Bible College.  Both sets were crafted by an English craftsman from British clay. Dr Hendrick and the guys at the college were delighted with the gifts. Following the presentation of gifts there was the most important part of the celebration: the food!  The food was amazing.  The food consisted of BBQ beef and sausages with pap and chakalaka (which is like vegetables in a chilli sauce).  As a side dish, there was BBQ Siyabuswa chicken. After the celebration, all of the team went their separate ways and the rest of the day was used up with Uno. Time to finish for another day! 

Bye bye, from Toby and me  J