Christmas Holiday in South Africa

As many of you may know, we went down to South Africa for Christmas, to spend some time with Julie Anne's brother Mark, his wife Darlene, their two boys Cullen and Dale and Granny and Grandpa flew out from Northern Ireland to join us as well.
We all had a great time. It wasn't really a quiet holiday, with 11 people living in the one house - 5 children and 6 adults, but it was a great fun filled time with lots of family experiences. Probably the most exciting ones for the children were surfing at the beach (which was only about 5 mins drive away), going to Ratanga Junction - a big theme park in Cape Town and going camping.

Sliding in the garden - preparation for surfing in the sea!


Joshua - starting off steady.


Benjamin - is he going down - or just balancing?!


Cullen - happy with the result!


Esther - has a go too. Such fun!


Eyes down - finishing well!

We also climbed Lion's Head ...






...and took the cable car up Table Mountain. Fantastic!




It was pretty exciting for Mummy and Daddy to experience their SA shopping centres, and we took the boys Christmas shopping in Vredenburg Shopping Centre. A good way to think of giving to others.

Another big excitement was going camping. Our campsite was in a spectacular location.


Setting up camp. Not everyone stayed overnight.


Julie Anne with her brother Mark.


Brrr it was chilly the first night. We had a 'braai'(barbeque).

Christmas morning


The excitement of opening presents.


Those eyes are still full of sleep.


Best friends: best brothers.


thank goodness it's blurred. It's just too early for us!


Esther and Dale playing with the new tea set and Peppa Pigs House too.


Christmas Day Dinner/lunch - the earliest we've ever had! What a great time!

Some cute snaps

Graduation photos.

Sharing cake.

Helping Mum with the cake.

Some fun birthday party snaps!

Fun in the sand pit.

Clare with Gido (on the end) and is that Gerry?

Gerhart, in the middle, Ruth and Clare.

Who is this mystery boy? Does anyone recognise him?

Is this the same character? Master Ekholm? It has to be his blond hair.

Another mystery guest at the birthday party. Perhaps he's related to the blonde guy.


Time in and out of the kitchen.
Mummy's little helper.

That's good stuff. Seba with Esther.

Even closer. Even better!


Esther holding someone's little sister just outside Erasto's office - at SEMA Nursery school.

Joshua and Esther having fun in the MAF swimming pool.







Two shopkeepers open for some buisness! Esther with Ben Parker - her buddy who also hasn't started school yet.

Graduation at SEMA Nursery

After 4 years (for some of the children) they were ready to graduate - it was that time of year again. For those children, they will begin a new school next year - mostly aged 7 years old - starting Standard 1.

These were the leavers who graduated with a gift of a jotter and a pencil as a gift from the teachers. They were very pleased to receive this, and held their presents for the duration of the service. As this school is run in the church (or is the church run in the school?) and the teachers are all christian (as far as we know) the service was run similar to a church service. There was lots of singing, a collection and there was a short sermon. However, there was also time for speeches, thanking the teachers, the head, the matron and the children and parents for all their work and involvement in the school. The choir came to sing from Erasto's other church which was planted up at the University - N'gon'hona. This is them dancing and singing below.


Some of the children who were there for the graduation. They all enjoyed the service (they call it a party) with the food and cake. These are mostly the older ones, who were graduating. They are the children who have learned the songs that we've been learning to sing, the best. Being older, they are better at retaining the songs that we have been learning in English. They have really enjoyed them, with actions, shouting, some rhymes and stories too. We sang some of them for their parents as part of the service. The older children also did a little drama.

Aren't they lovely. They sure do clean up well for a party! It was a fun day for all.

Glenn enjoy's going out on his motor bike - as often as he can. His normal preference is to head out on Saturday at some stage - often in the morning.


On some terrain he struggles to keep his bike up, but I guess for guys, that's part of the fun.

This was a really beautiful view that he took on Saturday the 4th December lookin gdown over Dodoma from a hilly peak. We call it 'Antenna Hill', because it's where all the antenna's are - how original!
This is how he gets some needed 'time out' some exercise, and often some unneeded sun in the strangest of places!

Joshua's Birthday

Joshua celebrated his 8th birthday on the 12th November - who better to remember that than a Mum! Well, because of various reasons, we didn't celebrate it with his friends that daay, but instead, we had a party for him the following Friday.

The following are pictures taken on the day, of Joshua having his birthday tea, opening his presents and having a cake made for that day.






Over the Thursday and Friday, Seba and I made 5 cakes for that weekend, as there were the 2 birthday's (JA's as well) and also the celebration at the Nursery school. This was the Leaver's Assembly, for the children who will leave at the end of the year and go into standard 1 next year, in new schools.

There was much excitement at 3.00pm at our house on Friday 19th November.
Our gate, ready for the party, but we can't take credit for these glorious trees and bushes. Aren't the flowers just great!


Joshua's birthday cake was a Jungle Cake - seen below from 2 angles.


We made some indian hats, with real feathers stuck on the card feather. This was followed by some face painting - for better effect.

End results.
An indian girl at the birthday party - Elisabeth Ekholm - a little Swedish friend of Joshua's.


An indian boy - this one is expressing his emotion - well, how he thinks an indian would look and feel. According to him, he is leader of his tribe! Benjamin.


Alongside the crafting, half the children played football, which allowed us to change later on, so that those who had wanted some exercise were able to get that first, and then come in and be creative.



Joshua was glad to see the cake, as it was one of the cakes he had chosen and asked Mummy to back for him. He said it tasted good too. Three layers of chocolate brownie cake!

By the end of the party the children had played on the playground, made indian hats, played football (those who were interested), hunted for sweets, played 'pass the parcel' and eaten 'till full (or FTB - full to busting!)

Dedication of 7 New Testament Books

The 6th November was the day that we rose at 5.15am and left around 6.30am along with the sunrise. We left Dodoma went to the 'porini' into the bush. It was a 3 hour drive north to the village of Gioma and the Burunge people. We were joining with a number of others from Dodoma (there were about 30ish in our convoy as we left Dodoma) and with many from SIL (who are WYCLIFFE Bible Translators) to celebrate the dedication of 7 books from the New Testament. This is the only dedication that they will have until the whole of the New Testament is finished, in maybe a couple of years time - when that will be celebrated.

It was a great day, and a wonderful experience to join with the Burunge people in their celebration.



It was an outdoor event and had been put off until after the election as there were no public events to take place until after the election. Universities had to dealy their start dates too, so the dedication happened the first Saturday after the election. They could have moved it and celebrated in a church, but then it would have been mainly only that one church and all churches in the village are involved in this and there were many muslims gathered there to watch and to join with their friends in dancing and celebrating.


Some people found good viewing spots to watch from up in the tree. Others were just glad of some shade under the shelter of the make-shift tarpaulin. The sun was very hot.


This translator became a good friend of Esthers.


This was the tarpaulin that was erected to provide a little protection from the sun!


Other observers, behind those who were preparing to play some music.

There was food for all invited guests - this number seemed to be somewhere around 200 people. The lovely food was provided down at the school; rice, beans, some meat and salad too.


You know most of the time we struggle to get our children to keep their fingers out of their food, and then comes a day when they need to eat with their hands. So, in the natural way of children, what do they want? Spoons. Well, Benjamin managed to eat most of his food with his hands.
There were also sodas. When the people came down from the place of the dedication across to the school (for food), they came dancing and singing.

The children enjoyed the experience too: each in their own way. The other children that you see in the photos are children of the American translator who has come with his family specifically, to work with the Burunge people.

The young man in the photo with Esther is a translator with SIL. His name is and Esther was very fond of him. She ate with him and managed to spill her rice and beans over him too.


The car park at the Dedication. Toyota seems to be in big demand!