Botshabelo: A place of refuge: An Early Easter

This past week we had 15 Norwegian visitors come to Botshabelo to volunteer for 5 days. The majority of their time was spent teaching the kids and cleaning up our garden. They also helped our kids make Easter baskets. It's a little early for Easter, so why they choose to make baskets is a little beyond me, but it was cute, I guess. At the end of the week we decided to show the visitors how we do Easter at Botshabelo and even had a practice Easter egg hunt with them. I will explain Easter at Botshabelo in more length once we have our real Easter celebration, because it's a very emotional and important holiday here. Until then, enjoy these pictures of our premature Norwegian Easter egg hunt:

Yesterday Dr. Braam (our in-house Dentist for 3 weeks) left Botshabelo. Since our Dentistry project is now over and I have stopped teaching 1st grade, my duties are about to change this coming Monday. I am hoping to start working more intimately with the village. Here is a cute picture of Dr. Braam:

Ever since Daphne and I started working with the Dentist, the villagers have started to get to know us. This is special, because the people in the village are especially weary of visitors. Usually the visitors ignore the villagers because the village is sort of dangerous. Many people have serious issues with alcoholism and there is a high rate of assault. Daph and I weren't even allowed to go in the village without an escort... Now, things have changed and we wonder around the village quiet often to do different odd jobs. This past week we have been going in and assisting people with feeding their dogs. The villagers aren't the best pet owners because of their limited resources, so we go and feed their pets and make sure the living conditions are acceptable. If the animals are in a poor condition then we report it to the SPCA and they get picked up. It's a strange job because it requires a certain level of assertion that is incredibly uncomfortable for Daphne and I. It makes me wonder about cultural differences concerning pet ownership. Am I just stomping around enforcing my Western expectations of pet care onto these poor, unsuspecting villagers? Is that appropriate? Sometimes I will literally be standing 2 inches away from someones face yelling, WHEN YOU GET YOUR PENSION MONEY YOU WILL BUY ONE BAG OF DOG FOOD OR I AM SEIZING YOUR PET! Part of me wants to consider rethinking my approach because it's terribly abrasive (South African confrontation is like this, though). I think for the 1st time in my life my loud voice and natural bossiness is finally doing some good! Anyways, speaking of pets... Daphne and I caught three kittens this week. We decided that each of us in the house would be in charge of a cat. I named mine Waffles, Daph named hers Puppy and Niels named his Diesel. We think Diesel is an ugly name so we have been calling his cat Gasoline in hopes that he'll change the name. This only irritates him.

Daphne only has one more month here and it makes me really sad to think of her leaving. As I type this, we are sitting at a restaurant in Magaliesburg using the free wifi and she's speaking really loudly in Dutch to her friends on her phone. Sometimes when Daph is really sleepy, she'll talk to me in Dutch and it's so cute... because I don't know Dutch and I'll just stare at her, waiting for a translation. Her English is really funny! The way she explains things is adorable. This morning she asked me, "Will you live in the bed forever?" instead of, "When are you getting out of bed?". When we say goodnight she says, "Ok bye" instead of "goodnight". Two weeks ago she got a terrible spider bite and she had to get a shot in her butt and kept telling people she got a shot in her "bump" (she meant to say bum). When she likes something she says it's 'horny'. As an example, she eats these egg-shaped chocolates with marshmallow and it's her favorite so she calls them her 'horny eggs'. When she's exhausted she says, "I am too tired for the world". When she's sad she says, "I am desperate". Anytime she says a long sentence she ends it with, "you know what I am meaning?". I can't wait to go to Amsterdam and visit her.

Enjoy these random photos: