This morning we were up early to pack our bags and get to work. All we had left to do was a few little touch up jobs and some tidying, which we managed to complete quickly. This meant that we were able to spend a lot more time with the kids than originally planned.

At around 11:00am everybody (including the JJ kids) went inside the main house for one last surprise. We were soon sent outside for an Easter egg hunt, which went down well. Afterwards we went to up to where we were staying for an early lunch, before going back out to spend more time with the kids. It was at this point where we gave any letters, shirts, boots glasses or gloves to the kids we became close with over the past four days. Hundreds of photos were taken!

The hardest part of the day was definitely saying farewell to everyone at JJH. None of us wanted to leave and none of the kids wanted us to either. After four days of getting to know everyone it was horrible to have to say goodbye. There were lots of tears from both our group and the JJ kids.

We then hit the road to Schotia Safari’s with a pit stop at Nanaga Farmhouse to have a break before arriving at our destination. Once we arrived, we dropped our bags off and were split into three groups to begin our safaris. The safari’s was amazing with most of the animals active. We saw lions feeding, rhinos, elephants, wildebeests, buffalos, zebras, monkeys and many more animals such as antelopes. Many of us even got to eat termites from a termite mound.

After the first safari we stopped for a quick snack before going on another one in search of hippos, giraffes, crocodiles and buffalos with a lovely sunset in the background. Afterwards we went for dinner and enjoyed a lovely meal before heading out for our last safari of the day. We spent majority of the time looking for the hippo and trying to get a good view point, as it kept running into the bush. We also managed to see the lions sleeping before we were taken to our rooms.

Today was an extremely exciting day full of a wide range of emotions. The safari was a perfect way to end the day after leaving JJ Haven.

By Charlotte & Ellie

Our day had a slower start this morning as everyone woke up later than normal, so we eventually started work at 6:30am. As much as this was a setback we persevered and got most of the work done by lunch time which included finishing all painting jobs, construction of benches and construction of the gazebos.

The team down at in the house were working on painting, varnishing and fixing beds and unsafe places. We managed to get most of these partially done by morning tea then soon after finished by or after lunch.

The “A” team (benches team) Managed to assemble all 4 tables by the end of morning tea and shortly after moved on to varnishing them, with completing most of the work and leaving touch-ups for tomorrows work.

Lastly the Gazebo team started the day with sheeting the first gazebo’s roof and then finally being able to finish of the second gazebo which included the constructions of the whole roof.

The teachers told us they had a little surprise for us students if we got all the work done today, which we did, so we packed up all the equipment at 3pm and departed Alexandria for a journey to Port Alfred. Before we arrived at our destination, John tricked us by taking a detour to the hardware store then the shops. Soon we realised we were actually there to buy stationary and sporting equipment for the kids and toasters for the kitchens at JJH. We even bought John a new computer to replace the one that was stolen when his house was recently broken into, and to thank him for the amazing work he does for us every year on this incredible tour. Finally, we arrived to our SURPRISE! It was drinks at Whimpy’s, (basically a McDonalds) which everyone enjoyed and agreed it was a great way to end our last full day in JJ Haven.

The overall mood for today was positive as we ended with a lovely dinner prepared by Molly and Neils. The children also sang to us, as a ‘goodbye’ and a ‘thank you’ for the time we spent here in Jehovah Jireh Haven.

By Alexa, Maya and Jaime

It was another early start for all of us in the land of the Bok. Up at 5.30am and on-site for 6 ready for more building of picnic tables, pergolas and painting. More digging to start the day for the pergola team and after an hour and a half it was all done – THANKFULLY! It was then into constructing the frame and on with the roof.

The painting team worked hard completing on doors and frames. They then moved onto using their creative side by designing butterflies on the girls doors and moving onto the boys doors tomorrow.

The picnic table team moved ever so closer to completing their 4 picnic tables with the students using all of their mathematical, building and logical skills to great effect.

Knock off at 4pm meant more fun times with the kids of JJ Haven. With ‘street’ netball being played and the forming of a make shift hair salon where many of the students (both boys and girls) for their hair braided.

To finish the day we all moved to a big shed where we cooked a braai for 110 people with meats such as boerewors, pork sausage, chicken and pork kebab sticks, a ‘whole’ lamb from the butcher cut up and plenty of salads. Whilst braaing – which took 4 hours – we were entertained by all the children and students singing and dancing. We were also fortunate enough to have young 19 year old girl Asha play her guitar while serenading us with her wonderful voice. By 9.30 and with very full bellies, we all trudged off to bed to get our well earned rest before another busy day tomorrow.

Ndimkile (in Xhosa = goodbye).

Natalie, Craig and Adam

Today the hard work and the main reason we came. We awakened at 5:30 am to get ready, for the hard day’s work had begun. We all split up into the teams which had been decided the previous evening, one team was doing the construction of pergola’s, the other team was building benches and the last team was fixing the playground. The day started off well with every team being able to complete a good section of their tasks, the first team having dug three of the eight holes, second team having fixed the monkey bars and the third team had cut the pieces for their picnic tables and had finished making the seats on three of their five tables. We then went to Morning Tea which was delicious.

After morning tea, we continued our work through to lunch. The first team finished digging the first 4 holes and were preparing to cement the poles down. The second team was repairing the tires used as stepping stones, the team on the benches was beginning to put to put their benches together. After this was lunch and we continued working through till the children came home from school and it became impossible to do anymore work.

We then changed out of our work boots and into our trainers ready to play with the kids. We played a mixture of netball and basketball for four hours, whilst others occupied the younger kids by giving them piggy backs. Around 6:00 pm it was dinner time and we had to say goodnight to all of the children and split into the two houses where we were eating dinner. For dinner we had burgers and custard and jelly for dessert.

 By Luka and Jasper 

Today began with a busy start departing from Pine Lodge in Port Elizabeth to Alexandria for JJ Haven. Our first stop along the way was at a local art gallery where there was a variety of traditional African style ornaments for purchase. We spent quite some time there, this led to many explorations around the gallery hunting for purchases. While waiting for the indecisive shoppers, many tried their hand at the xylophone.

After the shopping spree, we delivered the donations collected for the Sinethemba children and then continued on our way. Our pitstop in the middle of our travel at Nanaga allowed us all to try some local food which included the traditional wild boer pies and biltong for many.

The arrival at JJ Haven begun with a warm welcome from all the children. We barely made it out of the car before a large group of children came racing toward us with open arms. The children were overjoyed to see a returning group of St Stephen’s students given the positive experiences from previous years. The rest of the day consisted of becoming familiar with our surroundings. In addition to this Molly, the carer of the children, took us around for a tour of JJ. Throughout the day, we all formed the foundation of great connections between the children and ourselves. Our bonding time with the children included part taking in activities such as singing, dancing, playing sports and hair braiding.

During the day, a trip to the hardware store was required for a select group of students to purchase a variety of building supplies for the preparation for the coming days.

Throughout the day we all came to the conclusion that no matter circumstances a person finds themselves in; there is joy to be had within the relationships we can build with each other. This can be viewed as the children take each day with pure joy and genuine happiness. Their take on life is something each person should aspire too.

Shanii and Erin

Today we started off by driving to Sinethemba Home for Vulnerable Children. We were greeted by many joyful faces full of energy ready for a fun day out. After about twenty minutes at the home, we separated into our own two vehicles to drive to the movies and arcade. To begin we split into two groups- one would watch a movie, the other play games.

The first group consisted of mainly older children from Sinethemba and had two of the year 12’s from Alexander Road High School, whom we met on Friday. The movie the first group watched was Dumbo. It was said to be very cliché but an enjoyable movie suitable for the age group.

Whilst the first group was watching Dumbo the second group, which included the younger children and the rest of the group went to the arcade. To begin with we went bowling. This was lots of fun but extremely chaotic, due to the number of young children running around. Afterwards there were many tired faces which soon enlightened when they were able to play the arcade games.

Afterwards we headed back to Sinethemba for a braai, an African barbeque. It was a new learning experience and we were guided by the students from Alex Road High School, and was a huge success, which tasted delicious. Whilst lunch was being prepared, we used the time to bond with the children. Many played netball, soccer and some were happy playing around in the space available.

Whist we were there many had a tour of the house that the boys lived in. It was very compact and each had small locker in which they kept their few belongings. The sleeping arrangements consisted of bunkbeds. The youngest had a room of four whilst the other two rooms consisted of six beds each. There was very limited space and the closets were in poor condition.

Afterwards, we spent some more time with the kids until it was time to leave. It was quite emotional for some who had formed some great bonds with particular kids. No one wanted to leave and the hugs and kisses from every child made it even harder. After we had pulled out of the drive we had to take a U-turn back past the home. As we drove past the children all ran up to the gate waving and screaming goodbye.

For dinner we had a master-chef challenge. We had half an hour to shop for ingredients in our accommodation groups with a budget then an hour to make the food and plate it up. The boys made a curry, one of the girls groups made nachos with smores and the other group made pizza with brownies. It was an intense competition taken extremely seriously by everyone, but enjoyed thoroughly.

Today was an eye-opening day which provided us with an insight to what these children have to live through every day.

Charlotte and Ellie

Day 6 – JBAY!!!

We started off today by watching Alexander Road High School participate in their weekly hockey, rugby and netball games against the other local schools. For many people it was their first time watching a rugby game, a highly competitive and renowned sport in South Africa.

We watched the games for about an hour before we headed off to Jefferey’s Bay, a popular costal town about an hour’s drive away. Here we were allowed to explore the nearby stores, where many people spent a little too much money shopping! We were allowed to choose our own lunch from the local healthy café, where many people had fresh juices and salsa lunches.

After lunch, we took a stroll down to Jeffery Bay beach, a scenic location filled with family lunches and wild children who backflipped off walls. Some people decided to go surfing; hiring boards from the local surf shops. Others decided to take a splash in the water, which was undoubtedly freezing cold. It’s safe to say most people only lasted a matter of minutes. For a lot of people chilling in the sand was the best option, we relaxed by listening to the waves crashing and watching fellow surfers.

Two hours later we headed off back home, but not before taking a short pit-stop to Sardinia Beach. We climbed up to the top of the sand dunes to watch the sunset… which we never actually saw as it was incredibly overcast towards the end of the day. The sand dunes are a popular spot for special occasions, specifically proposals and wedding photos. It was Darcie’s birthday today, so we decided to sing her ‘happy birthday’ on top of one of the sand dunes, the same spot where Mr. Kelly proposed to his wife.

On the way back we enjoyed an enthusiastic sing-along to a various array of music, such classics include Evie Let Your Hair Hang Down, Fat-Bottomed Girls, Party Rockers and Who Let the Dogs Out, beautifully accompanied by the boy’s scarily accurate chihuahua impersonations. We stopped off at a beach restaurant for dinner, where we were served monster-sized burgers and salads. Darcie was given a special birthday brownie and ice-cream, and one final birthday song.

Today was a very fun and relaxing beach day, a perfect lead towards the incredibly busy days ahead of us.

Maya and Sophie

Today we had the pleasure of partaking in a tour around Alexander Road High, led by Declan and Kyle; two of the year twelves at Alex. We were shown around their arts department, ICT department, Afrikaans class, DNT class, the library and the cafeteria. Finally, we went out to the rugby field to play a bit of touch and join them in their game preparation methods. We joined hands and formed a circle in which we performed a battle cry that is traditionally completed before every match. The sense of camaraderie and pride that radiated from all the students at Alex was extremely refreshing, and joining in on game prep was relatively emotive.

Following on from our tour, we hopped on the bus back to the cabins and enjoyed some leisure time in which we mingled with the other students. This time for revitalisation was greatly appreciated by everyone as we’ve been moving at a relatively fast pace throughout the trip. We had lunch and then set off on a bus tour of Port Elizabeth where we learned about the Nelson Mandela University, some of the buildings and the townships.

Our bus journey ended at Hearts Football Club where we played five-aside football with some of the boys belonging to the club. We had an abundance of fun with some high-spirited match-play and developed a stronger bond with those in our team. Half-way through the night we enjoyed a traditional braai barbecue and then proceeded to play two more football matches. Ella’s team and my team ended up versing in the final with the score being 5-3 my way. Everyone joined in at the end from a boys vs girls match and although the pitch was crowded, we had a fantastic time.

Today was extremely enjoyable with lots of bond-strengthening and exciting activities, we would do it again in a heartbeat.

By Evie & Ella

Today, we sadly parted with Cape Town, which was upsetting since we had all made such a connection with not only District Six but our enthusiastic and knowledgable bus drivers, Songlize and Nelson. But we happily started our next step of the journey in Port Elizabeth, where it is already exceeding our expectations.

Our journey started with a spontaneous decision to drop off stationery at one of Langas’ many primary schools due to a devastating arson attack done to one of the classrooms. We then went straight to the airport, with a relatively fast check in with our MANY bags. For many of us it came as a surprise leaving Cape Town so soon, as already time had flown by so fast. After we boarded the plane we all saw our last sights of the eye opening city.

We arrived in Port Elizabeth for a speedy start meeting our bus driver John, then off to our first safari. For many of us this was a first seeing a lot of the beautiful well known wild life of South Africa. The experience which we had felt very surreal as this was only what many of us see in movies. As much as it was amazing experience all of us were definitely feeling the cold being as we were in an open jeep.

After a long but exciting day we arrived at the Pine Lodge were we settled into our rooms, then headed off to Pick-n-pay (Grocery shop) where each house had to come up with a meal to make for everyone in that group to cook and eat. All of our meals were a success and we all enjoyed making them as it was a great way for everyone to get to know each other a little more and bond.

We are all very tired from our long adventure filled day and are sure that we are all going to have a very nice sleep!

By Asha and Emma B

** Apologies for this going up late.  We had a late finish to dinner and then an early morning to catch the flight to PE.  Yesterday was an amazing day but I will let the girls tell the story below. (Mr Thomas)

Today we were granted the opportunity to visit and interact with people in the Langa township.  We started the day with a visit to Mokone Primary school where we split into two groups and played netball and soccer with the kids. After the games, the children sang for us and invited us to join in the fun. We then had a look around their school and spent some time with them in a classroom environment, they loved interacting with us and showing us their work as much as we loved being with them. Though we loved the atmosphere, it was heartbreaking to see one of the classrooms had recently been burned down and vandalised by outsiders, making it an unusable, unsafe place to learn. Because of this, we have decided to supply the school with stationary to replace what was destroyed in the fire.

The Langa township is one of the oldest townships in Cape Town and was founded during the district six evictions. We had the privilege of walking through the township and seeing how the people of Langa lived in these unfortunate circumstances. As we wandered through the streets we were confronted by some of the living conditions of the poorer regions such as the tiny hostel rooms that only consisted of one room where three families lived. The families that were living in these seemed to be happy with what they had and thats all that mattered. We also visited a daycare centre and were bombarded with hugs and kisses of the kids who attended (ages 3-5) and it was hard to say goodbye. When it came to lunch we ate at a local Langa butchery which served up a feast including; chicken wings, pork, sausages and other traditional south African cuisine, which everyone agreed was delicious.

After a quick pit stop at the guest house we went to play soccer with Cape Town United Football Club. Whilst were were looking at their home ground, we also had the chance to have a scratch match with a team from the under 12’s boys. We formed two teams mixed with St Stephens and Cape Town United, and luckily we did because they would’ve destroyed us! Our bus driver Nelson joined the game and showed off his amazing skills whilst managing to hit both Emma’s in the head. That game is defiantly one to remember as everyone was giving it a go and having a blast.

Finally dinner came around and once again we experience the culture and atmosphere of a traditional restaurant named Lelapa. The food was amazing and we had entertainment by some of the local musicians which everyone enjoyed. We were also joined with a few of the players both senior and junior, and learned a bit about how they live and their backgrounds. They also taught a few of us some Xhosa language such as, Ndiyakuthanda which means I love you.

We all agreed that this was the best day on the tour so far and hoping for many more days like this to come in the next week and half.

Alexa & Jaime.

Lelapa Dancing video