A day at Nokuphila and then off to Lily of the Valley

A Day at Nokuphila School – Mon Feb 1^st

Today I thought we were going to weed the vegetable garden at Nokuphila. Wow, was I surprised when we got there and we each got assigned to help in a classroom. I was assigned to help Dorothy with the 4-5 year olds. I helped them make their own puppet out of a brown paper lunch bag and a paper face and tie that they colored in. I had a tough time spelling their names – Nonhlanhla, Thembi, Thando, Sipho … Grace helped Mary with the 3-4 year olds. She helped them learn how to use scissors to to cut on a line.

Lunch is prepared and served out on the porch. It was chicken livers over rice with carrots and peas. And it smelled amazing (but we didn't eat any)! After lunch we supervised the kids naptime while the teachers had staff meeting.

The principal of the school, Maritta, asked if I could build a bicycle path for the school. The path has already been dug but we would need to move some stone, build a form and pour and level concrete. It's not a huge project but would need donations to buy supplies and several people to help. Anyone want to come over and help? Noah do you have any off? Just kidding! When we get back to Joburg I'll try to round up some volunteers and some money for the project.

Traveling to Lily of the Valley (LoV) – Tues Feb 2^nd

Before we could leave for Lily of the Valley (LoV) we wanted to sort out cell phones. We'd been working on this for four days! The reason for the delay turned out to be that the phone Grace 'knew absolutely, without a doubt that she bought in South Africa', she had actually bought in Peru ... so we bought a new phone and miraculously we were connected!

The 6 hour drive to LoV took us south and east on the N3 towards Durban with the Drakensburg mountains in the western distance.

LoV is in a very rural area about 20 minute drive from the highway between Pietermaritzburg and Durban in KwaZulu Natal. The drive to LoV took us through some very impoverished communities. Unemployment in this area is about 70%! Most people build their own homes from home-made concrete bricks, mud and tin. I visited the home of one of the local residents. It was modest inside. No TV or even electricity, but the atmosphere was warm and inviting.

Lily of the Valley (LoV)

Our Accommodation, Neighbors and Wildlife

The LoV property is extensive. We're staying on the edge of the property overlooking the Thala Game Park in 'Bushwillow'! It's really beautiful but quite wild! To give you an idea of how wild it is … on our arrival we were greeted by a nyala buck named “Brave” who followed us back to our room to 'check us out'! It's a little weird having a nap with a buck staring at you through the window!

"Brave" The Nyala Buck

Our accommodation is a very nice one bedroom, one bathroom apartment with a little patio out front. We have a fridge, microwave and a 2 burner hotplate so we are very comfortable! There is even intermittent wifi!! But the wifi is more reliable than the water! Water is very scarce and we often turn on the tap and hear that gurgling sound that tells us there's no more water. So showers have to be very quick and washing dishes is done with minimal water. We're learning to watch every drop and plan ahead. When there is water we fill every available container.

Looking down on Bushwillow from the Children's Village

Our patio overlooking Thala Game Park

The view from our patio

Livingroom/Kitchen

There are 3 other apartments in Bushwillow which house volunteers/ staff and our neighbors are very friendly. Our newest neighbour is Lise, a volunteer who arrived from the UK on Thursday. She is a Special Ed teacher and is here for 2 years. Guy is here for 6 month of his 'gap year' as a volunteer and Nthabaseng is a Social Worker on staff at LoV.

We have been very busy since arriving at LoV but most of our free time is spent watching the hills for animals and birds. We've seen a herd of nyala does, some kudu, three ostriches and more bird species than I can count including an African Fish Eagle and 2 Spotted Eagle Owls. I saw a monkey alongside the road while doing a supplies run. We've been told that there are giraffes, rhinos, hippos, zebra and number of other buck species so we continue to scour the hills.

African Fish Eagle

Cool tree

Lily of the Valley

We knew LoV was having a big impact on the community, but it is way bigger than we imagined! We're still trying to absorb it all. There are so many things going on here: an orphanage, a daycare center, an elementary school, a medical center, a dental clinic, community based medical clinics with house calls from doctor/nurse, home-based carers, community food programs, community gardens, community computer training.

The goal is to make the whole operation self sustaining so they are working on developing income generating opportunities. They have a small conference center which they rent out. They also have a hydroponic tomato farming operation which has been operating for 1 year and is already profitable. They are looking to expand both the farming and the conference center.

Ken and his staff are awesome people. They clearly work very hard and willingly accept a huge responsibility for the kids and the community members. They employ just shy of 100 staff in all the different departments. They hope to be able to offer more employment & training opportunities to the community as the organization grows.

There are 8 other volunteers here at the moment each serving for varying lengths of time. The volunteers come from all over the place – South Africa, USA (NYC specifically), Netherlands, Austria, UK and Australia.