Homes for Chritmas

What a great day! Meet Kate,
Kate is a sweet old woman in her 70’s who has spent most of her life disabled due to malnutrition & diabetes. Kate has had her legs amputated and spends her time sitting in an old chair in a makeshift little shack. Her daughter and grandson also live in this small two room cardboard and driftwood home.

Luckily Kate has been given a wheelchair, however, it impossible to use it in her home due to the rocky unleveled dirt and patchy concrete floor.

COLORS South African partner Bethesda has created an outreach program to help their home care patents like Kate, with basic but very important projects and home improvements such as wheelchair accessibility.

So here’s the great day part,…. Yeh!!!!
Bethesda’s Mario and Yappy to the rescue! Sunny and I were fortunate enough to be invited to meet Kate and get to be apart of making her life a little bit brighter. When we arrived we were greeted with big toothless smiles. The smell of propane was overwhelming, but the excitement of the pending home improvements overpowered the room even more.

Smash went Yappies sludge hammer!...out went the dirt and old concrete….in came Mario with the wheelbarrow… Kate’s grandson runs around the outside of the house in total excitement that total strangers are now throwing dirt around his house.
Maybe he’s a bit jealous that he’s not allowed to throw dirt around the house too.

Before long Kate, has the gift of a whole new reality…accessibility of her own home!

After assessing the need of Kate’s home, Sunny and I followed up with providing anti fungal cream to help treat the little boys ringworm infection, a good home 1st aid kit, dental supplies plus a warm blanket and some toys for the boy

I have arrived safe & sound

Once we arrived in Joberg, we were informed that our flight was no longer available for us to take to George. (We still do not know the reason for this).....Welcome to Africa..... apparently these things happen on a regular basis. So Sunny and I decided to put ourselves up at a game reserver just on the outskirts of Joberg, in order to wake up at 5:00am to try and get onto an already fully booked flight to George. We were lucky and made it here safe and sound.

Sunny and I live 1 min walk from the Indian ocean in a little "cottage" outside of George in a small town called Klienkrantz. The cottage is really small, and comprises of the bare essentials. It's like camping, with electricity...sometimes. It has one bedroom, and I sleep in the living room, which has been converted into a separate bedroom. It is very cozy, and feels like home already. The entire place is made of cement. We do not have a stove/oven but a 2 burner propane stove. No shower, only a bath tub with no hot water. I am still working on my bathing system. I don't have it down quite yet.

The community is really neat where I live, it is comprised of a mix of people,,,black, colored, white, and Indian. ( yes - colored is the politically correct term, used to describe people who are not "native or black" Afrikaans) The houses are all very different- some small, big, mansions and shacks. There is a "community dog" the most gorgeous yellow lab, and I have adopted her to be my dog. I have named her Blondie, and she is the sweetest thing. Not to mention, incredibly intelligent. We run together in the mornings.

After recovering from Jet leg and acclimatizing to the environment, I had the opportunity to meet some of the children from the orphanage. I was given a tour by two of the older boys, and was relieved to see that the children do not live in poverty. They are fed well-balanced nutritious meals, and have comfortable living environments. Very similar to where I live. On my tour I was introduced to a couple of the "Tannies/Cares" (care givers) who look after the children, who were very pleased/relieved to know that I have come to provide support.

So far so good....once I have a chance to take pictures I will post them as son as possible.

Silent Auction - Fundraiser

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to thank all of you for attending the silent auction fundraising event held at Shelia MacNaughton's house this past Saturday afternoon.

I can't begin to express how grateful I am for all for your support and generous contributions towards my volunteer project in South Africa.
We had over 50 people join us for the event and raised a grand total of $4000.00!

Please make sure to view the photos.