Patience

Introducing Max - Sally & Leif's cute son - this was his first birthday party on Aug 16 2010...

Max LOVED his monkey cake!

Sally and Max with one of Max's godfathers at the birthday picnic.

Sally took Max to play at Peacock Creche

Making art on AWOL's township tours

Zwai beginning an AWOL township bicycle tour in Masiphumele

Noluntu, Sally, Zwai (one of the township bicycle tour guides), Vuyina (a special friend of mine who helped us tremendously by translating Xhosa and English back and forth between us) and I met on Saturday to discuss the progress of the creche.

The main obstacle is that the government house that Noluntu has been waiting for has still not been built and hence we cannot yet do the alterations to it and build-on her daycare centre. SO she is still operating the creche out of the shack. And without the government required spacial requirements, ablutions, etc, she cannot yet receive the government aid money.

All this has caused Noluntu a lot of frustration, but she says that the news from the government agency is that the housing project is back on track again. Apparently it was put on hold while a case of 'misappropriation of funds' was investigated and sorted out.

We have all agreed that Noluntu will let us know when she needs funds for feeding the children and other needs at the creche and we will give her some of the money that has been collected through donations and earned through tours.

Sally noticed that all the kids Noluntu was looking after on Saturday were ill, so she is going to send some vitamins ( 'creche guard') along with the next tour group to visit.
Sally has also come up with the idea of adding a reading project component to her tours which will include leaving a book at the creche each time. Sally has a neighbour who creates Xhosa story books for kids and we will also look for sturdy paged books at second hand book stores. The kids need more stimulation while spending hours and hours at the creche with so few helpers (often 2 for about 45 kids!), so we are also on the search for safe, tactile educational toys such as blocks, strings of very large wooden beads, etc.... things that allow them to develop dexterity, hearing, matching, etc. They need to be safe enough for babies of all ages.

Tourists who have some time in Cape Town can also volunteer to spend a few hours playing with the kids, doing art and reading. Volunteering from about 8am, when kids are dropped off and crying is a very good time to help by taking the older kids off the carer's hands while they feed, change and comfort the tiny children.