Happy Holidays!

Because I am not sure how much access to the internet I will have over the next couple of weeks, I have decided that I need to wish you all a Merry Christmas now and tell you my plans.


I am spending the next week [Monday-Friday] helping run a Thandanani therapeutic camp for children who have recently been orphaned. It will be both girls and boy, I think ranging from about 9-19 years old. We will be doing workshops and life skills lessons, and hopefully just give them a community and a forum to speak about their worries. I am looking forward to it, and I am sure I will be learning just as much from these kids as they will be learning from me.

And when I come back the office will be closed for the holidays—oh no! Well my idea was that if I could not go home to my family for Christmas, I would at least like to relieve someone else even just for a few hours so they could go be with their families at Christmas. So, from December 20th to about January 10th I plan on staying at Lily of the Valley Children’s Village, an orphanage that supports children infected with or orphaned by AIDS/HIV. Some 90% of the children there are HIV+ when they arrive and are terribly undernourished, and I am really looking forward to this opportunity to help out during the holiday season when staff is running low.
So depending on the internet situation there, I may have to wish you a Happy Holidays now! I wish you all the best!

Ngingathanda ukukufisela uKhisimusi!

uNyaka omusha omuhle!

[Zulu: I’d like to wish you a Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!]

And just in case you were wondering, yes, when you are below the equator Christmas is an incredibly warm and sunny holiday… just see for yourself! :)