Bethlehem - Take 2

Wednesday 18th November

Wednesday morning saw us all completing our final vocational day for the trip!!

We will keep you all updated as usual on our individual experiences very soon!

We then all met for lunch at a local retirement facility, Sonskyn Service centre (Sunshine in English) where residents are offered sheltered housing in return for R 70 a month (State pension being R 90 a month!) For this there is one hot meal available at Lunch Monday to Friday, with the addition of a pudding on Wednesdays. Residents then prepare the rest of there meals themselves in self contained bedrooms (about 6 to a cottage) then sharing a communal toilet and shower room. The Bethlehem Rotary club support the home with not just funding for equipment and facilities but just as importantly companionship and friendship as many of the residents are either without family or many miles away from their loved ones.

It was a fantastic opportunity for us to meet with many of the residents and join them for lunch and pudding (it was a Wednesday after all!) giving us the chance to be tested on our Afrikaans and make more friends! It was interesting to hear the stories of the residents and the events that have led them to living in the facility. We were truly welcomed as ever!

Wednesday afternoon was spent in the home of Tess & Hannes who were kind enough to light a fire (the weather has been more reminiscent of home than SA!) and keep us fed and watered long enough to start work on out presentation for the conference this Saturday.

The time then came to head off to our final Rotary club meeting and presentation, and in true SA style we where greeted with a spit braai (an in-door braai - as the rain didn't let off for nearly 6 hours!) The Rotary club of Bethlehem had taken the opportunity of the get together to invite along prospective members to give them an insight into not only the work of Rotary International but also all the local projects that they support fantastically well with their 15 members. It was a lovely evening and our thanks go to all the members of Bethlehem Club for an wonderful evening.

The weather was a slight improvement on Thursday morning, as the team were taken to a local project 'Eden'. The project, run and founded by Pastor Dicky Maritz and his wife Jakkie, provides sheltered housing for abandoned and abused children and abused women. The project also provides community based education, prevention and restoration on an international basis concerning alcohol, drugs and behavioral abuse. The project started in Bethlehem in 1996 and now houses and caters for 89 individuals ranging from new born to adult. Rotary have been involved in this inspirational project for many years now through monetary and clothing donations. The project runs entirely without a budget, but from 1996 the local community has managed to contribute towards the running and up keep of the shelter and work hard to ensure its continued existence.

The morning continued with a team visit to Clarens. A village that for many decades has attracted many artists and craftsmen with its beautiful and inspirational scenery as the backdrop. (Think old English village crossed with the mountains of Switzerland). It was fantastic to spend time there viewing the various shops and art galleries.

After a sumptuous lunch of spaghetti bolognase courtesy of Bruce and Winnie, we all clubbed together some money to gather some provisions for the Golden Gate Hospice and hit the local Pick n Pay for a supermarket sweep style trolley fill - with requests for apples and toilet paper we shopped wisely and managed to add maize flour, fruit drinks, eggs and jam to the trolley. After our mental maths let us down! we also managed to add a huge watermelon to the list to ensure we spent every penny! We were then able to deliver the shopping to the children at the day care centre, their newly opened building officially opened 2 weeks ago. It was a fantastic and brightly coloured building funded by the local Round Tablers with a huge contribution from a Round Table club in Holland. The Dutch Tablers have a keen eye for fundraising - on a recent visit they saw the potential in the beautiful bead work created by the ladies of the hospice craft co operative and ordered beaded spectacle holders, which were shipped back to Holland to be sold in aid of the hospice. From those simple spectacle holders they funded the new new day care centre! What a fantastic achievement.

The Hospice takes care of people living with life limiting diseases and their families, irrespective of financial position. A valuable community project that aims to enhance the quality of life, provide dignity in death and support in bereavement.

With financing from the local community and PEPFAR, the hospice is able to provide palliative and residential care for patients suffering a range of life shortening illnesses. Historically, the patients cared for by the hospice were cancer suffers, but the HIV/AIDS pandemic has seen this shift to the majority of patients suffering from HIV/AIDS. The hospice also has a huge community outreach programme for all ages supporting them in all manner of ways including education, micro finance, health and nutritional support, craft cooperatives, bereavement counselling - the list goes on!

The next few hours will be spent packing for the penultimate time as we leave bright and early at 6am tomorrow morning for Durban! The wind is blowing here yet again.....the locals insist that the bad weather is very unusual for Bethlehem! However, we have just had reports that passengers out on the boat today have been hauled up inside with sea sickness, as the boat has spent the last 2 days battling high winds and ridiculously big waves! Apparently the high winds are due to a cyclone heading to SA from Madagascar! The boat is suddenly seeming a little less appealing!

Well here goes! We are going to be stocking up on sea sickness tablets in the morning!

See you all on the other side!


Bon Voyage!


Steff & Natasha