Ruwandera

Here are the 2011 Christmas Lights – They definitely look much cooler when you are standing in the middle, but my camera does not take them like that.

This is by far one of the colourful times of the year for many people , with the leaves changing colours and starting to drop. We are fortunate enough to only live only a couple of hours from the mountains so have the pleasure of whatching the foliage turn from green to orange and eventually brown . These were a couple of shots we took on a day out with the dogs and Linda getting back on her feet:

The last few months have been a rollercoaster ride with everything that has happened here  in the states, but finally managed to take some time off and relax for a couple of days, well for me that was, but for Linda it was a recovery time from her operation. Finally the ordeal with Sean and the false accusations from the teacher are now past, so we can move forward with lessons learnt.  Unfortunately we awoke the other morning to find our cat (Gizzy ) was not at the bottom of the bed, which was abnormal. A few minutes later we found out that he had been hit by a car during the night, so he is now at rest with Tag our first cat we had here. So in memory :

Morning Sunrise on the journey to work. What an Inspiration!

George Bernard Shaw once claimed, “This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it what I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It’s a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”

Declan, Skye, Ross, Linda, Sean

Today we all went up to the Zootastic zoo to have a midday BBQ (American Style braai) There was Blue Grass music (the kids were not too keen on that!), but the afternoon turned out to be good fun. Finally we managed to get a picture of all us together – very seldom happens, and from looking at the picture you can probably guess why, when you consider out of 10 images captured , this was the most appropriate one. (Thanks Daniel for helping get the shot). Linda and Skye are staying up there as volunteers until the end of the day, so will probably be exhaused by the time they get home.

Standard 5 class at Greengrove School - 1977

Over the past couple of days, I stumbled across a facebook group named “Greengrove Schoolmates”. I have never been one much for remissing about the past, but I decided to visit this group, and Wow! did it bring back a flood of memories. It is quite amazing how your mind manages to put the past away from your current life, and how simple a picture or a comment can instantaneously bring them all back. It does sadden me to a certain extent to see how my life has changed so much, but much more to see the youth I had as a child and knowing that my children never had that experience,and  I can see it in the way they look at life these days. There are obviously great things that our kids have done and discovered, but just knowing what they and many more do not experience due to technology and the fast pace of life in the western civilations gives a greater understanding of the need for diversity in this world.  Thanks Mum and Dad.

Happy mothers day. 

Whilst visiting the re-store we came across this rather wierd looking box on stilts. Initially thought it was just a bit of trash that someone had left there, but after looking at it for a bit worked out it was a “Rabit Hutch”. Well strangely enough we have 4 rabits and they sit in cages all day long , we continually move them from the verandah to the grass every day, clean, empty and refill their bedding. Watching the rabits all cooped up in the small cages we occassionally took one out and let it run around the grass for a bit, and then took twice as long to catch it and return it back to the cage. Now we are in possesion of this Hutch, Took a bit of work to get it back to a usable state, but now the rabits have a much larger area to run around. Of course you can guess what the boy rabits did as soon as they found this extra freedom…..

This weekend we decided to at least start to make a dent into glearing out a lot of the junk we have collected over the past few years. First thing was as the boys had moved into the cottage with their own rooms (oh yea they are loving that) that we removed some of the old beaten up tables/ desks that had huge gouges/scratches in them. I had to remove many of my old computer parts from the cupboard, many components hit the trash bin too (It was a hard thing to do, but I must). Several technical books that I had kept were really outdated and obsolete, so they made the recycle bins. Linda graceously decided to pass on the clean up and volunteered at the Zootastic zoo again and had a fantastic, but tiring time there. Unfortunately she has managed to catch a bug, which is playing havoc on her sinuses at the moment, but hopefully a bit of rest will knock that on the head. Declan keeps asking if we want him to go to the shops and buy something, or to take linda somewhere – I guess the novelty of driving is just starting to get a grip on him

For the last several months the 2 boys have been looking forward to this week – They have been allowed to move into the cottage and now will have their own bedrooms – “Freedom from the nest” well partial . Of course this means that Dad has to move all his office stuff back to the main house as the noise/activity level in the cottage will increase substancially. Moving out of their bedrooms was a matter of – Oh I want this, and that , and well will leave all the rest for my parents to sort out! . Maybe I can return the favor and leave half my junk in the cottage     will see how that goes down.

This week Linda has landed herself a great job as  an assistant director for camp tours at the Zootastic Zoo , that she and Skye have been volunteering at. I believe that this also extends to the summer holidays where they will be having a load of camps for the entire period (summer break – normally 3 months +-) . So far Linda has called me every day from there and obviously walks around with her hands, arms, legs in front of all the animals as she has been bitten several times now by varying exhibits, and even kicked by a horse. We had better check her tetanus is up to date. Linda obviously loves it as she is rearing to go there the next day – ” Bring on the Pain” 

Today Declan finally took his driving test, this was after arriving at the testing location to discover that Dad had kept the Motor Vehicle registration in his wallet and not in the car. This delayed the test as the instructor would not entertain the idea of getting in the car without the documents being available ( being cautious as usual). Of course the same happened when he asked for the insurance coverage too- it was wierd as the insurance company said he could not be covered until he had his license , and the dmvc said that he could not drive until he was covered – So we played the chicken and egg for a while. Thank goodness for technologhy which sped up the process. – CONGRATULATIONS Declan !   Woot !!!     – ok celebration over – Now drive carefully

Sean is now working parttime down at a local restaurant called Tenders – I will have to get him to take a picture so you can see what it looks like. Initially he was working only till 8 Pm in the evening, but the past couple of days he has only walked in the front door at approx 10pm as he says he likes working there. I don’t know if that is a good thing for his schoolwork, so somethng that will need to be addressed if he is feeling tired during the day. I think he is really excited about earning some of his own money, so we will probably need to go and open a bank account so he can learn to save    (like that is going to happen with the first few paychecks     )

This picture is several months old, but whilst looking through our pictures, this one jumped out and reminded me of the trees that you see in Dr.Seuss. It was taller than the buildings around it , and even the electricity pylons. It is in a small town on the South Carolina coast called Garden City, a very touristy town, but just a few miles south is the Huntington State park, which is an excellent place to visit if you have peace and quiet on the mind, together with a few nature walks , BUT, don’t forget the mosquito repellant in summer.

Two different types of kids – kids that are your children and kids that are  goat’s babies. Got to love both. I am lucky enough to work with both. Sadly lost Pip the baby goat this weekend.  Skye and I had the honor of trying to save her by feeding her as her mother’s milk had dried up… only we could not do enough. It is times like these that I am glad I don’t work with animals all the time. At least humans can talk and tell you something is wrong (even if they do not know what it is) and as parents we are able to communicate with doctors. Animals are so dependent on us and we don’t understand them!

The wild kingdom is drawing near and we are helping their migration into the civilized world through heavily disguised pets.

You should hear my ROAR!

Dont Leave the Shoes on the Floor

Well I have heard of checking your shoes for cheese and the occassional spider, but if you leave yours on our floor you may find something else that has a little more bite.  Make sure you double check before sliding your foot into them.

Just slide right along