hamba kahle sala kahle
27 May 2011 1 Comment
In the last four months I’ve been all over South Africa;
to the Atlantic and Indian oceans,
to the edge of the world and back,
charged by elephants,
climbed two and half mountains,
watched the sun sink below the horizon three times in one day,
found joy and and life in the eyes of eighty-five orphans with finally full bellies,
sang and cried and prayed with my gogos,
drove through the patchwork quilted hillsides of the wild coast,
grew dizzy when looking out over the sea blending so perfectly into the sky,
sang with the ngomusa zulu gospel choir,
planted a garden in the valley of a thousand hills,
jumped off the world’s largest gorge swing,
met and loved and said goodbye to my jabula jabula family,
and moved into the next year of this crazy-blessed love-filled life that I lead,
twenty-four.
Sala kahle South Africa. Siyabonga
impophoma
21 Mar 2011 1 Comment
One day Jude (UK), my cousin Katie (US) and I decided to head to Clermont and paint a mural.
brainstorm doodle:
before:
the process:
after:
its an impophoma (waterfall)!
ulwesithathu ikilabhu
13 Mar 2011 4 Comments
Here is catch up post number 1 of about a million.
I can hardly believe that I’ve been in South Africa for over two months. In these past few months I just keep coming back to this same thought, how is it that I lead this ridiculously blessed life?!?
Here are some pictures of beautiful children that I get to spend time with.
Every Wednesday we go to Clermont for after-school club. Typically one of us has to be the bouncer and make sure no kids under ten sneak in the room.
This little boy is the resident biter.
He’s our little smiley thug that bosses around the other little kids, cries when he doesn’t get what he wants and is always trying to break in to after school club.
After all the drama at the door has been sorted we play games or work on crafts inside with the older, smarter, better-at-english kids while the babies entertain themselves in the courtyard. Then we play rowdy outdoor games with all ages and drink juice and eat cookies and sometimes we even play with balloons.
Although some of the littles weren’t big fans of popping the balloons.
My favorite thing is when some of the kids’ moms come and hang out in the courtyard. It’s so rare to see them spending time with their children, or even to see them at all. I love being part of creating an atmosphere in this township that promotes mother’s to enjoy and play with their children.
si ya bonga (part II)
31 Jan 2011 1 Comment
One of the projects that I’ve become part of is a feeding scheme for orphans in the Clermont township.
Every month two tons of food is delivered to us and we pack it up and deliver them and it feeds an orphan for a month.
Each parcel contains 2.5kgs of rice, 2kgs maize meal, 1.5kgs of brown sugar, 2kgs of sugar beans, two cans of mixed veggies, two cans of backed beans, one tin of Jam, 52 tea bags, soup mix, and one box of mince.
Delivering these food parcels to the orphans was such a monumental experience. There are two clinics that we are doing work with and in order to get a parcel you have to be registered. There were 200 orphans registered so we brought 200 parcels and can continue to find ways to support them.
We pull up to the first clinic of the day which is located at the top of this vast valley. The kids have to walk for an hour up hill to get to us because it is just too dangerous for us to drive down there. The desperate conditions at the bottom of this valley are so bleak. But once again, I am wowed by the sense of community felt with the zulu people. There are moms and gogos (grandmas) in the community who keep an eye out on the orphans in the area. And as we pull into the parking lot there are hundreds of orphans and township moms there who need food and we don’t have enough. There were only supposed to be a hundred orphans there to get food he parcels and there are hundreds. We handed out the food to the people who were registered and tried to explain the best we could how important it is to register so that they can get what they need. And we drove off and they were hungry and confused and it was heartbreaking.
We pulled into the next clinic, not really sure what to expect. We walk into the waiting room and all of the women and children there are singing us songs of thanks and praises to God in Zulu. Pretty soon we were all singing and clapping and dancing and this sense of joy washed over all of us. Just amazing.
And I just was thinking that this is an experience that changes people on all sides. These kids who were desperate for food and these township Moms who were desperate for help will remember that it was those Zombuso Kankulunkulu (Kingdom of God) people that delivered food and the izindaba ezinhle (good news) that we should take care of each other.
si ya bonga
29 Jan 2011 2 Comments
Si ya bonga is thank you in Zulu and that is just how I have felt since arriving to Durban just over two weeks ago.
There are so many things that just absolutely hit me when I arrived. Within 24-hours of landing I was driving stick shift on the left side of the road, serving soup at an HIV/TB clinic, playing soccer/football in the road in the clermont township and being lovingly welcomed to South Africa with zulu hymns and dance in an area that most white people wouldn’t venture.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many shades of green as when driving around the gorgeous hills and mountainous landscape all around the Durban area. The skies are wide and almost always blue and full of sunshine. I am amazed by the strong sense of community in the zulu townships and just how vibrant and lively they are.
It seems like wherever I’ve found myself in the past six months I have just been surrounded by the most gorgeous children and have met the most lovely people.
This is Kitty.
She’s the youngest member of team Palmer that fearlessly took on South Africa for the past ten months from England. The Palmers plus Nay and Phil stayed at the Good News Centre here in Westville (just outside of Durban) for the first two weeks (somehow time just moves differently when you’ve away from home and two weeks can feel like a month…) of my time here before they left for chilly England. They were wrapping up their time here just as I was getting started. I was around to witness/be part of the good byes, the meetings, last trips to the beach, the packing, soulful songs, delicious braais and all the projects that had been worked over so tirelessly that they were seamless. The biggest thing I learned from them, aside from advanced strategy in Monopoly Deal, has a lot to do with the way they lived while they were here. They went all out, soaking up as much as they could and did their very best to give it back. Fearlessly.
At this point I’m still finding my footing. I’ll get there in a few more days but in the mean time, am loving every moment.
…absolute winter wonderland!!
17 Jan 2011 3 Comments
England!
Four weeks in England were so great…full of tea, snow, Christmas spirit, hot water bottles, sweaters, duvets, cadbury chocolate, talented buskers, mulled wine and warm generosity.
Jess and Levi and I spent a few days in Birmingham with our dear friend Ellie and her welcoming housemates. It was such a different place than India that it made it easier not to be there. I was so happy to be in a different season, especially a place with so much Christmas spirit. There were moments I wasn’t sure I would ever be warm again, and that time the smell of an apple in the grocery store brought me to tears but I’m pretty sure if you asked anyone, the sentence I repeated most during my time in Birmingham was, “I’m just so excited!”
Our first full day there we decided to head to Cadbury world and enjoy all of the free chocolate.
Cadbury world was followed by a trip to the German markets which included sausage, mulled cider, SNOW and more Christmas spirit than you could ask for.
CHRISTMAS!
Ellie took us all around Birmingham to visit her favorite people and places. Whenever I go someplace new, I always ask whoever I’m visiting to bring me to their favorite place where they live, so Ellie brought us to her clearing. Full of snow and sunshine. Gorgeous.
After our time in Birmingham, we all parted ways. “I’m not coping on the inside” was all Levi, or any of us could get out. I couldn’t have asked for a better team to go to India with. This is one of those situations where words just honestly fail. I have so much love for these two.
We said our good byes and I headed off to Harrogate, which was lucky, as Harrogate is my new favorite place.
When you see those movies about England with sweet british famillies in them, I think Harrogate and the Hansons might be the inspiration. One of my favorite weeks ever. We bought sweaters and hot chocolate and duvets, got pampered at the turkish baths, Betty’s tea for a famous Fat Rascal (scone), mulled wine, live jazz at the Harrogate Brasserie, day trip to York, caught up on Glee etc etc. Wonderful week.
Christmas was in Solihull with the Bucklers.
They made sure I had cozy socks to open on Christmas morning and that I got to try all of Englands traditional dishes (yorkshire pudding, trifle, bangers and mash, christmas pudding, roasted everything etc etc). Their home was lovely and their backyard was full of snow for snowball fights and making angels. And then…
LONDON
And my family came (missed you Mom…and sorry again that I stole your daughters away for your Birthday)! My dad and Daniel came for a few days before new years eve and just wandered all over London and stayed in an IKEA service apt. Met up with Katie Hanson and friends for a new years eve pub crawl in Notting Hill and brought in 2011 with a bang. And then 24-hours later…
When Emily and Sara and Emery got there I couldn’t believe just how great it was to be together again. And we just had ten full days of solid adventure. And then I got hit by intense waves of homesick aches when we waved goodbye at security in Heathrow. It will be amazing to see eachother in May, but until then…it’s time for Africa.
thank you India
14 Jan 2011 4 Comments
Here are some of the many many amazing things I did/memories I made the last month I was in India.
I got in lots of good snuggle time with Vamshi.
I hung out with Deepa and the babies during Tiffin.
Came to appreciate just how soft Krupa’s little face is. And how much she loves a good back hug.
We had a girls night and did lots of beautiful mehndi.
Celebrated Peter’s birthday, which ended up being one of most fun nights of my life.
Went to Golkonda Fort and recreated Ellese and Lydia’s epic pose and a few of our own.
Became best friends with Gaurama, who only speaks Telegu, comes up to my elbow on her tippy toes and is one million years old.
Visited a leper colony. They sang hymns for us. Everything about that day was beautiful. One of the most moving experiences of my life.
Hung out with Jess’s dad for a week. This is what Uncle Phil looks like in India.
Made over 80 bookmarks for the kids. Jess was in charge of writing and stickers. I was in charge of glitter. This picture was taken before we laminated them.
Then we went to Delhi. This is me peacing around Delhi having a good hair day.
This is Jess and I in front of the Red fort in the old city in Delhi. We posed for lots of pictures this week.
Saw the Taj Mahal.
Posed for a few pics with the Taj Mahal. Group shot (Ben Standeven showed up) and roof top dining.
Hung out at this sweet coffee shop every morning. Realized how much I missed coffee shops. Signed the guest book. Realized how much I missed doodling.
Went back to Shunem. Couldn’t believe how good is felt to be home and how much I missed these children and their giggles and smiles and shannigans.
Sat on the roof for the 100th time. The sun and breeze is better up there than most places.
Soaked up just how gorgeous these kids are before I had to leave them.
After the most perfect good bye you could ask for, we piled into the car and began slowly creeping away as tiny fingers out stretched and the familiar pounding of small small bare feet on hard ground chased after us.
Found out what it feels like to leave your heart behind.
Thank you and God bless.
The story of Lydia and Ellese and the Five Fingers of the fist.
20 Nov 2010 2 Comments
When I arrived at Shunem three months ago (feels like a year ago…) who could have known just how essential these two girls from New Zealand would become.
Every trip to the Taj with Ellese and Lydia was a two-banana-milkshake kinda trip.
It all started when they invited me to do some pilates with them. Pretty soon we were making pizzas, drinking tea, speed walking to Sarah-Mommies, discussing our lives and trials and appreciating our unique talents and skills (air guitar, speed french braiding, power point presentations, free styling, playing bogle in foreign languages, leading dance parties etc).
Ellese, Lydia, Maggie, Jessica, Levi
After the epic weekend of Beck Paul and Andrew Galbraith’s engagement soiree and flower arranging and dancing and performing musical numbers and looking good, Ellese and Lydia made the big move to Shunem. Soon we were playing five person nerts, developing a rooftop home gym, bridge shuffling and dominating in the power team known as the Five Fingers of the fist.
That’s right. We even have a logo.
The Gelineaus and I came to India expecting to work together and figure things out as a party of three. The Five Fingers of the Fist was more than I could have hoped for in a team. After conquering a challenging week in Vijayawada together, we celebrated their first Thanksgiving ever and then they left for a few weeks of adventure in Thailand and then back to NZ.
First Thanksgiving and loving life.
The week after Lydia and Ellese left I realized what a huge presence they had in my India experience. Rooftop yoga. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Heart to hearts while doing laundry on the rock. Ice cream cones at Sai Babas. Discussing the joys of clean fluffy good smelling towels and comfortable beds until we laughed and I cried. Having perfectly blended voices while singing. Loving these kids till our hearts grew.
Can’t wait till the fist closes in Hawaii 2015.
Why, yes, those are matching copper bracelets. Five for 100rps cause were the bargaining queens.
Pooja
17 Nov 2010 Leave a Comment
This is the face Pooja makes every morning when we tell her it’s time to go to library.
Life was so hard for Pooja…until her and Venkatesh got to go to prom.
And now she couldn’t be happier.
