Put on your dancing shoes, you sexy little swine...

Thankfully no camera's were present at the time but one of the things that Carolyn has brought
to the staff house here at Rocklands is her dancing skills.
So one sunny afternoon in January, the furniture was cleared out of the lounge and a Cha Cha lesson commenced. For a British, Rhythmically Challenged bloke, it was a challenging experience. However, it was quite good fun and Christopher seemed to take to it, as did Vyan. There's a risk it may happen again...Carolyn is keen...where to hide the cameras...

Working hard or hardly working...

It's been very nice to have the centre to ourselves for a week or so over new year and to have a bit of time to chill and unwind! We have two new volunteers but we know them both! Carolyn arrived in early December just after I left for Lesotho, she's from Australia but she worked at Abernethy in Scotland so Darla and I both know her. The other volunteer is Grant- Shaun's younger brother, who we have also met! So its quite nice to all get along so quickly!

In the week before the campers came back, we made full use of the fact that we live on a campsite and that we live in Simon's Town! There were many trips down to Simon's Town itself, including one on New Year's Eve although only in the afternoon and also a trip on the train to Kalk Bay which was very touristy but also very nice! We've been playing table tennis and also using either of the two pools when we needed to cool off from the walk back from town! We even got Darla in the pool....

An adventurer goes forth, aimless and uncalculating to meet and greet an unknown fate...

Well it's been a while but its time to write again! I have managed to survive my mammoth trip from Cape Town to Bloemfontein, Bloem to Pulane, Pulane to Semonkong, Semonkong back to Bloem and finally, Bloem back to Cape Town, relatively unscathed! I caught the Shosholoza Meyl up from Cape Town to Bloem- a very easy and pleasant experience I would recommend to anyone!

Where I was met by Jappie- brother of Didi, who I was getting a lift with to Pulane. Set off across Bloem in an old White VW Beetle and arrived at the Janse Van Rensberg hunting lodge...

...well not quite but there was an impressive collection of animal cadavers on the walls- this about a third of them- the cheetah was pretty cool though! I spent a night and a morning with them and then headed off to stay with Michelle and Jos, a fantastic young married couple of Doctors! Stayed with them on the Friday night and was treated to a trip to the Boer Mart (Farmer's Market) in Bloem on Saturday morning for a breakfast of Pan cook (pancakes) and sosatis (kebabs) on Jappie's advice. This was all to introduce me into the heavily Afrikaans culture of the Freestate...or so I thought....

Then on the Sunday morning we headed off to church- it was a large vibrant 'happy clappy' evangelical church called CRC and was good fun but I'm not sure it was for me! After a lunch of KFC we headed back to Michelle and Jos' house for a final pack and then it was back to the Janse van Rensburg household to await Didi and the team of vets' arrival! Due to a massively overloaded Bakkie, they were quite late and after a quick introduction, pray and planning session we hit the road, headed for Rouxville.

If I ever thought that a trip to the Boer Mart was going to be an adequate introduction to Boer culture I was wrong! We arrived in Rouxville, and headed out of town to a small farmstead in the middle of nowhere to be greeted by the friendliest people ever! They spoke almost exclusively Afrikaans and I sat staring to space for most of my stay but was fed well and invited to join the guys for a spot of Rifle target practice after breakfast the next day (at 5am). Then it was on to the boarder at Telebridge- the usual paperwork and a small queue but no major hassles. On the Lesotho side, sat atop a large freezer box in the back of the Bakkie, I was approached by a Lesotho Boarder Guard. 'Hello.' 'Hello.' 'So...in there (points at the large metal freezer box), drugs? Guns?' 'What? Oh this- no not this time.' 'Oh OK...' (Boarder Guard wanders off)...that would be the Customs Check then....

Then it was the standard drive to Mt Moorosi, and then on to Pulane. We had to stop on route when we heard a strange sound, popped the bonnet and saw that the water in the radiator was boiling, but a quick dousing with cold water and a bit of patience saw the temp gauge in the Bakkie drop and we set off once again.

We arrived in Pulane to be greeted by a typically daft and lovable Bongani hopping along the side of the road near to the children's centre. He advised us in Pigeon English/Xhosa/Sesotho not to try crossing the river but to leave the vehicles on the far side and carry the stuff across the footbridge. Luckily we were greeted by 36 excited kids and a wheelbarrow all eager to help us with our things! So we set up camp in Grant's house for the time being and got some tea on the brew!

The next day I headed off to the Chinese shop on Grant's motorbike to get some candles for my house and an axe handle to replace the one I broke on the first evening...a choice I fortunately lived to regret! When turning a corner on a dirt road whilst riding a motorbike- Throttle is not your friend! As time slowed and my back wheel tried to overtake my front wheel, cannoning me over the handlebars with balletic grace, I had time to think ' What is Janet going to say if I come back with a broken arm and can't work...' Then time sorted out it's act and slammed me shoulder first into the dirt. At first I thought I had been extremely lucky- dusted myself off and even carried on riding for a bit. But after about two minutes, when I realised I couldn't really lift my left arm, I thought through the implications of my shoulder popping out kilometers from the Children's Centre, with a bike to look after, and no real knowledge of Sesotho. So I turned back. After a small episode half way where I nearly passed out, I managed to get back to the footbridge and left the bike on the far side.

After a short examination from Michelle, it was determined that I needed to go to hospital as there was a chance I may have a dislocation or may have fractured my clavicle and it wasn't worth risking complications by not going to get an Xray. So Michelle, Franse and I headed of to Quiting to the hospital to find that the Xray machine had broken that morning and the nearest one was in Mohales Hoek. Favouring South African Health Care we decided instead to go across the boarder, get more stamps in our passports and head to Zastron in the Freestate. Cut a long story short, I got my Xrays and it was determined that I only had soft tissue damage and they gave me free drugs! Happy days! So then it was back to Rouxville to spend the night and have more nice food and generally be pampered. Off at 6am again, more stamps and back to Pulane by 11.30am thanks to Michelle's Rally driving skills!

Over the next couple of days we dug a sandpit- I did some one handed raking and felt pretty useless, put up a swing, painted the old combi and the vets went to a Pietso (meeting) with the local Shepards to give them tips on looking after their animals and have a look at any animals that were brought along.

Whilst the vets were at the Pietso; Michelle, Antoinette and I headed off to a village near the Chinese shop to visit a boy Id seen on previous visits to Lesotho, called Thabang. Thabang is one of the worst cases of neglect I have ever seen. He probably has Cerebral Palsy, he has cataracts in both eyes, is partially deaf due in part to insects laying eggs in his ears, he has scabies and lice, his leg muscles are all but wasted away and his knee joints have more or less seized, his stomach is half full of compacted feces due perhaps to his mental condition not giving him the needed signals to pass feces or perhaps due to poor diet and lack of fibre. Oh and he is left outside all day in a filthy blanket, sitting in his own urine and feces and sleeps on a piece of cardboard on a concrete floor. It is heart breaking. We spent some time with him, as Michelle examined him, and found that he reacted well to tickles and attention with smiles- there was definitely a little boy in there...except he is 19 years old.

We stayed with him as long as we reasonably could and then got in the Bakkie to take the gas bottles to be filled. Just before we set off I asked one of the local ladies to put on some hot water for us to which she grudgingly agreed. Then we got the gas, a few supplies for the Centre, some dettol, a face cloth, ear buds, a t towel and soap and headed back to N'Temere to see Thabang and give him the first wash he'd had in a long time! The hot water arrived and we led Thabang outside around the side of his hut onto some grass to have a wash. A first he was agitated but as the warm water started being poured over him, he soon relaxed. We tried to be as thorough as we could, got in all the cracks and crevices, cleaned the potato fields out of his ears, Bernard even found some nail clippers and we gave his talons a trim! We peeled off his filthy tshirt and cleaned him all over. When we finished, Michelle took off her own tshirt and put that on him (she was wearing a vest top underneath!) and he almost looked like a little boy that someone cared about! Quite a crowd had gathered to watch the spectacle and so when we had finished we gathered everyone together and I preached to them about Thabang, and how he couldn't be treated this way. There were lots of nods of ascension and agreements made to look after him. I have no illusions that my little talk made a huge difference and they would all start looking after him properly, but when I got back I read Isaiah 55:10-11 which pretty much says that God's words never go unused and that you should never underestimate the power of them. Who knows, maybe seeds were planted.

That's enough for now- a months worth of blog in one session is too much! More to follow!

May the Games Begin....

As it says in the Bible- 'It is finished.' and I think I might be as well...

The carpetball table is complete and has even been used already! But not without some more hard graft! As I left it last post, we were about to fill the holes along the side and then we were 'about done' yeah right! We decided to use the offcuts from the ends of the table as reinforcing for the troughs, which was quite a pleasing use off the scraps!

And then added a support between each of the legs which, as it happened, were badly bowed inwards and needed a little persuasion from a car jack...

But it submitted in the end and will provide a lot of strength to the table as it is dragged around by campers! After a few touch ups with filler and sand paper, it was time to add a coat of varnish!

And then...the carpet could finally be laid! It was harder than I imagined and despite designing the table around the carpet tiles, there was still a fair amount of trimming and fitting to be done! We went through about 3 litres of contact adhesive and were seeing all sorts of wonderful things by the time we had finished!

Then I added half rounds along the top edge, covering the edge of the carpet to stop kids picking at it, and with Shaun's routed edge it was all looking pretty nice! Another coat of varnish and it tied together very nicely!

As expected, it took 5 people to carry it to the upstairs hall (at least we don't need to worry about people stealing it in a hurry!) and of course, as soon as it was in place a carpetball tournament ensued....

Sneaky Peak...

Well well well. I seem to say it a lot,but once again we are mopping up a project that has been on the list for about 2 years now. Ever since Lanet added her name to the esteemed list of Rocklands Volunteers almost 2 years ago, whispered comments, quickly drawn sketches and here say were all that could link Rocklands to the mysterious Carpetball Table...

...but now the time has come, the plans have been drawn, lumber bought and construction has begun on quite possibly South Africa's very first Carpet ball table. The basic concept is a table about 4-5m long, but only 50cm wide with a trough at each end and raised sides, carpeted along its length. Players stand at opposite ends of the table and line up there set of four pool balls any way they wish and then throw a cue ball down the length of the table in an attempt to knock their opponents balls into the trough at the far end. Apparently its huge in America and so hopefully it will take off here as well.

Shaun and I have come to accept that when we build things together there is a tendency to over engineer things a little and build not only big but also STURDY! The thought being that we have to imagine every stupid thing that a 10 year old could wish to do to the table...standing on it, trying to turn it over, dragging it across the floor, trying to throw it at their friends, trying to set fire to it etc, and then trying to build to withstand up to and exceeding 5 years worth of this abuse. As you will see, I think that this table would probably make quite a good nuclear bunker never mind carpet ball table!

We added struts underneath the length of the table which would then be screwed into the side panels supporting the entire length of the playing surface and preventing it sagging.

We bought some laminated pine shelves which clocked in at an impressive 3m long and would form the base and sides of the table. Standard dining table legs were used to give some nice sturdy support. We then screwed the sides on- much wider than was needed for the sides of the actual playing area, this was to give the legs structural strength and minimise flex and twist on the table.

Then to add length to the table, or rather to avoid losing length when making the troughs (3m lengths were the largest we could find) we decided to add the troughs on at each end by making 'boxes' that would be screwed onto the main table.

Just so you know, we estimate that there are over 500 screws and a litre of glue holding everything together at the moment, and there is over 20m of pine making up the bulk of the table.

That's over 500 holes that need filling and over 20m of pine that needs sanding. I think its fair to say that this is a labour of love!

So as it stands at the moment we have both troughs on, decoration down the side in place, most of the holes filled and a large proportion of the table sanded. Shaun also routed down all the edges of the top which will create a nice profile when we glue the half round onto the top edge. So a little more sanding, carpet to glue into place, a few more holes to fill and sand, a coat of varnish, and we should be finished!

Test Transmission...

Living on the Peninsular has many benefits. The clean air, beautiful views, friendly people and nice towns. It also has its downsides. The howling South Easter, power cuts, intermittent water supply and the TV reception. One of these we thought we might be able to do something about, and so we decided to do away with the 'bunny ears' aerials on the TV sets and try to rig up a proper rooftop aerial. Problem one is that living on the Peninsular, as previously mentioned, means that there is also a near constant gale blowing 8 months a year. This makes mounting external aerials difficult and slightly pointless as the picture goes fuzzy as the aerial swings around in the wind. So we climbed into the roof space and set up our UHF and VHF aerials in there, attached the signal booster, splitter and yards of coax cable. Then we spent a happy hour or so tuning the TV, moving the aerials about, retuning the TV, fiddling with the gain on the booster, retuning the TV...after which we had two good channels and lots of fuzz. the UHF aerial didn't seem to be so lekker, so wondering if it was the slates messing up the signal, I headed for the roof...

But despite my best efforts and the thought that a new job description could be looming, we had no joy and I was forced to retire.

Feeling tired and defeated we called it a day but vowed not to let this rest. The next day, Shaun made a visit to the shop where we bought the booster and after having been assured that we had bought all we needed last time, he was told that in fact the booster needed a power source and so it had been doing nothing to help us. Shaun has made it a personal matter. He will not accept defeat in this mater, and has bought a power supply, new connections for the coax and new wall boxes. He is determined, stay tuned...

Legless...

Continuing with the theme of Games Room-itis, we pulled out the two fingerboard tops that were in the programming store (it's the room that just keeps giving...) and I set about renovating them! The first task was to sand down the old varnish from the wood work. Enter the Belt Sander- quickly becoming my favourite tool in the box. Then I added legs, made from pine planks, going through the usual drilling, countersinking, filling and sanding polava!

Then a quick sand all over, and a lick of varnish and table one was good to go! Table two is in need of a bit more work- the entire playing surface is in need of a lick of paint, markings added etc. but it should be finished soon, and then...the Carpet Ball Table...