Thursday - Maintence and Ceilidh!

Our journey is nearly over and today we started our last full day at 'Hands'. Today 'Hands' had planned us a full day of activities. Vaughan was up earlier and managed to catch the sun beautifully on the "Hands Hub".

The day started after breakfast with our final debrief with Herman and Charissa at their home. Charissa had prepared a beach ball with questions on it which we threw to each other. On receiving the ball each person had to share a different emotion or story about our time here in South Africa. The first time around we chose the question that we wanted to answer but the second time in order to make it more challenging we were given a colour by the person throwing the ball.

After the debrief we had a session with Cat, who is one of Hands senior staff. Cat prepared us for when we go back to the UK having had such an intense time in the communities. She warned us that even though we will be bubbling over with excitement when we get back, it may be that people will not fully understand our time here and we may find it difficult to explain. Cat also asked us to consider what the experience had meant to us and also to consider what we would do with our experience. She suggested that if we just committed it to a nice memory it would be a shame so we should try to apply what we have learnt and been taught by our time in the community, at hands and by the people of Africa especially about their strong love and faith.

In the afternoon we carried out a maintenance afternoon. The Hands maintenance team of Cavier, John, Never mind, and Sibuie guided us in moving rocks from the edge of the playing field and taking them up the lane in a pick-up to help repair the dirt road. The girls cleared leaves. 

The evening started with an opportunity for members of the team to share with the Hands community and the volunteers staying at the hub! DJ thanked the staff for their hospitality and their welcome and explained for him it was just like being at home, Mark shared his great respect for the devotion and care that all of the Care Workers and support staff showed to the communities. Susan told us about an experience that she had in the community of Share with the Care Givers and Care Workers. She shared how she had been so conscious of the overwhelming feeling of love in the room as she sat amongst the ladies who had so much love and care for their community. Clive reminded us of an moment in mens prayer earlier this week, when George had reminded us that we only had all our homely comforts by chance, and how we could just as easily have be born vulnerable and poor and with nothing. We should be so grateful to God for everything that we have. Vaughn spoke about how he had set out to prove to himself that the Hands Care model worked. This he had been able to do and found himself being very thankful for both the experience he had had in the community and in the various sessions that we had had at the hub. Christine shared that being a practical person - she wasn't sure how she would get on just being, but she had. Christine focused on the verse that Cat had shared for us in Wits last week. Isaiah 43 : 19 which talked about a river flowing into the desert, and how this is the effect that teams make when they go out into the community. Vivienne elaborated on this to tell how she had walked with one of the Care Workers in Share (Promotion) who had turned to her and said to how grateful the community was for our visit and how it gave them power and strength to face the hardship ahead. The team thanked the Hands community, for their hospitality, their kindness, their love and for allowing us to walk this amazing journey with them.

Next we had a bring and share, where the whole of the Hands community come together for shared dinner together with all the volunteers staying at the hub! The Hands staff each bring a different dish with them and everyone tucks in. it was very delicious!

Our team had decided that we would teach the Hands community some Scottish dances and so we launched into a ceilidh the pictures and video below tell the story.

Blogged by Chris and DJ.