The Visas finally come in

Hey Everyone. I can't believe that it's been almost a month since we last blogged. Time has rushed by, with preparations for camp taking center stage in our day to day work lives. The "Orchard Camp" has been spruced up with a new outdoor kitchen, hot water for the showers, electricity for the tent sites. Of course, camp also means stocking up with supplies, lots and lots of supplies.

We've also welcomed Canadian volunteers from Winnipeg (yay) and Vancouver. They have been a big help and a lot of fun to be around, and they also brought a care package from home, which made them extra special.

We have also had good news on the Visa front, two different ways. The first way is that we have been working to get Nqoba, one of our youth leaders, enrolled in the MCC International Visitors Exchange Program (IVEP), a one year exchange program which sends young adults from developing countries to North America. Nqoba is slated to work in Pennsylvania, which meant that he had to go through the process of getting an American Visa. This was no simple thing, involving several hundred dollars in fees, two trips to Jo'burg and a lot of paperwork. We are delighted that he got his visa this week, so he is good to go.

The other happy visa news is that as of today we are no longer illegally living in South Africa. After much delay, we finally got our South African visas today, and the best news is that they cover the entire period we are here (which apparently is very unusual, all the other South African MCCers have to reapply every year). We're very happy that Penryn allowed our girls to start school without their student visas in place - they've already been in school for 6 months and it would have been awful (for all involved) for them to be waiting at home to start school since our arrival last November!

Here's a picture of what the blessed document actually looks like:

My first Netball match – by Erin

On Tuesday, I played in my first netball match. We went to a school very far away called River View, there were 4 schools playing in the match: Penryn, Uplands, St. Peter’s and River View. Netball is a popular sport in South Africa and it is only played by girls. It’s kind of like basketball but there is no backboard and no dribbling. Everyone plays a different position such as Wing Defense, Wing Attack, Centre, Goal Keeper, Goal Shooter and Goal Defense. Each position is only allowed in certain areas of the court. Our school has a hard court like a tennis court but the school we went to had a grass court. Here is a picture of me and some of my friends: Tubby, Morgynne, Bailey and me. Our pinnies say what position we play and the numbers at the bottom say what parts of the court we can go into.

Our team lost badly but we were lucky enough to get one goal against Uplands. I guess we’ll have to practice a little more.