the afternoons are always a great time for the kids invade my room. I love it, even though it can be over whelming.

There are many joys when trying to work when kids are curious.

The routine is very easy to get used to here. We have an early rise for breakfast at 6:30. The kids are off to school by 7:00 and the volunteers and caretakers have a time of singing, reading from scripture and praying. Work generally starts by 8:00. We do a lot of construction work--painting, putting up ceiling, chain sawing, digging, etc. I have enjoyed the wonderful learning experience during work :) The kids are usually home by 1:00-1:30. Everyday when the kids come home from school they hand wash their clothes, hang them and then iron them for the next day. A couple time a week Scott, Sasha, Barbra and I run a homework time for the kids. Each of us are in charge of a group of kids. This is such a great way to get to know a few kids more personally. My group of kids love to review math, but have a hard time with their English homework. It is great for me because I get to use my imagination to make English more fun. :) Everyday at 5:30 Zamani(who is 18, our oldest boy here) tells a bible story to the younger kids. It is a great experience for him to grow and to be able to take a form of leadership. Dinner is at 6:00 and showers at 7:00. It is a very long day at times, but the afternoons are great to hang out with the kids.
Things for me are going to get busy soon. Our nurse, who has been here 14 months is leaving. So, I am going to be taking over the medical side of things, to the best of my ability. All that it will include is taking care of cuts and scrapes, fevers, all of the sicknesses that any child would get. Plus I get to work with things like ringworm, scabies, boils, and making sure that our HIV+ kids take their pills morning and evenings. I will also be in charge of taking out HIV+ kids and mom to the hospital once a month to get their check ups. I have been filled with a lot of information in the last three weeks, please pray that the Lord will give me the strength to do all I need to do. Sasha has offered to help so she will be traveling with me as I go to the hospital.
God has given me the wonderful opportunity to get involved in the community around here a little bit. The past three weeks I was able to travel with the nurse as she did her medicine in the surrounding community. As we traveled I met Charmaine. She is a 47 year old woman that lives in a tiny one room house and is dying of AIDS. Jules(the nurse) has been bringing her clean water and food once a week. Since Jules is leaving I decided, through much prayer, to take this ministry over. The only issue is transportation. For now I am going to be using agathos foundation's car. Please pray that the car will be open to me when I need it. Sasha and I will be traveling once a week to Charmaine's to bring her food, water and to read scripture to her. Thank you so much for your continual pray.

Praise the Lord! I am here and very safe. The trip over was a long 15 hour flight from Washington D.C to Johannesburg. As always I met some very nice people on the flight and made friends that lasted up until we got off the plane. Going through customs was a prayer request of mine before I left. Praise the Lord, that went well. between his broken english and me not knowing what I was supposed to say...he threatened to arrested me. But, all of that was cleared up and I made it through. I met up with a board member of Agathos at the airport and had dinner with him and his family. I spent two days in and had an orientation.

In the picture above is our team. Jason(0n the left) came from may-november. Then he came back mid January and will be here unil November. Scott, Sasha, and kendrick arrived a couple of days after I did and will be here until the end of June. Once a week we go to J.D and Barbra's house for dinner to discuss our week and have a time of prayer. J.D. and barbra are partners with agathos through the ubuntu project, they do a lot for agathos.