Swaziland!

Greetings from the wonderful town of Bulembu!

I left Johannesburg airport Wednesday morning for 4 hours of beautiful landscape. AND I GOT THE FRONT SEAT!! (Why on earth did no one want to sit there? AC on full blast, loads of leg room and the comfiest seat - BONUS!)

I arrived in Nelspruit, where I got a lucky look at one of the new football stadiums for the Fifa world cup this coming summer. It looks insane! All orange.

Anyway, I got picked up by Jude and Sian Skinner...and the latest addition to their family - Phila! We drove the mountain route back to Bulembu (which wouldn't have been anywhere near as quick 3 years ago as the roads weren't tarmacked). Again, so beautiful.

It was so exciting coming back to Bulembu. I saw Jon Skinner and then went straight over to ABC to say hello to the children. They are so big now. The eldest boys are nearly 18 years old. But it was the younger ones who had really grown. Sepho (who was my favourite - he was just a baby and he had arrived when I was last here) is now a young child walking around and living with some other children.

As school is out right now for summer, I helped this morning (Thursday) with a summer camp. We are having a carnival tomorrow so I was with the older children, planning games and painting objects. So many children everywhere! There are a lot of different families working here now too, as well as a YWAM team.

My afternoon today has been relaxing, hanging out with the older kids at ABC next door and just seeing the amazing developments in this town. They have a bakery, dairy and a new school, as well as the Lodge and Accomodation for visitors. I will try and get some photos tomorrow.

The rest of my time here is just seeing the work that is going on, and informally hanging out with the kids. The Skinners have just found out that after 3 and a half years of being here, they have to leave Bulembu by next month, which comes as a bit of a shock really. So they are doing a lot of thinking and praying and seeing where to go next. It seems a strange time to be here really, with so much change. But it is exciting to see where it is all heading.

So the next few days look like just hanging out with the kids. Saturday we'll go hiking up the mountain, or so I've just been told! And then next Thursday (14th) I travel back to Jo'burg to go to the Children's Centre for a week!

Thank you for reading and keeping an eye on me!
Clare