It's Kez's turn to blog!

Hey lovely blog readers, Kez here :)

Two minutes ago I was sitting comfortably wearing my cosy loungers and slippers, on my own (a rare treat in itself!) in our living room. Picture a perfectly content Kezzie on a beautifully chilled South African Sunday, humming away to some acoustic mellow musical goodness, trying desperately to get from 4 to 5% of Eliot's 'Middlemarch' on my Kobo, contemplating making my third cup of tea of the day. Now imagine the distress and terror that gripped my heart when I heard the fateful 'ding' from my phone, signalling the call to battle that I've been nervously anticipating since Catherine set me up in her last blog. Message received from Pippa and Catherine who are out doing a little food shop:
"We have decided that we would like a draft of your blog post for when we get back this afternoon ;) good luck and may the odds be ever in your favour."
So here I am, scribbling away on my hastily-grabbed paper with the first pen I could find, writing to you good people and wondering whether or not the odds will be in my favour. The pressure is indeed on. 

Firstly I'll update you on the team's whereabouts and goings on over the past couple of weeks ...

- Team Amaoti 1 Primary School (Pippa and Catherine): To continue where Catherine left off in the last blog ... Unfortunately, in classic African fashion, the meeting that the Head Teacher needed to have with the staff in order that the girls could read with the Back-To-School children, hasn't happened yet. But, in classic Pippa and Catherine fashion, they've been stars anyway! For the first few days they gathered drawings and letters from LI's children to be sent to their sponsors, keeping the communication ball rolling. This week, though, an emergency case involving an LI child occurred, meaning that trips to and from Amaoti, social workers and hospitals were vital ... *Enter Pippa and Catherine!* Team Amaoti 1 transformed into Team Taxi for the week which wasn't quite the plan, but hey, TIA! 

- Team creche and LI office (Hannah): Our lovely little Hannah has been splitting her days up by spending the morning in creche and then early afternoon in the office helping Innocent with LI admin (e.g. organising sponsors' files, finding information on the Back-To-School children and sorting paperwork). She's been such a blessing to the creche staff, this week in particular; Gugu took a day off in order to revise then sit an exam, leaving Noombosa alone to look after the 30ish kids ... *Enter Hannah!* This meant that Hannah spent Tuesday looking after the 8 youngest babies for the morning - playing games, singing songs and being a blessing!

- Team Brookdale Secondary School (Abi, Emma and Kez): We've just finished our second week of taking LI's Back-To-School children, who are really struggling with English, out of class to run our own reading 'lessons'. We take 4 groups with about 10 children in each, aged around 13-15 years. The reason they struggle so much is because they've fallen behind with reading in primary school and aren't given the opportunity to catch up. *Enter Abi, Emma and Kez!* We've loved getting to know some of the after care children better and just show them some individual care and attention. Teaching a teenager to read who is barely at primary school level can be really draining and feel like an impossible task, but God is good, the kids are good and I think we're doing well at trying to be good too! 

Although I love the projects we're working on and the people were working with, I'd love to share what's been on my heart, this week especially.

If I can be honest, sometimes the 'routine-ness' of it all wears me out. To think that my day has consisted of Brookdale -> office -> after-care -> home for the last two weeks and will be the same for the next five weeks, makes me tired. I find myself going through the same selfish thought process, seesaw-ing between "oh, it's fine, it's only five more weeks - I can get through it" followed by "what difference can I possibly make in such a short amount of time when there is so much to do?!".

Although the fact still remains that my daily routine will be more or less exactly the same for the next five weeks, whether I choose to see that as a long time or not enough time, I've realised that actually there's richness in the routine. I can choose to see it as 'mundane' and 'everyday' or I can choose to see that it's what I'm called here for. Not because I'm supposed to have a boring time or to dread the thought of having the same old week - not in the slightest. But because we are called to action, and in our action, to be effective and to show Jesus's love. The routine reminds me that being effective doesn't necessarily come in the form of living the classic #gapyah life; a group of young white girls all-singing/all-dancing surrounded by beautiful, wide-eyed, gap-toothed African children clinging onto us for dear life. No, in reality, being effective in this time looks like driving around and then waiting for hours in a hospital car park. It looks like wading through documents from 2006 in order to make the cupboards tidier. It looks like sitting with one child for however long it takes for them to be able to read one sentence. 

I think I've had a bit more of a heart realisation that this adventure has been and will continue to be about relationships and community. In reality I don't think that can happen without simply humbling ourselves, plodding on and pressing in, even if it feels like we did that yesterday. And the day before. And on Monday. And all of last week. 

There's richness in the routine.