Some update from Karen

以下是 Philip 的女朋友 Karen 從南非捎來她近況的訊息.

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----- Original Message -----
From: Karen Saul
To: Pauline Bragg ; Kim Daley ; Kim Daley ; Tiffany Holmes ; Phil Huang ; Liza Huang ; Jen ; Jacqueline.Sarny@nt.gov.au ; Tim Rose- MSN ; Nat ; Nelson ; Nige ; Tim Packer ; Ryan Penn ; Susan Saul ; Helena Saul ; Keith Saul ; Kate Vandyke ; Lauren Wilmot ; Georgia Box
Cc: duanefernandez@hotmail.com
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2006 5:57 PM
Subject: pics and mini update


Hi Guys,

Doug and I have now been at Greys Hospital for one week.Its a big Tertiary referral hospital sort of like the ones we are all used to.The cases are pretty interesting and its good to see bhow the hospital is run,they dont use computers!

I have done one week in Internal medicine so far and am doing the last two inObstetrics. Doug is doing surgery.We visited another orphanage Gods Golden Acre on the weekend and also went tothe beach at Durban again to a place called Umhulunga Rocks.Not much news apart from that except we will probably go to A Game Park nextweekend called UmFolozi and i am particulalry excited about that!

Just thought i woudl let you all know that there are some pics from earlier inthe trip on the web now.www.pbase.com/dshaw then click on the links Karen and Dougs Africa andorphanage photos.Hope youa re all well.

Will write a better email soon!

lots of love

Kaz
xx


----- Original Message -----
From: Karen Saul
To: Nat ; Nelson ; Nige ; Tim Packer ; Ryan Penn ; Susan Saul ; Helena Saul ; Keith Saul ; Kate Vandyke ; Lauren Wilmot ; James Clampett ; duanefernandez@hotmail.com ; cassieimms@hotmail.com ; wes_skellern@hotmail.com ; megan ; Scott Flannagan ; Georgia Box ; Melissa Richardson ; Noel david Friesen
Cc: Biarta ; Pauline Bragg ; Mick Colgan ; Kim Daley ; dougshaw24@gmail.com ; Emil ; Tim Rose- GMP ; Tiffany Holmes ; Phil Huang ; Liza Huang ; Jen ; Jacqueline.Sarny@nt.gov.au
Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2005 2:28 AM
Subject: Hi From South Africa


hi guys,

attached is a very late update and a few pics from so far.

Lots of love

Kaz
xx


Dear All,

Sorry this email has taken so long to be written, have been busy the last few weeks and also battling with dial up Internet. Not that I should complain, at least I have electricity unlike Phil!

Doug and I arrived safely in Pietermaritzburg a few weeks ago and are now in the middle of our third week here at Tabitha Ministries. For those of you who don’t know, Tabitha is an orphanage upstairs as well as a hospice downstairs which cares for people with HIV. Most of the babies here are orphaned because their parents have died or are too sick to care for them. Some are also HIV positive themselves.

The last few weeks have been mainly spent with the children at the orphanage here as unfortunately the hospice downstairs is closed at the moment because Gail, the nurse in charge, has been in Hospital having an operation.

We were a bit disappointed about that but were looking forward to still visiting sick people in the community with the carers that go out from here. On the first attempt, I got sick with bad (really bad) gastro so it was cancelled (Thanks Doug for looking after me all night!). The second attempt was cancelled due to rain. Third time lucky, we made it out to Sweetwaters only to find that the medications had not been restocked so we couldn’t really do much anyway!
The carers also pray with and for the patients which is a new experience for both of us but interesting to say the least.

After purchasing a new medicine box (tool box) and restocking it ourselves (medicines are mainly multivitamins, fungicide cream, sulphur for bed sores and Honey!?), we were eagerly awaiting our next visit but today it was also cancelled due to there being no food packs!
So, fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Apart from that, we spent the better part of the days leading up to Christmas playing with the kids and making food and toy parcels to take to Sweetwaters on Christmas Eve. In total there were 200 food parcels and 541 children to find presents for! Some of the toys donated were barely recognisable and a quick shopping spree enabled us to buy a few more. Mum, thank you so much for the books and pens, they were much appreciated and we would never have had enough presents without them!

Needless to say, it was a loooong day!…..and night!

Of course dropping off the parcels did not go as smoothly as planned either. A big truck arrived which we loaded well and then drove to sweetwaters with Doug and Zanele sitting in the back (door open!). I spent the whole trip checking he hadn’t fallen out the back! After only a few parcels the truck broke and the next hour or so was spent waiting on the side of the road for another, far smaller one, to arrive. The rest of the day was otherwise uneventful although was sad when kids asked for presents and we had none left!

After a well-deserved Christmas Eve drink, Christmas day arrived quickly and was lovely. One of Gails family members arranged for a jumping castle and we had a buffet lunch and pressie’s for the kids.

The kids here are so gorgeous and each has their own distinct personality, I just don’t know how I will leave them! Its sometimes hard to believe what they must have gone through and what lies ahead but I think its important to do what we can while we are here.

Sweetwaters is an eye opener. People live in huts actually made from mud and with the rain I am surprised they don’t wash away!

The people here are amazing, really hard workers and so happy after all they have been through .It really is inspiring!

We have planned a trip to the Drakensberg Mountains for New Years Eve this weekend with Matt and Michelle (the Australian couple here) so we are looking forward to that!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and that you have a wonderful New Years!
Hopefully wont leave it so long before another one of these (hopefully shorter next time, sorry!)

Lots of Love,
Kaz
Xxxxx