Appelsbosch

We made it! And the blog site hasn't let me post since we got here so I have lots of things to post for once! We have had some internet for a few days now but it is still not working very well. We are living in a very remote area of South Africa called Appelsbosch, somewhere people have never heard of once you travel an hour away as it is so small! It is tucked away up in the hills about an hour away from the nearest town, although there is a supermarket about 30 mins away we have heard. The space outside is lovely, sometimes the Spring weather is quite warm and we can spend hours outside playing, sometimes it is still a little chilly for living with no heating and we watch movies under our duvets. We are living in communal buildings - it has the feel of being somewhere between University halls of residence and camping. Living in halls was similar with the communal bathrooms and showers, but it was a lot warmer and we had use of a kitchen there so at least had a kettle and fridge nearby. Still it makes us count our blessings living on the Ship! There are washing machines, but currently we have to fill them with buckets of water so a couple of loads took me three hours today, watching the machines for when they needed the next re-fill (and that was with a friends help as I had to do a school run partway through!)! The outside space and gym are a great blessing and make up for the other inconveniences to a large part. The boys spend hours scootering and running about with their friends, while the grown ups slowly add more and more layers of clothing while we watch them. The Academy is functioning in it's new location, there have been a few challenges but generally the move has gone well.

moving day

We're off to Appelsbosch College of Education, our new home for about four months while the Ship has the work carried out. We hope to have internet again in about ten days so until then, have a good week, keep us in your prayers as we move house and we'll keep you posted on how it went when we can!

Docked in Durban!!

We have really made it after the mammoth sail down from West Africa. Here we are docked in the Port of Durban in South Africa. Praise God for a safe sail and a smooth docking. Now - preparations for the big move. This afternoon the Academy are moving their 200+ boxes nearer to the gangway! And the galley and other large departments are starting to do the same so it is busy around here! We are keeping the boys out of the way of the chain of people outside the door, finishing packing last bits and waiting for the announcement that we are cleared and allowed out on the dock.

Some pics of us arriving here:
http://jacobsenjourneys.blogspot.com/2010/09/were-here.html

Boxes

Once again it seems that the person in our family who is actually good at packing has not had any time to pack so it has been left to me to shove things in bags at random ;-) In some ways it is easier than packing to fly - it doesn't matter what goes where or how much bags weigh as long as they can be moved. On the other hand it is a little tricky trying to pack as little as possible while trying to take the things you will need in the next four months. We can leave things on board but one of our cabin windows is being replaced so the things we are leaving are all having to be moved around too.

Tommy has been a little busy co-ordinating the Academy packing, well over 200 boxes or other items ready to be moved to set up school off ship. Makes my few bags seem like nothing!!

Quest TV - Mighty Ships

The showing looks like it will now be on the 14th Sept rather than the 7th at 9pm. Quest TV, freeview channel 38, Sky channel 154. It will be worth watching :-)