"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." 1 Cor 15-58

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Preparing to Disembark and Relocate (Part 2 of 5)

Well now that we’re here, we had to get all our business departments - over 200 boxes for the Academy alone (inventoried by yours truly), the galley and personal belongingsMurray's Pics of The Big Move - Sept. 1, 2010 (3)to the ships pre-staging area on Deck 5,Moving Day to Appelsbosch ready to carry off the ship , down the gangway into 2 moving trucks.

We filled 2 moving trucks with our belongings, 2 chartered buses and 13 land rovers carrying approx. 90 adults (non-technical) and 45 children (children cannot live in drydock which is one of the reasons we had to move to land) for the 3 hour (normally 2) drive to our new home in the rural area of Appelsbosch. Murray's Pic of the The Big Move - Sept. 1, 2010 As a convoy we travelled through wind, rain, mist, dropping temperatures and winding roads (surprise I still managed to get some decent shots to share with you :)).

Past drunken drivers, an accident, tolls, stores and

various Zulu communities.

Farmlands galore (mostly sugar cane fields)

and smiling Zulus waving to us throughout the journey.

Can you imagine how we looked to them? I was blessed and warmed by their welcoming waves and smiles.

When we arrived to our new home (up the hill and around a corner you can’t see from this turn-off taken from the highway)Road leading up to Appelsbosch

Entering Appelsbosch  College Campus (1)we still had to unload. Imagine! It wasn’t so bad though. We formed two lines from the trucks to the gymnasium (which are the front doors below) and started passing every box, piece of equipment, toys, appliances, fans, lawn chairs etc. etc, down the line (even kids) into the gym with open hearts for what lay ahead of us. Entrance to Appelsbosch College CampusFrom there a couple of anonymous angels carried my marked boxes and luggage to my dorm (there are 4 dorms, mine is building B) and Raul (thank you so much!) carried them to my room on the ground floor of which there are 3 floors. The next day various do-gooders carried our 215 boxes to the new Academy for us to distribute amongst ourselves (believe it or not, I’ve had to return to the ship twice for more things we’ve need in the Academy). We were tired, sore and hungry (I was so hungry, I had a chocolate donut from the Tuck (snack) Shop and almost made the mistake of believing it was better than Tim Hortons!) lol

Now it was time to ignore my very dirty room, stains on my Guest Roommattress (piece of foam with a sag in the middle) cover and make my bed (with my, thankfully clean sheets) and get into it (without a shower as there was no water or toilets)….Tomorrow would be another busy day!

So, 27 hours after arriving we were settled (sort of) in our new home, cleared by customs and immigration and ready to start the major cleaning, unpacking and organizing that was very, very necessary!

(Here are some pictures of my room once finished)From my sitting area at the end of my bed looking at left side of my room

IMG_0020 A close-up of the collages you see around my roomIMG_0001

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IMG_0041 Oh, oh, the 500 South African adapters that were ordered for us were the wrong ones…none of us could use anything electrical! However, I must say, it only took 2 days for the powers that be to get us new adapters (seriously, through with every little set-back, which have been many, those involved on any level have gone over and above to try and fix whatever the problem - asap!). Once purchased we could buy them for $10 USD. The rooms only have 1 electrical socket (spaces for 4 people per room, but only one socket!@#*???), as do the offices (someone suggested since the campus was built in ‘94 no one thought about the need for computers etc), so unless you were a family with more than one room assigned to you; one adapter was sufficient, thankfully! (10 dollars is not cheap, but then again, neither is SA as I’ve been learning.) I luckily brought a couple of extension cords I could plug into each other for my kettle, fan, lamp, chargers,iron etc. :)

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God be with you!

Love, hugs and prayers,

Moi xox

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