hey guys! not a huge amount of the really interesting stuff to report but a few update pointers! well friday was for us just another day at the placements... although we were obv very annoyed at the fact that we were being made to go there and it seemed to us that the transport obviously were not expecting us and neither were the placements therefore hinting that the places hadnt actually heard from dineo at all it turns out if we look on the positive side that we had very good days at our placements... gem and i felt like we were actually being of more use and the kids were in a good mood and altho we came home REEKING of baby sick/s*** etc it had been a fairly good day. night - obv boring, none of us were really in the mood for a "partay". saturday... gem and caroline (the 2 other girls who were left here) went on a wine tasting tour, i stayed at home as frankly seeing as i dont like wine or fancy cheese it wouldnt really have been my thing so i just had a relaxing day in quite nice whether catching up with all you guys and ur news etc etc so that wasnt too bad. carry and i decided that night that we weren't going to sit around and do b***** all so my flatmate sonja (whose very nice btw) and her mates were going out and said did we want to come along - we did the whole oh but we dont want to impose routine whilst secrectly going heeeeeellllllll yeh! well, we did and what a night lol. we went i believe round every single club/bar that there is around stellenbosch so we're kinda now the experts in that ;o) the parents will be thrilled to know that we werent back till 7!!!!! maaan i was tired on sunday - can u believe the cheek of my body, wakes me up at 9.30!!! i was like ARGH! anyway the weather on sunday was appaling... it was blowing bloody gale force out there; we actually literally thought that the windows were gonna cave in, so sunday turned into a not much happening day but we found out about this concert which we booked tickets for... monday: we were up at 10 ready to catch a lift at 11.30 with gem's room-mates mates if there was room (hence the early arrival!). all 13 of us managed to squeeze into 3 very small cars lol for the 1.30 hour journey into capetown for the start of the concert at 1! lets do another cut a long story short moment cos this is already i feel getting very long and i'm not finished yet - oops! the concert went on from 1 that afternoon till about 1 the next morning and i dont think i have danced that long continuously in my whole life! my legs are sure feeling it today. having danced from 9-5, as dolly parton would sing, on the sat and for 11 hours straight on monday... phew! ow! the concert included some random s.african hip-hop acts who we hadnt heard of but at that point our attitude was "what the hell lets dance anyway!" the main attraction werent on till about 5/6 oclock. there was mario, pharrel, sean paul and snooop dogg (who as a matter of fact turned out to be crap in our view) altho he did have us watch some of the african dancing that is shown in this pic i keep using - pretty impressive... small boys doing these massive back flips and all sorts - not bad lol! (parents... dont worry bout all the names lol ;o) just think, thats cool and smile and nod!). on the way back, again squashed in the car i think i posed a bit of a threat to gem who i was sitting next to... my head kept drooping as i lolled in and out of sleep lol; apparently i kept head-butting her. can well believe it! i swear me and caroline have narcolepsy - we sleep anywhere!!! so thats that night covered lol today: oh i tell ya - having got to sleep at about 2.30 it was a struggle waking up to my way too loud alarm at 7!!! but hey it was done and we were on our way to the placements. was back at cotlands for me and gem. we started by cleaning all the walls in the loooooong passage - boring! but in the afternoon after a small shop in the mall we got to play with the kids... i swear I'M IN LOVE!!!! there are a couple of kids who are just the funniest/cutest/amazingest (oh my eng again) things but i'll spread out those stories for ya. today i tell you of nadine as she was the one i hung around with for the longest today. nadine is i think about 10 months old but very small (unlike carlito who i think is 9 months old and one of the fattest babies u have ever seen in your life - weighs a tonne and wont stop crying until you pick him up, and he makes sure u have to walk around with him as well - better than any bicep curls you can do at the gym)... she is starting to stand up very unsteadily now though whilst either grabbing my jumper or my trousers (have had a few close calls with that one and a few clothes now that really need shrinking lol) or my apron thus throtling me lol. i'm not sure what it is but he has awful red-raw skin which looks soooo uncomfy and painful yet she is mostly one of the happiest contentest babies ever, she will quite happily just lie in her cot nattering to herself in baby talk or sit on the mat looking around or playing with the toys or anything. i was spending a bit of time with her today as often it is the babies or the funny older ones who demand the attention and get it. we were playing all sorts of silly games including that popping thing you do with your mouth and blowing raspberries and tapping each other on the nose and wobbling your tongue around your mouth whilst making silly noises etc... u know - the real mentally advancing stimulating games the psychologists recommend :o) anyway whenever i did one of these silly things nadine would try and coopy me and come out with the sweetest noises and then give one of her beautiful smiles that just lights up her face and then i'd applaude her and again she would copy (not the general way but whose to determine) and she would let out this little giggle. its just so amazing to see how happy she is despite the pain she must be in. anyway - i did manage to sneak a few (illegal i must admit) photo's of the kids but stupidly this eve i realised i've left the connection lead for my cam at home so i'm gonna have to put them all on CD and then transfer them but i've found a kodak shop so i will go in my free morning tomorra and do that and you should have some piccy's (some very bad of myself - you'll have to excuse that) to look at. lots of love to you all until next time miss you emily xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx