June 11th, 2007 (Written by Jason and Janeen)

Today brings some sad news. On Saturday we were helping our friends with their 3 v. 3 soccer tourney which went really well. After the event we went to a local hotel for pizza and drinks to unwind and relax. Janeen and I were sitting waiting for our food when Janeen received a phone call. On the other end was a friend of ours who called to tell us that our Me’ (Mother) from our village stay had passed away. She was the one that I had written about many times how I was worried that she was not receiving the medical attention that she needed. It is a very sad loss for the both of us but we are going on as we knew that this would be a reality in our lives when we moved here. This is definitely the closest person to us that has passed away and has brought the reality of HIV/AIDS home for both of us.

On other news, I finally got our tickets for Mauritius after spending an entire day waiting and then having to return today to retrieve them. I left this morning with some friends who stayed the night, to go to the border and cross into South Africa to meet a courier. It was not until I got to the border that I realized that my passport was sitting in the closet back home. So I then had to go back home, collect my passport and go back over the border. I went to a little place that knows us well and they had the package that the courier left ready and waiting for me. It was great.

The weather has continued to be cold and rainy (off and on). We do love the sun so much now though as it is the warmest heater around and it is free. We are looking forward to some time off in a few weeks. Jason is going to go up to Thaba-Tseka to visit with a volunteer in the mountains. He will be packing all his warm clothes for that one and it will still probably be just enough. Janeen however will be holding down the fort here as she has school until the 29th of June.

After that we are going to be hosting some volunteers for a curriculum writing workshop in which we will try and add some detailed lessons for English teachers about HIV/AIDS. The goal is to make them something that can integrate in with a day’s lesson planning instead of having to think about how the volunteer can add HIV/AIDS into a lesson. This will hopefully reduce the workload of the teacher and get them to be more proactive about having HIV/AIDS stuff in their classroom.

Then we are off to Mauritius for a well deserved break from the cold. We will be staying there for a week before we return back home for a few weeks before the beginning of the 3rd quarter.

Adoption update: We are in the initial stages of communication with the Ministry of Social Welfare. They have told us that we have to work with an Adoption agency from home and so far they are only working with 2 agencies in the US; neither of which is in California. So we are excited but we still have a long way to go before the end of this process.
We would love to hear from any of you and hope that you are doing well. All the Best
Jason and Janeen