All Creatures Great and Greedy…

At last! Not wanting to research an essay for my teacher training has finally allowed me the time to write a post! Three seasons have passed since last contact; Summer, Spring, and Summer; as we were lucky enough to be in the UK for July and August, followed by a beautiful Spring and wonderfully hot Summer here in South Africa these past few months. So, what have the Willmores’ been up to during all this time?

Firstly, our visit to the UK was amazing. To see family and friends after four years away was such a treat. And a week away in France showing off our French skills was the icing on the cake. On return home to South Africa a new school year loomed for the children with Amelie moving up to College, as did a visit to Home Affairs to pick up the children’s newly acquired citizenship. Or so we thought…

On the beach in France with my family.

After joining this queue and then that queue and then the other queue, we finally got to a desk to pick up the children’s South African Birth Certificates. On finding out that Laurence had acquired British citizenship without permission from the South African government, instead of the children being given theirs, Home Affairs had decided to take Laurence’s away. We were shocked, and Laurence was suddenly a foreigner in his own country. Dealing with government that doesn’t function is a painful anxiety inducing process so, like ostriches, we decided to bury our heads in the sand and leave that problem for another day. South Africans are adept at circumventing the government as part of their way of life. People here are installing solar panels and bore holes at a rate of knots whilst the electricity and water infrastructure implode all around. A desire to stay in this beautiful country, or no choice to leave it, is an ever-present topic of debate.

Just before Laurence lost his citizenship, we crumbled under the children’s pressure to get a dog. And why get only one when you can get two! This led to the arrival of Poppy and Libby, two little Yorkie cross Maltese poodles. With one being loyal, disciplined, and intelligent, and the other being completely wild and unruly, they reflect their owners’ personalities rather well. And with (almost) no favourite between them, I will leave you to decide who mirrors who. They have been a wonderful addition to our family and have helped Elowen and Joel with their fear of dogs. This being a good thing out here in South Africa where a lot of people seem to keep them for added security. It is something I have unfortunately been on the sharp end of, having rescued both a neighbour’s dog and our puppy Libby from the jaws of a bull terrier who had escaped from its property. A trip to hospital for me and our neighbour, and many trips to the vet for our neighbour’s little dog and our little Libby too, was the unfortunate result. It was savage and frightening, and a reminder that people taking things into their own hands is not always a good thing. We are all recovering ok thank goodness.

Amelie holding Poppy, Joel, and Elowen holding Libby.

Staying with the theme of animals, we spent a long weekend away on a game farm in rural Limpopo province. Idyllic thatched cottages nestled in the foothills of Africa; one would be fooled into thinking it was a million miles from anything. The monkeys, however, must have been laughing at such an assumption. Within 24 hours of arriving, they had raided our idyllic thatched cottages, leaving a trail of banana skins in their wake! Lesson 1 was to lock the windows. Lesson 2 was to carry a mop whilst eating, as we found out during breakfast on the patio one morning. A monkey observing our banquet from a nearby tree was clearly tempted by our granola. He promptly jumped down and started to chase me round the breakfast table grabbing a handful from my bowl as he ran. A conveniently placed mop allowed me to regain some control, as I clutched it like a sword and shooed him away. He retreated after a long standoff, which allowed us to continue breakfast, mop in hand. A deer stood watching the whole affair; she was obviously used to all forms of monkey business. As the most senior monkeys, we duly apologised, and she carried on with her day. 

Didn't even throw them in the bin!

Me and the mop vs the monkey,
with the deer watching on...

The three munchkins by the pool.

Family time.

Someone spent too long
 on the beach in their speedos!

 Following our weekend away, Joel and I had to dust off our coats as we were off to the UK. Joel’s visa for South Africa had run out and we no longer had a way of renewing it. Bar for the ice-cold weather, it was awesome timing, as I got to celebrate my nephew Simeon’s 7^th, my brother Daniel’s 30^th and my 40^th birthday in the UK with family. Joel learnt how to toast a crumpet on an open fire with a toasting fork; it doesn’t get more British than that! And Simeon learnt how to blow a loud and annoying sound on a South African trumpet called a vuvuzela; it doesn’t get more South African than that! Thankfully we left the vuvuzela in the UK with Simeon to terrorise my sister, Hannah, and brother-in-law Rich, much to their dismay!

40 and 30! South Africans would call my brother
 a Laat Lammetjie, which means late lamb.

The winter version of my family.

The British support for Ukraine is amazing.
And I'm proud of my mum for hosting a Ukrainian family.

Joel toasting crumpets.

Simeon with his Vuvuzela. The South African
supporter's instrument of choice at a football match.

It was back to the sun in SA for the rest of Summer, to continue my 40^th celebrations with Laurence’s family, and to return to my studies as I train to become a qualified teacher. Along with my military experience, I’ll have children leopard crawling and marching to the tune of spellings and maths sums in no time!

It’s been 8 months of ups and downs. A theme of greedy animals seems to be a fitting description running through it all. We hope that politics recovers, South Africa recovers, Libby and I recover, and that Laurence’s citizenship is also recovered. There is a South African spirit that makes all this possible…

From the wilds of Africa to the wintery cold of the UK. Autumn and Spring are on their way. And with a new season comes a new chapter. On to the next adventure!

Lots of love to you all,

Jess x

A few extra photos...

The day after the Queen died.

Saying Good bye to emigrating friends.

And I love my students too!

The Boyz.

Christmas celebrations at Riversands Primary School.

Grade 2 Christmas fun.

How many children can fit in my car?

It turns out that 24 can...
as I took them to the preschool graduation.

The graduating children at Buttercup in December.

Elowen on the rugby field playing against
 the local Alexandra township rugby club.

Joel and his taekwondo.

A still from a video of Amelie playing rugby with some
of the French rugby team after a match against South Africa.

The end of another wonderful season
 with my hockey family.

Let Loose!

Homepage: Willmore Adventures in South Africa

Being let loose with a paintbrush at a preschool has been one of the most fun things I’ve done here in South Africa. And being let loose with a group of volunteers and some struggling Grade 2s at a primary school has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve done here. Being trusted with both these projects as a foreigner has been a massive privilege too. Buttercup Preschool, which I fondly got involved with in 2019 has had a 2022 makeover, and the Riversands Primary School which I helped at until COVID struck in 2020, is back up and running! 2022 is going full steam ahead!

Since the original build at Buttercup Preschool in 2019 where an outside area was enclosed for the children to play in, it was time for an injection of love to improve the inside and outside spaces for the babies, toddlers and preschoolers. The update was not just a fun idea though, it had become a necessity for Tari the preschool owner too. Little did we know that back in 2019 we had enclosed and secured the preschool with such success that no one walking past knew that it even existed, and numbers were down to just 6 (COVID also played a part in this too). Tari charges the equivalent of £22.50 a month per child, which covers full time childcare and 3 meals a day. With rent for her family and the preschool to pay, plus all the food to buy, she was not covering expenses and more children were desperately needed to keep the preschool afloat and keep Tari with a roof over her head. Whether foolish or not, Tari asked me for some help to turn things around. Instantly my Pandora's project box flew open, and my unqualified and inexperienced cogs started turning. What could we do to advertise the preschool? The answer we arrived at was flyers, posters and a painted wall along the front of the preschool. So, off to work I went to help achieve this.

As an aside, this past year has been a wonderful friend making year for me. I have met some fabulous British people where the excuse of being British to justify a conversation has led to some amazing friendships emerging. The reason wouldn’t hold much weight in the UK but in a foreign land, it is strangely unifying, and my British network has grown.

So, to my British friends I went for some advice about Buttercup Preschool. Two friends, Katy and Alicia, had preschool experience and were able to help with the flyers and posters, and one friend, Emily, who is a vet was willing to get her hands dirty and help with the painting. It was great to have a little team around me and to be able to share the experience with others. After about a month of work, the outside wall looked better than we could have imagined, and the inside space looked fresh and inviting. The garden gained a gazebo for shade and some garden toys given by my mum, and we fixed Tari and Martin’s car to provide a transport service as well. With posters up and flyers distributed we waited for some enquiries…And then it began! The phone starting ringing and people started to visit. New faces started to arrive at the school and as of June 2022, there are 17 happy children running around, with new ones arriving every month. Tari and Martin have a thriving preschool once again and I get to enjoy the energy and high spirits of the children every Thursday that I visit.

Emily and some local children
hard at work on the base layer.

Me and Emily painting the finer details.

The little ones helped with their hand prints too.

The finished front wall!

With Tari painting the inside.

Dropping off the finished
flyers and posters.

Alicia testing out the new blackboard with the
little ones after teaching them some songs.

Me, Tari and Alicia.

Practicing letters in the sand. 

Spotting the 'a' in the sentence.

Making a 'ssssss'

The children testing out their new garden toys.

Back in February when the Buttercup update was taking place, the South African government relaxed the COVID rules in schools allowing children to return to fulltime education and not be restricted to small classes on a rotating timetable. With the children back to 5 days a week, the Riversands Primary School was now able to let the children who struggle with reading and writing in English be taken out of class for some extra help. So, our team of volunteers who had done this prior to COVID, needed no encouraging when the law was changed. We were back to school in a flash, preparing the classroom and all the equipment, ready for the chaos that excited 7- and 8-year-olds bring. This return to school had also afforded me the opportunity to take on a leadership role alongside a good friend Kate. Liaising with teachers, structuring the mornings, organising volunteers and children… It’s perhaps a bit late in the game to be stepping into a role like this now but I’m so enjoying a newfound confidence in myself and the satisfaction that comes with doing a job well. The little ones are such a pleasure too. Some cheeky, some quiet, some frenetic, some competitive, they are a real bag of all sorts where there is never a dull moment. But despite all their differences, they are however united by their extreme poverty, their complete lack of necessities like clothes and shoes that fit, and a learning difficulty to top it all off. So, as teachers, faced with these obstacles, we find ways to make the children feel able to achieve, and we use different methods of teaching, often involving a healthy dose of fun and games to realise this. Our hope is that by the end of the South African school year in December, most children will be reading and writing, and that the intervention that we have provided will put them on a better trajectory in life, however small that change might be. And such is the bond that we form with our pupils, that children in the older grades who we used to teach in years gone by come up to visit us all the time. It’s a wonderful community which I love being a part of.

Kate and I who run the reading program together.

Learning his first phonics sounds.

Some of this year's cuties in the reading program.

This year's Grade 5's coming up to visit.

So, June draws to a close, and with it the end of the school year for Amelie, Elowen and Joel. They have had such a happy year filled with friendships, French, rugby, chess, cycling, rollerblading, hip hop dancing, graffiti, and so much more. We look forward to a lovely long break now before we start again in September. And for that break we have chosen a top destination to visit….

Look out England, the Willmore’s are heading home!

We look forward to seeing friends and family soon.

Lots of love

Jess xxx  

Previous Post: Fresh Water, Salt Water, No Water, Floods!

A few extra photos...

Amelie our chess champ.

Elowen with a class graffiti project.

The graffiti panels were installed at the township
creche supported by the French school.

Elowen playing games with the Creche children.

Elowen and class mates reading to the little children.

Joel in a school play...speaking in FRENCH!

Happy Fathers Day to Laurence.

Fresh Water, Salt Water, No Water, Floods!

Homepage: Willmore Adventures in South Africa

Snorkeling in the beautiful freshwater lakes of Kosi Bay, exploring South Africa’s eastern coastline with the thundering Indian Ocean, experiencing the decay of infrastructure which often leaves many without water, and South Africa suffering the worst floods in decades. All this during a visit from my mum who we had not seen for 2 ½ years. The extremes of beauty and destruction, the celebration and the frustration of living on this southern tip of Africa. Welcome to another instalment of our Willmore Adventures!

Seeing my mum for the first time in 2 1/2 years!

If given the choice between electricity and water, every South African will tell you that, whilst both are vital for 21^st century living, water is by far the most frustrating to live without. You can’t wash, drink, flush a toilet, clean…the list goes on… So, when a pipe bursts and the municipality water is turned off, irritation levels are high. Combine it with a bout of no electricity – no traffic lights, no fridge or freezer, no lights, no computer, no Netflix – and South Africans are on the war path! Decaying infrastructure is a daily burden. So, when my mum came to visit us for the first time in 2 ½ years, the simple task of washing bed sheets became a 2-day affair. After hearing the washing machine beep angrily to let me know that the water had been turned off, I rolled my eyes and turned to the taps in the utility room to wash the laundry liquid off my hands. After turning the tap on and being reminded for the second time in a minute that the water had indeed been turned off, I marched into the kitchen feeling a little flustered. To calm my British nerves, I decided that I needed a cup of tea. To the sink in the kitchen I went, shaking my head. I thrust the kettle under the tap and turned it on… and I think we all know what happened next… NOTHING! Nothing is what happened next. Other than the fact that I cursed myself loudly for being so stupid. 3 times in one minute I was reminded that we had no water. It had finally sunk in, I made myself a cup of tea from the emergency bottled water in the cupboard and sat down to gather my thoughts. It’s amazing how we work on autopilot for so many daily tasks. Watching Laurence walk into the kitchen, grab a glass from the cupboard and try and fill it up at the sink was the only redeeming moment in the whole situation. It’s always funny when it happens to someone else.

Elowen and the emergency cupboard water in action!

Two days later, the pipes were finally fixed, and I was at last able to wash the bed sheets. A bird left a present on them in the garden whilst they were drying so it wasn’t plain sailing after that but at least we had water!

The days that followed our water deprivation were a disaster on a much grander scale…

Just as my mum arrived, South Africa had its worst weather in decades. It rained so much that the east of the country around Durban experienced severe flooding and landslides. Homes, health care centres and schools were washed away, and shipping containers were seen floating down the motorway. 443 people died and 40,000 were displaced. The Government announced a national state of disaster and blamed global warming for the flooding, the locals blamed poor infrastructure citing blocked drains as one of the problems. Either way, it had caused absolute devastation. So, it was no water followed by floods in South Africa this April.

The devastation in Durban
 caused by the Autumn floods.

Despite the bad weather, we headed east with my mum, to a pre-booked holiday at Kosi Bay, on the coast just south of the Mozambique border.

Jo'burg to Kosi Bay, on the coast
just south of the Mozambique border.

It is another of South Africa’s gems, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where there is a network of freshwater lakes called the iSimangaliso Wetlands that lead into the Indian Ocean. It is home to some crocodiles and hippos along with some pretty fish and some pretty tasty fish.

Kosi Bay's tidal
fresh water lake system.

Being tidal, it has led to a unique way of fishing for the locals and the lakes are littered with wooden fish traps. Most of the lakes are shallow meaning that if you don’t have a boat, you can just walk across, and if the school boat is out of action, the local children will wade across to get to school. They would just have to check where the hippos were hanging out that day to avoid an unwanted confrontation. Hippos can hold their breath for 6 minutes and run along the bed of a lake at 20 kilometres an hour, so it would be foolish to think that a human could in any way outwit one. Thankfully the locals are adept at avoiding the hippo population and there has only been 1 human death in the last 20 years. Humanity and nature living in harmony. None of these facts made me feel safe and relaxed, however, when we were given the opportunity to snorkel in the lakes during a boat ride with one of the locals. One eye on the beautiful fish and one eye on the darker water where I was convinced a hippo or a croc would make a beeline for the silly foreigner. Thankfully the hippos and crocs were otherwise engaged that day and we were left to explore the beautiful waters of Kosi Bay without interruption.

The shallow lakes' fish traps

Amelie, Joel and my mum sitting at the front of the boat.

Amelie and Laurence snorkeling/just landed on Earth... 

Like the local Kosi Bay people, we also had to wade across the estuary of the lakes to get to the beach. Tip toeing between the eels and the lionfish, we made it across, and spent a second beautiful day by the Indian Ocean.

Mum and me overlooking the lakes
on our way down to the beach.

The estuary that we had to cross to get to
the beach with the Indian Ocean beyond.

Sending Laurence across first!

The weather turned once again though and we were back to thunderstorms and torrential rain. So much so that we decided to go home early. Elowen and my mum had fallen ill with what we later found out was covid, and a tent wasn’t the best place to be. Our trip back wasn’t a smooth ride either as we lost a wheel to a pothole highlighting once again the decaying infrastructure and the added challenges that come from living in South Africa. We arrived home safely though, after a pretty gruelling 12 hours on the road, and celebrated that my mum had survived her 2 weeks with us in South Africa.

The wheel we lost to a pothole!

Saying goodbye to my mum at OR Tambo airport.

It was a crazy few weeks, but despite our own dramas without water, with Covid, camping in a storm and losing a wheel to a pothole, we were fortunate not to be involved in the devastating floods that hit South Africa this Autumn. And we were really lucky to experience the beauty and uniqueness of Kosi Bay. Fresh water, salt water, no water, floods! Dramatic and memorable as always.

Happy Platinum Jubilee Celebrations to all the Brits this weekend, especially to the Queen!

Lots of love,

Jess x

Next Post: Let Loose!

Previous Post: Easter with Shepherd and the Eggs of Limpopo

A few extra pics...

Happy Birthday Laurence,
in a tent in a storm...

Amelie playing mixed rugby, bear foot
(the African way)

Elowen turned 10!