Sneaking in Africa

Well we tried it and it works!
Stealth Camping in South Africa

Afrikaya is the name of our tiny home on wheels here in Sunny South Africa and we absolutely love her! She has all we need and more. She performs like a Prima ballerina on stage. Addiction is not supposed to be a good thing, but in this case we will agree to disagree.

We live in a beautiful country, and have the honour to see more of it,

get to know it, fall in love again..

Being addicted to: Freedom to go where we please, with or without plans and when we do have plans, willing to change them at any time. What a great way to live, what a privilege! The joys of the open road, no pressure to be anywhere specific at a prescribed time, who can ask for anything more?A day in the sunshine with a great friend, good book a camera on hand to capture those times...

Having time on our hands, doesn't mean we do nothing though. We are always aware of the fact that God has given us time. Being senior citizens does not mean life is over by any means, rather, time for us to change the world, one trip at a time. We love what we are doing, even though it looks as if we are professional holiday makers.





 Meeting people, making friends, sharing ideas, giving counsel and camping! Eating meals in quirky places, eating quirky meals in mundane places.... sigh, someones gotta do it!

Maybe there needs to be some selfie taking practice in all this time... ya think?

Flourish 2018

From Now On..... Flourish!

Its rather something to think about, when one attends a "Ladies Gathering" and no matter your age, your status or stage in life, one can honestly feel great and excited with the words "From now on". It's liberating to to understand the fullness of these words, liberating to know that until God shows you otherwise, you can, may, are even encouraged to turn the page, and start fresh.

Another thing, folding an origami heart, writing your dreams and sorrows, ambitions and regrets....hitching said red paper heart to the 'FUTURE' is powerful! It's that new page, new chapter and new belief in yourself and in the mighty God you serve.
Trusting that He will guide your steps, talk softly to your heart and drench you in His Grace, wow.

From now on...I will

From now on ...I am able

From now on...I can

From now on...I will allow Him

From now on...He is my (fill in the blank)

From now on... I am His (fill in the blank)

From now on...we are equipped to

  ad infinitum! 

What about you? What does you new chapter hold? Where will your feet take you?
Who will you influence?

From now on - FLOURISH!

Well I admit... this has certainly been a LLLOOOOONNNGG time coming... years in fact. So it has nothing at all to do with a New Year and all that, rather this would probably serve well as a reminder... remembering what we have done, who we have met and where we have been for how long etc. is getting harder and harder. Whether its because we are getting that much older, less memory power, doing so much stuff or simply not doing enough.... Not going to try and figure it out this round. Suffice to say...
We ARE back!
We have done STUFF
Met new friends
Gone places
And...
yep, getting older and loving every moment of it!

I do think I will keep this going, or would the correct term be resurrect this spot? It will have a tone of freedom and certainly a taste of grace. I might even share photographs! Go figger. I am ready for life, Bring It On!

Slow posts...

So things have seemed to settle down a bit... its been a long long time since this place had anything of interest to read...

Back in South Africa at the moment, I say at the moment because we need to return to collect our Temporary Residency cards before our visas expire! Yes we gottem!

Since being on this page last, this scribe has had surgery on remaining hand, suffered, and I mean painfully with Rheumatoid arthritis, not a happy place, and returned to Sunny South Africa  now trying to get the body sorted!

Being in Bulgaria in a situation where one is so so so dependent on knowing the language - hospitals and doctors- was quite an experience! Needless to say we managed! Thanks to dear caring friends all went off without a hitch... plenty of stitches though. Carpal Tunnel release op and then just a quick two trigger fingers thrown in...

It doesn't rain, it pours.

Relationships deepened and appreciated a lot while overseas, new ventures tackled and repairs on house, this is a constant when we are there. Though this time I must say that my mista was an absolute gem, more so than usual! He would come in after working like a Trojan outside to do things like make dinner, a cup of tea and other precious things... in his work clothes and grime no less. Thank you so much for all your love and care during this time.

Blessings to all... and yes, I'll be here a bit more than I have been. Able to type now...see?

Yesterday was a long day of metro and tram riding to different parts of Sofia, just discovering and experiencing the place. We had a long walk back to our temporary place called home from somewhere in the city…long, long walk. It’s so funny, Jean-Pierre and I are such opposites! (just in case you had not previously noticed) When we travel like this, Jean-Pierre is forever expanding his understanding and knowledge of the layout of the land, while I am like a puppy in the car… I go along for the ride, am quite good company, but really useless when it comes to navigational skills or worth. Jean-Pierre told me how much he appreciates me being the dog, as he is as a blind man when it comes to language!

Where I come from chess is a two man game, here it seems to be a twelve man sport.

Breakfast in the park, apple strudel in the park (a different park) later. 

gotta love it!

good times

Wow, while Rita sits drinking coffee, made by her mista…eats meals prepared by the man wearing the correct outfit, said mista continues to do absolute miracles with the appearance of the house in Gostilitsa. 

This scribe is really proud of his achievements. He is working with materials that speak a different language, react in foreign manners and still manages to do all this. Whether inside or out.

We have been truly blessed to have the use of an apartment in Sofia, this is a good, good thing. Not just for the opportunity to visit the city but also because it means Rita is so much less frustrated having to ‘do nothing’ with her hand that is still misbehaving.

It’s that much easier to rest it when the todo list for the day involves long walks to the city centre through parks and interesting little side streets. Admiring the amazing talent of local artist....Talking to strangers in a challenging language, by the time she gets back to the apartment she’s too tired to do anything else…. Methinks that was the plan!

waiting...

It is really great seeing all the page views on this blog. Seems as if people are WAITING for me to post.... I will try and be more diligent here....
Feel free to leave comments, here or even on facebook, that way even more people get to read.... grin.

I remember driving in the car with my Mum as passenger, I needed to come to a rather quick stop and my arm automatically reached out to protect her. It suddenly dawned on me that I had, somewhere through the passage of time, become the parent.

How often have we looked at older people, dressed in jerseys that look as if the last time they were washed was sometime just prior to the war? How often have we seen old men playing checkers in the park and felt sad that they had nothing better to do with their days? Or known an old lady who would rather spend time in her Lazy-Boy stroking her mangy cat than get dressed up and go out with her family to a more ‘exciting’ time? Have we ever said out loud, or even thought the thought of “If I ever get like that, then shoot me”?

The funny thing is… you got it, this is who we are. It might not be right away, though we would probably not recognise it or ourselves when it does happen. But think about it…

That favourite pair of jeans, you were wearing them when you did the laundry, “Ah, never mind, I’ll put them through next time”, and

Wouldn’t it be great just to sit quietly with friends rather than dash about shopping or trying to impress people that don’t really give a care? And what about parking off in your lounge, reading a good book instead of the rush and noise and just plain busyness of young families, kids squabbling and raucous laughter at inane jokes? Then of course there’s that thought of something that needs doing, but you are quite sure that offspring one or two could take care of it for you quite easily…Aargh, so scary.

There are some things that happen that are funny…well laughable anyway, like looking for readers perched on your nose, trying to get that ‘something that was previously on your plate’ out from under your new bridge, while sounding like a kreepy krawly sucking air….lamenting gravity’s effects  when it’s been there all along and how Time flies when you are having fun. Never stop having fun.

Know that the definition of fun is certainly age related!

data again

It’s already April, we have been in Bulgaria now for near on a month! Can’t believe how the time has flown past. Yet at the same time, it feels as though we have just landed here.

We have experienced some truly wintery weather, which, I know, is a novelty for us, and surely the rosy glow will fade, but as we do not have to work outside, or get out of bed really early to ‘go to work’, we enjoy the serious change in tempo. Also really appreciate second fireplace the Van Tonders installed upstairs and the electric blankets we brought along in our luggage.

Revisiting places and people is rather wonderful.

Our focus has been primarily language but work on the house is a continual backdrop to our everyday life too.

Before leaving South Africa Rita was battling with a really troublesome wrist… that has not changed, and language learning acquired a whole new vocabulary boost when dealing with local doctors here. The villagers are very happy to cook meals and treats for the handicapped foreigners, though Jean-Pierre has been a model husband taking care of cooking and cleaning as well as his forays out and around the house.

 Take-aways take on a whole different shape here as it means food and goodies taken from other homes to ours.

Right now Spring is certainly in the air and summer is hard on her heels. I always wanted a “savage garden” definition being “untamed”, erm the garden here is more than I dreamed? Wild flowers everywhere, definition of wild flowers… weeds! And, methinks it will probably remain this way for a while yet.

Some crazy quirks of the house…the fridge sounds like a chicken cowering in the corner of the kitchen. When you run water in the kitchen sink, the radio gets all excited and loses its station (have since relocated said radio).

When you work on outside walls upstairs, debris falls in little puffs downstairs (similar to moving a toaster…little bits everywhere). If one sneezes loud enough an electronic rooster crows and the resident cat meows like a duck. (not when one sneezes – all the time)

On a more serious note we are here on a Type D visa on invitation of the Bulgarian Consulate in Pretoria, this means we get to apply for temporary residency. We have a few hurdles to climb before it is granted, however, one of them being that we need to present an unabridged marriage certificate, which has been applied for, but we have no idea how long it will take before we actually have it.  

pictures say so much

our last evening in SA. Ending up in a sudden rush to get to boarding gate on time

Sitting in the shadow of the Hagai Sofia while biding time till we board the train for Bulgaria from Istanbul

A walk through the bazaar while looking for dinner

Our home in Gostilitsa as we have never seen it before

Jean-Pierre re familiarizing himself with the toolroom....boys!

En route to Veliko Ternovo

A Pretty...

Dutrieux data... a catch up

Dutrieux Data

COLD-March 2014

Two Passage to Purpose courses completed in the last half of the year. Now handing over the two output platforms in each of the congregations. The hope is that they will develop further with their own flavour while we spend time here in Bulgaria. 

The time has come to look and see clearly what has happened to us and around us in just a few short months. Believe it or not already one quarter of the year is done, over , sloosh, krai, finito… it matters not how it is spelled but the fact that it is done and dusted.. what have we done with the time given to us? Well, we for one have had some rather interesting hospital shenanigans. Jordan was supposed to go to Kalafong State hospital to get the titanium plate removed from his wrist. Only to be postponed so many times that we felt it would be better all-round if he had the op done in Malaysia.

Funnily enough he managed to turn a five hour layover into fifteen as he 

fell asleep at the boarding gate and missed his original flight!

 Which he eventually did, without so much as a hitch. Jean-Pierre was surprised to find a ‘mole’ that was growing quite happily on his shoulder was cancerous. Whoops, quick, got rid of that one. Two surgeries later was cleared of all cancer. Needs to go for a six month check up though just to make sure. Then he was stung by a wasp…. Not a pretty sight. Rita had to have dental work and then her wrist packed up… still not doing too well as she is supposed to rest the thing… right.              

Who will ……………………………………. For her?

a)      Wash dishes b) Cook c) Iron d) Dress e) All the above.

Jean-Pierre that’s who! In good times and bad and all that. Sickness, health richer and poorer etc.

We are the proud owners of a Type D visa for Bulgaria. So good, as it means we can now apply for temporary Residency, which in turn means we no longer have to fork out for visas and or insurances each time we travel to Bulgaria. This is good, good, good.

lunch in Gabrovo! In the cold and wet.

Traveling to Gostilitza was done slightly differently this time as we did not stay over in Istanbul, but went instead straight to the train station and bought tickets for Bulgaria overnight train. Hung around in Turkey’s Capital for the day.. dog tired, and welcomed sleeping on the train. God is good.

 queuing for coffee!

Landed on a cold wet day in Dryanovo, came home to a fire made and food warming on the pechka…. Great neighbours to take such good care of us. Met friends for coffee, and they fed us too… gotta love this place and her people.

Friends and families will be joining us over the next few months, to visit and just SEEEE.

Argh

What is it that when one wants to "quickly print' something, all seems to go wrong?
Last year in the latter quarter, I picked up a horrid virus on my computer. It started off on a laptop that I let someone use, then stealthily moved via usb drive to main office computer, and then to little netbook. THEN... upon clearing virus, which till this day I am not sure it has actually been cleared, find that office is corrupted. Tried to reinstall , reformat and eventually even going to the point that I get another computer from a dear friend, only to be notified that office has been activated too many times. Have HP printer, but unable to install driver. also have samsung printer, but it gags as if it has swallowed a dog before I can get anything to print. driving me insane. Oh yes, another interesting quirk, when I open my bookkeeping package from Pastel, PC wants to install programme while it quaintly opens excell and tells me not a valid command.
I love my job!

december data

Well the year 2013 has finally drawn to a close. We have had a busy but most rewarding time throughout this period. Bulgaria saw us again and it was as if we had gone home. Much was done on the reparations of the house there, in March friends joined us for a visit, and at the end of May we welcomed a work team too. Tasks on the KE house were done and done well, thank you so much for all your hard work team. And then there were a few jobs done for neighbours too.  It was great to have them with us. We are looking forward already to our next trip to Bulgaria.

We, Jean-Pierre and Rita, returned to South Africa mid June, and in early July Dorianne left home to set up in Cape Town. Two weeks after that, Jordan left home for Bulgaria for three months, and we were ‘home alone’. Loved it. During this time relationships were nurtured and strengthened.  

We have pretty ‘Open Diaries’ for the year ahead. We pray that we allow God to fill them according to what He has planned for us and not just what we desire. We do not want to get busy with our own agendas, rather that we be obedient to His will. We continue to thank God for you and your support.   May you have a wonderful rest, and catch up with your families this holiday season, and may you always be found in the shadow of His wing.

this works for me....

It took a while to make, but seeing as I am completely up to date with my bookkeeping... I have the time, right? Not really as there is a lot that needs to happen, AND I've signed up for Nano this year. S November is busy busy busy!

Dutrieux Data

Dutrieux data

October 2013

The pace has picked up!

It is amazing to see how quickly things fell into place and the keenness for all to get involved and participate. We now know that we know that we know that we were not supposed to return to Bulgaria for the last part of this year. Suddenly, although it’s been a long time coming, we are in full swing with regards to  running  the Passage to Purpose programme in two congregations. One in Centurion and the other in Pretoria East. Both these congregations are also running with Output Platforms, 

which we will oversee till the natives get the hang of it.

It is a blessing and a privilege to serve these people. What is truly an awe inspiring is the size of the two classes. They had really short notice to decide to commit to eight weeks, once a week.  One of our classes had to commence without electricity… no sweat, with the help of an inverter-brandishing friend Jean-Pierre was able to do the class in a most romantic setting. There’s a first time for everything, right?

On the home front things are different. Jordan has returned home from his time in Bulgaria and it is good to have him back.  Summer has certainly landed, and even though some days are warm, we are enjoying some great rainy days, cloudy days and cooler days too. This makes Rita happy. 

“Free” water helps the garden grow. Well not really free, but, solar powered pump for the borehole  has helped hugely in the watering of the plot, now maybe we can consider a real garden…. Meh!

Maybe not.

A little time out was had on my Birthday. Jean-Pierre took me out for the day, it was really pleasant and carefree. Coffee shops, lunch, train…no parking issues etc. Lovely time.

We thank God for His faithfulness in all things.

Dutrieux Data...no really

This is a voice from the “duisternus” no doubt, unaccountably quiet, suddenly recognisable and eagerly anticipated! So much has transpired since our last point of news, mostly due to the fact that blogging has seemed to overtake the need for a separate ‘newsletter’. And a belief that contact and interaction with some people would negate the need for others to be kept in the loop. Sincere apologies, no excuse.

So, getting right to it: Easiest might be a point/month format to start with and an expansion with details to follow.

January: Saw us regrouping at home with family and friends, catching up what seems to fall through the cracks when travels are priority and generally getting things done. We also felt that we should start making arrangements to return to Bulgaria for a time and God was kind enough to confirm this by making finances available to purchase tickets to do this. Also, we have become more involved with a congregation in the East of Pretoria, we are enjoying good fellowship and sound leadership.http://www.rightnowthejourney.blogspot.com/2013_01_01_archive.html

February: This is the time that we shared about Bulgaria to our new congregation and at the same time started on the preparations of forming a team to join us there for an exposure and blessing trip. A great success it was.

March: Found us back in Bulgaria, fixing things that need it, re-establishing contacts and friendships, trying to decide how best to cope with the cold and snow. Making sure we had enough prepared and chopped firewood to help with this. Paperwork for vehicles, taxes etc. that are all new to us. http://www.rightnowthejourney.blogspot.com/2013_03_01_archive.html

April: Friends and partners flew in for a visit while the weather was still rather on the cool side. It was great showing them around. They were a large part of getting the Gostilitsa kitchen closer to completion. Thanks guys for spending time with us there.

May: Here the arrival of the South African church team took priority. Thanks to friends and colleagues who prepared them so well. We are grateful to have a team around us. God bless each one of you. The time with the team was a wonderful learning experience.

June: Our time in Bulgaria came to an end with a rather serious hiccup with Jean-Pierre tearing ligaments in his ankle during a motorcycle accident causing us to spend our planned ‘time out’ with our teammates in Turkey to be accompanied with a rather clumsy ‘moonboot’. During our stay in Turkey Rita did something stupid (laundry) resulting in a Lumbar Hernia which rather forced rest as doing much else was out of the question. On our return to South Africa we found some disturbing things to have taken place in our absence, causing us to get to work on setting up a ‘fool proof’ system to cope when we are not around. 

This is still in the making.

July: Empty nest has come to our family home. Dorianne moved to Cape Town and two weeks after that, Jordan left for a three month stint in Bulgaria. Rita got an abscess in her lower back and for the last six weeks has been on antibiotics to try and kill the little beast. It does look as though the nasty tablets have done their job. So very grateful. Jean-Pierre is in full swing with meeting with leaders and establishing  platforms for output…

August: Two computers, crashed and burned, causing us to call on friends in the game to come to the party so Rita can do all that needs to be done regarding bookkeeping and SARS. This is the task for the next few weeks as the financial year end is the end of September. Looking forward to getting it all done and dusted. Catching up with Partners and friends is in full swing too as we go from house to house and have visitors upon visitors invariably food is consumed and company enjoyed. We intend to catch up with all over coffee…so watch this space and keep your phones handy.

We are so grateful to God for keeping us in His hand during this recent season. Thankful for His hand in directing our every move. In Love with our Father for all He is and all we are in Him. We praise God every day for wonderful people that surround us.

This is the up to date report for now.
We ask forgiveness for not being as communicative as we should have been, and we continue to thank God for YOU.

clean up...not

So... computer crashes are an ideal time to clean out INBOXES and other unused files etc. right? WRONG! While I was clearing out old emails, thinking that everything would still be on my gmail account out there in cyberspace... think again. After a panicky few hours and dispair, eventually reaching acceptance of theloss, I found them and happily restored all deleted mails. It was bad to think that I could have lost the emails from the last nineteen months.
feeling much better!

Raining and pouring

Talking Turkey while enjoying  some Time Out.

 

Since we have hit South African soil we have been trotting. We returned to find that we needed to put in place a 'Fool Proof System' to be instituted while on our travels. We have also learned that it is not always wise to be too trusting with all people. In future we intend to make it easier to trust hired workers by setting up an air tight system. Tough school but necessary lessons.

Jean-Pierre has been meeting regularly with folk to establish certain platforms in church congregations - two. And he has also been learning just how much he needs to use his ankle... very aware of it not working the way it should after a rather iffy fall from a motorcycle during our last day in Bulgaria. Ligaments take a long, long time to heal properly.

 

Left ankle starting to swell after fall.

 

Sadly it would seem that it is not in the cards to go back to Bulgaria this year. But Jordan is enjoying a three month stint there right now. He loves that place too.

Empty nest? YEAH!!! Bring it on! Offspring one now living in Cape Town and loving life there. Offspring two left two weeks after her to go to Bulgaria...so Empty Nest is just a temporary state as he returns mid October. Maybe just a tease?

Computers crashing and dying with a whimper, resulting in a real lack of general communications ... this scribe finds it rather tedious to write full scale letters with fat fingers on little hand phones....

But things are looking up in a big way. Thankyou so much Doctor for making laptop feel so much better and getting a really sick desktop to be able to take her place back on top of desk rather than stuck underneath it gathering dust.

Its great to be able to call on friends... especially since our 'inhousecomputerperson' is in her own house in Cape Town.

Blessings till next time