Got my new shoes on

sawaborna!!!

My naomi is Naomi Midgley and i am very blessed to be here in south africa for 9 months. My favourite place to spend time is Happys, The joy you get from being there is just amazing, its so uplifting and the kids are incredible! Iv built up a great relationship with them and try and get there at least twice a week to do various activities with them. So im

going to use this blog to keep anyone interested in the things we do at the school. All the volunteers out here are so grateful for the fundraising that you guys have done!

Esther absons mum annie is over here for 2 weeks (she's a physio) and has managed to bring over 24 pairs of special boots to help the kids walk. The trouble was every kid wanted a new pair of shoes! Apart from one girl that annie fitted, who wouldnt stop complaining and then as soon as our backs were turned she took them off. ha! There were some especially amazing pink pairs which the kids loved and we had to convince the teachers to let them wear them to school.

Annie with 2 suitcases full of special shoes!!!

Nonjabulo

Nomfundo

This guy got my favourite pair of boots!!!!

qunobi

On the same day anna, jess and allanah also brightened up the dull cell like corridoors with an awesome murel for the library:

This has inspired me to do murels ALL over the school. quite literally. im very excited by the idea.

Iv also had the vision to take some of the kids swimming, which would be amazing for them and very therapeutic. A couple of weeks after id been thinking about it esther mentioned her mum was coming over and did hydrotherapy. hallelujah! God really does send the right people at the right time! Esther and i prepared by hunting out some outdoor swimming pools and making sure they had disabled access, good changing room facilities and a hoist for getting them into the pool. But it turns out there are many issues with taking physically disabled people swimming, and its a good job esthers mum was here to point them out...Each child had to be assessed and a decision had to be made weather they could go in the pool or not. It also turns out that all the pools we found were too cold. they had to be around 30 ideally, otherwise it would be counter productive, their muscles would tense up and it can make their joints painful and also with not much movement in the pool we would all get very cold quickly! We hunted and hunted for pools indoors but they just don't exist in durban! We found 2. a public pool which has been bought by fifa for the world cup use so thats not open to the public and the other onewas in a gym up 2 flights of stairs, hardly suitable when all the students are in wheelchairs! The search is still on but it looks like our best bet is to wait till the football is over so we can use the public pool and when annie is back in september! :-(