Day Two: the beat goes on

Day two began with a visit to the Bhubezi Community Healthcare Centre, a rural clinic established with support from Virgin Unite, Pride 'n Purpose and others. The clinic provides much needed primary healthcare and HIV/AIDS treatment in this area, which has high HIV infection rates and little access to medical treatment. It was inspiring to hear from some of the doctors and outreach workers, who are so passionate about their work despite the enormity of their task. The visit also helped us gain a better understanding of the challenges facing Newington and the surrounding communities who are working to reduce the rate of infections and ensure those living with the virus can receive the treatment and support they need.

Following our visit to the clinic we had the opportunity to visit the nearby Sizabantu bakery, a micro-enterprise that has received a start up loan and business planning advice from Pride 'n Purpose. The all women run bakery provides bread to local orphans and their delicious bread is also sold in local stores. It seems demand spiked the day of our visit, as we could not help buying up about a dozen loaves straight out of the oven!

It was then back to the creche where more sand was delivered for the sand bags and work began on the veggie patch and jungle gym.

The earth was rock hard, so we really had to put our backs into prepping the soil for the 6,000 seedlings that will be planted later this week. We certainly gained a new found respect for the local Newington farmers, who grow all of their food this way.

Assembling the jungle gym presented some special challenges, as the directions consisted of a photo of what the finished product should look like. Undaunted, Mark our former Army man and Heather, discovery previously untapped drilling talents, were on the case along with various others of our group.

Loads of neighbours joined in the work, including an industrious and ever increasing group of little boys with a boundless energy for transporting sand bags.

The Induna, who has donated the land for the creche and whose little grandson will be a pupil, stopped by with a gift of sugar cane for us to enjoy.

We worked furiously for the rest of the afternoon, with some of our group succumbing to exhaustion induced silliness:

By sunset the creche was in fine form, with several more walls in place.

We returned to Ulusaba for a pasta supper before collapsing into bed. Though we were all thoroughly exhausted, we felt great about our day's work, and warmly welcomed into the Newington community. More tomorrow!

Monday: Sandbagging 101

Up bright and early this morning and very excited for our first day in the Newington community. But first, some of our group spotted a giraffe family en route.

Newington Village is a small rural community of about 3,000 residents situated adjacent to the Sabi Sands reserve which is where Ulusaba is based.

The residents requested assistance from Pride ‘n Purpose to construct the creche and the local Induna (an elected elder leader) has kindly donated a parcel of his farm.

What a friendly smile!

It was all hands on deck as we realised there was much more to be done than we could have imagined. The crèche is being constructed using locally sourced, sustainable materials with the assistance of local labour.

Have a listen as Jeremy, Heather, Lulu, Helen and Mark describe a bit about the process of filling sand bags and then layering them like bricks to construct the crèche walls.

Later in the day, we were greeted warmly by the local Induna who not only gave us the land but a lovely pumpkin and some fresh lemons from his garden to have with our dinner. And there was no shortage of smiling little ones!

After a hard day’s work we had one more stop—a football match with the local club, Dumphries Arsenal FC. Mark explains:

The Ulusaba Invitational 11 consisted of the sportier amongst us joined by some Ulusaba staff ringers. A crowd soon formed to cheer on the players and help shoo the chickens, goats and multiple herds of cows off the pitch. By half time it was clear that the Dumphries team were a force to be reckoned with, having hardly broken a sweat in their sparkly new uniforms kindly donated by the Toronto Football Club courtesy of our fearless goalie Jeremy.

We think the score stood at 2-1 by match’s end but we cannot be 100% certain as by that time we were chatting away with the crowd who had spilled out of the nearby shabeen (aka pub) to join the fun.

A quick dinner tonight and we are off to bed exhausted but feeling very uplifted and ready for another great day tomorrow.

And lastbut not least a massive thank you to Tom Oldham and Hope Newling, our volunteer documetarians who have allowed us to share the fun with you all.

Good night!

A few bumps in road: Brokeback Trailer

The 2009 Wake Up Trip is officially underway! We will be reporting to you over the next several days, hopefully capturing some of the inspiring sights, sounds and activities here in Newington Village with Pride ‘n Purpose.

Our group gathered Saturday night in London’s Heathrow airport and after checking in mounds of baggage set off on our adventure.

It was an uneventful flight (though there was a bit of drama with more than one of our group tearing up at the end of Marley and Me, one of the in-flight movies!) and we were soon piling in to our 16 seater mini bus for the eight hour journey to Ulusaba.

Everything was going swimmingly until in the last 15km, after entering the Sabi Sands reserve, one of our trailer’s back wheels jumped off its axis, leaving us stranded in the road.

Help was soon on the way, with Lindsay, her husband Johan and ranger Trevor coming to our rescue. The mechanically inclined amongst us were soon identified (former Army man Mark and airplane engineer Tobi), and a crack team quickly formed to sort things out.

After nearly 24 hours travelling, our group finally arrived at Ulusaba, where after a quick clean up we regrouped for a massive braai (aka barbeque) and some stargazing. Then it was off to bed, as we had a very long day ahead of us at the build site.

Submit your question to the Bhubezi clinic

While we are in South Africa next week, we'll have the opportunity to visit the Bhubezi Community Healthcare Centre, a rural clinic established with support from Virgin Unite and others. It’s a very inspiring project, providing critical primary healthcare and HIV/AIDS treatment in an area with high HIV infection rates and little access to medical treatment.

As part of the visit, we'll be producing a video Q&A feature with Dr. Gilbert Khoza, Bhubezi’s medical director, for virginunite.com. We're hoping to collect questions from a wide variety of people around the world so please feel free to post a question with your name and where you are from in the comments section before our visit on Tuesday April 21.

You can also read interview with Dr. Khoza here.

Eco-build under way

Here's another short video from Lindsay at Pride 'n Purpose taken in Newington Village, where our team will be arriving shortly for a week of volunteering. Meet some of the local people who'll be working with us to construct the eco-creche, as well as some of the teachers and students eagerly awaiting the new school!

Newington Village Video!

Thanks to Lindsay at Pride 'n Purpose for sending this video of the lovely Newington community we'll be visiting later this month. Be sure to catch the last few seconds showing the site where the eco-creche build is already underway. And kudos to the local Ringatani Marimba Band whose music features in the background!

Win a super reggae gift basket

Many thanks to Rita & Ziggy Marley who have generously donated a beautiful gift basket to help us fundraise for the building of our eco-friendly nursery school.

Everyone who makes an online donation to the project before April 30, 2009, will be entered into a prize draw to receive this great prize.

Straight from Jamaica, the basket is brimming with Marley CDs, DVDs, books, badges, as well as a t-shirt, mobile phone cover, wall hanging, calendar, alarm clock and a very cool Bob Marley throw fleece!
So visit the online donation page for your chance to win! Any size donation makes you eligible!*



*Terms and Conditions apply—please see www.virginunite.com for details.