Here's hoping....

We decided that we would like to have a litter of puppies with our Jack Russell, Trixie (she gets no say in the matter!), so we had her covered - which is the polite word in the doggy world for raped and violated!!! The lucky young man, Tintin, came to stay from Thursday to Saturday and much activity was enjoyed by him (can't speak for her!)! It is a 60 day gestation, so we'll probably find out in a month or so, when she starts showing. We did it once before, last October, but it was unsuccessful, so we're trying not to get our hopes up. Having said that, though, we already have 3 potential owners lined up (us being one of them!).

Here's hoping....

The Game's Room

There are two parts to this equation:
1) We inherited a pool table from my sister a looong time ago, when they left SA, and it has pretty much never been used since.
2) last year we did extensive renovations and built on a fabulous servant's quarters which are now no longer being lived in (long story, perhaps I'll write about it sometime!).
So, being a math's teacher , I put 1 and 2 together and came up with....
The Game's Room
Yip, pool table is duly ensconced in said servant's quarters (dust and cobwebs cleaned from both table and room!), a couch is there (very uncomfortable, for when the kid's are teenagers and start taking member's of the opposite sex there to 'play pool'!!!) and we plan to put in a dart board, hi-fi and a heater. There is also a small kitchenette which the kids can use to make coffee etc.
Right now, it is their favorite room in the house. Long may that last!

Not perfect - yet!

I hope you are enjoying reading about our activites. My apologies for the less-than-perfect lay out! Somehow, even when I get it perfect on the 'preview', it turns out differently when it actually gets posted! Anyway, if you keep on reading, you may see the quality improve as time goes by!
PS - only one person has claimed their sweet. For those of you who didn't get what MACK stands for - it is Megan, Alistair, Carl, Kirsten. Smart hey!

Mauritius!

I think I had better write about our trip to Mauritius, as I'm not sure which is fading faster - my memory or my tan!!

In April our family got the 'Lucky Fish' award and went to Mauritius for 10 days. There were obviously two awards to be won, because my sister, Heidi, and her family joined us there! Our excuse to go was Heidi's 40th (sorry, Heidi, giving away your age like that!), but actually, the truth is we just wanted to go!

We had booked for 10 nights at Le Coco Beach on the East Coast. On arrival, we discovered that le Coco Beach was scheduled for demolition from 1May, and as a result, they had spent little or no money on the hotel for quite some time. While le Coco Beach was lovely and had some really good points, my brother-in-law, Darrell, is not one to take such poor quality lying down, and somehow (only Darrell can do this!) organised us an upgrade to Sugar Beach Hotel, on the West Coast. 5-star nogal!!!! So, we had 4 nights at le Coco Beach, and 6 nights at Sugar Beach, and it turns out that we got the best of both worlds. While the quality of hotels were incomparable, the snorkeling on the East Coast was way better, so at least we got four nights there!

So, how does one begin to describe the holiday of a life-time? The weather was superb; the pool and sea water was warm enough for even me to wallow in; the food at Sugar Beach was out-of-this-world (I'm still carrying around a reminder of it on my hips); the facilities were fabulous - wind-surfers, kayaks, peddle boats, lazers and catamarans at our disposal at both hotels etc etc.

Then, there were highlights of a trip that in itself was a highlight:

The kids, Carl and Darrell did an Underwater Walk, where they go underwater with a fishbowl on their heads which gets pumped with air;

Megan realised a dream of hers to go horse-riding on the beach (many thanks to Aunty Heidi for taking one for the team and accompanying her!);

On Heidi's actual birthday we chartered a speed boat for a day (also sorted out by our private tour operator - Darrell!) which took us to a Marine Park which is the ultimate snorkeling destination (even Heidi descended into the depths!) and to Ile Aux Cerfs, a beautiful island off the main beautiful island!

We also celebrated Stef's 5th birthday at Sugar Beach and it was so special for us all to be together for that!

A low light that should have been a highlight was the boy's Deep Sea Fishing excursion. After having visions of hooking Blue Marlin and Giant Tuna, the picture below says it all!!!!

The kids occasionally went to Kid's club, but we find we enjoy having them around, so they spent most of their time with us instead.

So now, we are back to reality, but Mauritius has taken top place as our best family holiday ever. I really hope to go there again sometime (maybe for my 40th, but you know, that is such a loooong way off!).

Rally to Read

This past weekend, our family was incredibly privileged to go on Rally to Read. For those of you who don't know what that is, let me enlighten you.

Several big corporates (McCarthy, Financial Mail, Std Bank, Sasol to name a few) started up a project 12 years ago to take books into seriously underprivileged schools in rural areas - I mean, the gamadoeloes! As the name suggests, a 4x4 is a pre-requisite for even going on the rally. The exciting thing about this project is that they don't just deliver the books and run, as one of the biggest problems with these schools is the under trained staff. So, they teamed up with the READ Educational Trust who follows up and continues to visit the schools, long after the library (and science box and all sorts of other things) has been delivered. The books are not just random books that no one else wanted, but have been specially designed for this particular situation, in line with the current curriculum. Not only does READ follow up throughout the year, but Rally to Read itself delivers books for 3 consecutive years, as the pupil's progress, so do the books. Obviously if a school is found to not be using the books/or abusing the programme, they are removed. If you want more details, as I'm sure to have left out lots, you can check out their website http://www.rallytoread.co.za/.

So, Carl and I sponsored a library for a school, and having done that, our family was entitled to join the rally to see our box being delivered!

We went to the North West Province, in the Zeerust area. We chose to spend Friday night in a guest lodge in Swartruggens (where???), which was the meeting point for the rally (our other option was to leave JHB at 4am on Sat, as the rally began at 7:30am). No rally in such a place as Swartruggens could begin without a fine breakfast feast put on for us by the Tannies of the NG Kerk! We were also treated to an inspirational speech (or boring, if you're under 10 yrs) by the CEO of McCarthy, who also happened to be on this particular rally, although not in our actual group.

Our group visited 2 schools during the day, with about an hour spent at each school, and a fair bit of driving in between. This visit was their third and final visit from Rally to Read, so we were hoping to see the fruits of the past two years.

Yes, the top sign on the post behind the car really does say:

'The Middle of Nowhere'!!!

The first school, Ikagisano Primary, is a farm school and is really struggling - in almost every way it seemed. Although that being said, there were some enthusiastic staff, as well as some German volunteers there. The kids put on several shows for us (including traditional dancing - sans tops - performed by young budding girls! Megan was startled!) We left that school feeling pretty down in the dumps - awful to see such poverty and tough circumstances, and zip in and out in an hour without being affected.

What was wonderful was the welcome we received at both schools. Even though it was a Saturday, the kids and most of the staff turned out in their finest to sing and dance and greet us. The tears began (for me!) before we even entered the schools!

The second school, Nchawe Pooe, was much more uplifting to the soul! It had better facilities (although also no running water), the kids were smartly dressed (tops on!), and well disciplined. Once again we were treated to a show (tops still on!), as well as some samples of how the kids are actually using the books they had been given.

A long ride back to Zeerust to some rather basic accommodation (although still better than camping!) and the rugby. Yet another super-fest dinner put on by the NG Kerk Tannies of Zeerust. and some wonderful feed back from all the groups about their day.

On Sunday, we enjoyed a drumming session on a nearby farm, which was fun, before we headed back to JHB.

Our only criticism was that we would have loved to have spent longer at each school, as well as some time with individual pupils - listening to them read and interacting with them. We felt rather like visiting dignitaries!

I really hope that in some way it touched Megan and Alistair. One of my big motivations for doing the rally was so that their eyes and hearts would be opened to the world out there, and how so many people live. Of course, the big irony is that our family was so privileged to even be able to afford to do the rally in the first place! Anyway, I know that I was touched and I really hope that we can do it again sometime!

I couldn't resist....

Seeing as both Roland and Heidi each have a blog, I decided that I would jump on the band wagon and do one too! Not that I think that my, or my family's lives are that fascinating that I can keep you all amused for hours (the way Roland and Heidi do!!!), but perhaps there is someone out there who may be a bit interested in what's happening in the lives of the van der Riet's.
Firstly, you may be asking why I decided to call our blog 'MACK attack!'. I will leave you to puzzle it out, and there's a sweetie to anyone who figures it out! I'll reveal it in time to come....
I had this brilliant idea that I would do a course on 'Internet and Web Design' through Unisa, and then I discover that a Blog site pretty much does it all for you, so I can save myself quite a bit of time, money and effort. No, seriously, I'm still thinking about it. I would love to do a website for the school at which I teach, The Mitzvah School, because a blog site doesn't quite cut it when you have potential sponsors checking it out. I'll let you know if I do actually ever sign up.
That's all for now because I want to spend some time figuring out the layout etc. It would be very sad if I wrote a whole long schpiel, and then somehow deleted it all while fiddling around (which I could quite easily do,not having done that Internet course I spoke about!).
What does thrill me is that there is a spell check - IN ENGLISH! For some mysterious reason, the spell check on my email is in French, so unless my email is filled with deja vue, latrine and chocolat mousse (for all you Top Secret fans out there), I'm stuck. Now, other than typo's my blog will contain only correctly spelt wrods. (ha ha ha!).