From Empangeni 12.5.85

From Empangeni

12.5.85

Dear Mom and Dad,

Thank you for the birthday card and present. The bag is just the ideal size. We spent the weekend of my birthday at Charters Creek which is part of St Lucia. We stayed in the Parks Board bungalows similar to those at Umfolozi Game Reserve. We saw a lot of hippopotamus but were not enough to get a trip on the launch as it was fully booked.

It has cooled down quite a bit here but I think the cold is only temporary and is only because there is snow in the south.

I have given up work for the moment so that I can complete my studies this year full time. I was finding it difficult to work and study at the same time this year because I would be doing about 6 hours a day for the number of courses that I am doing.

Jolene’s school is having a grandparent’s tea on Wednesday morning and all grandparents are invited. I have had to borrow a granny so that Jolene will not feel left out when she sees the other children with their grannys. Last week they went on an excursion to the beach.

Melissa also had her birthday party last week. She had most of her class at her party and most of them are boys. It was quite an experience to see how boys of her age behave. I think Melissa has about 18 boys and 9 girls in her class but there were only about 25 children a t her party. When I asked Melissa what sort of games the like to play she asked if they could play “pass the parcel” and then they also played “pin the tail on the donkey” (Jolene calls it “pin the donkey on the tail”). The girls enjoyed the games and so did a few boys, but most of the boys thought that they were too tough to play games.  Then I asked the children what they would like to play and the girls asked if they could play “kissing catches”, but I had to put lipstick on the girls, and the boys had to take off their shirts and the girls had to catch them and kiss them on the backs. Some of the boys thought it would be terrible to be kissed by a girl and tried their best to avoid being kissed and others enjoyed it and bragged about how many they had received. One little boy managed to find his way onto the roof of the house. The food that was put out lasted about ten minutes, but I think they all enjoyed it.

Alan is still training very hard for the comrades marathon. I am very pleased about it because I think that Alan does too much for Melissa and Jolene and has really taken particular interest in Melissa’s schoolwork and spends time with her every afternoon while she does her homework. This is a big help to me as well because I have got a lot of work to do as far as my studies go as I am doing 4 courses this year and will be writing 11 exams at the end of the year.

That’s all for now

Love from

Lorna