looking forward to a time we can continue on our journey together

I was looking through my photos this evening, and came across this one: it was taken when we were planning our three new centres towards the end of last year. it started me thinking: what a long way we have all come together in a very short space of time. Four centres, over 200 volunteers, 200 children a year, 400 teaching hours a week:it makes me tired just thinking about it! Tired, but proud of the wonderful team work that has helped make this all happen, A dream, a small seed, a possibility, a reality.
I was happy to report back to Maurita that I had a meeting with St Agnes in Woodstock this morning, along with Mr Louw the Principal and Maureen Archer, one of Shine's early board members. Maureen was a lecturer of Maurita's, and is working in the classroom with the grade 7's at St Agnes. She has offered to oversee a small Shine satellite centre at St Agnes. We are looking upon it as a pilot scheme. Less Shine involvement, but sharing our expertise, training, support and ideas: a pared down version of The Shine Centre, focusing on paired reading, shared reading and have a go writing. The school is small, with only 20 pupils needing to come to Shine to begin with, so it is easy to manage and run. If you have any friends who may want to come and volunteer at our new satellite Shine, please pass them my way. The school is just off main Road by Nando's in Woodstock, and very near the Biscuit Mill, so an early morning coffee or late breakfast, and a lovely browse in the Bead shop may appeal after teaching!

I spoke to Maurita early this morning: she was asking for natural yogurt, dates, and peppermint tea.....she is getting her appetite back, but wants to eat only healthily, which we can all relate to. she is very comfortable in Worcester, and mentioned that she may stay there until she is ready to leave hospital. The staff know her, she likes them ( she says her Afrikaans is getting better by the hour!) and the whole family are incredibly touched and impressed by the level of continuity of care a small, yet world class, hospital can provide.

I estimate that we have received over one hundred e mails since Monday enquiring about maurita and sending their wishes and prayers, so we are cutting and pasting them into word documents to save paper, and dating and printing them all off, and putting them into a file. I will possibly go through to see Maurita over the weekend, so I will take the first batch through to her.

Another piece of very good news: Maurita has been put forward for an award of excellence in the field of Reconciliation:the organisation want to get together next week to start their 'due diligence.' I believe she was nominated by several people, so thank you for creating an awareness around Maurita and The Shine Centre with such a prestigious organisation. We all know she deserves this recognition: I have known Maurita since we were both 21 years old, and she has always put others before herself.
Thank you for ensuring that things run smoothly at this difficult time. Having Maurita out of the organisation means that we are all under duress, and it is good to know things can run smoothly in her absence. It is all about sustainability, and this is what we are aiming to achieve, so this is a good test for all of us! More over the weekend.