First year in Africa

Thank you for the message that you gave me Miss Terp. It was very nice and I enjoyed reading it.

Anyway, it is almost our first year in Africa and we are enjoying having fun with the Australian team still. They have almost been here a week.

I am glad that I came here for almost a year. I enjoyed the 10th anniversary for Beautiful Gate. And a few people from Haven church were also there and I enjoyed that. There has been many teams here lately. And so it gets a little bit busy hustling and bustling around the house. But so far it has been exciting and also I was enjoying myself.

In the last year the best thing about Beautiful Gate is the kids and the staff.

My favorite trip was when I went to Port Elizabeth because I got to pet a cheetah. And when we went to go home we got to go to McDonalds in Bloemfontain because there is no McDonalds in Lesotho.

What I missed most in the last year is tortilla chips and salsa, my family and friends, and our house.

Thank you for following my blog. It is wonderful that you are doing that.
Elijah

Australian Team

We have been invaded by the Australian team but we are also having fun with it. We are practicing tricks to day with our friends that have come (2 12year olds, a 10 year old and an 8 year old). They just arrived 2 days ago and so we are having lots of fun with them. I did some geography with one man who had travelled to the United States. They are going to be splitting their time between Beautiful Gate and another orphanage. Some of the men are working on the tile floor and other stuff to prep up the new volunteer house.

Two kids from Beautiful Gate just left the orphanage to go to their biological mother's house. Our family is really sad because we wanted to adopt them. But we know, you can only be sad for one minute and then have joy back (Elijah learned that From Ntate Thia, BG's nurse). I miss them but I am still happy.

There was also a funeral for a baby girl.

That is pretty much all that has been happening so far. Thank you for following my blog.
Elijah

Tea Party

Yesterday we had a tea party with Allan and Donna. Donna is a nurse and Allan is the maintenance boss. We made these really cool sandwiches which were made out of pizza dough, cold meat and cold cheese. And if you want to add a little flavor to it you need to add a little BBQ sauce and then wrap it up in a nice square and cook it at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes. Then what you do it ya set it on a nice round plate and then get some cold tea or hot tea and then you got your meal all set up for a tea party. We also made cookies. We made leaves, circles, and flowers and frosted them with green, white and pink frosting.

Have all of you ever had a tea party?

Thank you for reading the tea party.
Elijah

Haven Visitors

I am sorry that I did not give a blog for a long time. I just got distracted and forgot about my blog.
The Haven team was nice to have here, especially seeing friends from home. Although, some of them were not from our church. But they are fun to play with! I will list some down. We went to Ntate Edwards village and we played soccer and gave away teddy bears to Ntate Edward's family and friends. We went to Scooters and Nandos for dinners out. Nandos has really good food. The rolls at Nandos are huge, about the size of an unblown up soccer ball. The chicken is very good there. Most of the time we have lemon & herb chicken there. We had fun holding babies. We had fun playing with the Beautiful Gate children. One of the things we did with the children was play soccer, play tag, and sometimes tickle monster. We also were babysat by Thato, one of our good friends at CRC church. And we also watched some fish in the ponds and eat outside one night. And we ran through the sand box a few times, pretending we were cowboys. We also ran in the sprinklers too. I am going to miss the big team when they go home, but I know there will be another team coming in the next two years (hopefully in one year). And I hope a few other people come from different churches, if they like.
Thanks for reading this blog and I am sorry that I didn't post earlier. Thank you!
Elijah

My Safaris

Would you like to know about my three safaris?

The first one was to the Danielle Cheetah Breading Farm. And I got to pet some meerkats and I got to see some cheetahs and then we went to a special place where we could see two lion cubs. I was actually able to hold the lion cubs and play with them. We also got to pet a 4 year old cheetah named Ola (which was Heaven for me!) And then we went to a reptile farm where we learned so much about birds and reptiles. We got to hold snakes, pet a gecko, pet more meerkats, and see some crocodiles.

The second one was Addo Elephant Park. And we got to see elephants. That was the second animal that we got to see. The first animal that we saw there was a black backed jackal. We also got to see different types of birds, warthogs, dung beetles (not pushing a piece of poo!), zebras, a buffalo, and red heart beasts. That is all that I can remember that I saw. Addo was very exciting.

The third one was Seaview Lion Park. And we got to see some more red heart beasts, zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, lions (of course) and two Bengal tigers. And then we went up to the reception center (with restaurant and bathrooms). There was a board walk that you could tour and there were cages with crocodiles, leopards, lion cubs that you can play with too. You had to pay to play with these cubs but at the cheetah breeding farm, we didn't have to pay a single penny (or rand).

I had a very fun time and my mom and dad spoiled us a lot! Thank you for following!
Elijah

Questions and Answers

Dear Terp
yes I do like papa and my favorite food is fried rice. How is your family? What is your favorite type of onion? How is your dog doing? What does your dog do a whole lot? Do you have a garden?

2 children from Beautiful Gate were brought back to their mother today. I will miss the 2 children who left. How was all of your days today? How do you like your jobs? Are they good ones or bad ones? My job is being one of the maintenance men. It is very fun being a maintenance guy. I am very happy that I came here. If I had not come here I would not have met the maintenance men or a whole bunch of other friends. Thanks for reading.
Love,
Elijah

My Day

I have been having a great day. I got to play with Arwin and Nore who are from the Netherlands. We got to play with 4 dogs at Ms. Lisa's house and I got to play pool the kids way (which is grabbing the ball and flinging it into the pocket). And I watched some TV with them too which was nice because we don't have a TV. I also got to climb some trees with them.
It was a fun church service today and I enjoyed Sunday School with Ms. Rose. I was happy to see my new friend Robby at church today too. Now I am going to answer some questions from Ms. Karen. Yes, I do like to sing. My favorite song is My God is an Awesome God. Yes, they do use drums here in Lesotho too. I do not know the name of the drums. The staff here often just sing without music and it is nice.
Thank you for reading my blog and sending me questions,
Elijah

Answers to Questions

Dear Ms. Susan,
The weather is very cold in the morning, but the afternoon is very very hot. How hot is it in Missouri?

Dear Hannah,
I do not think that the women use cutting boards as they have very few tools, but I will try to find out for sure.

Dear Uncle Andy,
I did have a great birthday and I wish you could come. I got a whole bunch of presents like I used to get in America, but they were African presents. I miss my family in America the most. I miss Burger King and McDonalds there too :) My favorite thing to do in Africa is play with the Beautiful Gate kids and with my friends. I like riding my scooter, playing with my Mom and Dad and reading. There have been 11 kids adopted since we came and 2 returned to their families. There are about 56 kids here.

My friends Maleteka and Lineo are visiting me this weekend. They spent the night last night and we rode scooters, made a show for my mom, and watched a movie, Thumbalina. Thank you for following my blog,
Elijah

Introduction

Hi, I am Elijah. I live in Lesotho. The place where I live is called Beautiful Gate Lesotho. Beautiful Gate is a child care centre that we play soccer with the kids sometimes. The kids here at Beautiful Gate are orphans and the house that we live in at Beautiful Gate is called Nala. Our house is smaller than the house that we lived in while in America. Our house has two maps. One is a world map and the other is an African map. We have maps so that we can see the world and so that we can memorize the places in Africa. I am home schooled for about 2 1/2 hours each day. I like reading books. This school has a lot of reading in it too. I also most of the time play with the Beautiful Gate kids for 1/2 the day and the other 1/4 of the day is home schooling and the last 1/4 is playing with dad. I am very happy here to make the kids smile, especially as they don't a whole bunch.
I am starting a blog because I want to stay in contact with my grandparents and family and friends.
Thank you for reading and following my blog.
Elijah