The Real Jenty

Some people still have the flags on their cars, but what are you doing with all the flags you bought for WC2010?

I know of some people who bought flags from every single country that participated.

Well, don’t throw them away quite yet.  Firstly, there’s a Keep Flying campaign going on trying to encourage people to carry on flying them for the next month.  And in fact, there’s an entire Keep the Flag Flying website that’s been set up too!

If you do insist on not using them though, here’s an even more brilliant idea! Donate it!

That’s right it’s not that ludicrous… there’s an organisation in East London called Recycled Inc that’s wanting to use the old flags to make bags and shirts etc to sell to support vegetable gardens in their  local schools.  I like that idea!!

And they have a blog too… check it out, and send them your flags

aka can’t I split myself in two?!!

I’ve taken the day off on Friday. I booked myself on another wedding photography workshop and I’ve been looking forward to it for weeks.

And then, it happened.  It was guaranteed to happen.  I get torn between 2 things.

You see, last week there was a blanket drive on Twitter, and because of my blog post about the D Hani Creche in Soweto a few months ago, the school was chosen as the recipient of all the blankets collected at the rugby on Saturday and at the #TBD in Sandton… and I’m thrilled that Mme Dipho is going to be able to try give a blanket to every child in the informal settlement.

However… they’re going to hand the blankets out on Friday… the SAME day!! I want to take photos there damnit!!

I was hoping that I’d be able to do both, but after reading the program just now, it’s going to be impossible.

I wish I could split myself in two

Maybe another blogger should do the creche story… I’m so sad I’m missing it though

I attended an interesting meeting the other day, and one of the guys that were in the meeting was telling us about the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and a little bit more about how it works.  I cannot help be impressed by what he said… I had no idea that…

1.  When a child get looked after by the fund, it’s a holistic funding.  A foster family is found.  They get money from the fund and instructions on how they expect the child and his/her siblings (cos they’re never split up) must get looked after.  The funds pay for everything including all the schooling until the age of 18.

2.  When the child reaches 18, they then get educated further by the Mandela Rhodes Foundation.

3.  When they’ve finished studying they have to go back into the community where they grew up, and work there for the first 3 years to uplift the community.

Impressive hey?

Then, you know those 46664 bracelets?  Well, I didn’t realise that the serial numbers on them were so important.  I knew they were serialised, but had no idea what the reason was… it’s so that you can track where your money went.

Cool hey?!

I like what I heard

I got a SMS from Hannah a few weeks ago to say that they needed help with winter uniforms.  I haven’t been able to help with that, but I have got all my kids old clothes from last year, and Louisa has kindly given me all of her old baby clothes too. I’m going to take them on Friday as I planned.

Then, I got thrown! I just spotted the latest update on the St Jane de Chantal page on Facebook, saying that they’ve got a new baby and they need help because they’re going to have to try and get the baby treated privately.  This isn;t the first time she’s had to do this, the last baby she got in was treated this way too… because the government hospital told her that time that she baby was too sick, and there was no hope, and she refused to give up.

I really need to go there on Friday!!  If anyone can help with the treatment, I’ll find out more details and post the request here.

Brazen posted a few questions on her blog today… I need to answer them of course

1. Thought for the day: I need to get the bags of clothes and 3 cot mattresses to Hannah somehow… and I still haven’t done anything about organising something to get her kids some school uniforms.
2. Last night I… edited 500 photos, and tonight will do more than that!  Cool hey?! Just love Lightroom!
3.The song stuck in your head: Skinny Marinky Dinky dink… Connor’s favourite calming down song.  And I can’t even find the lyrics to the song for you all, so if you don’t know it, I’ll get him to sing it for you
4. Drink of the moment: Cappuccino… only because red wine is making me too sleepy in the evenings
5. I’m currently looking forward to… the wedding on Saturday   Can’t wait to get the bridal couple into the veld at sunset… so please please pray that the rain stops!
6. What was the last thing you photographed? The dogs… yesterday… yes… that’s right… I took NO photos today at all.  First day I’ve missed this year.  I even had my camera in the boot of the car and didn’t even use it!

What happens to clothes that don’t sell at local retailers?

Burghbaby wrote a blog post about what she’d heard from various sources about what H&M does (and it seems other retailers too based on the comments she’s received)…. they destroy them in the stores and then chuck them in the dumpsters.

I find that shocking, but it got me wondering about what happens here.

I can’t say what happens at other retailers but when I worked at Woolworths years ago; if the stores didn’t sell a range, it was sent to another store where it was selling. If that wasn’t an option, or it didn’t sell there, it was put on sale. If it didn’t sell on sale, after a number of markdowns, all the end of sale items were sent to one of the inner city stores, where they were sold for a pittance.

I have no idea what happened after that. But, I’m almost sure it wasn’t destroyed.

What a waste of good clothing if that’s what actually happens in South Africa too!

If you follow me on Twitter and FB you would have noticed that I’ve changed my picture to this one with me and a Christmas hat… well… iMod is running a challenge at the moment and the first 500 people to change their photos to include a photo of themselves with a Christmas hat will get R2 donated on their behalf to Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and FeistyFemale (Beverley Merriman) will match the donation

http://imod.co.za/2009/12/01/twismas-time/

What are you waiting for?!!

Change your photo and add your name to his list, it’s for a great cause!

Again with the randomness:

1.  I’ll be announcing something this week.  It’s big for me.  I’m just not ready to say anything yet.. too many people read my blog.  And no, I’m not pregnant and it’s not about photography or Lance or the kids!

2.  I’m not sure how I’m going to finish all this editing this week.

3.  I’ve got my last charity thing for the year tomorrow.  I’m donating a whole lot of pre-loved toys and clothes to a squatter camp creche in Soweto.  Should be interesting.  One of our client’s at work told us about the place, so we’re going to help them out a little too.

4.  On Wednesday morning I’m driving 130km to a photoshoot on a farm! My oath, hope I get there in time.  I’m going to have to get up at sparrows fart to get there by 9am.

5.  I’m seriously thinking of taking leave on Thursday and Friday

6.  PANIC… I’m no closer with my Xmas shopping

7.  It’s bookclub on Tuesday night and we’ve done a secret santa thing again… what fun!

I know… I haven’t posted in a few days… I promised I’ve thought about it.

Then I get open my blog, and can’t think of the topic that was on my mind the entire day!

I just can’t think straight at the moment.  So here are a couple of random thoughts for you from this week:

• Everytime I go shopping for Xmas pressies for everyone, I end up buying something I really need
• I saw the most divine handbags in Truworths in the Ginger Mary collection, and I actually resisted it! Wonders never cease… but only because I couldn’t decide on which colour to get!
• Bought the most gorgeous olive green dress last week that I’m going to wear tomorrow, with a bead necklace that my aunt, Kathy, made me (my mom came back from CT bearing gifts) and I promise I’ll take a photo of the necklace this week, Tanya, it’s quite something to behold!
• The kids are both sick with acute tonsillitis so we’ve had a wonderful weekend. In fact, the GP told Lance (he took the boys because I was a a shoot) that Connor needs his tonsils removed because he’s had tonsillitis 5 times this year.  Ho hum… so much for that stupid medical aid letter a few weeks ago advising me to reduce my cover!
• The house is driving me nuts, something breaks every week!
• This coming week is going to be very emotional for me… visiting 2 childrens homes and 1 squatter camp school and taking photos at all 3.
• My shootsac is on it’s way to me!! It’s arrived at my cousin’s house in the US, and she’s bringing it to SA when she comes to visit family for Xmas… then it’s just to somehow get it to JHB from CT!
• I still haven’t made a call about buying the lens though (the Canon 70-200mm f2.8)… it’s SO much money… but I do need it for the weddings next year.  It will get here the same way, so I’d better make that call in the next day or so!
• I missed a shoot at an airbase yesterday because I stupidly got my dates mixed up! I could shoot myself actually!! But apparently they’re going to organise another one there, because there was too much to take in for one session.
• We still haven’t got a dog, we’re lazy that way
• The Christmas tree is up… but Father Christmas didn’t listen to the angel and take the letter out of the fireplace last night… Ooops… so Bradley was a little upset this morning.
• My word, you should see their wishlists though… and that reminds me, I need to do a wishlist of my own.

PS!  Does anyone know of anyone who knows how to use a sewing machine and overlocker and would be willing to teach the carers at a childrens home in Kelvin Johannesburg how to use the machines they got given?  Please let me know using comments or via Twitter or Facebook!

I’ve heard the most terrible heartwrenching stories in the last week, and I haven’t had a chance to blog about them yet.  This morning’s story was a little closer to home though, and it made me realise how many people rely on me, or rather us, to bring in a income to our household.

If you live in South Africa, take a moment to think about how many people your salary supports.  I don’t think this exercise can be done as easily in non-African countries as you don’t have people working in your house generally.

Right, here’s our list…

• Me, Lance and our 2 kids… that is what you normally think about and that’s normal.

But in our case, as with most South Africans, that’s not actually true.  Our list also includes:

• Lance’s mom – we pay rent for her and give her spending money because she’s on a govt pension
• The gardener – he lives alone but I’m not sure how many people his salary supports
• Our domestic worker, Beauty and her extended family – and this is where the list grows long.  Beauty and I often have chats in the morning before I leave for work so I know a lot about her family and home life.  On her salary she is supporting her husband (he lost his job in 2008), a 20 year old son who finished matric last year and hasn’t been able to find work (until now… he’s actually just got a contract job until Feb), and a 16year old son at school.  And then on top of this her eldest son has made his 18 year old girlfriend pregnant and her story is below.

So in total, our income supports 11 people that we know about.  Quite scary, isn’t it?!

Anyway, that’s my preamble… a long one I know… but here’s the important story and the one that threw me this morning.

Beauty’s son met this girl while they were at school together, and she’s now pregnant.  That’s actually the easy bit to the story.  Beauty was highly upset about what he’d done, but there’s very little she can do about it, except give support and help.  A (have no idea what her name is) is in matric this year and the baby is due in February.

She updated me on the saga this morning.  Apparently A’s mom kicked her out of the house 3 months ago because A refused to have an abortion, and A has been living in a shelter in Hillbrow since then (Beauty doesn’t have the space in her house)! Imagine kicking your daughter out of home, knowing that she’s in matric!

Beauty has been feeding her on my leftovers since then, and has been clothing her with all my old clothes that I give Beauty to sell for extra money.  Sometimes Beauty doesn’t go home with leftovers because we’re not exactly rolling in dough atm and I’m trying to be careful with overspending. And on those days, A doesn’t eat or only eats the one meal of soup and mielie rice she  gets from the shelter.  She was living in her school uniform until I chucked out some clothes (not knowing that this was happening).  And she only got a pillow when I replaced my pillows a few weeks ago.

A, however, has actually studied during this time, and amazingly finished ALL her exams! Isn’t that incredible? Not sure whether I’d have been able to do that.

How can you, as a mother, abandon your child like that? It’s beyond me.  It doesn’t matter to me how cross she may have made you, but to know that your child is not getting food to feed your grandchild and is living in a dangerous shelter and do NOTHING about it, is completely beyond my comprehension.