PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA KEEPS HIS PROMISE!

Hi Guys,

This week has been a real fun week. Our computer lessons were so fantastic! I am very keen to become good on the computer so that we can improve our blogstories and make it more interesting for you guys. Maybe it’s not such a good thing, but I think about you all the time. I love you guys! Every day I just can't wait to get home so that I can see if our world is any greener. You know that we now have friends in Latvia, Bulgaria, Russia and China all reading our blogstories, and those countries are very, very light green on our map. Isn’t that so cool? 

On Friday I went to the Beer Museum, the Apartheid Museum and the Africa Museum with some of the volunteers. It was awesome, and I even drank some beer at the Beer Museum. (Don't tell my Mom.  She will not be very happy with me!  She will say -- JESSE!  Don't you know you are under aged?  But it was only like a sip or two.  Not very nice, anyway!) While we were there at the Africa Museum, I looked up and couldn’t believe my eyes ... I even rubbed my eyes and looked twice ... because sitting there quite a way away, was my Uncle Berend! All the way from East London!  I just yelled and said, -- Hey, there’s my Uncle Berend – and the volunteers said – Where are you going?—and I just said – TO MY UNCLE! -- I jumped down the stairs and ran through the ladies and men and hugged my Uncle. My lovely, lovely Uncle!  He is my mother’s big brother and my mother adores him. And then Uncle Berend said, -- Is your Mother okay? – and I said, -- Yes, she is doing fine. -- And Uncle Berend said, -- Does she have the flu? --- and I said – Kinda –  And then I had to leave.

Do you know what my Mom said?  She said that PAUL is a Media Junkie and Kieran and I are Blog Monkeys!  LOL!  LOL!

Oh, well she said that about Paul because he has been in the Newspapers again last week.  Lots of Goverment people and ANC people went to Frances Vorwerg, his school, and brought food parcels and stuff for that school.  I don't really know why they brought food parcels.  I suppose there might be some real poor children in that school.  But not Paul.  We're not poor.

After that we found out that Paul was in the newspapers again.  The papers said things like : ZUMA LEGACY CONTINUES.  And it told the whole story about Paul all over again, and how he asked the President to come to his school, way back in June.  You can read that story in our June Blog.

But the best thing about it is that President Zuma kept his promise to Paul and his WHOLE SCHOOL went to watch the Moroko Swallows and Kaizer Chiefs game at Soccer City on Saturday.  Paul was SO excited the night before.  He just kept saying, -- Does Mommy know?  Does Mommy know that I am going to soccer with the President on Saturday? -- and Pippa kept say, YES PAUL!  I did tell Mommy.

Ah Shame!  But when poor Paul got to the soccer match guess what happened?  President Zuma could not make it because he had to go and visit the RUSSIAN President.  So some of the government people were there instead, but Paul was very disappointed.  I think lots of those kids must have been disappointed.   But look, the President has to do his job, right?  He can't just be taking kids to soccer matches and stuff.  I mean maybe he is stopping a nuclear war or something.  But he did keep his promise because he said .. HE WOULD ORGANISE SOMETHING ~ and he did!  

Anyway, Paul was so depressed and disappointed. 
And Mommy's not even at home to give him a cuddle and make him feel better.

I also played a lot of basketball with my friends at school last week. Gee! It was such fun. I love sports. I’m usually good at doing sporty stuff.

Mom is the one who usually helps us with the blog but she's down at Postinia now so its probably not going to be that JAZZY.  But we will do our best and you will get the news anyway.

Hello Everyone!

Jesse, where is Latvia?

I'll show you on the map when we finished Kieran. But its high up at the top of the world.

What?  At the top of the world?

Yes! It like high up there, past England and Russia and past Lithuana even. Imagine how freezing it must be up there? I'll show you later Kieran we need to do our stuff now. So get on with your news.

Okay. You see Mom didn't come home last Sunday like we thought she would and then we found Maria dead in a hole and we cried all afternoon. So, of course I was sick on Monday. And I didn’t go to school on Monday because I was vomiting and Pippa said ... -- Oh no! Bed for you today, Buddy!-- But do you know what happens every time I stay at home? Everybody has a real fun day at school, all because I am not there. Then when I go back? It’s just boring, boring, boring old school again.

You know what I found out? I found out that my teacher reads our blog! Wow ... just as well I’m brown, or you would see my blushing! But I just want to tell my lovely Teacher, Miss Spinas Thank You for giving me a Star this week. My Mom is really happy and proud of me. And I am doing well in technology too, I got 65%! I did pass my report. Oh my word, I am so happy! Hip hip hooray! Because I’m sad to say, some of my brother’s aren’t THAT lucky!

We had to do this dance at school called Alvin and the Chipmunks Dance. I think I am Alvin. I can mimic him very well and I can sound just like him. I think there is a very good chance that I will be an actor when I grow up. My sister, Pippa, and my mother always laugh when I say I am going to sing. Well, that’s another reason I am keen to get this blogstory stuff working. It might be a way of becoming famous ... and getting to Hollywood! LOL!

I was so happy last week because my teacher said I worked very hard and I was so proud of myself. Because I never heard one of my Grade 4 teachers say that I worked very hard before.

School doesn’t like me ... that is why I don’t like school. School is not my type of thing. I don’t mind doing the work, but I get so t-i-r-e-d at school and I struggle too much. My hands swell up. And my feet swell up and I don’t like it. And I am scared if the teachers say ... – So? Everybody’s fingers swell up! What's the matter with you?  Now just get on with your work, because that’s not so important, it’s not like you are going to die! -- That’s what my mind tells me. But the teachers don’t really say that. Mostly the teachers are really kind and gentle with me because they know I have this serious heart problem.

Especially Miss Spinas. She never says ugly things like that to me because she is always sweet and kind to me and I like her so much. Sometimes she gives me Stars when I work well. Also I think Miss Spinas is the prettiest teacher in the school. She has the most beautiful blue eyes and the most loveliest, plump cheeks. She has shiny brownish-blackish hair. And her eyelashes are so lovely, especially when she calls me and she's like ... – K-i-e-r-a-n? In a cute kind of voice and then she wiggles her eyelashes.

Kieran don't put that in here.  She reads the blog.  She's going to beat you!

Oh Jesse, our teachers don't beat us!  Anyway, what's wrong with saying my teacher's pretty.  Its a compliment.

Do you know white people’s eyelashes are much longer than brown people’s. But one day I saw some brown girls with REALLY long eyelashes. I was astonished! I thought they came from some kind of tribe or island or something -- like Madagascar. But then my big brother Reuel said ... – Don’t be daft, Kieran. Those things are fake, man! -- Fake eyelashes? Whoever heard of such a thing? I wonder how they get them stuck on. Maybe they have to go to the doctor and get them stitched on. Yikes!

Then yesterday we were supposed to go to Soccer because Pippa was given some money to take us, when somebody heard that Paul was going and felt sorry for us. But then all the tickets were sold out. That was terrible and we were very disappointed. But then Pippa decided to take us to Zoo Lake where we spent the day and had a lovely braai.

I almost got beaten up there by these three wild boys. I was sitting on the ground and they were climbing on stuff that they were not supposed to climb on. So I told them to get off. My brother James (Pippa's son on the right) was with me. These boys wanted to fight with us because we told them what to do.  So every time we were trying to walk away, they followed us. It was a bit scary, actually, knowing I have a heart problem and all.  They could have been kiddy gangsters ... or gangsters in training.  So, I got nervous.  I didn't know what to do.

I just said, -- come on James and we walked even faster till we got to the slides.  Then one of those big boys caught up with me and started pushing me and he pushed me over.  And guess what happened?  James -- who is only 8 -- just jumped between us and said ... You better leave my brother alone, or I'll call my other brother and he'll tell the President!  -- And that guy was like ... -- WHAT? -- And James said -- My other brother is at Soccer City with the President (We didn't know that he was in Russia, actually) so you better watch out!  If you hurt one of us, you will be in serious trouble. -- Then the big guy burst out laughing and all of them were laughing and laughing.  Holding their bellies and laughing!

Just then my brother Thabang (on the left) ran past and I called him and I told the laughing guys to ask him who my brother Paul was at the soccer with.  And Thabang said the President.  And then they stopped laughing quicker than a hiccup and just walked away.  LOL!  LOL!  That was the coolest thing I ever saw.  Man, what Mom says is true ... It's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know that matters!

Pippa let us cook our own sausages and lamb chops. That was awesome. 

And this morning Zoe woke us all up and said -- From now on, on Sundays, we are all going to get up and make a real, big, Jarvis family, Farm Breakfast!  Then we are going to sit down together and eat!"  And so we did.  Dangit, what a pity Mom wasn't here.  It was great!  And we are going to do that EVERY SUNDAY from now on!  PLUS ... I made breakfast for Theo (the volunteer) and he gave me R10!  SCORE!!

Then lastly, we want to tell you something very serious.  We weren't trying to be mean in our last blog when we said those things about the other parishes we were in.  Those were just things that happened, but it was good, because now we are in a church where we are loved.  

This morning the priest from that other church was in OUR parish celebrating Mass, because our priest is in Poland trying to find some money for bricks and cement to build our church with.  Kieran and I just looked at each other when he walked down the aisle because our hearts were bothering us about the things we said.  Kieran and I get the same pains about things at the same time.  This was one of those times.  We do know that that priest was very nice to us when we were in that other church and we loved him a lot.  So we don't want anybody to think bad things about him.  It was just the people in his church that didn't accept us.  But it wasn't his fault.

So, I think that's the end of the story.  We will be back next week!

We love you guys!  BYE!