THOU SHALT NOT STEAL

Hello Friends,

Well, I was feeling a bit bored so I asked Mom if I could put up a kind of half-week blog and she said'Sure, Jesse but you must know that I am very busy so I won't be able to help you right away.'  I said 'Ok Mom.'

Well, On Monday Rhys was in the playground and a huge Rinkhals (snake) came out of the bamboo and the dogs all started barking at it and trying to chase it away from the little toddlers who were playing in the playground with the volunteers. Overseas a Rinkhals is called a spitting cobra.  Rhys was very scared because the volunteers don’t know about snakes and he kept yelling at them ... take those babies away. Get those babies out of the way. But they were just standing there, and the babies were just gaping at him and he got quite frustrated.

A rinkhals is a very dangerous snake because it can spit very far and it spits at your eyes. It’s dangerous for little toddlers because they are low on the ground. So when Rhys came inside he was shaking because he was so worried about the little kids and the volunteers, that they did not run away when they saw the snake. He told Mom ... We have to teach those volunteers about snakes and we even need to train those babies to be afraid of snakes and not just to stand there staring at the thing. And Mom said, .. But Rhys, they are still very small, they won’t understand yet. Some of them are not even three yet. Rhys just left and grumbled ... Well, its very dangerous! He said. We have to do SOMETHING.

Hello Friends on the Blog,  My Mom’s friend bought her a whole bunch of shrubs and flowers and two trees for her garden at Postinia. She is so happy. She was just smiling and smiling, and before she had been kind of sad. On Sunday Brendon and Matthew helped her to water them and stuff, and on Monday Bernard and Robert started to plant them for her. They look beautiful. We wanted her to take some pictures for the blog ... but she said ... Let’s wait until they have settled in for a bit.

We heard Mom and Pippa talking and saying that some of the children’s homes like ours have closed down because they don’t have enough money. Mom is trying lots of new ways to bring in the money now because she says the old way does not work anymore. Companies don’t have money to give away anymore like they used to, and the government still doesn’t help by giving us money. But she told us not to worry, because we are not a Children’s Home. We are a family. And we will stay together no matter what. She said, we will always have our farm, and we will trust God that we will have food and the basic things. Staying together like a family is the most important thing.  Mom says that God started TLC and he is not confused.  He doesn't make mistakes.

We were glad to hear that, because my Mom’s friend Maxi and two of her other friends who have children’s homes had to let some of their children go to other places because they didn’t have enough money, and I would hate it if that happened to us. Imagine, if we were not together anymore? We are lucky that we have my Mom and Pippa and Rhys and Joanna, and Zoë and even Faith. I know that we will never break up like other places do.

STEALING

Last week when there were only a few of us here because 4 went to Kudu with Fiona, Theresa and Ellen went to Ellen’s Dad’s memorial and some of the Tigers were also out. So in the afternoon we watched the last of the movie series, 4400. After that we had supper and then Mom called us all together for a meeting in the DEN (that is what we have started to call the Homework Room).  We called it that because it is so nice and cosy, cool and quiet and Mom and Pippa have put a lounge suite in there now, and they play Scrabble in there while we are all working and playing on the computers.  It’s so cool, we all love it. Being together like that is so nice.

So, we all went to the Den to see what the meeting was about. And then Mom was looking very sad and she told us that Tammy (the nursery volunteer manager) had just come to tell her very bad news. Tammy said that somebody climbed through the window in her cottage and stole R100 out of her purse. And then later she came again and told Mom that not only did they steal the R100 but they also stole R600 of the vegetable money that they were supposed to take to the market to buy vegetables. We were all thinking ... and thinking ... who could do such a thing? And each one of us was hoping that nobody would blame US.

Mom told us to remember that Collen and Abram (they were our kitchen staff) and they stole Crispin’s cellphone and would not own up. And do you know what happened? They brought in the Lie Detective people and they put lie detective machines on all the staff and then they found out that it was Collen and Abram who stole the cellphone.  (They are brothers)  Mom loved them a lot and was so sad when she found out for sure it was them.  And because Mom loved them so much, she still gave them a chance and said if they brought the phone back and promised not to steal anymore, then she would forgive them and we would forget about it. But they would not and said that she was just being mean to them because they were from Zimbabwe.

Well, then they had to leave and got fired and even though they phone Mom every week now and say sorry, and sorry and sorry over and over again, and say  if Mom let's them come back they promise they will never ever steal anything again.  But Mom said it’s too late now. She can’t trust them anymore. The time for sorry is over.

So Mom told us to think about what happened to Collen and Abram because she would have to treat this thief who stole the money from Tammy’s cottage, just the same. So we were all very worried, because what if the lie detective machine said it was us and it wasn’t? Mom said that that machine did not make mistakes, but we were all still very worried.

So Mom told us to remember that we do have a rule here at TLC. And that rule is if you make a mistake and you go to Mom straight away and tell her about it, then she will never punish you. But if you leave it for long, and if you never tell her, and she finds out for herself by some other way, then she will definitely have to punish you. So, she said that she would give the thief one last chance. And if that thief comes and repents to her before she goes to sleep, then there is still time to forgive, even though there will have to be consequences.

So, then the next day we heard that a CERTAIN PERSON came to Mom just before she went to sleep and told her that they knew who stole the money. So Mom said WHO was it? And the person said they could not tell, because they would get into big, big, VERY BIG trouble if they told. So Mom said, it was not helping that this person was not telling her who the thief was. So the person said ... Mom must swear to God that she will not tell one single person in the whole world ... if that person told her who the thief was.

And then Mom said ... FAIR ENOUGH ... I make that solemn promise that this information will stay between me and you. And then that person said ... “MOM, IT WAS ME. I WAS THE THIEF.”  Mom was very surprised, shocked and disappointed because she never thought this person would steal. So she talked to that person for a long time, and the next day we heard that it was all over. But Mom said there will still be consequences for this person, but we will never know who it is ... because Mom promised.

We are all curious to know who it is, but Mom says we have to mind our own business. Still we are all very happy that it is over and that we don’t have to get the blame for something we did not do. And in my heart I am proud of that person for telling the truth. That must have been a very brave and scary thing to do. I wonder if I would have been so brave.  I don't think so but then I would have had to face the lie detective.  Brrrrr!

FAMILY FOCUS

RAYNE

Rayne is Joanna’s youngest child. He is 8 years old. His birthday is on the 2nd December.  He is Joanna's 4th heart-kid, her 4th son and her fifth child. He is a very funny boy. Sometimes we call him Rayne-Beau, just to be funny. It’s like a nick-name.  He is kind of quiet but gets up to a lot of mischief too. He loves to play with the ‘tigers’. Those are the 5 and 6 year old kids. I think he likes them because he can boss them around and gets them to do all kinds of silly stuff.

He is kind of cute as well and often makes us laugh because he says real silly things sometimes. Because of school he has to wear his hair short, but in the school holidays he lets his hair grow long and its very curly and cute. He is kind of light skinned. Maybe he is mixed race or something. I guess we don’t know, but maybe Joanna knows. He is a little bit like Taylor and Theresa when it comes to telling tall tales about us and getting us into trouble because he can be a bit spiteful when he is cross. Mom and Joanna never believe us bigger boys. They always just stick up for the little kids, and those little kids know it and they can get very mean sometimes.

I guess because he is the youngest in the family he is quite spoiled as well and Joanna never shouts at him when he is naughty, like we would get shouted at. When the office was still up by the nursery he used to wreck the office when nobody was there. He used to go into the cupboards and fiddle with everything. He used to cut up papers and scribble on everything and then whenever Joanna got back she should to say to Mom ... YOUR kids are always messing around with my stuff. Now look at this mess. Then Mom used to get grumpy with us, but in the meantime it was nearly always Rayne.

But still, we DO like him and he is a part of our family and when he is not around we do miss him, and then we always say ... where is Rayne? Has anybody seen Rayne? Because when the smaller kids go missing on the farm, it can be dangerous. There are snakes and all kinds of dangerous gogo’s on the farm, and if a small kid is wandering by themselves they might get into trouble and can’t help themselves.

So that will be the last of Joanna's family. Next we will be doing Pippa and her family.

Bye everybody!