Having Breakfast with my granddaughter and my Rwandan family.


Clockwise, from left: Me, Alice, Hannah, Joshua and Tanika.


Saturday was breakfast time with my granddaughter, Tanika, Alice and her adorable children . In fact, I have three grandchildren because I have adopted Alice and Albert's children  - Joshua and Hannah - as my grandchildren.

I have known Alice and Albert for a while now because we belong to the same church, St. Marks. Whenever we see each other at the church service, Joshua and Hannah come and greet their 'Grandmamma' ever so excitedly.

The adventurers with their painted faces


Today was our breakfast date, a treat to celebrate the beginning of the school holidays for Joshua and Tanika.  Tanika chose the Spur in Tokai because of the generous indoor and outdoor play areas.


While the children were having their faces painted and exploring all the games, Alice and I had a wonderful conversation. Alice and Albert are Rwandan refugees. Albert has recently qualified as a male nurse while Alice is studying occupational therapy. And they have two beautiful kids to raise.

Alice and me.

"It's not easy studying and raising a family," said Alice. " When I come from university then I still have to cook and settle the kids.  I am only able to study at night when Joshua and Hannah are asleep. There are many students like me that just give up. They were doing well, but they couldn't cope with the pressure. It's tough, but we have managed to get this far.

Alice explained that she had to learn to speak English when she came to South Africa.

" I speak our traditional language and French. I only knew a little English and then did a course to improve my English.  You can imagine how difficult it was for me to study in English as well."


We learned more about each other during this breakfast date than all our conversations at church. After a gorgeous two hours, Tanika and I dropped off Alice and her children.

Hannah and Joshua designing their own waffle.

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