Day 1 of our visit to this beautiful land. We arrived this morning after an 11hr flight into Joburg. First scary moment was nearly missing our connecting flight due to missing tripod flight case. Undetered by keen porters, Alex and Sam guided the trolley up the escalator and we made our flight to East London. It’s on the east coast of South Africa about half way down.

Second scary moment… We managed to miss the right road and took a 100km detour past the most dangerous school in the country (we later found out).

We are staying in a township called Bholotwa in an old missionary building, which was derelict for years. Now the most wonderful place. Basic and beautiful. The water is running low, we eat by candlelight because the generator keeps the neighbours awake and we cook for ourselves. Life is ruled by the sun here. We were warmly welcomed by Heidi and Monika, two amazing women, of whom more, later and David who is also over here from the UK, Roni the housekeeper and her rather flea ridden dog who has a great smile. Gerald and Alex were soon into the swing of things collecting wood for the brai. Gerald has been freaking Sam out with tales of poisonous snakes and scorpions…..

The house is surrounded by mountains and our distant neighbours live in the shacks in Bholotwa. As the sun went down, the stars came out. We located the Southern Cross and the view of the Milky Way was incredible. So our first impressions are of the deafening silence and the darkness.

Tomorrow we are visiting Illinge, site of the first Isibindi project in the area.

View of Bholotwa:

A very happy Christmas from all of us here at WebsEdge.

Being our first Christmas as WebsEdge we’ve decided to do something a bit diferent. Instead of sending out the usual gifts to all our friends we’re supporting Isibindi projects in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. As many of you will know Isibindi is Zulu for courage. Isibindi’s are partnerships between the local church and the National Association of Child Care Workers to create circles of care for children affected by HIV/AIDS and poverty. Three such projects are now in operation in the villages of Illinge, Ezebeleni and Alice. Each project has a small building and safe park where children can play freely, receive support, learn, receive understanding and care.

So this year we’re donating money to buy playground equipment for the children of Alice. As producers of global health tv we feel this is particularly appropriate for us and hope to build further links as time goes on. Indeed, we even hope to film some of our programmes there later in the year. I’ll be posting updates of how we get on here on the blog so stay tuned!

The revolution we’re all currently witnessing in television production and disemination is certainly making the world a smaller place. We can all access information that interests us from all round the world whenever we want it. At WebsEdge we also think that places a responsibility on us to do whatever we can to help where help’s needed.

Happy Christmas!