The Fey Family

Hello everybody, My name is Tyson. I am going to tell you about what I do and see when I go out with my mom and dad to centers. First I will tell you a little about myself. I used to go to a school called Bethesda which is not that far away from where we live now. My family and I have moved twice since we moved to South Africa I am 12 turning 13 on June 16. I am doing home-school, I mostly do school on the computer, but sometimes go out with my parents to do stuff with them.  I think my mom and dad have a very important roll in “Take Action.” My mom goes out and does surveys of the centers. My dad does “Busetsa” stuff like finances. “Busetsa” is a wood working place that is a great place that you can get gifts or other nice things. I have 3 friends that live on the property of “Busetsa,” the property is called “Butterfly.” If you are wondering what that weird word means, it means to take back or renew. My dad also does the Woolies and pick and pay food, which are stores ...

Do you know what my life is full of right now? Rodents and good intentions. The rodents are irritating. Mice of all sizes including tiny kangaroo mice and rats have invaded our house. First we saw their poop and crackers with rodent sized bites taken out of them. Then we started to find piles of dog food around the house. Now we are seeing the rodents themselves. They are quite at home here; popping behind the TV stand while we sit and watch Little House on the Prairie with the kids, no more hiding out until night time to appear. Oh no, not our little friends. We put down piles of poison. PILES. It all disappears, and still the mice and rats are just here. So cute, right? It is gross. I am annoyed when I lay in my bed at night and hear the rustling of rodents in my kitchen and even in my bedroom. Sadly, I have kind of reached the point where I am like "Meh, we've got rodents in the house. Whatev". The good intentions are also irritating. There are things I want ...

If you have read my last few posts, you will remember when I talked about 2017 being a year of new things, one of which was my desire to finally take my passion for children with disabilities and do something more than just talking about it. So far this year I have observed a therapy program in Madagascar  , met with some therapists at Jubilee Hospital and delivered a letter requesting meeting space to the CEO of the hospital. I am still waiting for a reply on that. Today I stepped a bit deeper into things and visited Ntuthuko Stimulation Centre in Soshanguve, which was less than 45 minutes from our house. I didn't take many pictures, so please check out their website (link above) to see what is happening there. What I did do was meet with Christinah, a physiotherapist who founded Ntuthuko almost 4 years ago, along with my friend Debbie from Abba's Pride and Annah, Amo's mama. Christinah is working at a hospital, a good job that allows her to provide for her family. Ho...

Let's just say that by calling this post Madagascar 2017, I am hoping to someday have a post called Madagascar 2018 or 2020. We had a fantastic time in Madagascar! It was nothing like we expected, but everything we could have hoped for. There were three main purposes for this trip: 1. Darin is taking on a new role with his distribution of water filters.  He is now working with Business Connect out of Grandville, MI as their SEAD, Southern and Eastern Africa Director. He will be responsible for setting up and mentoring new distributors in 21 countries in those regions of Africa.  This trip was his first visit to another country in that capacity. Before he was given the opportunity for this new position, he had already made contact with someone who he hoped would become a distributor in Madagascar, Fitah, a graduate of Calvin College who my dad introduced to Darin via email a couple years ago. Fitah had arranged around 12 meetings ahead of our arrival with various NGO...

It is Wednesday morning and I am alone in the house. Jori headed off to school today; a new year and she is now in Grade 6!! My baby is a 6 th grader! She was a bit nervous to head out the door today as her big brother was not with her in the car; A new school year for sissy at the same school, a new school year for brother in a new school. Today is the first day of #schooloffey, which is homeschooling and unschooling (don’t roll your eyes) and just being with our boy. He will learn. He’s too smart not to, and we will learn as well. Right now the house is quiet because Darin had to run errands and took #schooloffey on the road. I did actually come up with a writing assignment for Tyson, but he can work on it this afternoon or tomorrow. After that, it will have to wait because mom and dad will be packing up and flying off to Madagascar for 8 days and Tys will be learning with the Oosthuizen kids at their place for a week. We are thankful for friends who will watch our kids and tea...

I have started and stopped our annual letter no less than 5 times. I am not sure why I am struggling to get it written this year, but thought I would try one last time today. January : A busy month for sure! We moved into a new house, we got a dog and the kids started Grade 5 and Grade 7. Tyson First day of Grade 7 Jori First day of Grade 5 Nala Then Nala Now We also enjoyed a visit from Grandma Karen. She helped us with SO many things at our new house both inside and out. Taking time from cleaning to show the kids something Grandma Karen project...She even fed them the icing straight from the pouch :) Expert weed puller and yard raker! Miss O’s adoptive family arrived to bring their girl home! February : We said goodbye to Grandma Karen and we even had a baby duck in our house for one night…then it died. Duck March : Papa and Gram arrived! We handed out a lot of socks and underwear and went out to celebrate some bi...