Travelog post for: Threadbear

Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally. 

~David Frost


Today is the day! All our months of hard work, all the months of you wonderful people sending in bears that you have collected...

We have reached our goals and it feels wonderful! I am about to achieve two of my life’s missions and that feels fantastic too...

Every last bear is boxed up, prepped and ready to go. There have been a few tears of course (mine mostly) it is sad to see friends go; But it is with a light heart that we separate as we know what special duty awaits each bear.

MrsC's friend Lara is here to help with transport. Lara's Mom Stephanie has also arrived to help. She has brought more bears!



We all push and shove and manage to fill the back of the Vito in an acceptable and orderly manner.



Gracy is coming too, she has helped so much and she also wants to drop off some of her soft toys in the same building.



Little Hector helps up front.



Eventually, we are off and on our way.

We arrived at the TMI building (Transvaal Memorial Institute - more about that in a minute) and unload the whole van in one go

Luckily the lifts are enormous and we manage to fit it all in in one go. It is still a bit of a squeeze...look at poor Lara behind all those boxes!



We announce our arrival at reception. They are very surprised at how many bears we have brought...



The boxes are stacked in the corridor; they will be put away in storage until they are needed. Luckily the bears are used to sitting around!



MrsC and I take Hector around for a look as it is one of his life's missions to visit the clinic.



This is the psychologist’s office (it was empty so we sneaked in) the other side is a bit more attractive, I promise!



He was very saddened by how dark and dreary the clinic was, but very excited to see all the bears...and boy are there lots of bears!



Once we had said our goodbyes we headed up with Gracy to Bigshoes.



This clinic is nice and bright and has a happier feel to it...

She was dropping off some soft toys for the Abandoned Baby Clinic which is part of Bigshoes.



This is where they examine the babies.



There was no clinic running when we got there so we popped in one of the cots for a bit of fun.



We said goodbye to the clinic sister and had a little look around the building as Lara had never been there before.

The building is known as the Transvaal Memorial Institute -TMI for short. Is was exclusively a children’s hospital that was run by the government. Once the huge New Johannesburg Hospital was built in the late 1970's, the children’s hospital moved over there.





This building became a children’s outpatient department. It is now exclusively occupied by NGO (Non Government Organisation) Children’s Clinics. (And although it is stilled called the TMI - the province has changed name from Transvaal to Gauteng)

This is a list of the clinics in the building. I will be back soon to help Gracy drop off more toys.