Back to School!

Today marks the two year anniversary of Alys foreman Aprils death. I never met this man, but from the pictures I have seen and the joy and inspiration he seems to have instilled in life and death, I know he was a great man. I do know for a fact that he would have been unbelievably proud of Aly and the school she has built in his memory. This is truly a sad day, and I wish I had been able to meet this remarkable man. I am just grateful of knowing Aly, and the fact I've had the chance to be part of this world. With this school April's memory will never die, and his daughter Sara will undoubtedly go on to have a happy, joyful life. R.I.P April.

Do you know what it is like eating your cornflakes in the morning, minding your own business, and then finding you have a mad chicken behind your seat who crows in your ear? I almost pooed myself this morning when it happened. I swear, I am going to put MJ the rooster in the next soup I make if he keeps this up. It is finally warming up, although you wouldn’t guess it from what I was wearing. I have an interesting collection of hats here in varying degrees of madness. I got myself all ready for the day and headed off to feed Cade and Chloe and I almost died again, Godfrey the evil goat, had gotten into the nursery and was staring right at me as I fed Chloe. Me and Godfrey have never gotten on, ever since he rammed me up against a fence and pierced my stomach with his horns. He is pure evil; just his face can put the fear of God into anyone. Haha, so no, not a good morning in terms of animals this morning, but at the rate I am going to have so many animals on my black list that I am gonna be able to cook a beautiful spread of MJ soup and Godfrey burgers.

Today was the first day back at school for the kids, ironically, only five turned up! The rest were sick! But this often happens the week after pay day as the parents are mostly inebriated and don’t care for their kids as they should. But, in the end it was a blessing in disguise as we have no other volunteer here until Monday, so a small class was A-OK with me! As I was setting up school and Aly went to get the kids I got a frantic phone call from Aly saying it was Patience’s ‘birthday’ today. It is not in fact her birthday for another two weeks, but the parents rarely have any idea what day the birthday is on, so it turned out they decided it was today. Apparently they let the kids know by dumping cold water on them when they are sleeping. I am dubious about the legitimacy of this tradition, but to be on the safe side, I am glad I don’t have a birthday while I am here! So, we had the two birthday girls Charlotte (turning 6) and Patience (turning 4) in their crowns (I had to frantically make Patience’s in about 4minutes due to the late notice, but I don’t think she noticed. I have seen far too many episodes of Art Attack to not be able to make a crown in lightening speed). We are missing our last volunteer Uli very much; especially her guitar playing, I just don’t think my musical efforts with the tambourine cut it with the kids, no matter how well I rocked it. Sadly, I am musically challenged, and the best I can give you is a damn fine recital of Yankee Doodle on the piano…..we don’t have a piano.

Birthday Girls! Charlotte and patience! Soo cute, they were so excited by their crowns!

Working on a puzzle

It was a good day of puzzles and colouring, followed by playdo. They didn’t quite grasp the playdo idea when they just kept telling me to make things for them. Not quite what I had in mind, but it was a nice ego boost to see their astonished faces when I made a fried egg and a car. In the end they got into it and started making cakes and pretending to sell them. Grace was quite the prudent sales woman and demanded her cake back when Chris would pay the R5 for his slice haha.

Oh! And we have a new patio coming along! It is being built outside so the kids have somewhere to eat, and so when the rain comes, we aren’t knee deep in mud when trying to eat a sandwich. It is looking really lovely and I can’t wait to post pictures of it when it is finished. The school is looking so nice now, so proud!

After school Aly and I spent the afternoon making arts and crafts stations for the kids to work at tomorrow. We spent ages on it and I think they are gonna love it! Although, I may regret saying that when we have to clean up the horrendous mess I am envisioning. Oh god, the glitter is gonna be everywhere. It’s gonna be like sand, it will get everywhere, we will sneeze glitter….I will not be responsible for any glitter related accidents that may take place tomorrow haha

In other news, I got a call from the teacher Taryn from Klipspruit Combined School (the big school where Grace, Charlotte, Sara, Maggi, Chris, and Oupa are heading to in January) and hey would like me to go help out with their grade one to three’s after I am done with my school 1:30-3pm. I am going to see what it is like, I need to see if I can manage it because it will end up being a looooong day for me if I do that, especially since I need to cycle half an hour there and back to do it. But I would love to. The kids are left for two hours to their own devices until the bus comes and I am sure they would benefit from a bit of Rosie madness. But we shall see how I do when I start on Monday!

Anyway, good evening all. Glitter madness tomorrow. I shall keep you updated as always  xxxxx