A day in pre school and a night time adventure

I had previously arranged to go into preschool This morning so I reported for duty bright and early.  Here is how it is....80 under 6s turn up at 8 am with their little rucksacks and lunch boxes. 3 teachers, 2 classrooms, a small office sized room, a corridor await them and the fun begins. The day starts with assembly all in one room then they go off to 3 groups. I spent most of my time with the oldest group....the 5 year olds and we learnt the days of the week, the months of the year, a bit of counting and parts of the body. I taught them a couple of songs and then popped into the other rooms to see what they were doing....the 4 year olds were trying to cut out squares in the corridor on tables and the 3 year olds were trying to find red bricks in a pile of Lego which was proving hard for some of them.  I felt happier in the room of older ones so went back to them quite quickly but then it was soon lunch time ( at 10 am)!!!!! Lunch break lasted till 11 and the children helped to take their tables and chairs outside and opened their lunch boxes. Lunch was a variable feast - some children had rice, one had cold fish fingers, one little Indian child had noodles but most had sandwiches of some kind. I surreptitiously touched a few sandwiches which were all toast like.  Bread does not last long out here, it gets very dry very quickly.  Lunch took a while and they had an hour in all before going back into class for a story before going home at 12.  The children loved my hair and skin and spent much of their time playing with it and pulling at my skin. Aside from the children at beautiful gate who have a lot of interaction with white people, the children do not really come into contact with white people at all in their lives.  The children did lots of singing for me which I recorded for a cd I want to make back at home and then I played them the St nicholas children who just happened to have recorded the same song that they sang to me...,standing in the need of prayer '. It was great to join the 2 cultures by music.

I escaped  as soon as I could at 12.15 and came home to wash my hair having had so many sticky fingers through it, and had a quick lunch ( no siesta today) before heading off with Allan to the builders merchants to buy paint and brushes for the English team arriving next week. He had lots of errands to do as he is leaving tomorrow to go back to Australia.  I was privileged to meet lots of interesting people with him, including the M D of the local building company and his wife.  We got back to BG in time to play with the children before bathtime and food. I was pleased to successfully feed a little boy who I had been struggling to feed all week. It was messy but at least he got his food ...I got lots of it  all over me as well but heigh ho...it wasn't as bad as the nappy I had changed just previously.  All in a day's work.

Allan and I were invited to dinner with Wendy and Benno which is always a pleasure.....and their lovely little lad who is growing into s strapping 7 year old. Wendy and Benno are the sort of people who you can talk about anything with and the conversation flowed freely over a lovely supper. Allan is, as I said before heading back to Australia tomorrow so we came home about 9 which was challenging. He was driving the old bake which we had had trouble with up at lancers gap last week. It had been driven successfully many times since but it seems to have a problem when the lights are on.  Bearing in mind the Wendy and Benno live up near the palace and prime ministers house, the given that there is much tension around at the moment with the elections, it was quite an experience coughing and kangarooing home with our lights switched off through the dark streets. We kept having to turn our lights on to encounter roundabouts and then we came across an accident where the police were in attendance so on went the lights again.  We were both quite relieved when we made it back to beautiful gate and  had a cup of coffee to celebrate.

The U.S. Contingent had been in the chapel sharing, by live streaming, a very sad funeral of someone who had been out to BG from their church in Michigan. The bereavement had shocked many people here and many of the staff came to share in the ceremony.

Peter, Allan and I have just been sat here talking and putting the world to rights. Peter and lindi are taking him back to Jo'burg airport tomorrow and staying there for the weekend.  I will miss him around, I have known him a long time and have got to know him better this week. He is so looking forward to getting back to his lovely wife Donna and I hope to meet them both again some day .  You never say never at BG because last time we parted we knew we may never meet again and now a year later here we are so I leave that in God's hands.

Tomorrow evening I am heading off to South Africa with the Geurinks... I. e. Bryan and Anita so I may not be able to blog tomorrow night. Therefore don't worry about me if you don't hear from me.....you may even be relieved not to have to read my diatribe.

Lots of love......until you hear from me again......Jenny x x