Another month and yet more wonderful experiences. Spring has
arrived, we have had family to stay, the children have performed beautifully in
their school plays, and Buttercup 2, the preschool in Cosmo City, has opened in
its new location, hurrah!
Spring officially arrived here in South Africa on the 1st
of September. Whether it's in school, at hockey, or at work, everyone celebrates
the occasion by wearing flowers. And having only rained once in the last six
months here in Johannesburg, there is real anticipation and excitement for the
rain to come.
My mum, Carol, and brother, Daniel, arrived at the beginning
of September, and if you were wondering when that one rain shower happened, it
was indeed whilst they were here. We concluded that in being British, they must
have brought the weather with them! It hasn’t rained since.
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| With Mum and Dan on a visit to Liliesleaf. |
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| Having a meal with Laurence's mum, Lynn, and stepdad, John. |
We also had some very special guests visit us from Zambia. If
we go back to 1998, my sister, Hannah, spent her gap year after school teaching
at an Orphanage in Zambia. She met a very special young 12-year-old boy there bursting
with potential. After returning home and telling my family about this boy, my
mum decided to support him. Fast forward to 2019 and Albert is still a big part
of our family. He came to our wedding 10 years ago, has since had his own
family, and is only 1 exam away from becoming an accountant. He calls my mum, 'Mum', and his children, Caroline and AJ, call her 'Grandma'. Caroline is even
named after my mum. Amelie, Elowen and Joel had an awesome time with their
cousins here. We went to Gold Reef City, which is a theme park with a real
penchant for wet rides. Having been before, we armed ourselves with waterproofs
this time. We also went to Johannesburg Zoo, which was great fun although it
did make me laugh standing in a zoo in Africa looking through the netting of an
enclosure of a British swan. Laurence often had baffled moments in the UK and
here I was in Africa having mine.
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| Raging Rapids, Gold Reef City. |
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| Elowen, Joel, Caroline and Amelie at the Zoo |
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Dan, Elowen, Mum, AJ, Chile,Caroline, Joel, Albert and Me.
Amelie and Laurence were there somewhere too. |
It was sad saying goodbye to everyone. A week of pining to
go home followed, but I looked at a weather prediction for the UK, which was
forecasting a hurricane and then snow, and decided to cheer up and enjoy this
special time here in Africa.
The children all had school performances to finish off Term
3 at school. Joel was a bulb, and he grew beautifully when the rain fairies
danced around him. The Spring Princess chased away King Winter after which we
all celebrated with a picnic in the Kindergarten garden. The girls performed ‘Footprints
into Fantasy’, a play which draws from many children’s novels. Elowen was a
bird that flew out of a pie, to the tune of Queen’s, ‘I want to break free’.
She was convinced that it was in fact sung by the Queen of England, but we
thought that Freddie Mercury would have been happy with that title. Amelie was Dalmatian
number 3, protecting a magic potion at Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardry.
She delivered her lines, danced and sang fantastically. The play was very
professionally done with the children using those little microphones that you
tape to your cheeks. If it wasn’t for a teacher forgetting to turn one of these
microphones off, we would never have known that one of the little girls had had
a really big itch on stage that she had wanted to scratch! A moment that had
the whole audience is absolute stitches. It was a thoroughly enjoyable week of
performances after which everyone was thankful for a school holiday.
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| Dalmatian number 3 |
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| Elowen, having broken free of the pie! |
I’ve continued with the preschool project in Cosmo City. We
left off last month having built walls, fencing, a security gate, having dug a
hole for a sandpit, and having laid some grass. This month saw the sandpit
being built, which I was able to help with by using my newly acquired brick
laying skills!
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| Phase 1 of the sandpit being built. |
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| Sandpit complete. |
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| Joel testing the sandpit out. |
We finished laying the grass, and I planted an olive tree, the
significance of which is a legacy of the Youth Day Massacre that I spoke about
in the last blog. Since then, olive trees have been planted in memory of this
tragedy, as a sign of peace and as a place of shade for the children of this
country. I hope our little olive tree grows to offer this peace and protection
in these children’s lives.
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The lovely olive tree that we bought from
the organic market at Joel's school. |
One of the children at the preschool, Titi, who is
Joel’s kindred spirit, has a wonderfully gifted father, who is rather
appropriately called Gift. Gift designed and erected a shaded area so that the
children can play outside in the heat of the day. It is made in such a way that
it can be easily drawn back in cooler weather. Gift and Martin, who is married
to Tari the preschool owner, worked into the night to get it finished, as well
as working together to lay a path for the children’s parents to use during pick
up and drop off. As a result of all this work, the outdoor space is now finished
and it’s a great feeling to have finally got there.
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| Martin and Gift erecting the shade |
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| Working into the night to finish it! |
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| And it's up! Which completes the outside space. Yay! |
Tari transformed the inside
of the new preschool building at the beginning of September and the children
have moved in. It’s bright and airy, and the children have space. They sing and
play and run around madly like little children should. Tari is an amazing
preschool teacher and the children are happy. Joel is a frequent visitor as well. He
loves the food of porridge or pap, a corn-based starch that looks like mashed
potato, and he loves the routine of the day, which includes a nap. And these
children really can snore!
So, the new Buttercup 2 is officially open! Thank you again
to all those who have supported this project. Tari, and all those living in
extension 6 of Cosmo City are so grateful. I will update you on life at
Buttercup 2 in future months.
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| Playing outside in the new preschool garden. |
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| Goodbye from some happy little Buttercups. |
So once again, there has been a lot going on here in
Johannesburg with memories being made and experiences had. From birds to Dalmatians,
bulbs to olive trees, British family to Zambian family, it’s been a month to
treasure.
If there was one reason to want to come home though, you
would find me shouting it, armed with a pillow, in the middle of the night…Mosquitoes!
There would be no need for a microphone taped to my cheek for everyone to
hear that!
Lots of love, Jess xxx
