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Africa Day! A recognised public holiday, not sure of the history of it, will have to google it.
I could not make a decision this morning, either spend the morning painting the newly built classrooms at Mickey Mouse early childhood school or participate in monitoring lions while they are darted and have bloods drawn? I would love to do the monitoring but majority of the other volunteers were also keen, given that there were only 6 lions to monitor I assumed that most of us would just be standing around watching and not actually in there helping. At the very last minute I opted for the painting of the school with the community.
On our way driving to the school through the village it was like we were celebrities, all the kids racing to the side of the road waving madly and screams of "hello" or just a good ole thumbs up.
Mickey Mouse early childhood school currently has 180 students between 3 - 6 yo and were being taught all together in one small classroom. A previous volunteer raised money for the additional rooms to be built.
We spent the morning painting the first coat inside the classrooms alongside some of the parents. We quickly ran out of paint and almost finished one room. Waiting, waiting, waiting - Africa time waiting for more paint to be picked up. In the mean time we chatted with the parents, was shown how to book sudsa which is a local dish like a flour mash - interesting clag glue texture and no flavour. This is a staple food mostly eaten at lunch and dinner with stews and gravy dishes.
After as much as could be painted, we sat down on the small school chairs and were offered a 'braah' lunch - basically a BBQ but when they BBQ they BBQ, now I like my meat well done but this was some added roughage and charcoal served with the sudsa... of course had to be polite and eat it!
Returned back to camp in time for enclosure cleaning (poo patrol) for the cubs, thankfully not too disgusting and only had to pick up a couple of leftover carcass'.
I was disappointed to hear that if I had of stayed and did the lion monitoring it would of been hands on for all of us, I will see if there is another opportunity.
Finishing off the afternoon with a lion walk with Paza and Penya who really couldn't be bothered so was a lazy stroll.
The nightly ritual of sitting around the fire with a classy glass of goon...
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joanne sorensen Love you darling xxxx