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So, Sile (pronounced Sheila, even though I quite like to pronounce it Silly - how mature am I?!?) and I finally finished the library last Thursday and the kids came to visit us for library sessions on Thursday and Friday of last week and Monday and Tuesday of this week. It's weird when we look at the library now because typically it seems like it has always looked that way and wasn't actually the dirty boring room with piles of books that we started with! And I don't mind saying so myself the rainbow (for the 7 grades - one colour for each, did you see what we did there?!?) looks great! It's actually been quite a lot of fun helping them with their reading over the 4 days, as always they are very cute!
This Saturday just gone about 10 of us volunteers went to Mahlanya Primary school (the one with the library) and cleaned one of the classrooms ready for painting next Saturday. It was quite a lot of fun actually as everyone mucked in. Then of course it was time for another Saturday night outing to House on Fire, the club here, for a well deserved drink or two. A South African band and some DJ's were playing which was really good. We made a big night out of it, had mexican food and cocktails before we went out then stayed out until 4! As always, good to have a bit of a boogey as my Mum might say! It was definitely better than the alternative of staying in our lodge which had no hot water and no electricity from Friday until Monday due to some random fires out here last week. You can imagine how happy everyone was when we're pretty much all girls and had to have cold showers and put our make up on by candlelight...!! Soon forgot about that though after a few sneeky drinks.
We finished the reading classes yesterday as we are now spending some time helping out at the NCP (Neighbourhood care point). It's a bit like the Multipurpose centre that I used to go to in Barberton but the kids go here in the morning not the afternoon. So, today was our first morning there and I expected it to be awful as a lot of the other volunteers had told me that the kids are really naughty. So Sile and I prepared ourselves for the worst and we were pleasantly surprised! We took the younger group of kids who are aged between about 2 and 5 but they were fairly good and even though the weren't exactly the brightest tools in the shed they did have a go which is great. Its quite similar to the creche I was at in Barberton so I think it will be fine as it was fine there and I had such a good time with the kids.
This arvo we went back to Mahlanya school and polyfillered the other classroom ready for painting on Saturday. We, very stupidly, agreed that we could polyfiller both classrooms which would actually involve plastering one big patch on one of the walls. Sile and I for some reason seem to think we are handy andy in disguise... Well we did the polyfillering and then decided that we thought it would be fine to polyfiller the slightly larger whole rather than plaster it, so we did and it was still on the wall when we left - will keep you updated of any news... e.g. if we go in on Friday and it has slipped down the wall...
Tomorrow and Friday we are both at the NCP again which will be a lot of fun and then Friday arvo we are transforming in to handy andy mode again back at the school... I'm taking loads of pictures and will either send them or put them on my journal so you can see our masterpiece as it progresses.
Lastly, I want to just add a quick thanks to anyone who has already done or is in the process of sponsoring a chair or two. We can see from the work we've done already in the library and in the classrooms how much of a difference it will all make and it's great that so many of you are helping. I'm leaving Swaziland on the 12th August but I will still collect any money after then and send it through to the Moya Centre (the organisation we work with for the school stuff). Thanks again and much love as always XX
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