Ali’s blog – 2
On 15th Sept back to school. The puppies are still living in the pipe so a call was placed to the Animal Friendly people asking them to remind the animal police to come with the trap to capture them. The children are learning about the world this term and are going on a trip to the airport so to help them understand what it is like to travel abroad I made them each a pretend passport using resources I found on the internet. Charles needed some money for materials for the primary school so I had to drive to Avondale then Westgate to use the cash machine. I’m definitely getting the hang of driving on the potholed roads and avoiding the crazy combi drivers! It’s not easy find you way around when there are no sign posts!
Kids on their school trip to the airport – so proud of their passports and many of their first time seeing a real aeroplane!
Tues 16th Sept I gave Pru a lesson on pivot tables, and those who know me well will know I was in my geeky element 🙂 I also started giving computer lessons to Rumbi hopefully I didn’t confuse her too much! I took photos of every child so that we could complete the passports and printed them so they can be stuck into the passports. They are all so excited about the trip. I also gave them a lesson on the United Kingdom explaining which countries it is made up of (the referendum aside!) I showed them the English money I had with me, my passport, the union flag, the Queen, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, red busses, black cabs and a tube train. I also explained that the weather in England was cold and rainy and that they would need coats, hats, gloves and scarves in the winter which they didn’t seem impressed about and understandable so considering the weather here is fantastically sunny and hot! I then opened the floor to questions and they all wanted to know where the Queen slept and what her bed was like and how much gold she had! My cheeks ache from smiling! In the afternoon they had another swimming lesson and I was chauffeur, this time I had 10 on the back seat! All was quiet on the way there but on the way back they were so noisy after the excitement of swimming it was hard to concentrate on the driving…
After leaving school for the day I thought my day was done but oh no! Pru received a call in the evening telling her that the fire on the waste ground had reached the school wall. We jumped into the car and raced over to see what was happening. The fire bridge had arrived but couldn’t help as they had no water. Two fathers and the security guard were busy beating out the fire and succeeded before there was any damage to school property, phew, never a dull moment in Zim!
Weds 17th Sept during the morning I helped Patience tell the class about France. They learned how to say ‘hello, how are you?’ ‘I’m fine’ ‘my name is….’ And how to count to five. I was very impressed how quickly they picked this up. They also learnt that the French eat snails and the faces they pulled at this had me chuckling to myself! I then joined Charles for the afternoon helping with the primary school renovations. I was scraping off the loose paint from the walls and windows of one of the new classrooms. The school is definitely taking shape, Charles fitted all the light fixtures today and 4 other guys were rebuilding the surrounding wall.
Thurs 18th Sept back at Tara Hall. Today I was on the floor chiseling out the concrete where the partitions had been ready for new concrete to be laid. I thought I was filthy last week but that was nothing compared to this! I then swept the debris from the hall which was back breaking! At lunch I was introduced to Zimbabwean peanut butter…..scrummy is the only word I would use to describe it, much better than ours back home! In the afternoon I filled in all the holes in the hall whilst Neil, Terence, and Nomore laid the new floor. I also picked up Sophie and Gregs new car so I now have my independence and managed to find my way home without getting lost!
Fri 19th Sept Today at Tara Hall I helped Debbie clear all the rubbish and debris in the area that’s to become the playground. We also cleared out a small cabin which will be used to store all the play equipment and eventually may become a play house. After lunch I started scrapping off the loose paint from the walls in the room that will be used for Kids World. Before I started the wall didn’t look too bad with only a few flaky bits here and there, how looks can be deceiving, I scraped a small loose piece only for the majority of the wall to eventually come away! The body has started to moan and groan a bit it’s clearly not what it used to be thank goodness it’s the weekend 🙂