It’s still busy…!
Mon 29th Sept. Just when I thought I was beginning to remember names the girls get a hew hairstyle over the weekend and I don’t recognise them and have to start all over again! Today was Anesuishe’s 5th birthday. To celebrate she bought in a chocolate cake, cherry ripple ice cream, crisps, biscuits and lollipops for everyone. The children will be very hyperactive when they get home!!! The computer lessons for the staff continued and are coming along well. The children had an extra dance lesson today from Josh. He is teaching them on Thursday a routine which the children will perform on Graduation Day. I joined the lesson and was sweating profusely by the end but it was great fun 🙂
Tues 30th Sept. This week the nursery class are learning about the Arctic Circle and Antarctica. I shared with them some photos of snowmobiles, sledges, Eskimos, igloos, polar bear, penguins and just for fun snowmen! They also had a large lump of ice to touch and feel so that they could witness the cold….not many of them liked it very nice! I read the bible story today which told them about Jesus gathering his disciples and then watched over the boys during nap time. Some of them can snore very loudly for someone so small!!! The afternoon saw the swimming run.
Weds 1st Oct. After running a few errands I recommended helping Charles with the primary school. I finished off scraping the paint from the walls of the school office, this is now ready for painting, whilst Charles finished off the plumbing to the staff toilets.
Thurs 2nd Oct – Set up day for the Zimbabwe Without Orphans – Dream or Reality conference and a rather hectic one! The day starts off rather quiet until Glenda arrives with a guy who said he could decorate the conference room for free – result me thinks! So I head off with him to pick up the decor which involves me driving into        the centre of Harare which is an experience in itself. When I get back to Tara Hall I find that Security will not allow us into Vistarama as we don’t have authority to enter on week days. After an hour of waiting Niko sorts out the access issue and the guys start decorating. An hour and half they tell me it will take however 5 hours later they finish but what a superb job they did! Meanwhile back at Tara Hall they guys start putting up the tent where we will serve lunch and I work out a timetable of jobs needed doing tomorrow and who will complete them – yes I know I have my project manager hat on!!!!! I then arrange for signs to be created for the loos and then go shopping for the refreshment station. Finally after waiting for the caterers to drop off some equipment for tomorrow I get to leave for home at 6.15pm. Now I understand why everyone I’ve met has been telling me nothing runs to plan in Zim!
Fri 3rd Oct Conference Day. An early start of 7.30am to ensure all the refreshment and registration stations are all set for the delegate arrivals at 8am. We start serving tea and coffee and greet arrivals and then dash over to Tara Hall to do the washing up and begin to get the serving stations and tables ready for lunch. I then pop over to Vanilla Moon to pick up the cakes we will be serving for lunch. When back I pop over to the conference to see how it’s going only to find they are running ahead of schedule and were just about to send everyone over for lunch. So I quickly run back to Tara Hall to rally the troops into action. I stand at the gate collecting tickets to make sure there are no freeloaders and the team service 84 delegates beef casserole and rice, drinks and desert. The food was excellent and very tasty! During lunch I headed back to the conference to clear away any rubbish from the morning session only for the power to go off. I call Sean to tell him and that’s when we find that the generator needed more fuel. Sean makes a quick run to the petrol station so that power is restored just in time for the afternoon session to start. Whilst this was going on I got a chance to chat to some of the delegates and met some very interesting people. I then head back to Tara Hall where we begin to pack away the things from lunch, take down the serving stations and lunch tables and pack away the chairs. I then go back to the conference and watch around 20mins of it only to find again they are running ahead of schedule so I run back to Tara Hall to collect the team and head back to the conference where we are thanked for all our hard efforts behind the scenes. I then collect in the badges from the delegate as they are leaving and thank them for attending. Once again I had the opportunity to meet some very interesting people. After ensuring the truck had arrived to collect the tables and chairs and the guys had come to take down the decor in the conference hall I was able to leave for home absolutely pooped but I thoroughly enjoyed the day! What will next week have in store…….
