The wonderful Ali who walked all those miles to raise the school over £1000 a few weeks ago is now in Zimbabwe and she’s already been really busy. Here’s her news:
Mon 8th Sept met all the teachers, received a very warm welcome. Duties for the day was to clean and restore the classrooms ready for first day tomorrow. In the afternoon Pru and I went to buy the groceries for the school term. The poor little car was bulging at the seams with the amount of goods we had bought.
Tues 9th Sept first day at school. Collected school fees and payments for swimming, dance and the trip to the airport and travel centre from the parents. Introduced to the children, many were shy of me. Attended praise and worship which bought a smile to my face seeing how enthusiastic the children were at singing the songs and doing the actions. Helped Pru with the recording of the school fees received, made a few minor adjustments to the finance spreadsheet which will hopefully make her life easier going forward. Joined the children at playtime, wow do they ask a lot of questions! Many wanted to hold my hand which was lovely and made me feel very welcome.
Weds 10th Sept met with the dance teacher to finalise the plans for the dance lessons. Developed a spreadsheet to identify which children were participating in which activities and who had paid and who was still to pay. Noises were heard coming from the drainage pipe, we got Wilson to lift of the paving slabs to find 4 puppies there.
A wild dog from the golf course had given birth there and it was their mewling which could be heard. We took them to the Friends Animal Foundation who advised us that they were about 3 weeks old and needed to remain with the mother until the animal police could come and trap the whole family. So Wilson risked injury and put them back in the pipe. In the afternoon I assisted sherry with transporting the children to their swimming lessons. On the way there I took the boys with Leeshy and read to them whilst the girls had their lesson. How they managed to get in the pool I have no idea as the water was freezing! I helped the girls dry off and get dressed then took them back to school. Boy had they found their tongues by this point and I was bombarded with 20 questions from each girl which would’ve been fine but having to contend with an automatic car with a column shift, a pedal handbrake and wipers and indicators on the opposite side took all my powers of concentration. All the Children loved the swimming lessons and many told me they wanted to go in again! I then read to them whilst they waited for their mums and dads to collect them. This turned into a marathon session having to read 5 books but it was great to see the joy they had in listening to the stories. They all wanted to choose a book and had to break up a scramble to pick the book out! Roll on next week when I join them again 🙂
Thurs 11th Sept first day with Sean and the One Church projects. Over coffee he explained what he had going on and what I could get involved with. We decided today I would help with administration. He showed me around the project, the renovation of a community centre, home school and a small business centre before commencing with my list of tasks for the day.I made a list of the shopping needed for the kids day on Sunday, compiled the names of the congregation who said they could volunteer to help with the project and what skills they were offering. I then sorted all of the keys to the property with Terence, made an inventory, gave them all a colour keyring and created a key register for use when the centre is open. I also reviewed the property contract with a view to tailoring this to become a Shared Office Space Agreement for the tenants of the small business centre. I met with Niko the Finance Officer and had a very good discussion on how to document accounts and petty cash.
Fri 12th Sept day to get dirty! Worked with Neil, Terence, Nomore & Lovemore on putting up the beams and coving on the ceiling in the new church hall. Got absolutely filthy and had aching arms at the end of the day but thoroughly enjoyed it!
Thanks and take care,
Ali xx