Hoots, mon!

We’ve had the Scottish team with us for just about a week now. Last Friday we had lunch together to meet each other and talk about the After School Program (which is also why I didn’t get around to blogging last week).

Introducing the team to the kids: Zara, Carol, Pip, J-W, Richard, Kathleen, Cherith (& Kauna)

In total 13 people have come as part of the team, but only 7 or 8 of them come to After School (the others are busy with different projects). They have been helping the kids during the normal homework/study time, and then running a program for the kids in place of the usual daily activities.

Zara & Richard learning one of "our" songs

And it has been going really well! The kids hear a story from the Bible, learn a memory verse, have a daily quiz on what’s been covered on previous days, and then either do some craft or play games. The theme is what it’s like to be on Jesus’ team and is sports-oriented.

J-W entertains the kids with Joseph, the puppet

The kids have been split up into 4 teams: the Lions (Grades 1 and 2), the Springboks (Grades 3 and 4), the Wildcats (Grades 5 and 6) and the Angels (Grade 7s and high school). Yes, the kids chose the names themselves, but I suspect the leaders came up with the Lions’ team chant which goes, “What do LIONS eat? Springbok!”. The kids do craft and play games in their teams. For learning the memory verses and answering questions they get a sticker on their name badges.

"We're Springboks!" (Grade 3 kids)

So the Scots will run the program one last day (on Monday) and will then have a party for the kids on Tuesday, their last day here. They’ve done excellently, getting to know the kids, helping us out and running their program. We’ll be sad to see them go!

Carol & Cherith helping the Grade 1s and 2s to "do the hokey-pokey"

United Nations
After School has had quite an International flavour lately as last week 3 young ladies from Canada also started helping. Danelle, Melanie and Carly are all nursing students and are here through AIM (Africa Inland Mission) doing a short-term nursing practical at the State Hospital. They’re learning a lot about medical practice in Africa! Their nursing prac is only in the mornings, so on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons they just walk “down the street” (okay, it is down the main street – Independence Ave – but it’s at least a kilometre and a half!) to the church. They love working with the kids, especially the smaller ones. Melanie and Carly will only be here for a few more weeks, but Danelle is staying until the end of August.

Familiar faces
And seeing it’s mid-year break for the tertiary students, Kauna and Absalom are both back at After School, helping out until school starts again for them towards the end of July.

Updates…
Still have to get the final editing done for the DVD presentation, so I’ll be glad when that’s finished and I can send it off to my dad.

Yes, the rugby team did return victorious from Senegal…just! They won a close encounter 9-5. According to Hauta, the home ground advantage was used to its fullest and the Namibians were intimidated into quite a few mistakes. But all’s well that ends well. The next qualifier will be in August.