Easter fun

My hilux also makes a good washing line!

fun at the pool

On Easter Saturday we organised a party for the children from Sithembakuye orphanage. Despite the few days previous being a bit iffy with the weather, Saturday morning was brilliantly clear without a cloud in the sky and very warm indeed. Perfect for a pool party. Not so perfect for the marshmallow eggs that we'd hidden in the garden though, which were in real danger of melting away!

The kids arrived and were straight into the pool, their confidence is increasing in the water with some of the littler ones being very brave and even splashing me! (not a wise move generally). A couple of the older kids are still a little shy of being in the pool but thankfully we didn't need to rescue anyone this time.

Sean's brother and sister, who are visiting at the moment, had hidden the eggs round the garden and the kids loved looking round for them. We have a big enough garden with lots of hiding places to make it a really fun activity. Afterwards they did stop to make sure that each child had found some and shared out eggs as necessary. This is what's so great about Africa, it's not so individualistic as other places, no one ate until everyone had something to eat.

After lunch, we played some traditional party games - pass the parcel, pin the egg in the basket and egg and spoon races in the garden. All the kids joined in with gusto and there was a really happy atmosphere.

The Gogos often come up and enjoy a fun day with the kids. However, on this occasion, the Gogo worked really hard instead with Russell as they had to do a lot of washing. For a few months now their valley has been without water and it's getting really hard for them to do washing each week. They are relying on a water lorry that comes round as and when, but when you've got lots of kids and all the washing for them to do, it gets a bit overwhelming. Our washing machines were going all day, but it was actually faster for the Gogo and Russell and some of the older girls to wash by hand in the bath! In the space of a few hours they'd washed and dried everything and definitely earned an Easter chocolate crispy cake before they took it all home!