making mother's day cards
Saturday - our beautiful and friendly waitress!Mother's Day is a really big deal here in South Africa, with as much advertising and hype around it as the forthcoming World Cup (almost!). It was fun to spend a lot of this weekend with my children from GGA.
On Saturday I went to a Mother's Day tea organised by the Grade 11 pupils at a High School in Pietermaritzberg. One of the teenage girls from GGA was waitressing as part of her hospitality course and I went with a couple of German volunteers to be her guests there. We had to give her marks as to how she presented her table and served us. The morning was packed with mothers and grannies and everyone got a lot of presents and a lot of cake! Other pupils from the school performed poems, monologues and songs, all dedicated to the mothers. Another boy from GGA played his guitar and sang and performed very well. It was an enjoyable morning, which made up for the 7am start to get there in time!!
The pupils also praised the Home Economics teacher at the end of the morning. She'd co-ordinated the whole thing. It was quite moving to hear from some of the students how this lady went the extra mile and really took an interest in the children. If any of them had problems she'd even take them into her home to make sure they are ok. That's a dedicated teacher and one who is so needed in this country where so many children are needing that extra help.
Then on Sunday I went up to GGA to do church, but as most of the older children had been taken to the beach on a trip with the volunteers, I only had the smaller children for once. This gave me an opportunity to teach them some action songs, which they absolutely loved. Then we talked a bit about our mothers and the other people who care for them. Nearly all of these children have lost their mothers but none of them were upset about it on mother's day, they just accepted it and remembered the Gogos, Aunties and Volunteers who care for them instead.
Afterwards, the children drew pictures and decorated cards for their carers and one girl actually wrote 'Happy Aunty's Day' instead of Mother's Day. These children are grateful for what they have and it's lovely to see and to spend time with them. It was great to spend a bit of time with sponsor daughter too on Mother's Day, even if she is still a little bit small to understand it all.
