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Published: July 26th 2015
Another very good meeting tonight discussing the day in which we went to church, had lunch (which took all afternoon, hence no washing of clothes yet!) with Mrs Ntuli and her family, rather raucously rehearsed a really ridiculous sketch for use at The Grace, and had a beans-on-toast supper with the Mahlangus, who are saying they don't want us to go on Wednesday!
Church was much enjoyed by the children, despite being five times longer than our chapel services, even after we missed the first thirty minutes of dance and singing, which some of our team thought was a pity because it was the bit we all enjoyed the most. They did not hold back, but threw themselves into the party atmosphere immediately! The general verdict was that it was a pity that church and chapel back home could not be more like this. We had an immensely warm welcome and were made to feel like VIPs, with special seats of honour reserved for us and draped in cloths. We were given hugs and invited to take a section of the service, and what we had decided to do fitted perfectly with what followed, without any pre-arrangement. First we all introduced ourselves. Then the girls sang their choir anthem 'Lead me, Lord'; Charlie read our Bible passage; Mr Hudson gave a short talk based on that which culminated in the girls coming back to sing 'Seek ye first the Kingdom of God', which was what the talk ended with. Tom rounded off our slot by leading the whole church in prayer. The Team had done the school proud. They then took part in the rest of the service which involved at one point standing for forty minutes (though it didn't seem that long)! Hendrick gave the sermon and everyone understood it. It was in English, which helped, and was translated into Ndebele. We had today's power cut during the service which was a blessing, as the preaching was loud enough without mikes and their singing
a capello was beautiful.
The Ntuli children had prepared a banquet for us. We sat under a double gazebo and they waited on us, bringing us delicious food which was presented as well as it would be in a posh restaurant. This made some of our children feel unworthy--a feeling we discussed in evening meeting as we don't want any guilt trips. We emphasised that our motivation should be gratitude rather than guilt. They enjoyed playing with Mrs Ntuli's grandchildren, or in the case of the little one, just holding him, which the girls took turns in doing. There were speeches of mutual thanks at the end and the presentation of our gifts, including the CD recorded by St. Andrew's. When Mr Hudson explained that this had been Angela's idea, the Ntuli children broke into a spontaneous song in praise of Angela!
After returning home (taking photos of local wildlife for Mr Thompson's competition en route) we had our first attempt at the play we are improvising, called 'Chicken and Pap', which we hope to perform in the final assembly on Tuesday. This was noisy and hilarious. I have never seen Georgia laugh so much but Annabella's silent performance as the cleaner (amid the chaos around her) was just the funniest thing to watch. Hopefully Holly will be able to film Robert pretending to film the scene in Nathan's restaurant, in which Josh is a hired assassin who takes out Tom while an oblivious Charlie is complaining about his chicken and pap to the waitress, Angela. Georgia, if she can keep a straight face, will be the director alongside Rosa, who is never satisfied with the performance, to the exasperation of stagehand Will. Olivia, who was meant to be Charlie's silent partner, has improvised herself into being pregnant and unwell, thus distracting everyone from the murder taking place. Somehow a moral point must be drawn from this confusion!
Tomorrow we meet and interview the sponsored children as well as running two after school clubs--and getting some washing done... Photos from today will be uploaded tomorrow if we have power, as Annabella has the lead but has gone to bed!
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Sara Ellacott
non-member comment
Sunday
It sounds as if you are having a wonderful time and being treated so well by your hosts. I think the franchisee of the local KFC must be rubbing his hands with glee; he's probably never sold so many bucket meals at once! Sara/mum x