Day 4- Painting, Playground and USA VBS

Day 4 was a combination of nearly completing the playground (our portion, a local Lutheran Church youth group is going to add swings and a slide), painting the preschool interior, building steps up to the church and covering the USA in the VBS class. Loads of fun, felt like we had 50 kids at the end of the day. They all love attention and are incredibly well behaved. They sit and take excellent notes during the classroom session, wow! We had a group of children in the street share their school books and grades, they were all very neat and generally the grades were very good. We're going to the local school in the morning tomorrow and returning to the community center to finish painting and maybe install soccer goals for the field.

Personally one of the most memorable experiences was picking up one of the young boys and throwing him in the air (the laughter was awesome, wish I had a photo), within moments there were 10 boys around me. I told the first one, this is the last time. Then they all were asking for "last time". After giving them all multiple turns it was hard to stop, imagine growing up without a mom and dad. The work here is really important to these kids.

Here's Pastor K, Anna, Bill and Carl finalizing the tire tower. Image a platform, swings and slide to the right of this... What a difference a few days can make!

Our hosts are excellent between the church, Shara/Julia our missionaries and the team at African Exposure. It's very English here with everyone enjoying morning tea on the balance beam.

Shara and Julia did a great job singing "Take me out to the ballgame" for the kids as they learned about the USA. This country thing is excellent in light of the World Cup coming to South Africa. Friday is soccer jersey day for the whole country, we can pick up our favorite country jersey for $79 rand, around $10 US.

In the morning Shara and Julia have found a local woman who does sewing classes for the ladies of Shongweni. Today they did some really cool beading and sewing. The idea is to use the community center to help the ladies develop crafts that can be used for income. Tomorrow we have a group of local craftspeople bringing their wares, should be really neat. What a great way to support the community.

Julia worked on these prayer rocks for the kids today as craft. They did a wonderful job of attaching the verse "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" as well as painting them with neat designs. Nice tie in with the David and Goliath story that was shared.

You may have been wondering about sports affiliations among the South African natives. Look closely here, Pastor Thwala was sharing his die hard Virginia Tech Hokie spirit with Anna. Nice hat!

Karen doing the challenging task of applying primer in the preschool bathroom. This stuff is like elmers glue and only comes off with turpentine. Regardless, see that smile!

While sharing the USA with the kids, this young man wanted to know if it was a girl or boy in that huge belly... just kidding. Shara had done a great job with a US map and the kids wanted to know where she was from (Phoenix) and our group (Jacksonville). It's amazing how hungry these kids are to learn.

Bill, Stan, Pastor K, Pastor Thwala and Scott painted the tires in the playground. They look awesome. This is a special playground design that comes with a number of activities for the kids to develop their coordination and motor schools. The guys at African Exposure helped with the design and are going to train the team how to work with the kids here... awesome! It's hard to imagine but the younger kids have challenges with simply catching a ball. I'm certain their caregivers do the best that they can but without dedicated parents it must be very difficult to give these kids the experiences that they need.

Bill checking his skills with the balance beam... whoaaaa...