Family Affairs and other matters

My son has now been in South Africa for a week. I have not heard from him once. I can’t reach him on his phone. He is playing rugby against pubescent future Springboks. Not good.

However, at least there is a school blog – it doesn’t say much apart from how the rugby games have been going (so far nobody has died which is the only bit I’m interested in). The only other thing it mentions is the visit the boys did to the African school we raised all that money for (£30K) a few months ago. One of the boys had written about their arrival and how “silence started to fall upon the bus” and that it was a “massively humbling experience for the whole squad”

I was also sent an email today from the woman co-ordinating the distribution of the money we raised copying me in on the report her regional manager had made about their visit. Here is what she said:-

“What a special experience!! We had 40+ boys, 5 staff members and 4 parents.

The excitement of the the children and the staff was unbelievable. You cannot explain it to somebody. We had assembly outside (in freezing weather) and the principle explained to the boys that this is happening every day because they do not have a hall which they can use for the 450 learners.

The programme was full of singing and dancing.

We had sport kits made in the school’s colors and it was handed over to the school. (the roof lifted with excitement)

The soccer game was played in very, very cold weather but the team was running on the field in their new kits. (I still don’t know how they survived) The won 2-0.

The community provided a meal consisting of traditional food and beer. We also took normal snacks with for incase some people preferred not to eat from the traditional food.

The boys really impressed us. They are real gentleman and the way they handled the situation was just amazing. One of the boys in a personal conversation told us that it was a very humble experience for him.

Overall just amazing and the community was so grateful”.

I would have loved to have been there. Apparently some of the children walk three hours every day, there and back to their school. Previously, it had no electricity, fresh water, floors, books, school uniform and so on and now things will dramatically improve.

Wouldn’t it be great if that was the case for every school in Africa. It doesn’t take much from our side of the fence to make a significant difference to their lives.