South Africa Oct 2023 Blog 6

The word for today is: Learning

We began our morning with Devotions, joined by the children of the open school, their teachers and Disthego staff.  They sang a joyful song and then were off to class.  

Terri and Christy stayed back at the Aandabluem House since a bit of a nausea bug was going through the group and Terri needed some rest and recovery. 

Following tea, coffee and biscuits we split into three groups: Robin worked to shred beets and stir pap with the Disthego chef and assistants.  She served alongside very hard working women to prepare and the children lunch and cleaned many a pot and pan.  We appreciated her efforts at lunch.  Peter and John joined Phineas, September, Patrick and Gift to till more of the garden at The Plot.  Jenni and Sally assisted the Administration staff, including Legato, Ennie, Mokagdi and Phineas with excel and budgeting. The remainder of us including Jina, Cathy, Angela, Michelle and I worked one on one or one on two with computer skills with many other staff.  They were excited to learn new skills in Excel and Word. We hope they can now help each other with new ways of tracking and writing tasks.  We also learned new things such as page boarders which add a beautiful touch to documents. 

After lunch of fried chicken, pap, cabbage with chicken spice and beets we divided in to two groups: one to the Preschool in Mooipass and the other to the Open School.  The preschool enjoyed time with the teachers and children.  The colored crosses and colored slices of fruit representing the Fruit of these Spirit. At the Open School we listened to Pastor Elvis present to the children on Zacchues, energetically sang two praise songs and then built crosses with twine and craft sticks with the children.  

Before dinner Pastor Sipiwe Madi joined us to talk about their work with Disthego and the surrounding area.  We discussed the need to see each person, regardless of race, as a child of God and for the need to represent his love to others now, here on earth.  

We finished the day with Devotions and practiced a final song with the help of Maria and Jane.  It was a very good day.