Debs News

Emyezweni Christmas Party

At the very last minute our Father Christmas ended up in hospital with kidney stones, (Thanks Phil for offering but even so you don’t get out of it that easily, there is always next year!!!) However, Paula Finnie offered the services of her houseguest, “a chap named Andy from the UK” and so yet again an English guy saved the day!
We started the day with paper hat making in all classes, the glue and the glitter were flying around and I once again truly earned my name of Miss GK (Only a chosen few will get that one…!)
We had playtime as usual at 10.30 and then after a drink and a biscuit we finished off hats and tried to tidy up the classrooms to make space for our visitors.
Dean arrived at 11.30 complete with unicycle and juggling stuff and the children were entertained for half an hour by his amazing feats of balance and agility. We are hoping to book him for a regular slot next year as the children absolutely loved it and he drew quite a crowd from the surrounding hostels and shacks.
More visitors arrived and at 12.00 we all went inside to get ready for lunch, washing hands, and putting on party hats.
The children all sat down together for a huge party lunch; the Somerset West International School had provided crisps and biscuits and money from HCC brought lots of healthy nibbles, the cucumber went down surprisingly well as did good old cheese and pineapple, slices of apple, carrot and raisons. One of our great HCC supporters, the lovely Rita Heckroodt, had provided us with amazing sticky cup cakes (complete with blue and yellow icing!!) and everyone finished off with jelly and more biscuits.
After lunch the children went outside to let off a bit of steam and considering we had 70 under 6’s all high on sugar and blue icing they were amazingly well behaved.
Ivathala and Ithanga classes returned inside and entertained our visitors with their Christmas play. This year we had speaking parts performed by the oldest children and even a brown baby Jesus complete with wild dreadlocks! Mary and Joseph held hands beautifully and the Angels even remembered to look happy at their “Glad tidings of great joy!” as they appeared to the shepherds. The play ended with the children singing the Xhosa lullaby “Thula Thula Baba” to the baby Jesus.
It was then time for our special visitor to appear so poor old Andy shoved a couple of cushions up his t-shirt and put on the red suit, black boots, beard and hat. He must have been boiling, as it was a very hot day without even a breeze to cool things down. He made a grand entrance into Imboityi Class, where all the children were sitting, carrying a sack and shouting the usual “Ho, Ho, Ho” greeting. The older children (and all of the Mammas and visitors) loved it, but some of the babies were rather over-awed and several had to retire to another room until it was their turn to receive a present! Dean took photos of the children receiving their presents and then it was time for Father Christmas to leave and for the children to go home.
It was a lovely day for the children and we would like to say a huge thank you to the following people for helping and supporting us:

HCC – thank you for the money for presents and food and thank you for coming to share the party with us.

Ukuthasa and Gary and Nicky – Thank you for the generous donation for the party and for the use of the camera.

Somerset West International School – Thank you for all the goodies and your continued support throughout the year.

Andy – Thank you for being and excellent FC at the last minute, please can you come back next year?!

Dean – Thank you for the great entertainment and for all your help on the day taking pictures, please come again soon!

Rita – Thank you for the amazing cakes the children loved them and not a crumb was left!

Liz, Sharon, Shannon, Lorien and Marion – Thanks for all the help cleaning up!

Emyezweni parents – Thank you for coming to share the fun with us.

Emyezweni children – Thank you for being such a pleasure and joy to teach.