Daycare Festivities! (Long overdue post)

Although I never seem to have sufficient hours in my days, once a year I always take time to attend the Graduation and year end function at the Kazungula Children's Ark Daycare Centre.  It was formerly known as the Kamadine Centre, and you can read some older posts about them over here on my other page!

I do enjoy visiting these kids, and was actually quite shocked to discover just how little time and energy I've spent on visiting the centre during this past year. That is just the type of year it has been, however...

Apologies to those bloggers who have taken these kids to heart over the last couple of years, and have had absolutely no updates from me in 2010! On that note, I am glad to hear from Mandy (FireByrd blog) that the school she's involved with in the UK, is actually still in contact with the Children's Ark, as part of a cultural exchange initiative she set up!

On arrival, it was heartwarming as ever to be mugged by pint size hugs attached to glittery smiling faces!

The children who attend the centre come from very needy backgrounds, and many of them are orphans. Some are outgoing and attention-seeking, whilst others are withdrawn and quiet... The small miracle of this little daytime sanctuary is that here, kids receive not only three hearty meals a day, but also equally essential doses of individual love and attention, clothing gifts, and a good grounding in pre-school education skills!

At the required age, they graduate from these pre school classes and move up to the local primary school, where they begin their school career in Standard One!

This year, alumni of the Centre, now attending Primary School, were invited to participate in the year end concert, with the school's permission, of course. However, thanks to an over enthusiastic interpretation of attendance eligibility amongst the school children, chairperson Sharon ended up at the Primary School after the first rehearsal - apologising to the bemused head teacher for having unwittingly and unexpectedly emptied out half the school during lesson time!

Here are the very grown up kids from the big school, doing their thing!

After Graduation and Christmas gifts were all over... it was time for a closing prayer, before the food and drinks! I had to leave just as things were getting riotous, though!

The following week all the kids were invited to a Christmas party with a difference! Fifteen Santas were visiting one of the local hotels! I went along to join the fun, and find out what this was all about... apart from the excitement of the Santas, a veritable feast had been laid on for them by Chobe Safari Lodge, and there were plenty of gifts to go around, as well as singing and dancing!

Here's an array of Santas and bouncy children forming a circle, in the midst of which some of the sporting Santas danced around with the little ones - all great fun!

I was rather surprised to discover that all the Santas were women (not sure why I was surprised, but I guess I have ancient preconceptions of Santa as a predominantly male figure!) This event is apparently organised by Santa Goodwill Worldwide, and the multiple Santas visit a couple of towns around the globe each year - bringing gifts, and a bit of Christmas cheer! I believe that Kasane was a slight extra detour from the original route,but the children from the various daycares and orphanages in town certainly had a blast!

Since then, the Festive Season seems to have really kicked in here, and I really think that I have never experienced such a speedy 12 months in my whole life. I will end off here, and hope to check in again before disappearing into the bush for our adventurous Christmas break!

Festive weekend greetings to all reading this!