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Well, it may be the first week of Spring here in South Africa but last week we experienced bitterly cold temperatures, dropping below freezing at night and as a result, we have continued to distribute blankets.

I am thrilled to report that our stocks are very low which means that we have done a great job of getting your lovely warm items out to the children who need them!  There is a lot to be said for having much smaller premises too – we just do not have the space to store anything anymore and we have really had to up the number of distributions we are doing.  We will slow down a little now as the temperatures creep up, but we will carry on with a few distributions during summer in preparation for next winter and in order to fulfil our promises to at least 10 more day care centres for this year!!!.  Now, it’s time to share our story and the delightful photos we took at the Neo Day Care in Finetown!

 Don’t be misled by the blue skies and sunshine – temps are low and the wind is like ice!

On 20^th May Wandi, Wendy, my sister Charm and I headed off to Finetown.  Since our first visit there, we have been back a number of times.  Once we have visited a new area, the teachers and principals of the schools talk amongst each other and Wandi’s phone rings off the hook with enquiries!  This time we visited a school that is vastly different to Emmanuel Day Care – which as you will all remember was the first school we visited in Finetown.  It is always such an inspiration to us when we come across these amazing ladies who do so much with so little, and still manage to create a loving place in which children can learn and feel safe.  We took hundreds of photos of the little ones and I just could not decide which photos to include in the report – SO, here they ALL are:

 You can just see how happy and healthy these children are.

Bundled up in their colourful blankets and warm beanies they put on a little song and dance show for us which was so sweet.  We do record many of these and I hope at some stage to be able to share them with you.  As always, we took along stationery and food and the principal was most grateful for the additional support.

Increasingly on our distributions we are coming across sets of twins. How adorable are these little ones?

I must tell you about “the cow”.  It is often a challenge to find some of the schools we visit and we can drive up and down searching for a school that is literally around the corner.  We have no problem asking for directions, but the replies we get are, more often than not, cryptic, to say the least, with a popular phrase of “take a short left or a short right”.  We are yet to find out what that actually means!  But on our trip to Neo, we kept being told to look for the school with the cow.  We searched every piece of open veld for a herd of cattle or even one cow but there were no cows to be found!  However, when we did eventually find the school we were in fits of laughter, having discovered what the people were all referring to! (see pic)

There is indeed a fibre glass cow in the middle of the playground, but with the wall around the school there is no way of seeing it from the road.  Wandi and the children pose with “the cow”!

We know how much you enjoy seeing your blankets and other knitted items and we decided to take some general photos in the hope that you may spot something you have sent us.

We do confuse the children horribly when we ask them to pose with their backs to us, but in this way, the blankets are very visible.  As you will see, there is always one or two children who just cannot look away – we love them dearly!

In closing and just to keep you in the loop, there is currently a postal strike on in South Africa and although this is something that takes place fairly often, normally we only experience a “go slow” at the Bryanston post office.  However, the protest action by unions turned violent this week and the post office has actually been closed until such time as the issues have been resolved.  So, we have cancelled our opening day today and next week we will also not be gathering as both Wendy and I are away for the week.  But, we will be back in full swing from 15^th September and will hopefully have a mountain of mail to tackle.

Good bye from all of us at KAS South Africa and the children of Neo Day Care!

 The children wish us well as we prepare to leave.