The last week of school was a fun week with lots of activities. June 3 was pyjama and Hot Chocolate Day, and the staff and children dressed in their pyjama’s and bought a cup of hot chocolate. Late in the morning three university students came down from Jo’burg with a program called Hooked on Books and dramatized short excerpts from some children’s books that the children have been reading. It was quite fun watching these short skits and even better when they asked for some student participation and the students were dressed in some silly costumes and everybody loved it.
Friday June 4, I gave a farewell assembly for the students and staff. I had put together a short picture slide show of pictures I had taken throughout the year. But before I showed them those pictures I wanted to share a bit about where I am from. Our beautiful country of Canada I call Home! The children oohed and ahhed over the pictures and especially when the picture of my home taken in the middle of January with a huge bank of snow in front. These children have barely seen snow or even touched it. After this slide show of pictures of home, I had another surprise installed for the school. My little choir!
Every Thursday, for the past couple months the students have been participating in various clubs lead by the teaching staff for an hour at the end of the day. These clubs have been teaching Zulu dancing, art, drama, reading, soccer, singing, etc. So Mrs. Msimang, one of the grade 1 teachers has been leading the singing club and invited me to join her club one afternoon, so I came. Before I knew it I was standing at the front of the group of children teaching them 2 new songs. As I stood there teaching them it made me reflect back to my music teachers Mrs. Clark, Mr. Rowbotham, and of course Lucy, from my church back home. Never had I anticipated becoming a choir conductor here and had no experience leading one, but it was quite fun and always at the end of the hour I was filled with such joy and bliss that I hadn’t felt at work back home.
So my choir came up and the first song we sang was called “In the Bulb There is a Flower”. A song I was taught many many years ago at church. The children struggled with this one, and I struggled teaching it too, especially without a piano! I started the song by singing the first verse and then the children joined me back at the beginning and we sang though all three verses. The second song we sang, which everybody should be familiar with, is from the movie “The Sound of Music”, not sure of the title, but the song that teaches the names of the music notes (Doh, a deer a female deer ,etc), and it wouldn’t be complete without the hand note symbols (thanks Mrs. Clark)! The response us choir received from the students and staff was amazing and I was very proud of this little choir who were from grades ranging from grade 1 to grade 3.
And finally the picture slide show of my year spent with them. The kids, oh my goodness just loved it! I had included three songs sung by a South African artist, but by the middle of the second song you couldn’t hear the music, the kids just went through the roof with excitement and especially when they saw the Durban Soccer stadium picture, all you could hear were the 1/2 dozen or so vuvuzelas. Since it was a Friday, a lot of the children were dressed in soccer shirts and handful of vuvuzelas were brought to school in support of the up coming FIFA World Cup. Eish! They are loud! It was awesome seeing the kids getting so excited to see their faces or their friends faces up on the screen, they LOVE getting their picture taken.
The following week, the teachers had organized a Mini FIFA World Cup Day to celebrate the up coming event. And so each class representing a country dressed in country shirts, paraded in a short opening ceremony, performed the diskie dance and yes finally played small soccer matches against each other. Besides watching the games you could purchase sweets, have your finger nails painted, get a tattoo, purchase cold drinks, and food at the market tables that the classes had set up for a fundraiser event. It was a fun day had by all!
So Wednesday June 9th, finally came and I sadly said goodbye to the students and staff. Things I will miss will be the grade 5 teacher, Browne telling me full house each time I came by for his class attendance, or Melvin’s and Browne’s sense of humor, Thobile’s singing, Sharon’s comments of “Your mom will not make you out when she sees you!”, Kerry’s big jar of sweets and the very large roll of plastic book covering (you better not mail me the empty roll Kerry!), Beverly’s big heart for teaching her students to give to others less fortunate, Malanie’s Grade R class, Connie’s singing club, and Juli for her all her morning rides on the way into work. I won’t forget all the class outings, to the airport and train station with Mafiki’s grade 1 class, Butterflies for Africa with Cheryl’s grade 2 class, Crafty Duck with Malanie’s grade R’s and of course uShaka Wet n’ Wild day with 300+ students and staff, such fun and memorable days. The birthday parties for Rachel’s and Beverly’s daughters, and the other fun times I had with Kerry’s, Juli’s and Ps Sinatra’s families on various occasions outside of school. The night I stayed over with my dear friend Nokuthula (school’s receptionist) in her township and I became an instant celeb amongst her friends and neighbours! I will miss you GCS staff!
But lastly I will never forget Marge Bennett, a very dear lady who calls me her Canadian Daughter. She was so loving, caring and supportive to me and the first thing she always asked when I came into her office every Wednesday morning was how am I and how is my family back home doing? I will miss you lots, but like you have said “this is not goodbye”.
Thank you GCS staff for such an amazing year. A year of fun, laughs, tears, hugs, prayers, fellowship and mostly importantly an instant family of love and support. God bless you all!
