A HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL AT WHITESTONE SCHOOL, NATIONAL FOODS, THE SMITH FAMILY AND THE WONDERFUL BULAWAYO COMMUNITY!!!
On the 12th January I posted a blog about a school just outside of Bulawayo on the road to Plumtree, Marula Primary School. The children of Whitestone School have responded with overwhelming generosity to the appeal to come to the aid of these impoverished children. Stacy Smith has been running the project to collect donations from the Whitestone Primary pupils and Bookey Peek sent a letter of thanks which just has to be shared.....
Stacey and Malcolm Smith and their two children arrived at
Marula with a great load of e'Pap from Whitestone and also half a tonne of
mealie meal donated by National Foods though Nigel Weller.
Headmistress Danae Dube, the staff and the Marula kids are
overwhelmed by your generosity and what makes it all particularly special is
that your children gave up their precious tuck money to take care of other
others who are not as lucky as they are.
Many of the Marula children walk long distances to school and back in
all weathers - and on empty tummies - but thanks to your caring pupils, they
will now get a meal at school every day - containing that magic e'Pap powder
that has changed the lives of so many needy people in Africa.
Now, we would very much like the Marula/Whitestone pupils to
meet up - and one of the ways we could do that is by organising a cross country
here on Stone Hills. It would be great
fun and would give the kids a chance to get to know each other. We'll be talking much more about that
soon!
Another idea is for the Marula
children to come and play marimba at Whitestone or vice versa - our kids
haven't had their marimba set for long, but they love it, and are learning all
the time.
Yesterday was a very good day in more ways than one. Liam Smith found a bullfrog in the Marula
School's old swimming pool. I say old,
because it just a dirty hole in the ground these days with a bit of collected
rainwater. The poor bullfrog must have
fallen in - so Liam waded into the dirty water and put him into a bucket. He then told a whole crowd of very impressed
and rather frightened Marula children all about him, and what an interesting
and important animal he was.
The Smiths left at lunchtime, and I drove the Headmistress
back to Plumtree, leaving the frog in the care of the matron. When I got back a couple of hours later, I
could hear the matron's screech as I got out of the car - someone had moved the
top of the bucket and the frog had disappeared! Well, by that time it was 2 pm, I'd imagined
myself picking up the frog, bearing it back to a happy home on Stone Hills and
having my lunch. No such luck.
I spent the next hour or so on my hands and knees poking
around under cupboards, beds, chests of drawers and through piles of the
Matron's shoes to see if froggie was hiding there. He wasn't.
Eventually, I had to leave, but the children kept searching. And this morning, we got a call - they had
the frog safely back in the bucket, at last.
I rushed up the school with a bag of sweets for the finders - Vusi, in
Grade One, had seen him coming out of hole near the veggie garden, and brave
Melissa had picked him up and put him in the bucket. Frog, needless to say, was pretty fed up by
this time, but he certainly cheered up later, when we took him to a lovely pool
full of lilies and reeds and released him.
Bullfrogs, of course, are now rare - where we all used to
see them (so often sadly squashed on the road) during the rains, there are now
hardly any around. We used to have them
on Stone Hills in that very pool, but we haven't seen them for at least the
last ten years. So this was a very
special occasion and I hope by handing out the sweets, I have encouraged our
kids to find some more ! You certainly
have some very knowledgeable children on wildlife at Whitestone (then again, it
was always renowned for that). Liam knew
all about the habits of the bullfrog and
plenty of other wildlife besides.
And so does his friend Dylan Burton - who raised an spotted eagle owl
whom he then handed over to us to release.
We still have Dylan the Owl - he's a wonderful character - and we hope
that by the end of the rains, he will be ready to fly away back into the wild.
Going back to Marula School - it was built in the 1930's by
local farmers who did a marvellous job of it.
So much so, that it is still looking relatively good today, despite the
fact that it was built for 60 children and there are now over 430 of them! And that is why the e'Pap that you have
provided is so necessary. Only 83 of the
children are boarders - from relatively well-off families - the rest are all
day scholars from underprivileged homes - and they need all the help that they
can get. Luckily, the local council has
now put a limit on numbers, but there are already far too many pupils for the
school, or the teachers, to manage.
There are only three real classrooms - but every room in the place and
the adjoining house is now being used for classes.
But it is amazing how the teachers cope - they are very
loyal indeed to their school, and to their headmistress, whom I have to say,
does an incredible job under very difficult circumstances.
Lastly, all thanks go to Stacey Smith, and of course Shelley
Lasker, for the magnificent effort she made in involving the school in this
project. It's heartwarming to know that
there are people like them in the Bulawayo community, who will do so much to
help others.
We are going to start a Facebook page, and hopefully a blog,
on the Whitestone/Marula friendship - so we'll all be able to post regular
photos and updates.
Again, many, many thanks to you all
With very best wishes
Bookey and all at Marula School
PS What you can be confident about with Marula is their
accountability. They have lock up
pantries and good control over supplies. So no pilfering!
