Day three – Rise and shine it’s a beautiful day

We were treated to another beautiful day in South Africa where there was not a cloud in the sky. We spent the day at Mahluhluvana Primary School where we were involved in a number of activities including building the jungle gym and swing set, painting the mural and being taught by the environment after school club how to sew veggies.

We split into groups. Team jungle gym worked with the help of Abraham and his team, not to mention the ever growing curious crowd of kids, to finish the jungle gym before the end of the school day. The race was on but we managed to satisfy the crowd when the jungle gym was officially opened and the kids showed their approval by racing to try out their new playground!

Team mural were busy painting the fantastically designed World Cup themed outside school wall. The painting was a real group effort which we’re all looking forward to putting the finishing touches to in the next couple of days where the plan is to get the pupils of Mahluhluvana Primary School to put their hand prints on the tree – make sure you check out the photos in a few days.

We were lucky to receive a lesson in seed planting from the environment after school club, consisting of students ranging from 12-14 years of age. During last year’s Virgin Unite Staff Connection Trip, Food and Trees for Africa visited the school and taught the pupils how to sustainably plant vegetables and trees, this year it was the turn of the students to teach us. We learnt how to build a veggie patch and we helped them plant seeds of beetroot, cabbage and spice. The newly installed play pump will mean that the garden can be watered daily and when the vegetables grow they can be used in school lunches. We had such an amazing day and learnt so much from everyone at Mahluhluvana Primary School, we can’t wait to return tomorrow.

We had another treat installed for us when we returned, Joni and Lindsay from Pride ‘n Purpose taught us to cook a Potjie – which is a traditional way of preparing food in South Africa in a round cast iron, three legged pot. We cooked on an open fire and it couldn’t have been a better way to end what was a really inspiring day.