I have not headed this “the quarterly report” because time has not stood still and we are already at the end of the fifth month of 2004. I now have found sometime to recount what we have been up to this year.
We are still looking after the Mfoloe Crèche’ in Molatedi village. This year the number of children attending has increased from 26 last year to 38 this year so they have needed more help with supplies of stationary, which we are supplying on a request basis. These include
books, crayons, paints, rulers, pencils etc. along with supplying learning aids, such as alphabet charts, colour charts, shapes and numeric charts. We have also been encouraging a more environmental friendly attitude and helping to keep the school property free of garbage, we have supplied large dustbins as well as rakes. This year it has also come to our attention that a number of the children are either orphaned or their parents work far from the village and their relatives are looking after them, who don’t have a lot of income, so these children are not always able to bring food with them, so we are supplying the school with food to feed these children. We are also supplying some basic first aid such as antiseptic creams and lotions for those inevitable cuts and scrapes. Easter has also come and gone, so just before school broke up for the Easter break, the Easter bunny visited the crèche,
everyone received Easter eggs and we had a colouring in competition and the four winners received a large chocolate Easter bunny.
Looking to the rest of the year we will be carrying out some maintenance on the school building and organizing T-shirts with the school logo for the children.
In May we have had an educational visit from one of the local high schools. The top five students from Grade 11 and five from Grade 12 attended along with their teachers. Everyone was picked up from the reserves gate and they were taken on a Game drive by Andrew and Holiday and Shai. Where between some great animal sightings the role of field guiding was
explained to them and what is required to make guiding a career. The drive ended at the lodge, where the students were given lunch and each head of department gave a talk on their roles in the lodge. With Anna discussing House Keeping, Caxton the running of a successful Kitchen, Solly explaining the difficulties of maintaining a five star lodge in perfect condition and Madeline and James explained the Front of house roles and of reception, while Lisa explained what is required to become a beauty therapist. These students were also given the task to report back to the rest of their class all the aspects of the hospitality industry out in the bush which they had learned. At the end of the day each student was supplied with an information pack giving universities and technicons where they can continue their education as well as information on getting finance.
All in all this year has been keeping us busy with these projects, and a big thanks has to go to all at Mateya who have helped and contributed this year.
Mike Job and Lisa Grobler