Field Trip

Thursday Heather and I took 12 of our students to our friends’ (Josh & Marda) house for a water safety field trip. Heather had been doing a unit with the children on water safety in her life orientation class. Unsurprisingly, MANY children in South Africa die in water related deaths because they do not know basic skills of staying afloat in water, being able to swim, treading water, and many more. Heather has been teaching the children how to stay safe around water during class, but there is only so much “water” safety, that you can outside of water, so we seized the opportunity to take them swimming. After a rather rainy week, we were quite blessed with clear skies and a wonderful day of letting the kids swim and have fun. Unfortunately the actual “water safety” portion of the lesson did not last as long as expected due to the EXTREMELY cold temperatures of the water and the wimpiness of the popsicle like teachers. Poor Heather was SO cold that her lips were blue and she could not stop shaking for about an hour and a half after she got out of the pool.

The children enjoyed their day a great deal and had a wonderful time playing in the pool and playing games when they were out of the water. Heather and I even fed them lunch before we brought them back to the property. It was a regular “American cookout” as we had hotdogs on the grill, watermelon, potato chips, chocolate chip cookies, and the South African version of Kool-Aid. We are thankful for safety in travel and at the pool.