Monday: Sandbagging 101

Up bright and early this morning and very excited for our first day in the Newington community. But first, some of our group spotted a giraffe family en route.

Newington Village is a small rural community of about 3,000 residents situated adjacent to the Sabi Sands reserve which is where Ulusaba is based.

The residents requested assistance from Pride ‘n Purpose to construct the creche and the local Induna (an elected elder leader) has kindly donated a parcel of his farm.

What a friendly smile!

It was all hands on deck as we realised there was much more to be done than we could have imagined. The crèche is being constructed using locally sourced, sustainable materials with the assistance of local labour.

Have a listen as Jeremy, Heather, Lulu, Helen and Mark describe a bit about the process of filling sand bags and then layering them like bricks to construct the crèche walls.

Later in the day, we were greeted warmly by the local Induna who not only gave us the land but a lovely pumpkin and some fresh lemons from his garden to have with our dinner. And there was no shortage of smiling little ones!

After a hard day’s work we had one more stop—a football match with the local club, Dumphries Arsenal FC. Mark explains:

The Ulusaba Invitational 11 consisted of the sportier amongst us joined by some Ulusaba staff ringers. A crowd soon formed to cheer on the players and help shoo the chickens, goats and multiple herds of cows off the pitch. By half time it was clear that the Dumphries team were a force to be reckoned with, having hardly broken a sweat in their sparkly new uniforms kindly donated by the Toronto Football Club courtesy of our fearless goalie Jeremy.

We think the score stood at 2-1 by match’s end but we cannot be 100% certain as by that time we were chatting away with the crowd who had spilled out of the nearby shabeen (aka pub) to join the fun.

A quick dinner tonight and we are off to bed exhausted but feeling very uplifted and ready for another great day tomorrow.

And lastbut not least a massive thank you to Tom Oldham and Hope Newling, our volunteer documetarians who have allowed us to share the fun with you all.

Good night!