A Thousand Welcomes (and probably more)

by Euan, Ben and Connor

We woke up at 7 and went to breakfast at 8 for sausage and eggs, we then put on our kilts and got on the buses to go to introduce ourselves to both of the schools.

When we arrived at Nansato we were shocked at the number of children there and how happy they were. I don’t know how the minibus driver managed to drive through the crowds of children who were all there to welcome us. When we got out of the buses, all the children wanted to touch us and shake our hands. I think they were a bit confused by our kilts and there were definitely a few sniggers. We met all the staff and then they all sang for us and gave us a big welcome. We sang to them and presented them with the flamingo and the Lego bricks. Then we went around the classes and introduced ourselves to the children. There were absolutely loads of them all sitting on the floor. The teachers were able to get them to be quiet as they all wanted to Hi Five us and shake our hand. We then had a look at the classrooms that the builders have been working on. There has been a huge amount of work done to the floors, walls and windows and there are a number or classrooms ready for us to paint.

We got back in the buses and went to Pasani school. At this school there was almost 2000 pupils who were all really excited to see us and ran along-side the minibus. Some of them were jumping on to the back of the mini bus and opening the back door. We got out and shook hands with hundreds of them as we walked over to where they had prepared a welcome for us. They had prepared a whole assembly just for us. We had a traditional game of tug-o’-war which we lost against primary 1. There was then a number of poems read out by some of the learners talking about their school. They even prepared a special song and dance all about the classroom renovations and showed us an exercise routine with wooden dumbells that was brilliant. Mr Anderson said a speech and then we sang for “If You’re Happy and You Know it”. They loved it and shouted out “We Are!” There are 10 classrooms being renovated at Pasani which is just about the whole school. They are hugely grateful for our project. They then gave us some sweet potato which tasted great. It’s hard to describe the welcome we got. We have never experienced anything like it. All we can say is “Wow”.

We then came back to Likhubula House and had lunch which was beef and chips, we walked down the road to the woodcarvers and looked at the different handmade gifts they had there and went to the river to see the rock pools. We sat and chilled out for a while as we got the equipment all ready to start painting tomorrow morning. We are all desperate to start work now that we know they huge difference it is going to make to hundreds of smiling young kids.