What happened on the day of the SPONSORED WALK?

blue water

Who were the helpers?

They were the brilliant Hipsburn parent helpers and helpers from further afield.
They were children, friends, staff and teachers.
The headmistress stayed for the whole event.

 

What did the helpers do?

They helped to put up the tent, lay out the cones, tables and chairs.
They measured the water.
They made sign boards and flags.
They stood in the windy tent for hours.
They waited by the estuary(in the 4x4) for the water bearers.
Eunice had a crucial road watch job.

Thanks for:
Providing water containers and paddling pools.
Donating raffle prizes and cakes.
Donations.


Thoko could not be there because of work commitments. We missed her party spirit.


What did the kids do?
 

The kids turned up with all sorts of containers from bottles in barrows to empty kegs and chemical vats.

The kids were fascinated by how heavy the water was and how hard it would be to even get 20L a day, let alone the 158L per person we use on average here in the West.

The Hipsburn pupils were hot on the statistics about water usage. One chap even pointed out that it was mainly women and girls who collected water in most of the world - his job was to herd the cows - this was a quick witted response to his dad's attempts at encouraging him to go back a second time.

Many of the children did go down to the estuary several times and loved measuring the volumes when they got back to base.

People turned up throughout the day and we even had some unexpected but marvellously game South African folk who we had met just the week before.
The kids waved when the sea king flew low over the school.

 

Feedback:
Everyone agreed that it was fun, educational and that the grub was great!

'A real South African Braai'

The parental support was amazing.

Several people have already suggested making it an annual event- even some local residents who saw the cavalcade!

GOOD NEWS!

We have been offered a cookery class for two at the Intercontinental Hotel, London Park Lane, as a donation!
http://www.theorandall.com/

The highest bid by Friday, please!

please email: cerisutherland@googlemail.com



....and whilst the kids were carrying water in their own containers to and from Hipsburn school....
    somewhere near Manguzi, a woman and a child or even women and children were
                            doing the same, carrying water in their own containers...
 

and the Kosi bay mouth was as beautiful as ever.....
 

 

It was a brilliant and a successful day!

What happened?


The night before the sponsored walk:

Strimming and checking for any dog evidence on the path.
The large double (half) barrel for the BBQ was delivered at the school.
Some serious cake baking.
The flags were checked for strenth in case it was windy.
Printing of the extra sponsor - and registration forms.
Packing of the BBQ food, sauces, onions etc.

early evening strimming

flags, ready to go

On the day of the event:

 At 6 am we were awake. We were pleased because the weather forecast was looking good.
It was truely a beautiful day! Blue sky, warm and windy (perfect for the flags!).

At 06h30 we drove down to the school to drop off the tent and to position the flags(20 in total) to help the water bearers find the path.

At 08h00 the helpers arrived to drop off the cones, pitch the tent, lay out the tables, chairs for meals, set up the registration table and water measuring area . Raffle prizes were laid out and the helpers set up the drinks and cakes table. a Helper arrived with a measuring scale and there were other standard containers to measure the water with.

The headmistress arrived early and eagerly and she organised the kitchen,  the african music, the cutting of the buns, the baking of the bacon and also got on with the important task of sticking probes into sausages for health and safety monitering and documenting the sausage temperatures in an act of 'due diligence'.

More helpers arrived to make the fire, barbeque the meat, take money and make burgers and sausage rolls.
We had a young helper in the BBQ area and his mathematical skills helped him to collect the correct amount of money from customers.

By 10h00 the bacon was cooked and the smell of the bacon sandwiches was in the air. There was the sound of the first walkers appearing and also the distant sound of Brenda Fassie and Juluka ....

.... and we started to register the walkers:



meanwhile in Manguzi, South Africa:
 shops were trading....

a local cafe

and the Kosi bay mouth was probably looking like this...



the mouth at Kosi bay

 GOOD NEWS!

We have been offered a cookery class for two at the Intercontinental Hotel, London Park Lane, as a donation!
http://www.theorandall.com/

                                             The highest bid by Friday, please!

please email: cerisutherland@googlemail.com

Every drop counts:

                                                more about the sponsored walk day tomorrow....
                                                           and photographs to follow ....

only 1 day to go before the SPONSORED WALK!

Details :

WHEN ?                 Saturday 29 September 2012
WHERE ?               Hipsburn first School  Lesbury  Alnwick  Northumberland   NE66 3PX
WHAT TIME ?         10h00 -14h00

Please park in the cricket car park!

The signs have been made:



 The strimming has been done...



lovers walk

The field is ready for the tent ...
the cones have arrived...

the field tonight with the cones

and the walk has been advertised...

on the school window

ENJOY!!!!!!!

2 days before SPONSORED WALK

Message from Alan at JWKB:

'This is a picture of our new classroom block (Japanese Government
sponsored) with its two 5000 litre JOJO tanks.'



 

 

Thoko has been to the school and she has danced with water on her head.

 

 

Thoko



Good news:

 

There will be a paper auction of a 'cookery course for 2' at the Intercontinental Hotel, London.  We will be sending emails to all regarding this.

 

And :

 

The water butt  and water bottles have arrived.

The cones have been  collected.

The tent is in the hall and ready to be put up.

The helpers are lined up.

The school kitchen is available.We have had some top tips from the kitchen staff about health and safety.

Raffle prizes have arrived.

The flags are ready.

 

water butt

 

 

water bottles for kids

 

 

 

 

3 days before SPONSORED WALK

Message from South Africa:
(John Wesley Kosi Bay School-South Africa this morning)

'Supply of water in Manguzi is a big issue.'

·        ' Most homes, schools  and shops do not have piped water.

·         Our school had piped water 4 years back, but the infrastructure was old or inadequate and supply ceased.

·         The municipality actually owes us about R1000 as we had paid them after water supply had stopped.

·         It is evident that the government is working on water supply as we have seen pipes being laid and reservoirs built for the last 2 years.

·         Our school still have no piped water though.

·         Our buildings harvest rain water into 7 x 5000 litre plastic JOJO tanks.

·         During winter these JOJOs run dry.

·         We have drilled two boreholes on the property.

·         The first one dried up last year and we had to drill the second.

·         An electric pump extracts water, which is stored in an elevated JOJO tank.

·         On a hot day, the borehole JOJO is emptied by midday.

·         Borehole water is untreated.

·         Local residents fetch water daily using large drums filled at the river.

·         These drums are transported home on ‘bakkies’ (small trucks).

·         Some people in Manguzi earn their livelihood by transporting water around.'

Alan Stuart

ADMINISTRATOR

John Wesley School Kosi Bay

a bakkie (translated means bowl)

Some pictures of the school (JWKB):

Lessons are in classrooms which are small, noisy and thin - walled. However, there is spirit and the smiles last all day...

Sometimes lessons are outside under the tree...
The children will take a chair and head for the shade.

During playtime... there is a nice wooden play gym or just a heap of sand will do. It is here where the local gymnastics takes plays in the form of flips and somersaults. The older children teach the young ones.

4 days before SPONSORED WALK

The weather:

In Africa they walk to get water, whatever the weather.

The map:

Hi, I'd like to share a Google Maps link with you. Link: <https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=55.393493,-1.624603&daddr=&hl=en&geocode=&sll=55.392064,-1.61938&sspn=0.019061,0.051241&vpsrc=6&mra=mift&mrsp=0&sz=14&ie=UTF8&t=m&z=14>


We still need someone with a large vehicle to pick up some traffic cones in Alnwick.



















Good news:
We have received some donations and there are a few raffle prizes in the school reception. This is great news.
The tent is ready to be picked up on Thursday at a local farm. Apparently it takes 45 minutes to erect!
The meat will be delivered on Friday by a local butcher.

We could do with some more raffle prizes and cakes for the tea/coffee/cake stall(to be delivered to school on Friday).

Water:

This sponsored walk aims to raise awareness of the importance of water. The Grade 1 class of John Wesley Kosi Bay school in South Africa did a project on the environment. They looked at the food chain, the environmental pyramid and the important role water plays.

grade 1 class at the mouth

They took a trip to the incredible Kosi Bay mouth and talked about water, sea creatures, turtles and nature. The sea and estuary were particularly beautiful on that day.

environment project

Basically, if you remove the human can....nothing happens.
But, if you remove the water can from the pyramid(can be demonstrated by child volunteers), then the whole pyramid collapses!

5 days before the SPONSORED WALK

The walk details :

We are walking from Hipsburn First School in the direction of Alnmouth. Walkers will proceed past the football car park, and continue along the pedestrian walkway which is to the left of the main road. After you walk across the bridge over the river Aln, we will cross the main road and then follow Lovers Lane with the river on our right. We will walk to the children's play area in Alnmouth and then to the water's edge. Here the helpers will assist us with filling of the containers with sea water. We will then walk on the same path back to the school where our containers will be measured by other friendly helpers. The measuring area will be next to the registration tent(map to follow).




a signpost on the road side nearing Maputo 

The fairly large tent will need to be erected early on Saturday morning next to the school. Hopefully with the help of a few friends....I have a volunteer.

On Thursday I am going to strim the foot path and pedestrian walkway. I will also curse all the local dogs who have been walking along Lovers Lane!