I had no idea it would be so much fun. The community hall
echoed with shrieks of laughter, games and lots of kids. As a conservative,
quiet fifty-something woman, I am used to playing it safe; yet here I was, wrapped
in black plastic, face smothered in menthol shaving foam and on my knees in
front of a hundred yelling kids. And it was
fun. All of little Trevor’s marshmallows were bang on target. The winner would
be the person with the most marshmallows on their face, but sadly none of mine
seemed to stick. Lano had caught some in his open mouth (was that allowed?) and
Elmien was having some success too. Being adventurous can be risky – my eyelids
were stinging from the foam – but fortunately it didn’t get any worse. The Red
team screamed their support: I could endure the discomfort! After half an hour
(no, it was only five minutes) Hermione announced the winners: the red team!
Because we’d “followed the instructions to the letter.” Thanks, Hermione!
My skin felt incredibly smooth after the facial. Somehow this
stunt broke the ice for me - I made friends and learned how to break-dance on
my stomach.
The Fisantekraal Holiday Club is
all about having fun, and Barbara is very good at ensuring that not only the
children have a great time, but the leaders do too! We met in the minor hall of
the Father’s House Christian Fellowship for training that Friday before the
club began; a handful of FHCF youth and some older volunteers. Once the taxi
load of Fisantekraal teenagers poured through the double doors Barbara had us
all in a circle playing “Jump in, jump out, introduce yourself!” That was
probably the hardest thing I had to do: I was completely out of my comfort zone
but gritting my teeth I introduced myself and a few of my favourite things.
Chocolate and pizza, I think. Gosh, I felt I’d climbed Mt Kilimanjaro. What had
started with preparing crafts with some women at church the week before had
graduated into actually volunteering to be a leader at the week-long club.
Lynette was very good. She said, come along, try it, see how you go…
My youngest child had bravely flown to Europe to be an au
pair the previous week and it was my chance to do something I’ve wanted to do
for years, but lacked the courage. And
I’m so glad I did go to Fisantekraal. In fact, I enjoyed myself so much, I found
myself asking Barbara if I could help at the after-school club on Wednesdays…
