A great day at Kgatla village

It was so rewarding to see the excitement in the village when they received our donations -- especially when the village orphans received their uniforms.....

The trip took us a little over 3 hours due not only to distance, but  the bad dirt road that were only rocks in some parts, and also a slight delay while one of the drivers from the Premier's Department was stopped by police who discovered that she had an outstanding traffic fine which had to be paid before we could go any further! 

We first had to follow the signs to go to the village of 'My Darling' ....

which consisted of a large water tank and a small number of huts.

We turned right at My Darling and eventually arrived at Kgatla.  The whole village was at the school to greet us.  At first we were amazed at the number of children in uniforms and wondered why the request was for uniforms.  But, once you were up close to the kids, it was clear that the uniforms they had were thread bare and torn.

We were asked to move into a large room at the school and this was all set out with a table at the front covered in lace tablecloths with flowers.  This was for my team - the official guests.  There was a formal program of the event.  The Chief greeted us to the village and we introduced ourselves -- all through an interpreter.  

Team members (left to right) Ine, Sujata, Susan, Keiko, Camilla, Carolyn

Once the formalities were done we formed a line and carried the bags of shopping into the room.

Village Chief in the middle talking with personnel from the Department of Education

The Principal of the school then brought forward a number of children and asked if we could search out the right size uniforms for them.  They were the orphans in the village and they wanted these children to receive uniforms first:

Orphans before receiving uniforms

Orphans in their new uniforms (two of them eating marshmallows that had been handed to them before the photo)

When the orphans arrived back into the room all dressed up in their uniforms there were screams from the crowd who spontaneously applauded and yelled with delight.  The Principal of the school jumped up and did a dance of joy across the front of the crowd.

Crowd applauding with Stella, the representative from the Premier's Department in the red shirt -- the MC for the event

I had a wonderful encounter with an elder of the village.  After several minutes of her talking in Sepedi to me, and me replying in English, I worked out that she wanted me to take her photo!  There was much delight when I was able to show her the photo on the screen of my camera:

We left knowing that the whole village truly appreciated our donations and we were touched by the warmth of their greetings.  

Thanks again to the people who helped us make this happen for the people of Kgatla.