Adventures for Love is a team of high-powered ladies who leave their husbands and boyfriends at home to visit different community NGO's in the country and help them with projects on their bucket list.
The Adventure part of their name is that they always combine their giving with whatever challenging activity the area offers, a hike maybe or a zipline or climbing a mountain.
They contacted us and offered to help with snake-proofing our playground. This is very necessary because mice come into the playground and snakes on the lookout for supper, follow them and don't always go back into the fynbos. The kids don't much like coming upon a mole snake sleeping under the jungle gym and there is always the worrying chance a puff adder might slide in under the fence too.
Friends of the school lashed shade cloth to the fencing in the Autumn and left the bottom end loose. The next step was to pin it down with large rocks.
The Adventurers did the job for us on 14th, with the aid of two enthusiastic and strong men they hired to help and without whom we would really have had a tough time of it. Not only are the rocks a very effective barrier, no mouse is going to get through that shade cloth now, but they are hardly noticeable under the Tarconanthus bushes.
While half the team was on the job outside, the other half was giving the kids a whale of a time on the stoep outside the classrooms. They helped the boys and girls make their own bats to play balloon tennis, iced marie biscuits - to wolf down, chose how they wanted their faces painted and loved talking to these nice ladies who, like their teachers were interested in what they have to say and answered kindly and often said funny things that make them laugh. There are not a lot of adults like that in their lives.
Then it was lunchtime and there were hotdogs for everyone with plenty of sausages and fruit juices in little boxes with straws. What a treat!
When nap time came all the Batmen and zebras and fairies and butterflies collapsed onto their mattresses and lay still very quickly. it was a safe bet their dreams would be very happy ones - of a day spent with Adventures for Love.
Before they left they offloaded donations of food for the feeding scheme and items to sell in the second hand shop which is just the sort of kind and thoughtful gesture Adventures for Love would make knowing it represents a huge help to us.
Once again I am most forcibly reminded what jolly nice people South Africans are.
