South Africa - Day 7 - A Swaziland Preschool and Dancing

The tour we're going through is with a company known as "Gate 1".  We've both been really impressed with them.  In Swaziland they have an arrangement with a local preschool known as Sornnjalose Preschool where they bring a busload by on a tour and each time donate $50 to the school.  They also allow all the tour passengers to donate stationary, pens, pencils, or food to the school.

The preschool covers 2 to 5 yo.  Most of these kids are orphaned.  Swaziland has a 50% rate of HIV/AIDS in women 35-45 and 40% in 25-35.  That's a lot of mothers who are dying and leaving children behind.  Even just a little visit from a tour bus brings smiles to these kids faces.

The guy who coordinates the schools activities, fund raising, and facilities is a dedicated and extraordinary guy named Simon.

We were there at 7:30 AM and a lot of the children don't get there until 8 to 8:30.  Nonetheless we had fun with the ones who were there.

This is the teacher of the 3 year old class. 

This little girl was fascinated with Tina's glasses.

This woman founded the preschool 13 years ago.  Unfortunately she lost her 16 yo daughter to leukemia the month before we visited.  You couldn't help but see some sadness in her eyes. She feels fortunate that Simon has come along because in a patriarchal society such as Swaziland it's much easier for a man to deal with local officials than a woman.

The joy of being thrown up in the air.

 

Our 80 yo fellow passenger being run down the hill by a joyful boy.

 Simon, our tour guide Roger, and yours truly.

And then it was back onto the bus and across the countryside of Swaziland.

Just at the border of South Africa we stopped at an African Village to have lunch and enjoy some African song and dance.  In the middle of the village was this tree with a fascinating vine growing all around it.

Then our singer girls came out in brightly colored outfits.

Followed shortly by the males.

I saw this guy and swore that Lebron had taken a break from basketball to dance and play for us.

 At the end there was dancing and I got picked by a hot African mama to dance with her.

One last pic of the hot mama who picked me to dance with.

So, until later, keep on dancing and singing.