It has been such a long time since we had any girls around for a sleep over as the ratio at our Fikelela Child and Youth Care Centre project has been very boy heavy for quite some time now. There was only one girl in the age group we usually take and so we bravely (ha ha) took two much younger ones along to keep her company. Our first stop was the Two Oceans Aquarium at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. The girls loved every minute of all the new sights and had lots of fun in the kiddie area too. We then went to McDonalds for lunch and looked around at some of the sights at the waterfront. There are people who paint themselves completely in gold/silver paint etc and stand dead still until they suddenly move…they thought this was some kind of amazing magic!
When we got home, they wanted to know straight away where the baby dolls were. Well, that was that for most of the afternoon – they played with them and the kitchen stuff until supper time which was delicious pizza and strawberries. For pudding they had chocolate/coconut ice cream with crushed biscuits and chocolate coated peanuts – Yummy!
As usual, they children absolutely love the shower, as it’s a bit like standing in the rain and they didn’t want to get out! Ed read stories to the girls and then it was bed time with a teddy and lots of blankets as it was so cold.
Up bright and early the next morning, the girls had some tea with a spoon of honey, which they pronounced to be delicious and then Coco Pops for breakfast. They were keen to put on the fairy clothes so that’s just what we did! They could not stop looking in the mirror – so cute! Then they added to the fairy look by adding Spiderman and pirate outfits… Ed was trying to get them to talk like pirates and they were completely overtaken by giggles trying to say: Scupper me the poop decks awash… Arrrrrrrrrrrr!!! So cute!
They each get a fizzy drink, packet of chips (crisps) and a little packet of a variety of sweets to eat when they like. This is something very different for them, because if anything gets put down for later at the Children’s Centre, it will get taken by somebody else. It’s so nice for them to be able to help themselves to their stuff any time and put it back for later, knowing that it will still be there for them. After being outside for a little while, the girls rushed back inside saying they were very scared because their was a monster outside and that it was going to get them. Huh? We were very confused and eventually asked them to show us. Someone was using a weed eater and they were terrified by the sound as they had never heard it before!
The girls were very eager to help with the sweeping before we left for the Mall. I think we need to encourage the boys to do this too! Once at the Mall, it was up the escalators for the first time with the usual excitement and then straight to the Games area. Oh my word – they were so excited to try as much as they could! We then had lunch at Burger King with lots of playing in the climbing area and then back to the games for a little while until it was time for the movie to start. We saw Life of Pets 2 in between going to the toilet and using the hand drier - a lot!! Ha Ha! Back down the escalator and then I pretended that the automatic doors opened when I blew on them – wow, more magic!
More chewing gum and singing along with the music, we went back to Fikelela. Until next time… A huge thank you goes to ex volunteer Hedvig and her family for their amazing donation that covered the costs of this sleep over.