On Thursday,  breakfast was scheduled to start earlier at 7:00 a.m. (local time) so that we could be at Queensburgh High School by 8:00 a.m.  We were still having breakfast at 7:45; therefore we were running ten minutes late.  We called in to notify the school that we would be a little late. When we arrived at Queensburgh we were greeted by the deputy principal Mr. K .

 LASA was introduced by Pastor Dennis John. Mrs Collette then introduced all of the LASA team members. We then began our power point that was prepared by the staff of LASA. Abel and Lucia, two of the LASA team members, presented two skits about negative and positive peer pressure. Collette and Molly then continued with the presentation that covered: education, peer pressure, the importance of goal setting, and visualizing your future success in order to make your dreams a reality.  Our team member Mishael, who is originally from South Africa, then addressed the students about his life story, the obstacles he overcame and how the choices he made led to his current status (2 months away from being a high school graduate) and the importance of fighting past challenges, and staying in school in order to reach your goals.

We then were able to speak and get personal with the students. They asked us questions about our school and why we came to Durban, South Africa. We took pictures with many of the students and made lots of memories. We truly hope to maintain those connections.

Once we finished up at Queensburhg, we left to the hardware store to get the last few items needed to complete the renovations at the Bottlebrush daycare center. Today was to be our final day of renovation. At the daycare we all went straight to work on our assignments and finishing touches.  During that time the older children were coming back from school.  As usual they were very playful and excited as we worked.  We had to ask them to stay away because there was wet paint all over and they were getting messy.   Multiple times we had to clean them off. They wanted to see what was happening and why we were in their space.  At one point in the evening, it appeared that the children began to practice protesting outside the daycare center. We were amazed to see they were play protesting at such a young age. It could be because the day before these young children witnessed their parents protesting for unfair housing issues; they’re prepaying for electricity and not receiving services, another reason the living condition are so overwhelming to observe.  With the amazement of all the activity around us, we were rushing to finish before sundown because there is no electricity at the daycare.  We really had to pull together and stay on task. As night was falling, there was still painting to complete, decorations to be hung and the overall cleaning up and disposing of all the materials we used over the past few days.

The great news is we were able to complete the renovations. Our hope is that the new look will bring a smile to the children and the staff at the daycare.  We would like this to be the first phase of LASA’s contribution to renovating portions of the Bottlebrush. There is so much left to be done…