Nonibe - Eastern Cape

Our first school of the day is Nonibe.. 153 pupils. It’s located on the top of a plain in a fairly arid part of the country.  High unemployment  and no social system and no tarmac road, making it a total mission for parents, teachers and children to get here let alone learning basic reading skills, but the crowds turn out to meet us here as in all the schools, education is becoming their priority... but it’s tough.

We start to unload the vehicles, the welcome here is quite low key with a few interested groups of kids checking us out, as we enter the school the rest of the pupils are eagerly waiting to see the educational materials that are being delivered.  

 David our team leader is the first to introduce, sponsors here are actively involved. After the schools head teacher thanks the team we are treated to singing in perfect harmony from the children.  The sound is sublime!

Neli from READ gives everyone a rundown of the items the rally’s delivered, included are the small yellow library boxes, easels for the large books which allow group reading, writing paper and pencils plus a host of other  gear...  afterwards a pupil tells her story to the sponsors... She speaks in English.

David presents the school head with the Rally's pledge of support for the next year. Before we leave we are given a tour of the classrooms.  

While the group looks around I take some pictures of the very enthusiastic kids... 

I made the mistake of showing one of the shots and before long I’m swamped and surrounded.

 A little time out with the pupils goes a long way. 

One little dude in particular was strong like an ox and clung on to my shiny Nikon as I lifted him off the ground like a dog on a stick.... he was as hard to shake off too... thanks David for your intervention!! 

After some quality time spent with the children and teachers its time to move onto our second school of the day. We say our goodbyes and are on our way.