February 2011

It has been a long time since the last update; this can be blamed on my recent maternity leave and also on having way too much to do! We had a wonderful Christmas Party at the end of December – bouncy castles, music, dancing, sweets, cake and games. The generosity shown by the people of Maun averted a crisis in regard to the children’s presents; each year we donate to the Samaritan’s Purse and just before Christmas we receive over 200 wrapped presents for the children, however, this year there was a problem with delivery. With only a week to make a plan we appealed to the community to donate gifts and the response was fantastic…within 6 days we had enough to give every child at least one gift (lots of the smaller children got 2) – so a big thank you to Maun (see photo below).

The beginning of January was chaotic and expensive as we prepared over 135 children to return to school. New shoes, uniforms, books and toiletries meant that our bank account took a big knock. 18 children graduated from our own classes at the centre and are now attending mainstream school. We have welcomed 14 new children to the classes bringing the total taught each morning to 24. We also have a new group of pre-school children who somehow seem to get smaller every year, but are really enjoying going off to nursery each day (especially with their packed lunch and juice).

In September last year BBL welcomed two new volunteers from Project Trust, Conrad and Charlie, they have settled in very well and their enthusiasm is appreciated by staff and children alike. They are keen to experience the culture as much as possible and seem to have acquired a taste for the local delicacy of fried mophane worms, have been seen traditional dancing with the kids and their Setswana is already much better than mine. They will be with us for a period of one year. A BBL supporter, Viyanna Leo, held a fundraising event for us in Australia last week. “Boogie for Bana” was a great success and the funds raised will help us to buy a new combi van so we can transport the children. A big thank you to Viyanna and to those who gave their time, energy and expertise.

In November, two of our former children Itsing & Tirafalo flew out to New York to join the Director of the Somarela Fund, Jay Crosby, and Ker & Downey Guide Paul Moleseng in running the New York marathon. Identical twins Itsinfg & Tirafalo absolutely loved New York – the lights, food, people, taxis, giant buildings and music. They were looked after and shown around wonderfully by Jay. Whilst in New York they spoke to people about Botswana and the work of BBL; including an interview by the Wall Street Journal. They are of course, very keen to go out again this November and race again! I have updated the donors page to reflect all those who have given so generously over the last 5 months to BBL, thank you.



Some of the children with their Christmas Presents