Suprise!

Right. This is a bit of a long story. And an unusual one. Also, I'm zonked so this may not read very well.

Anyway...

Last week my manager came and asked me if I wanted to go on an outing with the older girls on Wednesday (yesterday). I said I would, but I was working-kids/work come first so if there's an outing and you're working 9/10 times you can't go. That was all I was told. An outing. On Friday, my manager came and spoke to me, Evlien and Sarah in our room to say that it had been an elimination process and anyone that had ummed and ahhed had been voted out so to speak. However she wanted us to go so unless we had said no straight away we were all going. We were told to be in her office at 2.30 on Wednesday and to be wearing takkies (trainers) jeans, a red, pink or white top and a warm jacket. We weren't allowed to have bags with us and to only take the bare minimum. We still knew nothing.

Because I knew I wasn't going to be working Wedesday afternoon, I let my Child Care Worker-Amanda-know so that she could prepare for not having me there. On Monday it was a childs birthday and I took another one to Clicks (see two posts previous) so I popped into the house to say hello. Amanda told me she'd seen a note in the Cokus (morning meeting for the CCW's) book about us filming/shooting an advert with the girls. I was pretty excited, it sounded like fun!

On Tuesday I went for an AWSOME picnic under a windmill with Anne (you pronounce the 'e' as an 'eh' sound for any non-germans!) because Sarah and Evlien had gone on a road trip to wild spirit. After our awesome picnic we went to the annex to do that amazingly sociable thing teenagers do which is sitting in 1 room with a laptop each and showing each other funny or strange videos. Some other volunteers came in who I knew were taking part in the outing, so we crept outside to discuss what we knew. We weren't allowed to talk to any volunteers that we knew weren't going though. Some bright spark had realised that Justin Beiber was performing (with his circus) at Cape Town Stadium and had got it into their head (and others) that we were going to see him. I thought this a fairly rediculous notion. There are something like +24 kids in House 1 and 2 as well as 7/8 volunteers and however many staff members. There was no way the Home could afford it.

In the end Sarah and Evlien couldn't come because they couldn't get back from their road trip in time.

The rest of us met in the office at 2.30. We were given some leaflets on HIV to read and Gender Based Violence. The assistant mentioned something about Desmond Tutu giving a speech. We were all given up to 3 children that we would be responsible for. We went to the activity hall to meet up with the girls and there was a radio station there. 94.5 Kfm said they were using us to film and record an advert for them. They would have us on a bus as if we were on a school trip and the radio would be on and we would have to pretend to be having a mini party on said bus. There were goody bags on the seats but we weren't allowed to look in them until they said. We all got on the bus and found seats, and were told to shut up so they could quickly do a sound check. The video is what they filmed. Watch the video then read on :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgyFseDCBHw



So we were actually going to a Beiber concert. Now I'll admit, I don't like Justin Beiber I think he's an egotistical fool and if I'd know we were going to a concert of his, I probably would have said no. But it was too late, we were on the bus, I was trapped! But in the end I really enjoyed it. The girls were so excited and happy it was an honour to share that with them. We were very close to the stage, they'd spared no expense on the tickets, we were in the first block, if you tried to go further forward you would have been on stage. He was late coming on-or at least he took his time: it said it started at 7.30, the support acts were over by about 7.30 and he didn't come on until 8.40ish. Some of the younger ones (some of the under 14's had been allowed to come) were falling asleep on the pile of coats we had and the adults were beginnig to discuss how late we would wait until we had to take them home as some of them had school the next day. All of a sudden all the lights on the stage went from off, to bright white and they all flashed up. Kids that had been asleep were awake and upright in miliseconds. I've never seen anbody become so alert so quickly! From 8.30 until it ended at 10.30, I had to girls alternating who was sitting on my back or shoulders so they could see. One girl is 12 and the other 13. Now they're both shorter than average but they did weigh enough! And they were so excited I nearly fell over several times because they were bouncing around so much! Another bonus was watching the social workers and my manager who I'd only seen in a professional setting before, dancing and jumping around like 10 year old girls, almost as excited as their charges! It was very funny!

So all in all, I had a very nice night, even if I would have chosen a different performer!

Much thanks to 94.5Kfm for organising it, and to the Home for letting some volunteers go and be a part of that with the girls. They've never been to something like that before and will (almost certainly) never get to be that close again if they manage to get tickets to something like that. It was a real treat!