Another concert at Salvokop

Here we are again! Lalie and I in front of the Inkululeko stage busy with a concert!

I was the principal of the pre-school (Inkululeko) at Salvokop from its beginning in 2000 till the beginning of last year. In this time, the pre-school performed many concerts and other performances. The community centre (older children and sometimes adults) also regularly performed "Easter Dramas" (Passion plays) and end of the year concerts. I was always in charge of the pre-school performances: not too difficult with lots of help of the rest of the staff, Win Bryant who readily made costumes and my sister Lalie who always helped with decor, costumes, dressing children etc. Jan also always helped with anything from welding tables to installing lights. The community concerts were another matter altogether! Here Lalie shouldered the burden for most of the productions alone. This year she did so again!
About 3 weeks ago, Lalie (who is at the moment once again a substitute teacher at the pre-school), got the go ahead to produce the major part of this year's community concert (again!). I volunteered to help, but my help was very limited. (I only manned the overhead projector and was the narrator for one item).
Lalie wrote the scripts, directed, made the costumes for each and every child.... and to get them fired up, she singlehandedly treated the different groups to camps before rehearsing started. These camps have been going on for years. The result is groups of committed children despite their very disadvantaged backgrounds. It is so heartwarming to see the development of individual children, but also of the community as a whole.
Here are some pics of the different items... produced at very short notice! As Lalie says, she could not have done it without God. All is part of His greater purpose for the community! He is there! God, you are so awesome!!

St George and the dragon.

The whole dragon: moving wings, tail and claw. At the actual performance, his vicious mouth no longer opened and closed so easily: the boys had so much fun practising with it, that the head nearly did not survive to the bitter end. An interesting phenomenon was that many boys who were "naughty" or poor achievers in pre-school pitched up for this drama with great enthusiam. At the community centre, anyone who wants to, can be part of the drama.

Surrendering to Jesus...

Ordinary men empowered to fight in Jesus' name

Angels against demons

A part of the Senior girl group dancing gracefully. Lalie taught them some ballet steps and they all beamed in their beautiful wide skirts and pink organza wraps. They really internalised the music and the dances.

Sabatha: She has been part of the community centre since it started: she joined the Pre-school as a 3 year old, only a month after we opened our doors. Now 8 years later, she is still an eager member of the drama group. Her younger nephew, Khotso, is also a very reliable community child: he can be sent to call his friends to come for practice. Sabatha's older siblings used to take part in all the dramas but have now moved on. What a beautiful family

Young girl angels dancing