Animals wild and wonderful!

With the September holidays behind us this post is long overdue.

We had the wonderful priviledge of going on an outing with the 16 Grandmothers and 56 Children to the Tygerberg Zoo. We received a budget from the Stephen Lewis Foundation to have an annual outing for the aftercare, this is the highlight of the year and provides a much needed time for the children to discover more about the country they live in. The pictures speak for themselves but it is necessary to say that for many of the Grandmothers and children it was the first time to see animals such as lions, chimpanzees, wild dogs, cheetahs...even a cuddly looking brown bear.

The day ran wonderfully smoothly. We caught two hired Golden Arrow busses early in the morning and set off for our adventure about 4o km away. Grandmothers paired up and each took care of 10 children to make sure the children could ask all the questions they wanted. The zoo was a spralling maze of different enclosures for all sorts of wild africa (and other ) animals. After a morning of excitement we sat down to a nutrious meal packed by the grandmothers and used some of our energy on the jungle gyms. To end off a perfect day we set off to find the bears...peeking over a high wall 56 faces eargerly looked for the famous bear, who in his own time he slowly emerged from his sleep and filled us all with joy.

We appreciate the committment of all the grandmothers to making this day possible, to the GAPA staff for all the organising and to the funders for making this opportunity possible.

Mrs Nkone (new aftercare coordinator)

Mrs Skefile's grandson ready to go the zoo

In a line...'can we get there already?"

Inside!! First thing we see are springbok. The children and grandmothers were initially scared of the animals despite the enclosures

King of the jungle - lionesses lazily lying in the grass

This picture doesn't do justice to how big these tortoises were

Having fun trying to figure out what the chimpanzee was doing

White lion cubs - their paws were massive

Strange monkeys

Thank you and a beautiful smile from Bulela