Day Eleven: Lime Acres to Kuruman (111 Kms)

Today was a mother of a day with one uphill after another. We also held two workshops, one at the Kuruman Christian Academy with 8 teachers and 2 parents and one at the Masakhane Educentre with over 50 parents.
The guys took a lot of strain today as the ascent was titanic and incessant. We quietly became more and more desperate for them because with each rise we expected to see a downhill, but no such luck. Zane and I left the cyclists at about 10h45 to travel ahead to our first workshop in Kuruman at 12h00. The Christian Academy is an interesting little school as it has a special needs class included in the mainstream school. The class has 9 children and they have Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, cognitive disability and one was autistic.
The teacher of the class is untrained as a special needs teacher but her enthusiasm and passion for what she is doing makes up for her lack of formal training. She is thirsty for knowledge and when I invited her to see how we do things at The Key, and that we would not charge her for the ‘training’, she was flabbergasted as there are unfortunately many people out there who charge a fortune for any kind of specialised training. She is very keen to take up the offer at some stage. As a thank you to us for doing a workshop she gave me a very elaborate book with one laminated page of photos after another of her class, their parents, their relatives and lots of herself.
The guys arrived towards the end of the workshop exhausted but still able to speak to people individually. Shaun did a great job talking to one parent who broke down during the workshop after telling us her story of struggling as a single parent of a child with autism.
We then together headed out to Bakhara-Budolong the township just outside Kuruman where we did assessments in February. We did a workshop at the Masakhane Educentre with over 50 parents. There was a lot of interest in what we had to say and another parent who has an 8 year old child with cerebral palsy also broke down after telling us that she could not find a school for her child. It is heart breaking knowing what can be done for her child and feeling as if one’s hands are tied at the same time.

After the workshop we took the scenic route to Kathu (Pieter’s fault) via Hotazel. We finally arrived at the van Heerdens’ home (sister of Pauli Nigrini, one of our teachers) where we sat in a lapa enjoying a sundowner in Kelkiewyn Street with Willem and Louise and their daughters Jana, Katinka and Fenji . Shaun and Mark left us to stay at Shaun’s sister-in-law’s place and we sat down to a sumptuous meal of curry and rice and poached plum-coloured pears with dollops of cream.
Equally as good was an early night on a satisfied tummy. It is sometimes difficult though to unwind from an emotional day and to switch off from concerns arising from what we had heard from despairing parents. Falling asleep however is always a welcome relief and it provides the strength for the start of a new day.