Tim's Story

Tim Pickles June 2009

Local Business Owner (Tim's Garden Centre), Tim Pickles, tells a storyof his experience as a volunteer in Africa, seeing first hand how theAfrican Aids Foundation is helping people in Africa.

Download Tim's Diary (2.8MB)

Download Tim's Diary (1.1MB)

Extracts from Tim's Diary

Monday 8th June

Its pouring rain but we see school children walking along the road
getting soaking wet. They are all beautifully dressed. The high school
students are all tall and athletic looking, most have the bodies of
models. As we drive you can see the small houses they live in
scattered across the country side. They are neat and tidy with
corrugated iron roofs. They put big rocks on the roof to stop the iron
blowing away.

Tuesday 9th June

They are as quiet as mice when the teacher talks. Then they burst
into voice as the teacher points at letters of the alphabet on the
blackboard. They do English first, then Zulu. They are all looking at
the board and chanting out the answers.

About 10 kids got the job of pointing at the letters with a stick. When
the teacher asked for volunteers around 20 kids raced to the front.
Later it was time to do maths so she asked the children to take out
their counters.

Hands rummaged through pockets and bags to find rocks, bottle tops
and soft drink bottle lids. Kids who didn't have enough borrowed off
others. One child was like the bottle top king and at least 10 children
sought him out for counters. The teacher got the children to count
these out on the table until they had 10, in English first, and then in Zulu.
Bailey loved hearing the children do this and he even learnt some Zulu.

To read the full version of Tim's South African Diary, click on the pdf link above