Mandela Day, 18th July 2023, dawned wet, cold and windy but we didn't mind
We were wrapped up warmly. We had volunteered to help Ladles of Love for 67 minutes
and headed to The Oranjezicht City Farm Market outside the V&A Waterfront
We had bought our tickets on line and, after checking in, headed to the area where we had pledged to do our 67 minutes
Out in the open, but under good solid marquee roofs, we had volunteered to plant seeds and seedlings
There were many ways of assisting. People were doing crafts
Painting wooden blocks and inscribing them with one word to assist children in learning and reading
Making piles and piles of Peanut butter and jam sandwiches to be donated to creches, schools and others in need
We have done this before and it is a mighty sticky job but with huge Gees (spirit) in the tent
as teams vie to beat each other and sing along to the band
Founder of Ladles of Love Danny Aiello explaining to visitors what is happening.
You have to get a system going: Lay out the bread slices, spread on the peanut butter then the jam,
close the sandwich and pack it back into the loaf bags
You can see they were all having a great time
These were the tables we were would work; our start time was minutes away
How many layers of polar fleece and waterproof.....?
"Like a bird on a wire ...." To quote Poet songwriter Leonard Cohen:
"Like a bird on the wire,
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free"
Redwing Starlings waiting for a dropped treat
The instruction was to fill a cup or an egg box and to use the supplied coloured pens to mark what seed was planted
and to decorate the container in an attractive way
It was a struggle: To spend time decorating or to get on and plant many vegetable seeds that would feed people?
We chose the latter but did do some decorating
Showing us what to do and where to find the supplies
Sadly, no vegetable seedlings were donated, so in this area we all planted seeds
Busy at work, singing along to the excellent jazz duo, who also donated their time and talent, and having a lot of fun
John planted Copenhagen Cabbage seeds, one to each eggcup shape,
which we filled with compost supplied to us.. Lynne had Detroit Beetroot and she wrote "Planted with Love 💓"
on her boxes and cups in the hope that the seeds would grow well...
And our pile done in 67 minutes grew and grew very satisfyingly
And this was what was done in 67 minutes by our 11 o clock group. Impressive
The Jazz duo Nick n Dave, who call themselves Brass Keys, was superb, playing all the known standards
so we could sing along: Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Funny Valentine etc
They are very talented and sang as well as played
The trumpeter played a mean horn. Very talented
They are now local, the keyboard player was originally a Londoner; they can be hired for events. We recommend them
We had a great time
And the good news is that “6003 volunteers did 67 minutes on Mandela Day
and made 150,000 items to nourish, nurture and grow children at ECD Centres in impoverished communities”
All our stories can be seen in the Blog Archive near the top of the column on the right
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