SHAWCO Open Day

Yesterday we had SHAWCO Open Day, a celebration and showcase of all that this semester’s Manenberg SHAWCO Arts project had done. It was a really great day, it felt really good to be there and enjoy it with the kids. They had worked hard all semester and it was a fun way to show off what we had done! Conor came with, and we arrived at Manenberg around 11:30AM. Rainy and cold, the weather was not what we were hoping for, so we had to move everything indoors. We started by putting a lot of the semester’s artworks up for display: paintings, drawings, and collages. The main focuses were display of artwork, a fashion show, and dance battles. The fashion show was a great success-the girls were so cute! They had outfits made of construction paper, macaroni and straw necklaces, taped on tissue paper, etc. They did cute little model walks across the stage and giggled the whole time. Between models, pairs of boys did dance offs. Let me tell you, some of these kids know how to dance! It was so amusing watching them battle off in dance, and they were all really getting into it. After the fashion/dance show, some older groups performed dances and sang songs. Everyone was clapping along and cheering, it was a really good experience. In a second room, they set up a large bouncy jumping castle for the little kids to play on, and they absolutely loved that! In the back of the room, we had a face painting station, where I painted faces for about an hour. I now know exactly how to draw and color the South African flag, as I painted it on at least 20 kid’s faces. There were small stands with food for sale, (doughnuts, drinks, sweets, and samoosas- one of my favorite South African foods, a filo dough wrapped pastry with meat/veggies on the inside). I was definitely expecting more parents to come, there were very few. Although a lot of the kids brought their cousins, sisters, brothers, neighbors, etc. which was fun because they were so excited to have me meet them! I think the kids really enjoyed themselves. It is hard to believe that I only have one afternoon left with these kids. I’ve really gotten to know a lot of them, and I’m so sad to leave them. I hope I have made some small difference in their lives, and I do think that I have. I wish you could see the way their faces brighten up when our bus arrives, and how they all run to the gates to wait for us to step off the bus. They all want to hold your hand and be picked up and tell you about their day. I really hope that they benefited from this experience as much as I did, it really meant a lot to me and is something I will never forget.