Bulembu Christian Academy’s annual Christmas play is coming up, and the Swazi 1000 teams working alongside the ladies at the Creativity Centre have been sewing up a storm.
Ducks, giraffes, elephants, zebra, sheep, raindrops … all of these characters will be on stage for a special dress rehearsal performance next week for the Swazi 1000 volunteers in the old Bulembu cinema, that is being transformed into Noah’s ark.
Swazi 1000 volunteer Nicole Da Rocha said that this is the first time that she has used a sewing machine. “It’s actually quite ironic that one comes on an outreach like this, thinking that you are going to be able to teach the community something, but in the end we are actually learning new skills as we are helping them with making the costumes,” she said.
“If you think about it, the children that we are doing this for don’t have moms that can spend thousands of Rands on making them the best costumes for the play, and we can do something like this that can make the feel special” said Sophia Wessels, a Swazi 1000 volunteer from the Western Cape. “Apart from that, we have made amazing friends and spent quality time with the Bulembu ladies as we are working alongside them.”
Tarien Visagie, a Swazi 1000 volunteer from Potchefstroom said that the best part of the project was to be able to invest a talent into a community that really appreciates it. “One of the ladies from Bulembu actually started crying when she said how thankful they are for what we are doing for them,” said Visagie. “We are doing something so small, but it is amazing to see how much it actually means.”