A special event - 23 June 2012

Last Saturday I went to a very unusual event.
I don't think you could call it a funeral. Not a wake. 'Perhaps a 'laying to rest' for the romantic?Or a 'Redistribution of nutrients' for the not so.
Or as I like to call it, "Planting Granma".

I went to Brendan's Aunt Siggs place to pay respects to the memory of his grandmother and watch her ashes being added to a lovely urn to fertilize a tree that would grow there. The whole family gathered around for the event. It's amazing to see how one woman managed to have been directly responsible for such a large, varied family! Who says one person can't make a difference hey?

Compost was added to the urn and all was ready for the ashes.

Upon the urn were two plaques to commemorate the person being interred and the families who'd loved her so very much. One in English and one in German. 

We even had a curious visitor drop by to see what all the commotion was about! And indeed to cause some commotion as the kids, and a few adults, howled meows up to it. It ran off soon after.

The ashes were added to the urn. I stood back because of a sudden fear of inhalation of a relative and sneezing. (If I had I would at least have sneezed in the direction of the urn, just in case!)

The kids were a mix of fascinated, curious and just a touch bored. In other words, full on natural kids! I wonder how they interpreted all of this?

And so the circle of life continues, back to the ground from whence we came. I hope to see this tree many years from now and the majestic plant it could grow into! 

(Wouldn't be a bit awful if it suddenly died? I'd blame winter, it's been a harsh one.)

I think I'd like something like this. Take my ashes and sprinkle them somewhere where they can be useful. Don't keep me on a mantelpiece to freak out small kids or get eaten in some teenage dare. Maybe sprinkled on a mushroom patch or orchid? Or a watermelon vine! 

It's a nice way to go out.

Rest In Peace Oma

5 Jaunuary 1926 - 23 October 2011.

Discovery World Health day - Friday 13 April 2012

 Friday afternoon, World Health Day and us Discovery Volunteers were ready and waiting for the kids who would arrive soon to help us celebrate it! They came from various schools aged from around 5 to 16 years old. I don't think the kids new what to expect. I'm not sure we did either!

 While we waited for all the children to arrive we took a bunch of photographs to signify the sober way we undertook this  solemn challenge.

Finally we got to mingle with the kids! Dance, the language we all understand! (With varying degrees of success...)

Our photographer cleverly camouflaged himself within the crowd, can you spot him?

 We had a few speeches from different inspirational speakers. For example this lady told us all about what it was like to climb mountains, and how she trained by walking up and down 21 flights of stairs carrying 10kg's of potatoes! We're sure the potatoes enjoyed the company! I think her little friend there was to help her in case she got a case of nerves!

The kids were held rapt by the speeches.

Then the bunch was divided into groups. My group, Group 2, ended up with 11 little tots who mostly didn't understand a word of English. But a little kindness went a long way to bridging the language barrier.
Here's our lesson on recycling, The kids were better at it than most adults I know.

 Then off we go to a new station and new tasks and challenges! I think most of our exercise came from darting between stations!

 Here we had an interesting lecture on all the good and bad foods you can put into your body. Our young friends didn't seem to really understand what was going on but were very well behaved all the same. I couldn't help but notice though, that while the lady talked of fruits and veggies, their eyes often strayed towards the chocolates and chips. I'm not entirely sure this talk was a complete success...

 

 Run! Run! Run! Good exercise with everyone getting a case of sticky bums!!
Let's just say the events were nothing if not interesting!

And how often do you get to legally tie up kids?

When is junk not junk? How about making skipping ropes from black plastic bags? There's always a way to stay healthy when you're willing to think out the box!

Work those bodies!!! The kids enthusiastically got to do aerobics! The Discovery volunteers did as well! There was some moaning and groaning but the kids understood that sometimes adults just behave that way.

And as the day draws to a close and energy levels start to sink, tired bottoms happily filled chairs. We even got to sit through a fire drill. I suspect we were so tired that even a real fire might not have seemed all that scary.

As the day drew to a close, we had one last farewell and then waved good bye to our tiny charges as they went back to their buses happily burdened down with great Discovery goodies!

It was a very rewarding event, and I think, in the end, our bodies were warm with more than just the ache of used muscles.