AN AFRICAN ADVENTURE FOR...
HOLIDAY AT HOME!
For three days in October, around 25 Holiday at Home guests and the many helpers went to Africa – while staying at Selsdon Baptist Church! The church premises, upstairs and downstairs, were transformed into scenes from Africa, and the window sills had displays of African crafts and fabrics.
The Coffee Lounge became the Treetops Tearoom where the guests had morning coffee and afternoon tea and ice creams. Lunch was served in the Large Hall upstairs and Maggie Steer and her team did an excellent job of creating South African favourites like bobotie, peppermint caramel tart and malva pudding – although Friday lunch was, of course, the traditional and much appreciated Fish and Chips!
Trevor gave a short after lunch talk on how Christians from Africa had blessed the wider church. The guests enjoyed puzzles and activities with an African theme.
Ruth, Rosemary and Pat ran craft sessions making paper beads.
Tamsin read stories from The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency which is set in Botswana.
Pauline and John led sessions playing hand bells and there was even an opportunity for the guests to play some African drums which Pre-School had lent us! And of course we had old favourites like the Sjoelen (pronounced 'shulen') competition for the cup which was eagerly contested, with the triumphant winner being Barbara Burns!
Marion provided face masks to be Painted, with some very colourful results and the Rummikub group pitted their wits against each other, with much enjoyment. A highlight on Sunday afternoon was a parade of African fashions (see next page) with some of our members wearing their colourful traditional dress in a fashion show hosted by Nancy O'Dongo. This was followed by a service which included another chance to play the African drums!
We finished with afternoon tea and a final serving of ice cream cones – with chocolate flakes in of course! Many thanks go to all those who helped make this event so successful and particularly to Pat Hasell for pulling all the strands together.
Theresa Nichols