Jacquie's diary for 1^st September 2008
Hi everyone,
This week's diary will be a little different in its format. We have all been working on different aspects of kids club and it will be easier if Sian and Woody write their own versions of things. I will introduce you to the two Romanian translators working for us this week, Catalin and Radu are both from Medgidia. Catalin is in his early twenties and has just finished his first year in university studying theology, he is studying in Bucharest and is only home for the holidays. Radu is in his late teens and is in high school in Medgidia where he lives with is mum and two brothers. Lew was on media and lunch duty all week. He was either videoing, taking photographs or plating up lunch, all week. Sian gave each of us an agenda every day telling us about the day and who was doing the different activities.
Monday
I started feeding the animals before setting off to collect Catalin and Radu from Medgidia. When I arrived back, Sian was in the middle of putting up the decorations, which turned the front 'garden' into the airport. The children were to 'fly' to England today. I had to leave them to it and finish feeding the animals. I welcomed the children to Kids Club Week and introduced them to Catalin, Radu and Nicky (the bear). The whole of the week's activities were centered on Nicky's adventures in England; he was very busy all the time he was there, out and about meeting people and going places. The twenty-two children were put into teams and Sian, Catalin and Radu were 'off and running'. Woody was on camera duty all day (which was changed the next day). I was in charge of lunch, an airline meal; orange juice, stir-fry with omelets, bread, fruit cocktail and cream which was to be served at twelve thirty. However, I was in and out all morning helping where I could. The children finished the morning with a lolly and a balloon.
Woody and Sian
So a noisy day started we had plane noise on a speaker system with tanoy anoncements. We started by making paper planes to race with and then the games just kept coming musical chairs, Pilot says, Stewardess stewardess (Britsh Bulldog) the games have all been linked with the theme of the day and when somebody is unfortunately out there are side games to play such as guess the weight of the bag and find the pilots hat, these will all earn points for prizes. With games played colourings coloured it was tiem for them to go home when asked if they enjoyed it and would be back tomorrow I am surprised you didn't hear them in England, the cheer was massive.
Tuesday
I started feeding again but Woody finished off while I went to collect Catalin and Radu. When I arrived back, having stopped to buy the bread and cookies on the way home, the 'garden' had been transformed into a zoo with, amongst other things, monkeys and a giraffe. At the morning welcome four 'eggs' that had come back from England with me were put into water to hatch. The twenty children were put into two teams, the tigers with Radu and the elephants with Catalin. Today Sian worked with the team doing craft and Woody worked with the team doing the carousel games. I was on duty cutting out and finishing masks. Lew had the extra duty of laminating the masks to make them last longer. We plated up the lunch which was sliced meat, bread, fresh gherkins, savory biscuits, cookies and peach squash (back to Romanian style, stir-fry didn't go down very well yesterday).
Woody and Sian
Today we introduced the carousel idea to the children which basically involved 2 teams. One team would be doing the designated craft of the day while the other would be playing the games of the day. The games of today were pin the tail on the Zebra, splat the Monkey and throw the fish to the Pelican. They all went down very well with some of the younger children doing a lot better then the older ones much to our surprise. The craft of the day was Tiger and Elephant masks for each of the respective teams. They had fun coulouring them but then had to hand them over to Jacquie and there team leaders to cut them out. Another game that went down a treat was musical flamingos. It went down so well in fact that we ended up playing it 5 times in a row! . All in all a good second day.
Wednesday
I started the animals and Woody finished while I went to collect Catalin and Radu. Sian transformed the 'garden' into a garden party area. The children were arriving about nine-thirty, not too early. The thirty children were split in two teams the daisies and dandelions. Again they had a craft to do and a carousel of games. I was helping Sian with the craft, we were making windmills, luckily, there was just enough wind to get them turning when they were finished. Lunch today was four different sandwiches; peanut butter, jam, pate and cucumber with the crusts cut off with crisps; followed by Swiss roll, cookie, lady finger biscuit and lemon squash. When I had taken Catalin and Radu home I had to take a trip into Constanta, the printer had run out of ink.
Woody and Sian
Games today included Skittles made from bottles filled with sand, hook the duck out of the pond and hopscotch all of which the children really enjoyed. Hoop the duck didn't quite go to plan as the ducks wouldn't float but the children still had fun just trying to hook them out of the small paddling pool we had set up. Craft of the day was pinwheels which the children had lots of fun making. We also took today to show them a few magic tricks that Jacquie had picked up in town. However the children were a lot cleverer then I had first anticipated and very quickly they caught on to how they were being done.
Thursday
The day followed the same pattern; Sian had transformed the 'garden' into a beach with fish swimming in the sea. The thirty-one children were split into teams, one doing the craft, making paper boats and hats, and the other the carousel games. Lunch today was bread, meat, savory biscuits, fresh gherkins and blackberry squash. They were given choc-ices as they left for home.
Woody and Sian
Today was alot of fun. Again we had 3 games for the children. The 1st was how far could they throw a frisbee. We used the land next to ours for this game as it was closer then ours. We had to be quick though as the gent that owns it had decided to plough it today so we had to get it finished asap. Next was on to ' find the Nemos'. Sian had hidden 31 Nemos in a sea life picture she had made. We decided to let the team leaders help with this one. However even though they helped neither team actually got the correct answer!! After they had finished that it was on to Hoopla using the bottles we had used for skittles earlier in the week. Craft of the day was how to make a paper boat. At first they didn't quite understand but after Sian had shown them a few times they were amazed at how easy it was. Thye then all had fun watching Sian's little story which involved carefully tearing up her paper boat until all that was left was a paper t-shirt. It was very clever. Today was also the day I showed them the Diablo's. They didn't seem to impressed to start with until I started throwing it in the air. Then they were all very eager to have a go themselves!
Friday
The boys wanted to play football so a game was arranged. Those not playing football were busy making bunting and 'Thank you' cards for Catalin and Radu. We had twenty-four children this morning. But the temperature rose to 40C today and it was getting to hot to keep the children as long as we usually do so we had an early lunch of sausage rolls, bread, cheese and savory biscuits, they went home just after twelve. They will be back again for the bar-b-que and disco at six o'clock this evening. Lew is on cooking duty, he is cooking mici, dovleci, fried onions, jacket potatoes, bread and red orange juice; he had to cook for thirty-four children.
Woody and Sian
Last day of kids club and the children were all very hyped up. First game of the day was football for those who wanted to play which happened to be most of them. Catalin and Radu set up the teams and it was decided that they would play until one team reached 10. Both teams played well but in the end Catalin's team won with the final score being 10-9. That done it was on to making the decorations for tonights BBQ. The children seem to enjoy being a part of the organising in a way and they were all more then happy to colour some bunting for us. In between that we were trying to get the children to sign a card for Catalin and Radu. As Jacquie said earlier due to the heat the children left a little before they would have normally however they knew they were back 6pm so I don't think they minded to much. So while they were gone we were rushing around trying to make sure that everything was ready for this evening. 6pm came around fast and before we knew it children had started to arrive. We decided that we wouldn't split them up tonight and make it more like a party and the kids were more then happy with that. We let them play with Paws and his girlfriend. They also had the chance to have another go on the Diablo's Jacquie and Lew had bought back from England. Again we played football for a little while with my team losing 5-4 =(. There was lots of dancing and laughing. Next was the grand finale.... the food!! All the kids cleared evrything that was put on their plate and we sent them off with a goody bag full of a few sweets and balloons. All in all a really hectic but enjoyable week and I for one am glad its over..... At least for now anyway!!
Saturday
Whew! I was hoping for an easy day. The washing up had been left and when I had finished the animals, I started that job. But, the weather was definitely taking a turn for the worse. The small chicks were moved into the animal house and we battened down the hatches. However, we didn't get the shade taken down before the wind ripped it off the securing pins. The wind was horrendous and lasted a couple of hours. It did ease off by the time we were feeding. As four of the piglets are to go to a new home next Thursday it was time to separate them from the others to get them used to being on their own. Diana and Wilma were now going back into the main house with the other pigs. Bette, who is the next that will produce piglets, was put in the end pen. We were all shattered.
Sunday
We only did the essentials today. I started writing the diary but as this week is a joint effort, it won't be on-line until

What's been happening in the village this week? Well, we have noticed that the maize is beginning to come down from the fields. The sunflowers are being harvested, the seeds will go to the merchants, I haven't heard what price they are paying. The sheep herds are beginning to graze the fields of stubble. Work has been going on down at the Community Centre but as yet I'm not sure what they are doing.

Well I think that's all the news from Siminoc this week …
So I'll say cheerio for now …





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