Ghanzi, 5th June 2007

Dear friends and supporters,

Suddenly, and even too soon, it is already winter.

I got up several times last night to put many wool blankets one on the other. Finally, I fell asleep covered by 5 blankets: the thermometer inside my house stood at -1 °C at 5.30 a.m.. At this hour I usually sit in front of my computer to answer e-mail letters and to write reports or I prepare the lessons for the kindergarten, and so on. In this period I dress in layers from head to foot, I wear all my warm clothes and then I wrap myself in a cosy blanket. It is completely dark outside. I only hear the wind blowing and I feel a draught coming through the cracks of my wooden little house. A good cup of coffee with milk warms my cold hands up.

Luckily, I have managed to provide our children with heavy winter clothes soon this year.

The sun rises at about 7 a.m. and temperature starts increasing slowly. At 8 a.m., when I arrive at the Day-Care Centre, the children are sitting next to each other in the sun, on small mats on the lawn, holding a bowl of porridge in their hands.

I notice that most of them are not wearing wool hats, as I have forgotten to hand them. I must do it today.

The teachers make the children play on the lawn to warm them up: they sing, dance, run and then they rush into their classrooms.

At about 10 a.m. we can take off one layer of clothing and about noon, if the wind is not blowing too much, temperature stands at 25-28 °C. The sun is still warm in this time of the year.

We are hosting 50-60 children at the moment (60 pupils aged between three and seven years old), but probably some of them do not manage to get up early because of this biting cold.

Our little kids are all pretty fine, they eat like horses and run to me for any little matter.

Our teachers are prepared and the children are making a great deal of progress every day.

Love, Cecilia