Mon 10th Nov. Well I’m back after a well earned break; I had a fantastic time! Work recommended at the primary school with painting the insides of the windows I previously painted outside.

Tues 11th Nov. In preparation for next weeks Graduation Day I became the official photographer taking the photos that will be part of the graduation pack. I dressed each child in a cloak and mortar board and made them hold a makeshift scroll, some of them looked very grown up and like they were graduating from university! I also watched the rehearsals for the big day and despite being so young most of the children knew their lines. I was very impressed! After doing the boys swimming run I spent the afternoon editing the photos making them look as professional as possible.

Weds 12th Nov. Today I placed the photos onto the Graduation Certificates, cropping them so just their faces appeared. All the staff are very pleased with the certificates and photos which gives me great satisfaction ✅ I then printed and laminated some play money for the children to use in their play shop (I know, you can take the girl out the bank but not the banker out the girl!) then Sherry arrived to take the girls swimming and she had a notification of a parcel for me. I went to the post office to collect it and it was 2 new story books for the children from my very good friend Emma Tyers. I read these to them whilst they were waiting to be collected by their parents and they had never been so quiet all day listening to these new stories!! A big thank you goes out to Emma.

Certificate

Thurs 13th Nov. Return to One Central. I was asked to make adjustments to the FBC Bank price list as we had new items not accounted for. Also after opening the shop for the first time last week it was clear that a preprinted list for each currency unit was required and signs indicating what type of clothing each pile contained were needed, so I set about rectifying this. My free hand signs were quite good, all that bubble writing I used to do at school finally came in handy hehe! I then did a complete stock take and with the help of Thandie created a stock register that can be used for the next year. We also had some new donations which I sorted out and placed into the shop. I also had Romeo print the school graduation certificates. As his printer was broken he outsourced this to another printers and they commented on how good a design the certificates were and these guys design as their day job…..very pleasing

IMG_0786 fbc

Fri 14th Nov. This morning I went shopping for food for the FBC Bank. I was sent out to buy mealie meal, kapenta, and cooking oil. So I enter Bon Marche only to find roller meal not mealie meal, so I find a member of staff stocking the chilled drinks cabinet and ask him if this is the same as mealie meal and he asks me ‘are you making sadza?!’ In a very surprised tone, so I have to explain why I’m buying mealie meal and he tells me that it’s good. I then go back to where the mealie meal is and there must be about 7 different makes so I’m looking to find the cheapest and another guy asks if he could help me with my mealie meal decision. I must have looked like a damsel in distress and he kindly reassured me that my choice was a good one. But how nice are the Zimbabweans taking the time to stop and help me out, I was very touched. I was given a budget of $35 and the bill came to $34.99, all that project management training didn’t go to waste! After making my purchases I realised that there was no way I could carry 20kg of mealie meal, let alone the rest of the stuff back to One Central so I ‘stole’ the trolley. I got some strange looks along the way. In the afternoon it was time to open the FBC Bank and I was the shop keeper. Albeit chaotic it was great fun. All of the food I bought in the morning was sold, along with most of the men’s clothing. More donations are needed

Take care,
Ali xx