HOW & WOW
With only 3 hours of our time, petrol and R590 we made 23 teenagers love Knysna more – that’s education and fun at a bargain!

A month ago, we took a bunch of primary schoolers from Hornlee and Khayalethu to Quay 4 for breakfast and to Knysna SANParks for an educational talk about the endangered Knysna Seahorse. This time we did it with teenagers.

THE TRIP
With more volunteers, we are now able to separate the younglings from the teens. On a big outing, like the end of the year party at Knysna Elephant Park (2015) and Jubilee Creek (2014), it’s good to have everyone together but, for most, it will be more convenient to separate them:

1. We can treat them according to their age e.g. we could let the teens explore Thesen Islands without us on their backs.
2. Integration and sharing culture is a big theme and that’s easier to do when they’re relating to others nearer their own ages.
3. We want to formalise the educational quotient in 2016 e.g. you can’t expect an 18-year-old to respond to a colouring book with the same enthusiasm as a 6-year-old.

So, for the first time, we sat faraway and let them sort themselves out over breakfast. That also gave us volunteers a better moment to socialise. Thereafter, as mentioned, the teens headed, outside, in their own groups, to enjoy the sun on Thesen Islands.

There was a good vibe so we didn’t mind running half an hour late for our seahorse lecture in the SANParks building. It was pleasing that they were so interested and so well behaved. They were amazed to learn that the male carries the eggs and that they hatch after 2 weeks. There were gasps when told that some of the babies get eaten by the adults. They also learned that the species name is Hippocampus Capensis which is from the Greek meaning horse (hippo) and campus (sea monster). Unfortunately, this writer was a naughty child because he cannot remember what “capensis” means 🙂

After the Judah Square (Khayalethu) bunch had left, the Hornlee lot had to wait for the taxi to arrive. To squeeze the most experience out of our time, i took them for a tour of the always stunning, Turbine Boutique Hotel – the girls, in particular, were in awe! We will definitely plan a coffee & cake excursion for them there next year.

THANKS
As always, this doesn’t happen without the help from the good people of Knysna.

Thanks to waitress Tabisa and manager Julian at Quay 4 for running after so many of us and for giving us a special deal on breakfast.

Thank you to Crystal for the seahorse education (and to Peter for helping out).

Our volunteers were Clint, Nathalie, Avril, Anchin & Mike. It was also a huggy welcome to newbies Marion and Lauren – they loved seeing the colourful Judah Square for the first time (thanks to Brother Maxi for making them feel so welcome). Maria couldn’t make it on the day but put R200 into the kitty – thank you!

Sista Kerri was unfortunately hospitalised overnight but was thankfully released today – we wish her a quick recovery! Thanks to 12-year-olds Hale-I-Leen and True Jacobs for helping her by getting the Rastafari parents to fill in the indemnity forms for those who were attending.

Thanks to Sharmell Terblanche from Knysna Secondary, the one in the striped jersey, for taking most of the photos.

Beejay, from Eden Taxis, kindly sponsored us a kombi taxi to supplement the vehicles – it made a massive difference.

Read more about how you can join the fun as a volunteer.