The Backpack

We were all so excited when we arrived in Cape Town airport🇿🇦✈️. Our friend Mario was kindly waiting for our arrival. Afterwards the group split into boys and girls and then we headed to our accommodation. The 'Backpack' is such an amazing place as it is situated just below Table Mountain🗻. The weather is fantastic at 26 degrees Celsius☀️. Can't wait for the trip to Table Mountain tomorrow! 😁

Touchdown!!!

After a very long flight from Istanbul to Cape Town everyone barely got any sleep and is extremely tired as we arrive at Backpack. Even though everyone was tired nobody could resist having a dip in the pool before pizza while watching the rugby with some very eager South African fans!! Early night all round is needed.

Time for take off..The waiting game

We all arrived at the airport today, some very early and some very late (like Lana), all with out purple hoodies on, all very excited! 

It was quite stressful trying to get through security all together and quickly but we have finally gotten through to the departure lounge! We went to Costa and MAC (although we didn't buy anything from MAC, too expensive!!) and we're now waiting on our first plane to Istanbul! We all can't wait! 

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Hoodie fitting

The third group of Balwearie pupils unveil and model the 2015 hoodie choice as we count down to leaving for Cape Town on Friday. Getting real now!

Welcome Walk - Robyn Taylor

We knew it would be hard to beat the £12,000 raised in the Welcome Walk 2013 but it was a challenge we were prepared to take on. To begin with we worked as a group to come up with good ideas on what could make the walk different and more exciting for all pupils and teacher of Balwearie involved. We decided that we would make the theme of the walk fancy dress and if you didn’t have anything to dress up as then pupils were to wear colours from the South African flag. As a group we decided to dress up as Hawaiian’s to start of the fancy dress theme.

 

On the 8^th of September, the morning of the walk, we all came into school extremely excited for the day ahead. We spent the morning going round the park on golf buggies setting up the designated 5k walk. Each point in the walk had teachers or some sixth year pupils standing at it so we could continue to encourage people during the walk. The walk began with people playing instruments such as the bongo drums and the bagpipes, this was a good way to mix the cultures of both Scotland and South Africa.

After seeing the difference that the great amount of money raised last year, I was truly motivated to try and raise as much as we could again this year. I was so grateful to be able to say that I was a part of it last year but also able to play such a huge part for the second year of the walk. As a class we tried to encourage people to get as many sponsors as they could so they were able to help make a change to Welcome Primary without having to travel to Africa. I really enjoyed the walk this year as I feel after having been to Cape Town the previous year and seeing the impact made first hand really motivated me to get other people more involved, as well as being able to impact Welcome Primary the walk was also a great opportunity to get the whole school together as one to make a positive change.

 

Welcome Walk - Kelsey MacDonald

Being part of a global citizen ship class we all got to help plan the day. We all came together and brain stormed ideas to see what we could do to make the school more excited and motivated to be part of the walk to make a massive difference. We also were trying to think of ways to make the walk a little different from the last time.

 

On the 8^th of September the whole school returned to the park for a second welcome walk to raise money for Welcome primary. We all came together and managed to raise a lot of money and challenged ourselves to another 5K walk. We decided to do this walk again because it had a massive impact on the school and helped them out a lot and we all had a lot of fun. Some of us jumped right into day and even dressed up, I personally dressed up as a Hawaiian person.

 

We started off the day by collecting money and sponsor sheet forms which we then all counted, we then headed out to the park to set up chairs and signs. At the start of the walk we had some pupils playing the bagpipes and the drums before everyone started and then continued playing while the first house left. Some of us even got to drive about on the back of teacher’s golf buggies this was a great laugh.

 

Welcome Walk - Cali Hutchison

      After the success from the previous fundraiser, raising over £12,000 we had around the same time last year, we had lots of enthusiasm towards this event also. The team spirit and energy in the planning stage was great and there were many suggestions on how we could improve aspects. The whole school was so involved and we loved the fact that we could participate in a fun day in order to raise awareness and money for our link with the Welcome Primary School some of us were lucky enough to visit in 2013.

        On the morning of the day a group of us came in a form of fancy dress, we took it upon ourselves to look as interested as we were about the event so we came dresses as Hawaiian people, despite the fact that the money was going to South Africa. Anyway, we arrived to registration to hand in the money we had raised from the sponsor and then headed to the library where we began to count the money the school had collected, this was astonishing to see the large amounts and whilst counting the money we visited classrooms to ensure they had all handed in their donations. It was so exciting to see all the money and effort people had provided to the event and we all felt so pleased.

       When we completed counting the money we set up outside for the walk to begin before going to our stations around the park. Then the whole school and a few local primary’s started off and walked the route with an extremely good attitude which was so brilliant to watch. The efforts some individuals had made into their fancy dress was amazing and to see the motivation within the pupils in each year was awesome to see. This year’s walk was equally successful in the positive attitudes people delivered and in the money we raised. It was so rewarding to see the whole school being involved in something we know that will make such a significant difference.