The Great Last Night

Tonight sees the last performance of the production “Soos die Kraai Vlieg” which has been put on by Jerry’s school.  And what a production!  The school has really outdone themselves.  The children have been rehearsing since early in the year and each and every single child in the school has participated in the concert.  Every last thing was very professionally handled, including the costumes, singing, lighting, lyrics, choreography, story line, songs, ticket sales, make-up, music, set design, dancing, programs, right down to the details of the welcoming decor in the foyer of the hall to the clearly numbered chairs and rows (with a picture on each letter).  Pre-recorded music and narration was used and many of the children’s talents were put on show.  So, with excitement and a little sadness, the children will put on their last show tonight.

And the Moms heave a huge sigh of relief. Gone will be the whirlwind of rushing and junk food and plastering make-up on little faces and trying to find lost shoes and mopping up tears and having your dinner in picnic form on the school field and “jou t-hempie is agterstevoor”and cheering and clapping and squeezing chores into half the time and cleaning and kissing cuts and scrapes and fetching and carrying and patronising a grumpy-not-enough-sleep child in the morning and plaiting and ribbons and headbands and packing picnic suppers for the next day and mending holes in stockings and removing make-up from sleepy eyes and yelling at too-slow traffic and turning grubby costumes inside out and congratulations and commiserations and “I’m your biggest fan – I think you rock”.  Finally we can return to a little normality .......... and vegetables .......... and sleep.  Sjoe! That sleep thing is what nailed me the most.

And I don’t think for one second that the kidlets will wonder what to do with their time: what with weeks’ worth of work to catch up and although they’ve still been writing some tests during the production, end of term happens next Friday and things need to be finalised, last minutes esams written, assessments done and reports prepared.  In which event I had probably better forget about the sleep thing – we’re going to have homework up the yingyang.

But still, it’s been huge fun for the children, they’ve learnt a lot and they’ve grown a lot.  A big time production of this nature has many lessons to teach and character to build.  And now I can see why the school only put on a concert once every six years – because they throw their whole being into it.  Well done Laerskool Fontainebleau! I’m truly proud to be associated with you.

Happy Day! J