ANONYMOUS (Beit Bridge)
OUR FIRST GOOD TURN -
Our Company was started in 1969 March. From the very beginning we enjoyed it very much because of new games and songs. At the beginning of the third term, at one meeting, our Guider sent us out in Patrols each with a paper written in big letters :-
COMPANY GOOD TURN - SUGGESTIONS.
In our community there is a short old joyful old woman and it happened that all the four patrols put her down as one of our suggestions. So this resulted in the Court of Honour agreeing on her as the fairest to help. This old lady liked beer drinking so much that she didn't have time at all for her poor home though she lives among better cared for homes, so we decided to mend her broken wall to protect her from strong winds, to wash her pots, sweep her yard and fetch wood for her. To do all this we divided our company of 28 into respective groups for the above, and we agreed that she should be told.
On the day of the Good Turn we went to do our parts of the work as agreed. We got busy on the little hut and its contents, this we did quietly so that she could not hear us from the nearby home where she was drinking. But somehow something told her to come back just to meet a thick cloud of smoke from burning rubbish which frightened her with the thought that her only hut was on fire.
She shouted "Fire! Fire! Please help!", and she was astonished to be answered with laughter and a clean yard and almost new wall for the hut. Then we sat down with her to enjoy her jokes and stories, after which we went into the hut with her to help put her property well.
As we were busy indoors the firewood group arrived singing "Girl Guides, Be Prepared is our Motto". In the bush the group had come across a tortoise, on which they had for a long time argued as whether to take or leave, but at last one in the group had said, "You know, that old lady is a jack of all trades," so they picked to give it to her.
To our surprise when she came out to meet them she was more pleased and thankful for the tortoise which she said had the tastiest meat on earth. What has never been forgotten by us is what she said in English. "THANK YOU VERY MUCH MY DEAR GIRLS MAY GOD BLESS YOU." After which one of us said, "Shall we speak English like her when we are grandmas?"
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