Apparently posting pictures wasn't enough, so here's a real post, and another apology for being so bad at blogging.
So much has been going on over the past 2 weeks that I'm not even sure where to begin.
-Work is amazing. My day basically starts at 7:45 and after an hour car ride I arrive in the township of Kyahelitsha, where my school is located. The kids arrive at 9 each morning and we start the day with a few simple routines. We go over the weather, colors, and items in the class room- door, mirror, chair, desk, cupboard, clock, roof, rug, floor, crayons, toys, ect. Then the kids each draw a picture and have to share with the class what they drew and why. Then we usually have tea time, where the kids have a quick bag of chips or cup of yogurt and the teachers get a cup of tea. Then we start the major activity for the day, making and decorating masks from paper plates, water therapy, massages, making instruments out of canisters and jugs from coffee and paper towel tubes. I have several more activities planned for the next 2 weeks but let me know if you have any ideas!!! Then we'll usually do one more small activity, music, or hygiene or a group game before we have lunch. This part is always strange to me because some kids will have a full meal, from the looks of it, left overs from dinner the night before, and then some kids bring in an entire loaf of bread, and that's it. While some kids don't have anything so there's a Mom who cooks for all those kids, usually some form of oatmeal. By this time we're around noon, if its nice out the kids go outside and we have recess for a half an hour, otherwise we play inside and let the kids run the show. I get picked up around 12:30 each day and head home for lunch at the home base with all the other volunteers.
After lunch a few days a week, I get back in the van for another hour car ride for a few hours of more volunteering. I head to a different school, this time a day care center where I tutor or just spend time with kids whose parents are still at work. I love this part of my day because since these kids are older most can speak English and love to interact and talk. I also go here with my friend Madi (the first person I met in the Dulles airport!!) which is really comforting having a fellow volunteer with you through everything. Sometimes its tough when you're the only person at your placement because I'll have a bad day and no one fully understands why. I want to come home and talk about how I couldn't get through to Noluthando today because she seemed to be in the worst mood and wouldn't even look at me, or something like that. Or how a kid chewed up his food and spit it in my hair just for the fun of it and when I asked a teacher to please scold him or ask for advice, they beat the child. Little things can make a great day take a terrible turn quickly. But over all I love my job and especially my kids. 2 of my students have gotten accepted to real school starting in February!! I'm so happy for them, I knew they could do it. We've been practicing and studying with them for the past few weeks to prepare them for their interview. I'm so proud.
-The home base has been a very confusing place recently. We've had a new group of volunteers, about 12 of them come into the home and it has drastically changed the dynamic of the house. Several volunteers that I came here with have decided (or forced in a few cases) to leave the program. 6 have left since the new group, and about 4 have left because their time was up and they had to go back to the states. I feel like we go out for a goodbye dinner every night! I'm emotionally drained, not to mention I know have a cold and strep throat. I've been home sick for the past 3 days and I'm sooooo restless. But tomorrow we're taking the kids to the aquarium!! I can't wait, none of the children have ever been there and neither have any of my fellow teachers! I'll definitely bring my camera and share this awesome day with everyone.
-Outside of the house and work I'm also having a great time getting to know cape town and all the people it has to offer. I've made great friends with a few UCT girls, and I'm so sad about having to leave them already. They're so great and just love to have fun and help me explore the city. It's amazing. Last weekend me and some of the other volunteers conquered our fears and went sky diving!!! 9000 feet above the city we jumped out of a plane. Insane. But this weekend is the big one...the garden route, where we drive for 6 hours outside the city and go bungee jumping off the biggest commercial jump in the word. Over 700 feet high. Wish me luck and make sure you keep in touch with my Mom this weekend as I'm sure she'll be holding her breath until I call safely from the ground.
It's hard to believe I'm already on my count down until I come home, but I can't wait to see everyone at Thanksgiving and share all my pictures and videos.
Hope everyone had a great time at Homecoming last weekend CUA, can't believe I missed such a big weekend! And a very special shout out to Rich, happy birthday baby.
<3 Kel
