Be Wise...Condomize and Other Things I'm Learning

So I realized by not blogging yesterday, I've already started to forget about stuff that is happening. Our days are so jam-packed that it seems like we've been here forever, and yet I can't believe it's already almost been a week.

Ok - yesterday. It rained. Which meant that my class of 20 4-5 year olds would be forced to stay inside with the other 40 (ish) kids 3 and under. If you've been in my bedroom (hey-o!), the room is very similar in size to that. If you haven't, the room is probably about 14x11. I'm completely guessing with those numbers. All it is to say, the room is small. and 60 kids 5/6 and under make it smaller. And warmer. And louder.

They use a book shelf to divide the room up between under 3 and 3 and above. Ok so you get the gist of what we're dealing with here...

The kids were used to me, so while I wasn't a spectacle they still want to hug and hang on me. None of which I'm complaining about. We worked on counting to 20 and "If you're happy and you know it." They especially loved the shouting of "Hooray!" Now I don't claim to be a good singer. At all. But there I was in my quiet little English straining voice going through all the verses. Even the baby teachers stopped to listen.

Since I was inside, I had enough free time to help feed the babies. (Anybody under 3 is spoonfed.) Keyword: spoon. As in each teacher gets one. And then rinses it in water between kids. Needless to say, I'm used to more hygiene. The kids walk up to you when it's their turn, and you just spoon it in. Finish a bowl. Rinse. And repeat. Hence, you've got quite a number of snotty noses.

So what goes in must come out, and here's another huge difference. The "toilets" at the creche. It's a bench. With four circles cut out. Potty bowls are put in the holes and are periodically emptied out in the one flushing toilet on the property. Boys and girls go side by side. Whatevs. The interesting thing tho is how young they potty train. I would say anyone over one uses the toilet. One reason perhaps being they don't have enough hands to change many diapers, but I get the feeling diapers are a luxury not prevalent in the area I'm in.

I'm slowly but surely grasping kids and teachers names. The lady who works in the kitchen has a name that uses a click (which I haven't mastered yet) so she told me I could call her Eunice. :)

The teacher who likes to hit things/the wall with a stick (Not a child - yet, but she gets close) is Nombongo. (Discipline consists of slapping the tops of their hands or an arm yank.)

I know we're not supposed to have favorites, but there's a sibling set that I really like. A little boy who looks like an old man - I forget how you spell his name but it's pronounced ee-vah, and his sisters Anda and Analiesa. Wait until you see their faces! I haven't taken my camera to placement yet, but I plan on doing so when I take crafts to do, as that gives me a good excuse. (Ghertie's hasn't had very many volunteers, so I don't want to wear out my welcome by bringing a camera too soon.)

Today I took xeroxed coloring book pages for them to color and they loved it. Anything to break up their routine. I got beans to make paper plate tambourine things and noodles and yarn to make necklaces.

The highlight today tho - well a couple of them. One of the kids ASKED to play Duck Duck Goose. (I just taught them that on Tuesday, so I was excited because a- that meant he liked it. b- that meant he connected it with me.) We also played a racing game and at one point the teacher said: now me and you do it. As the kids had run back and forth the other kids were screaming their names, so it was helpful with my learning process. Well when I was running versus Nombongo, the kids were all shouting: Mary! Mary! (They totally wanted me to win. And I totally did. I felt bad, tho because the teacher totally had a limp I hadn't really noticed.)

It didn't rain today and so we spent the day outside in the sun. I really wish it was safe enough to walk through the townships more. Just driving through it to get to our placements is so interesting.

So we haven't had that much free time yet, but we got our first taste yesterday afternoon for a bit. Even tho it was raining, we headed down to the V&A Waterfront. The sky was so gray, my pictures of the ferris wheel look black and white. There's also a craft market, some touristy stuff, a huge mall, and a restaurant called Balducci's, where we landed for dinner. The where is not important as the who we met there.

Vicky. Our spritely waitress. She literally wrote us a book about where to go while we're here. Club-wise (hot guys here, no hot guys here), beach-wise (hot guys here, no hot guys here)...She gave us directions, she gave us rules, she gave us advice ("Be wise...condomize...haha...seriously.") and she gave us her phone number should we get arrested or need a ride or have a question. Above and beyond, this one.

On our way home we passed the One & Only. We girls immediately recognized it from The Bachelor and that's when our cabbie told us that's where Denzel is staying. We've seen two shoots in progress and he's apparently here until May. We're on the hunt.

As our schedule has been so full, I find myself struggling to stay awake until 9 or 10. That's getting better tho, maybe I'm finally getting used to the time flip.

I think we're all caught up. Today our post-placement speaker was a man living with the HIV. His positive outlook on life was inspiring. Somebody asked him if he ever gets mad at God about it, and he was just like, the scripture said there'd be diseases. This is mine. Wow. This is a man who lives in a hut in the backyard of someone else's township home. He's one of an estimated 6-million South Africans living with HIV (hence the condomize advice)...And the way he lit up talking about America. He REALLY wants to go to Chicago. And he was excited that Ashley and I were from LA/Hollywood...He told us that our convo with him energized him as he'd been to the doctor today and was feeling especially tired.

It's just like what Willy said. I'm meeting all these people who have such difficult lives and everyone is so happy. I'm not sure I have any issues that aren't #richpeopleproblems.