Bantwana Bam

So downloading my thousands (!) of pictures has become problematic as my start-up disc on my laptop is full and I have apparently become inept at all things computerific, namely anything to do with my external hard drive. (Work in progress...)

All of that to say, the individual pictures I took of my kiddos the day we made the necklaces have successfully been transferred, and since I will not be putting those on facebook, I thought I would introduce them to you here.

I miss them!! We'll start with my Anda. (To be fair, she was the first one done with her necklace, so the first one in my sequence. The kids will not be listed here in order of my level of like for them.) Admittedly, tho, she was one of my favorites from the beginning. I'm so glad I got to help celebrate her birthday. I loved seeing her feel so special.


Next up: Songezo. His was one of the first names-to-faces I learned. He was always one of the first kids to greet me in the morning. Big into hugs and physical contact.

Ok so this is Nombongo. Oft referred to as "the stick teacher" and the one who chases the kids around with her boob as if she was gonna nurse them. :) Turns out she's 34. Virtually the same age as me. What different lives we've had. She has a 9 year old and 1 year old and told me to never have children.

Oh, Likho. A quiet, kind and gentle soul. And adorable to boot.

Phumelele!! Look at that face! This kid had me wrapped around his finger with looks like that! I wish I had video of him dancing. He's got some moves.

One of my favorite pictures from Gertie's is one of Phuma and his little brother Themba. It wasn't lost on me that I loved them so much because they were like a South African version of Hunter and Jett.

Hope. Definitely one of those kids that you look at and know what he'll look like as a man. Hope is one of the oldest in the class and is very smart. You can tell he's kind of past the point of playing around, but does so sometimes to fit in. If we were playing house tho, I think Hope would be the dad. Which - this just dawned on me - there was no fake kitchen or playing of house or anything (like in an American kindergarten)...I didn't realize that until just now.

Siphosethu. Yes I had to refer to my notes to remember how to spell her name. A sweet girl who seems to be on the outside of the main little girl clique, but gets along with everyone. And yes, that's a weave. It won't be the last one you see.

Hlumelo. Tough name to say (and I had two of them!)...This one was a little jokester. Loves to laugh and make YOU laugh. But for the most part, stays out of trouble.

As if on cue...Hlumelo. Strong and silent. This guy flies under the radar. He's a good, sweet kid tho.

And here he is...my 5 year old suitor Ntando...

Zukhanne. Pronounced zoo-kanye. (I loved his name!) He's one of those quiet kids that you love catching having a great time. You know the ones I'm talking about?

Lerato is a part of the little girl clique I mentioned earlier. But she shares a Anda-like sweetness.

Ndinga. The first time I did the whole "what color is this person's shirt?" lesson, I forgot to use Ndinga's name. After calling each of the other kid's up - by name - I felt really guilty about it. So I made it a point the next day to say hello to him - by name - first thing. For me it was my whole respect thing I have with kids as little people. I thought it important to learn their names to say to them "I respect you enough to look at you in the face and address you by your name." It doesn't matter if you're 3 or 30. (Granted, sometimes I can be really horrible with names, but still...I like it as a personal policy.)

Sweet sweet Liyema. Also part of the girl group, but for the most part stays out of the chatty spats.

Without further ado, my first love. Iva. Wow did I love this kid the first minute I laid eyes on him. It broke my heart that I couldn't always give him the red bowl he asked for. He would look at me as if to say, don't you like me at all??? If only he knew how much I wanted to snatch him up. What you can't see in this picture is that he's not the tallest little boy, which gives him an adorable George-Jefferson-type quality.

Ahhh! Isn't he just the cutest?? Blogger is acting up, so I'm gonna have to continue this in a separate post...(perhaps not even the people at Blogger/Gmail/Google can handle these kids' faces!!)