Just realised how behind I am with this. Was talking to Chloe about it today and we reckon that the longer we’re here, the more it feels normal and like this is home so it gets harder to write about it- to people at home it’s still really exciting, for us it’s exciting but normal.
Having said that, loads has happened since the last time I wrote! We had a ‘Culture Day’ at the children’s home. This basically involved the volunteers splitting into groups to represent different countries. There was Scotland, Germany, South Africa and America (apparently for no other reason than McDonalds donated some burgers for us to sell…). Each Country had a table where they sold some food and crafts and things and there were also performances. Some of the children sang and danced and us Scottish people had to teach some of the other volunteers an Orcadian Strip the Willow so we could ‘perform’ it. Was a bit insane!
So while we are continuing to really enjoy our time here, as we become more part of life here and get closer to the kids we’re also starting to see more of the negatives and things that make this job difficult. I had a very hard few days the other week, obviously I can’t go into detail but suffice to say that sometimes the children will talk to us about things which are very difficult to deal with. Hard as it was I’m glad I had the opportunity to follow correct protocol (with some help) and that I know now what to do in situations like that. Difficult and upsetting as it was it’s not like I wasn’t expecting something like that to happen. In the long run I’m glad some of the children feel as if they can talk to me, makes me feel like we might be doing some good here!
This last week it had been the October holidays. During the holidays, most of the children go home to their families so we only had 20-30 children left in the home. This meant our shifts changed so that we were only working twice in the week… this proved very popular! But, because the children weren’t going to school there had to be plenty of activities to keep them busy. On Tuesday, it was the volunteers turn to arrange something for them to do. We chose to do a ‘fun sport’s day’ with games and races like the ones we did in Primary School like the wheelbarrow race and the egg and spoon race. It was fun, if slightly chaotic! I was in charge of one of the teams (We won, by the way haha) and it was quite a nice way to get to know different kids. With 144 of them it’s hard to see them all! What really surprised me about the holidays was how many of the kids were allowed to go home. In my mind I can’t help but think that, if they’ve had to be removed from their families by a court then how can it be safe for them to live with them again for a week? I’m sure in some cases it’s totally fine but it worries me a bit that three quarters of the children were home. I think maybe that’s something I’ll ask about- it’s pretty hard to understand but I’d like to.
I feel like, as a group, us volunteers are getting closer too which is nice. Last weekend we went to a braii at one of the staff member’s houses. Pretty much all the volunteers who weren’t working went and it was really nice to just hang out together rather than being in a bar where we’re chatting to other people too. It was great to be able to get to know each other a bit better. The only problem was that we only had three cars to transport 19 of us and all our food! In one car there was 5 volunteers and all the food, in another there was 6 people and a load of blankets and stuff (we slept outside that night) and in the last car there was eight of us! Two in the front, four in the back and me and Amber in the boot. Was a bit of a squish! We had a blanket in there that we had to pull over us at ninja-speed when the police went past- they were driving next to us for about 5 minutes and didn’t notice a thing! That’s Africa for you I guess…
My immune system doesn’t seem to be rating it much here though, I guess it’s because we’re exposed to loads of new germs but I’ve been sick most of the time since we got here, most of us have had at least three different colds. Right now I’ve got a particularly lovely one which means I can’t stop coughing… the joys.
In other news, I got called into the manager’s office today to say they might be needing help in CHILLI during the day! They’re one childcare worker short so they had a meeting to see what they’d do about it and apparently my name came up after I helped out when they needed someone on nightshift in there. She said she wanted me and the other volunteers to understand that I was the only one willing to help at the time and now I (might) get rewarded for that. I really don’t mean to blow my own trumpet but I’m actually feeling rather smug… having said all that I know how things work here, stuff changes at a seconds notice. Probably I’ll end up back on 12 hour nightshift in CHILLI when it opens again on Sunday. It’s better than nothing but I really hope not.
I’m definitely going to try not to leave it so long between posts next time, I don’t feel like I’m doing it justice right now. Oh well, enjoy anyway J
PS, everyone else has been getting letters and parcels of chocolate and the like... just saying ;)
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