Christmas in the Children's Home

So, Christmas started here for us at the end of October. We decorated the Reception and the offices and started planning parties and presents. The ‘official’ start of Christmas preparations was a Christmas Parade where the Christmas team of volunteers had to get dressed up and walk through the children’s home giving out sweets… I can tell you, it is the WEIRDEST feeling to be dancing around in a santa hat while the sun is shining! It’s also quite uncomfortably sweaty…

As I mentioned, Once CHILLI closed I was put to work on Christmas team. There were four of us volunteers working on the team permanently as well as helpers from dayshift when there wasn’t much to do. Anyone who knows me will realise I am SO not an office job kind of person but actually it wasn’t as bad as all that and, as with everything here, it was a learning experience! We were in charge of receiving gift donations and sorting through them and organising them per house, handing out leaflets to try and encourage more people to donate, making advent calendars for the houses and decorating the Activity Hall for Christmas events. Actually, that probably isn’t even half of what we did but you get the idea!

Before I go any further, you might be wondering why I’m writing all this in the past tense even though Christmas day isn’t here yet. The reason is, the majority of the children go home when the school term ends- this was at the beginning of the month. For this reason, the children’s Christmas party happens before then and all the presents are given out at the party so that the kids who are going home have things to take with them. There is a packed holiday activity programme for the kids who are staying here but that is organised by the sports and activity people in the office. So, in reality, most of the Christmas team work is finished! Now there are only two permanent team members and I’m back onto working with the children. YAY! Even though Holiday Shifts mean that I’ve ended up working nightshift for three nights…

The Christmas Team job also meant that I was put in charge of organising the Volunteer Christmas Party which we had on Wednesday. The party was like our ‘official Christmas Thank-you’ from the Children’s home and so it had to be organised to run very smoothly! So, me and two other volunteers had to make invitations, devise a programme, plan games, buy gifts for everyone, organise food from the kitchen, plan a theme and location, find volunteers to play Christmas music… the list goes on. We decided in the end to have a Summer Christmas Garden Party in the courtyard between the offices- people were asked to dress nicely and we were looking forward to playing games and singing in the sunshine.

Only problem was that we woke up on Wednesday and it was pissing it down. FAIL.

SO, very quick change of plan- we decorated the activity hall with all sorts of Christmas sparkly stuff, laid blankets and pillows on the floor, lit candles and carted the piano up the stairs. A quick tannoy announcement to tell everyone that the location had changed and we were now having a pajama party. Cue the boys:’ Ahhh, Amy… I don’t have any pajamas! ‘ (read that bit in a German accent… It’s funnier ;))

However, despite the reservations of some, it all came together fantastically! Most people dutifully donned their PJs- nightshift were especially happy as it meant they didn’t need to change and could get out of bed 5 minutes before the party began. We played party games- I assumed everyone knew how to play pass the parcel until the Germans asked whether they were just supposed to take off as much paper as they could in the time the music was stopped for. Greedy lot. We ate some really lovely food- it made such a nice change to eat something special! We’ve all missed party food I think… Then we sat down and did some singing while a couple of volunteers played piano and guitar. There’s a certain irony to be enjoyed while singing ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’ while you’re ACTUALLY in Africa I think…

The whole thing was a great success. Our boss was impressed and enjoyed herself, everyone was laughing and I think we’re FINALLY getting into the Christmas spirit despite being in the sunshine!

I guess it turns out that Christmas is going to be pretty magical wherever you spend it, however strange it may feel to me not to see any snow! Now we’re concentrating on making it a special time for the 30 kids who haven’t been able to go home. Even though we know they’re here for a reason it’s pretty heart-breaking to watch them having to stay here while their friends are with their families - I reckon the best we can do is keep on playing , taking and smiling with them and keep on showing them how much we care.

Bloody hell … Mum, take a note, I think I might be growing up.

Decorating the office and reception...

CHILLI

I’ve now realised that I’ve once again done what I promised myself not to do last time and left it over a month between blog posts. I’m a crap blogger I think- hope you guys haven’t missed me too much! I think no longer being on nightshift has been a big contributer to be honest- sitting alone for 10 hours during the night really gives you a lot of free time for blogging.

I wrote last time that I was maybe going to be starting work in CHILLI. I did end up on dayshift in there which was great- I really enjoyed the work and, despite a few hiccups, it was mostly going well. Not being on nightshift was amazing! It felt great to be able to get my body-clock back on track and develop some kind of routine. Of course, working long week/ short week means finding a routine is more difficult than it would be if we were working Monday to Friday but it was a definite improvement. I really enjoyed the work although it WAS more challenging than it would be in other houses- especially trying to remember the importance of retaining a therapeutic atmosphere when you’re really stressed!

Some of the positive things:

Taking the job in CHILLI also put me in charge of the vegetable garden that is in the unit. Working with the volunteers from the University in Stellenbosch on that (even though I’m a crap gardener!) was really fun. Harvesting the lettuces with a couple of the CHILLI girls who are usually reluctant to help with that sort of thing and taking the lettuces to the kitchen where they were put into salads for the houses was actually really rewarding. I can almost understand why people bother to grow their own vegetables…

Myself and the childcare worker I was always on shift with also got on really well. As CHILLI is a job they very rarely give to volunteers it was really nice to go into it and be treated as an equal. It is very easy for volunteers to be viewed as ‘bottom of the heap’ and I found it pretty reassuring to see that hard work does not go unnoticed by everyone! It was also nice to feel as though I was being given some responsibility with things such as trying to talk to and calm down the kids when they were upset, keeping a close eye out if any of them were showing worrying behaviour and even the little things like helping with homework.

The work was very challenging at times though. As it was all girls in CHILLI this time we had a problem with them bonding more with eachother than with me and the childcare worker. While this wouldn't be an issue if they were just making close friends, it became more of a problem when we noticed a kind of ‘gang’ forming. They started organising  themselves  to all run away from the children’s home at the same time and this ‘gang’ behaviour culminated in a particularly stressful day after which the girls were put back into their houses and myself and the staff were left feeling very stressed and upset. The girls have since calmed down but I have found myself having to deal with similar behaviour on occasions which can be pretty hard! Despite all this though, I do really enjoy the challenges of working with the more difficult kids and I can’t wait until CHILLI re-opens after the holidays. Hopefully I’ll get the job again!

Since CHILLI closed for the term, I’ve been working on Christmas team which, despite being a varied job, is not really my cup of tea. It feels a bit too much like a desk job and I’d much rather be working closely with the kids! However, we have had some lovely moments whilst wearing our Santa hats. More on Christmas in the children’s home in the next post. It’ll be soon… I hope!

Enjoy the snow ;)

Amy xxx

Take a good look at South African summer to warm you up this December. Not that I'm  feeling at all pleased with my situation...