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

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