The Criminals Are Here!

Holly was thankfully well enough to join me on project today so Remi picked up Holly from Erica and came to get me by 8:30am. Remi drove a different way through Masi since we didn't have to stop at Patricia's house first. The trip through Masi had nicer houses that were stucco on the outside and a little larger than the shacks with corrugated metal or plastic.

There were about 6 or 7 children at the centre today and some of them were different than those who were present on Tuesday. When Holly and I first arrived there were a couple of children in the front room with the cribs so she and I went in the other room, the office, to go over our material. We ran through the schedule for the first and second workshops while we could hear the children were doing their Morning Ring.

When the Morning Ring was over the children came into the office to each a snack before going to the back classroom for activity time. Holly and I were still in the front room and some other white people (the first I'd seen in Masi) arrived at the centre. The lady introduced help saying she was a teacher nearby and her students had to pick a shortterm and longterm project to help make the area better. The people who had come today had chosen to paint the Masiphumelele Educare Centre.

Holly and I went to join the children and carers in the back classroom. The carer, Lulu, who was in charge while Shirley was at the library came into the room saying, "the criminals are here, the criminals are here". I think this scared both Holly and I but she went with Lulu to see what was going on. Turned out the woman who had come with her students had left her BMW outside the barbed wire fence, unlocked, and people had gone in and stolen some diapers. No one was hurt and nothing had been broken so they called the security guard, Rasca, to come. When Rasca arrived, he called the police. The children had no idea this had all happened since I had stayed with them in the back classroom and read them a story.

One of the children, Abulele, was acting out so Holly sent him to the naughty corner. He screamed and cried the whole five minutes he spent there. All the other children wanted to watch.

Today it was warm enough to take the children outside to play. A bunch of the children like to hang about the neighbourhood, outside the fence but don't go to the educare. Today they came inside the fence and used the playground at the same time and Shirley didn't seem to mind at all.

The children went inside for lunch before taking their nap. Because the painting was taking place inside the front room, they were all in the office for the remainder of the time we spent inside.

Shirley had come back from her meeting at the Masi Library during play time but she had to leave early so we did a lesson one-on-one while the children finished their snack. Today's lessons were about the food pyramid, basic nutrition, and handwashing techniques. Holly was sitting in the room as I spoke to Shirley and she even interjected at times to ask questions because she hadn't even known some of the information I was passing on. She was just as interested for her own knowledge.

Shirley had known to wash their hands and when to do it but she didn't realize there was an actual proper way to wash hands. When I explained the food pyramid Shirley asked a lot of questions and said she wanted to use it with her own family as well. Knowing she was so eager to share the information is so gratifying. Shirley explained to the other carers that we want to work on handwashing with the kids tomorrow.

Holly and I offered to help the painters but they already had enough hands so we waited until the kids were awake and then watched them eat their afternoon snacks. Afterwards we went outside and read books and sang songs with the children until Remi picked us up.

The debrief was quick and Holly told Will, our regional manager, that I'd given a great lesson. It was nice to get positive feedback so soon into my time here.

Jodie and I made a quick trip to Spar in Valyland and then it was our turn to be on dinner duty. We had to heat up the meal our cook/housekeeper, Bolekwa, had prepared earlier in the day. I made the salad while Jodie heated the spaghetti Bolognese. When the meal was finished, Jodie and I cleared the table and did all of the dishes.

Tonight has been a quiet night, with a presentation from Will's wife, Catalina, on optional side trips- shark diving, sky diving, wine tours. Everyone has been doing some lesson planning for tomorrow and reading for the remainder of the evening.