So I am on my last day off for this shift. It was a good three days off. One of the girls left the house today and went back to the UK. It was sad to see her go. We also gained 3 new people this shift however. All three are Canadians. So we are representing our country well in the house now, I think its like 5 out of 9. The other three girls are American, and the guy is from Norway. We had another girl from Norway as well but she left a couple days ago.
But this shift I was able to organize my life, and put it back together. I went to the mall (Canal Walk, I think its like the biggest mall in Africa) and bought everything I had stolen. So I now have a wallet, some make up, and.... a camera! I feel a lot better now. Just simply ore organized. Otherwise, we didn't do too much this break. Rested up mostly. Went out for dinner with everyone in the house, went to a flee market... thats about it. It was nice.
So I don't have much to talk about from our days off so I'll talk some more about the orphanage. I can't remember if I said, but there are 4 new children from the shift before. So we're at 24 kids now. The orphanage has room for 4 more so we'll see if they have added anymore. The 4 new kids are all siblings. The oldest I think is about 9 and the youngest is about 6 months or so. The kids were wild this week, so this shift off was really nice. I am quickly falling in love with all the children there. They are all such wonderful kids, wild, but wonderful. There is this one boy, Wanda, who is two. He is one of the cutest kids I have ever seen. he is such a little free spirit. Quite independent for a two year old. And there are four sets of twins there. One set of twins, Anele and Kwanele, are adorable. They are two little boys with FAS. They are such happy kids though. They always want to play patty cake with me, but they don't always grasp the concept. So sometimes it just turns in to me slapping there hands and they just stand there and giggle. But they don't want me to stop. And actually all they want is for me to get to the part where we "roll it, pat it, and mark it with a B". For some reason they just absolutely love that part. Lusandra and Babalwa prefer the kit kat clapping game. They finally figured out on the last day of last shift, that since they both know it they can play together, not just with me. Except they still don't know all the words. So I always just hear then repeating "Give me a break, give me a break, give me a break, give me a break". So this shift I will see if they are able to learn the rest of the words. And then there is Zubenathi. If you have talked to my parents lately I'm sure you've heard about it him. I can't stop talking about him every time I phone home or send an email. He's a little five year old boy. His birthday is next month. We have made quite the connection in the past 2 weeks. He just got his cast off, some how he broke his leg, but its all healed up now. He still limps around a bit however. But thats because he didn't have a walking cast, but decided to walk around on it anyways. So he's learned to walk with out really bending his ankle. So each day he is starting to walk more normal . Although, the other day, also not sure how this happened, he fell and scrapped up the entire top of his foot. I think one of the kids maybe pushed him, not sure. I guess you can see why we have such a connection... both pretty accident prone. But he is a very smart kid. He speaks a little bit of English, just what he picks up at school, because otherwise the kids are exposed to English. But he loves to count to me and tell me the colours of his cars. But he's learning really quickly with Jen and I around. He repeats everything I say and has started actually using it. The other day one of the kids came up to me and burped (he does this often) and I said "excuse you". Zubenathi copied me and looked at the kid and said "excuse you". Then he smiled, burped himself, and then said "excuse me?" and looked at me to see if he was right. I was very impressed that he put that together all by himself, however less impressed that I had 2 children on my lap that were burping in my face haha. But still, he is a very bright kid. And just loves the attention. All the kids love the attention actually. But he is one of the only kids that doesn't climb on me like a jungle gym. He always scoots over until he is close enough that he is just touching me. Then when I notice him I will always say "Hi Zubenathi!" and his face just lights up and then he cuddles in just a little bit closer. He's absolutely adorable. The kind of kid that anyone would fall in love with.
Anyways, this is probably long enough. I've fallen in to South Africa time. Everything is at a leisurely rate. I forget that in Canada, no one has hours of free time to sit around the novel I've been writing on this blog haha. But I do have to say South Africa is pretty laid back... and therefore inefficient I might add. So I bought a camera yesterday, which you already know. But the first camera store I went to I asked how much there cheapest camera was... and there response "Actually we're sold out of cameras at the moment." I thought that was kind of funny. They pretty much only sold cameras, and a few camera accessories... so not too sure what there plan for the day was without any cameras.
Anyways, miss you all. Hope home is treating you well. I heard it was supposed to have warmed up a bit. I hope so!
But this shift I was able to organize my life, and put it back together. I went to the mall (Canal Walk, I think its like the biggest mall in Africa) and bought everything I had stolen. So I now have a wallet, some make up, and.... a camera! I feel a lot better now. Just simply ore organized. Otherwise, we didn't do too much this break. Rested up mostly. Went out for dinner with everyone in the house, went to a flee market... thats about it. It was nice.
So I don't have much to talk about from our days off so I'll talk some more about the orphanage. I can't remember if I said, but there are 4 new children from the shift before. So we're at 24 kids now. The orphanage has room for 4 more so we'll see if they have added anymore. The 4 new kids are all siblings. The oldest I think is about 9 and the youngest is about 6 months or so. The kids were wild this week, so this shift off was really nice. I am quickly falling in love with all the children there. They are all such wonderful kids, wild, but wonderful. There is this one boy, Wanda, who is two. He is one of the cutest kids I have ever seen. he is such a little free spirit. Quite independent for a two year old. And there are four sets of twins there. One set of twins, Anele and Kwanele, are adorable. They are two little boys with FAS. They are such happy kids though. They always want to play patty cake with me, but they don't always grasp the concept. So sometimes it just turns in to me slapping there hands and they just stand there and giggle. But they don't want me to stop. And actually all they want is for me to get to the part where we "roll it, pat it, and mark it with a B". For some reason they just absolutely love that part. Lusandra and Babalwa prefer the kit kat clapping game. They finally figured out on the last day of last shift, that since they both know it they can play together, not just with me. Except they still don't know all the words. So I always just hear then repeating "Give me a break, give me a break, give me a break, give me a break". So this shift I will see if they are able to learn the rest of the words. And then there is Zubenathi. If you have talked to my parents lately I'm sure you've heard about it him. I can't stop talking about him every time I phone home or send an email. He's a little five year old boy. His birthday is next month. We have made quite the connection in the past 2 weeks. He just got his cast off, some how he broke his leg, but its all healed up now. He still limps around a bit however. But thats because he didn't have a walking cast, but decided to walk around on it anyways. So he's learned to walk with out really bending his ankle. So each day he is starting to walk more normal . Although, the other day, also not sure how this happened, he fell and scrapped up the entire top of his foot. I think one of the kids maybe pushed him, not sure. I guess you can see why we have such a connection... both pretty accident prone. But he is a very smart kid. He speaks a little bit of English, just what he picks up at school, because otherwise the kids are exposed to English. But he loves to count to me and tell me the colours of his cars. But he's learning really quickly with Jen and I around. He repeats everything I say and has started actually using it. The other day one of the kids came up to me and burped (he does this often) and I said "excuse you". Zubenathi copied me and looked at the kid and said "excuse you". Then he smiled, burped himself, and then said "excuse me?" and looked at me to see if he was right. I was very impressed that he put that together all by himself, however less impressed that I had 2 children on my lap that were burping in my face haha. But still, he is a very bright kid. And just loves the attention. All the kids love the attention actually. But he is one of the only kids that doesn't climb on me like a jungle gym. He always scoots over until he is close enough that he is just touching me. Then when I notice him I will always say "Hi Zubenathi!" and his face just lights up and then he cuddles in just a little bit closer. He's absolutely adorable. The kind of kid that anyone would fall in love with.
Anyways, this is probably long enough. I've fallen in to South Africa time. Everything is at a leisurely rate. I forget that in Canada, no one has hours of free time to sit around the novel I've been writing on this blog haha. But I do have to say South Africa is pretty laid back... and therefore inefficient I might add. So I bought a camera yesterday, which you already know. But the first camera store I went to I asked how much there cheapest camera was... and there response "Actually we're sold out of cameras at the moment." I thought that was kind of funny. They pretty much only sold cameras, and a few camera accessories... so not too sure what there plan for the day was without any cameras.
Anyways, miss you all. Hope home is treating you well. I heard it was supposed to have warmed up a bit. I hope so!
*This picture is of Hlomelang, he is part of one of the sets of twins we have. His twin is Hlomang. He always puts his lips like that when he's wanting attention. He's adorable.
Well, I took take the time and sit and read your novels! If anything, at least I'm getting in SOME sort of reading despite the fact that it should be reading for class...but this just more interesting! lol!
ReplyDeleteI just want you to know that you are probably doing an amazing job with the kids. Your stories help me realize more realistically what goes on (rather than what I had in mind before you left) haha.
Miss you! xoxo
Hey Amanda it's AJ (jen's auntie jen) Glad you are having such a terrific time. The children sound adorable? Are they all Aids related situations? You mentioned FAS so I was wondering. I'm glad you got your stuff back, it helps to feel more connected. The camera store that doesn't sell cameras is pretty funny.
ReplyDeleteHave fun
AJ