Last night was actual scary. Let me lay it down for you. Last night after supper I was in the main house in what we call the playroom which is actually where the kids eat their meals and where we do some homework and after supper the mamas change shifts, so all of the kids stay in there until the second shift mamas arrive. They usually sing or play games but yesterday was just madness and everyone was running around and screaming and having a pretty good time. Then three kids start shouting “Look Auntie Kassi, look!” I turned around to find three kids pulling up little Ayabonga’s pant legs to reveal an infinite amount of bumps. I noticed that he also had them concentrated all around his mouth and that they seemed to be spreading to the rest of his little face. I took him into the kitchen and sat him on the counter and noticed that they were all over his stomach and his arms and his back. It looked like an allergic reaction to me and I started asking the moms if he had any allergies and no one knew. I took him to Rita who was working hard in the office and she said that it was probably an itchy rash and had one of the moms put calamine lotion on him and that was that. All of the kids went to their rooms and Tally and I were standing around waiting for round 2 of tutoring for the day and I was telling her that I was really worried about Ayabonga because the spots seemed to come on so fast. I am kind of the spot queen and I am usually the one who notices when the kids have weird rashes or spots and I had not noticed anything developing on Bonga at all. Anyway Tally offered to tutor the two boys that we usually work one-on-one (someone came for tea during homework time the other day and I offered to skip tea to do homework with the kids and I ended up handling homework time for 8 of the kids all by myself, so it was a trade). Anyway I was real tired and I knew that Rita wanted me to help her with some paperwork later so I went to my room to shower and just rest for a little bit. About an hour later Rita knocked on my door and said that we needed to have a meeting. She explained to Tally and I that Bonga’s whole face had started to swell (it was actually his whole body, but most obvious in his face) and that she had called for an ambulance because our drivers get off at 6 pm and Rita can’t drive because she has one arm and I can’t drive because I’ve only ever driven one time and that she was going to send one of the moms with him so one of us needed to sleep in one of the houses with the kids. I offered to sleep with the girls (the house with 9 absolutely insane little boys intimidates me, they pulled a sink off the wall once and sometimes they get into the toilet and throw the water on people) and took my blanket and flashlight and iPod and settled in with the girls. After I made sure the girls were ok (they were scared because they didn’t know what was going on, why the mama in their house was leaving, etc) I took a peek at Bonga and he looked terrible. His face was SO swollen I could barely recognize him. Luckily he wasn’t having any problems breathing yet but while he was mostly calm he was obviously scared. Long story short, several phone calls and about an hour later it was clear that the ambulance was not coming and Bonga was starting to breathe heavier. By this time I had already read Psalm 91 (which all the kids are learning) to the girls and prayed with them and they were all asleep so I snuck out to see what was going on. Rita decided that she would sit in the driver’s seat and shift and Tally would steer. I told her that I could probably do it, but the only vehicle we have on the property at night is the new truck, which I have never driven and I still have close to no shifting skills. She was actually able to drive mostly by herself and the two moms and I watched as they drove down the driveway until we couldn’t see them anymore. We then tried to call the ambulance to tell them not to come (I think that one of the moms actually wanted to chew them out) but they didn’t answer. Rita was almost positive that they would need to keep him overnight at the clinic (it’s the same free clinic where we take the kids and it is also kind of a hospital but doesn’t have a lot of services, a lot of times they just stabilize the people taken there so that they can get them to East London) or take him to East London. I knew I wouldn’t be sleeping much so I went and made some tea and went to sit in the house with the sleeping girls. I spend most of my nights sitting in my room watching movies on my laptop, writing e-mails or reading a book and very rarely do I just take the time to sit. I took the opportunity while I was sitting in there listening to my iPod and drinking tea to pray for each of the beautiful children in the room individually. I prayed different things for all of them, but for each one I was sure to pray that God’s love would heal the wounds left by their past and that their futures would be driven by that same love. It was beautiful and a powerful experience and it also helped me take my mind off of worrying about Bonga. I’m not sure how much timed passed, but when I heard the truck driving back up the road I expected to see just Rita and Tally pulling back into the garage and instead saw an already less swollen Ayabonga! The nurse at the clinic gave him something, he immediately started unswelling and she sent him home with some medicine. He was already returning to his crazy, normal self and we all could not have been happier. It turns out that one handed Rita drove just fine and of course they passed 0 cars in Komga, South Africa at 10 pm. We still don’t know what he’s allergic to. We didn’t eat anything new yesterday, but he is known for sticking random crap in his mouth (and stealing food from smaller kids, think Maja’s birthday brownie…and eating food off the floor once it is all gone from his bowl) but hopefully that never happens again because balloon boy version of Bonga was scary and stressed everyone out.
LOVE!
kb
p.s. Family members- tonight is MEXICAN night at Open Arms : ) we are having tacos and rice and I think the moms are going to make me help especially because the mama who is cooking today LOVES to laugh at me in the kitchen. I will let you know how it goes…
p.p.s Ash bo Bash- I wrote that last blog on Monday and put it up on Wednesday. Also I like you. Let’s be best friends forever.
p.p.p.s. Hi Lauren! Comment on my blog! Do it! Now! Or in my next blog I am going to write out all of those rules I gave you for how to behave while I am gone : )
p.p.p.p.s. S. Furman are you still coming?! Both Rita and I have tried to e-mail you and seem to be having 0 amount of success.
p.p.p.p.p.s Is it weird that I used all of my P.S.’s as shout outs? Maybe. I’m ok with it.
31.10.08
29.10.08
OOKH!
(Written Monday, October 27)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAJA! Tom Maja is officially 2 whole years old. He likes to position himself belly down on the tire swing and stare at the ground while his body drags behind him and gets covered in dirt. He also enjoys shouting ‘look!’ which sounds like ‘OOKH!’ and then pointing at nothing over and over again. He also just learned the word yes. Maja likes to hug legs and he and I stood outside yesterday for at least 10 minutes looking at and listening to the thunder (I know that looking at thunder might not be possible, but we did it, just trust me). He just got some new shoes a couple of days ago and likes to stare at them and sometimes he wears a little sweatshirt and the hood has two little ears on it that stick up and make him even cuter, if such a thing is possible. I was once again in charge of cake duty and with the help of 4 of the kids actually accidentally made brownies instead of chocolate cake, but I didn’t hear any complaints. I have been trying for 3 days to teach Maja how to blow so that he could blow out his candles, but he froze under the pressure and couldn’t stop staring at the candles long enough for anyone to tell him to blow them out. Unfortunately about halfway through his birthday brownie little Ayabonga (who is chubby and a trouble maker) stole Maja’s brownie and ate it before anyone noticed. We finally noticed Maja’s defeated look and quiet tears and immediately know what happened so he got another one and all was right with the world again.
Other things to mention:
· I am the next Open Arms birthday! Two weeks from yesterday I will be 21! My 10 year old BFF Asekhona has promised to make me a cake, but I told her that I only like ice cream, so maybe she will just convince Rita to buy some ice cream. Also I think there will be a little bit of South African Beer drinking after the kids go to sleep. Ooo la la.
· We are dressing our littlest baby in doll clothes! That is not even a joke. She has been wearing clothes that belong to our other baby and they are just SO huge on her. The aunties (me, Tally, Rita) stole away to East London yesterday to go to a market and we saw some doll clothes and I joked that they would fit little Lindo, and then today we got a donation of baby doll clothes and they DO fit her and so she is wearing them.
· I had tonsillitis and was miserable all last week but finally got some good meds from the nurses at the clinic and am back to normal!
· I officially heard from the American University in Cairo a couple of days ago and am most probably officially going there next semester
· The pool is clean and almost full and ready for happy swimmers! I am so excited!
· The Flowers family wins the award for first birthday card to make me cry (Sahara Desert- I am SO excited about your concert and I wish I could be there and I miss you TONS!) Also my Uncle Bob will surely win the coolest uncle award for trying to get me The Office season 5 episodes!
· I finally got Nelson Mandela’s book and it is huge and I am super excited to read it.
· In a strange series of events the police brought some victims of domestic abuse here yesterday (who were not children- which does not make sense because we are a children’s home…) and just left them and while we were trying to get the police to come back the power went out because of a storm and the mamas had to finish making supper on top of a paraffin heater, which was comical and then the power finally came back on at 9 pm(ish) and the kids were all grouchy this morning and apparently the boys called one of the girls a cat and she was really offended and everyone was mad and crying. Thank you, Monday.
LOVE!
kb
p.s. I like hanging my clothes out on the line to dry. Dryers are overrated for sure.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAJA! Tom Maja is officially 2 whole years old. He likes to position himself belly down on the tire swing and stare at the ground while his body drags behind him and gets covered in dirt. He also enjoys shouting ‘look!’ which sounds like ‘OOKH!’ and then pointing at nothing over and over again. He also just learned the word yes. Maja likes to hug legs and he and I stood outside yesterday for at least 10 minutes looking at and listening to the thunder (I know that looking at thunder might not be possible, but we did it, just trust me). He just got some new shoes a couple of days ago and likes to stare at them and sometimes he wears a little sweatshirt and the hood has two little ears on it that stick up and make him even cuter, if such a thing is possible. I was once again in charge of cake duty and with the help of 4 of the kids actually accidentally made brownies instead of chocolate cake, but I didn’t hear any complaints. I have been trying for 3 days to teach Maja how to blow so that he could blow out his candles, but he froze under the pressure and couldn’t stop staring at the candles long enough for anyone to tell him to blow them out. Unfortunately about halfway through his birthday brownie little Ayabonga (who is chubby and a trouble maker) stole Maja’s brownie and ate it before anyone noticed. We finally noticed Maja’s defeated look and quiet tears and immediately know what happened so he got another one and all was right with the world again.
Other things to mention:
· I am the next Open Arms birthday! Two weeks from yesterday I will be 21! My 10 year old BFF Asekhona has promised to make me a cake, but I told her that I only like ice cream, so maybe she will just convince Rita to buy some ice cream. Also I think there will be a little bit of South African Beer drinking after the kids go to sleep. Ooo la la.
· We are dressing our littlest baby in doll clothes! That is not even a joke. She has been wearing clothes that belong to our other baby and they are just SO huge on her. The aunties (me, Tally, Rita) stole away to East London yesterday to go to a market and we saw some doll clothes and I joked that they would fit little Lindo, and then today we got a donation of baby doll clothes and they DO fit her and so she is wearing them.
· I had tonsillitis and was miserable all last week but finally got some good meds from the nurses at the clinic and am back to normal!
· I officially heard from the American University in Cairo a couple of days ago and am most probably officially going there next semester
· The pool is clean and almost full and ready for happy swimmers! I am so excited!
· The Flowers family wins the award for first birthday card to make me cry (Sahara Desert- I am SO excited about your concert and I wish I could be there and I miss you TONS!) Also my Uncle Bob will surely win the coolest uncle award for trying to get me The Office season 5 episodes!
· I finally got Nelson Mandela’s book and it is huge and I am super excited to read it.
· In a strange series of events the police brought some victims of domestic abuse here yesterday (who were not children- which does not make sense because we are a children’s home…) and just left them and while we were trying to get the police to come back the power went out because of a storm and the mamas had to finish making supper on top of a paraffin heater, which was comical and then the power finally came back on at 9 pm(ish) and the kids were all grouchy this morning and apparently the boys called one of the girls a cat and she was really offended and everyone was mad and crying. Thank you, Monday.
LOVE!
kb
p.s. I like hanging my clothes out on the line to dry. Dryers are overrated for sure.
23.10.08
Bloggy Time Out
You are in big trouble, mister.
I have decided that all of you, my readers need a good old-fashioned time out because you are being NAUGHTY.
I want to know who is reading my blog and I want to know it...right...now. And I am going to count to three and if you don't comment on my blog and say hello then you are going to be in even BIGGER trouble. And if you were an Open Arms kid then you would NOT get after dinner snack and then if you were even naughtier then you would have to miss Friday Night Movie. And trust me, neither of those things are fun for anyone.
The honest truth is that I just want you to say hi so that I can be happy that you are reading my blog, so just do it. Leave a little note, say something clever, maybe something funny or even leave an embarrassing story about me (like how you maybe gave me my first 'C' in school, ever). No really. All of you. Right now.
Time outs are generally very effective when you live with 30 kids, so I was hoping it would work here : )
Also. I love you all.
kb
p.s. I tried again to post pictures yesterday and it was just a big fat failure.
p.p.s If anyone could find out a way to record The Office Season 5 episodes that have come out in the last few weeks on a DVD and mail them to me, I would owe you a lot of things.
p.p.p.s I have started getting birthday mail and need to announce that my Aunt Gloria already officially gets the award for best birthday card ever. Not only do i absolutely love it, but so do the kids and the song was listened to at least 35 times today. The older ones are trying to learn the words. I am not making this stuff up. Thank you and I love you!
I have decided that all of you, my readers need a good old-fashioned time out because you are being NAUGHTY.
I want to know who is reading my blog and I want to know it...right...now. And I am going to count to three and if you don't comment on my blog and say hello then you are going to be in even BIGGER trouble. And if you were an Open Arms kid then you would NOT get after dinner snack and then if you were even naughtier then you would have to miss Friday Night Movie. And trust me, neither of those things are fun for anyone.
The honest truth is that I just want you to say hi so that I can be happy that you are reading my blog, so just do it. Leave a little note, say something clever, maybe something funny or even leave an embarrassing story about me (like how you maybe gave me my first 'C' in school, ever). No really. All of you. Right now.
Time outs are generally very effective when you live with 30 kids, so I was hoping it would work here : )
Also. I love you all.
kb
p.s. I tried again to post pictures yesterday and it was just a big fat failure.
p.p.s If anyone could find out a way to record The Office Season 5 episodes that have come out in the last few weeks on a DVD and mail them to me, I would owe you a lot of things.
p.p.p.s I have started getting birthday mail and need to announce that my Aunt Gloria already officially gets the award for best birthday card ever. Not only do i absolutely love it, but so do the kids and the song was listened to at least 35 times today. The older ones are trying to learn the words. I am not making this stuff up. Thank you and I love you!
19.10.08
Sive and Lindokuhle
At 28 kids we thought we had reached capacity. We had one extra crib and decided that we could only take in one more little baby. We have had to turn away many little kids over the last few months because we just don’t have the resources or the room. Until today. Sive and Lindokuhle were brought by the police this afternoon because they didn’t know where else they could take them. Usually the social workers call or the people at the clinic ask us if we have room and if they can refer people to us and we explain that we are full, but expanding in the near future and if someone had called and asked if they could place Sive and Lindo here we probably would have said the same thing. It turns out that they fit in beautifully and round out our number to a comfortable 30. We did only have one extra crib…until yesterday when Mickey (4) was put in a big boy bed, conveniently leaving 2 free cribs : ) Sive is 15 months old and a boy and chubby and beautiful and Lindokuhle is just under 2 months old and a girl and makes Anesipho (who is just over 3 months old and was premature and is itty bitty) look like a freaking giant. It has been crazy since they arrived, moving around beds and picking out clothes for them and what not but they are both now fed and bathed and safe and happy and I am SO excited that they are here. Now we really are at capacity and happily so : )
kb
p.s. Tally (the new volunteer) is awesomer (yes it's a word) at taking pictures than I am and is going to try and upload some in East London tomorrow, so I will let you know if/when they are up and where you can find them! Otherwise I am going to try and upload some onto this blog tomorrow night. Big deal, big deal.
kb
p.s. Tally (the new volunteer) is awesomer (yes it's a word) at taking pictures than I am and is going to try and upload some in East London tomorrow, so I will let you know if/when they are up and where you can find them! Otherwise I am going to try and upload some onto this blog tomorrow night. Big deal, big deal.
17.10.08
Endi Baby
This post is dedicated to Endinakho who took three whole steps all by herself today!
Endi squawks. That is the best word to use. When she is mad she squawks, which is really just an intense cry/scream. She is 1 and ½ and chubby and beautiful. She is very close to being able to walk, but prefers to just be held constantly. Waving is her new thing (she does the typical baby wave, meaning she just shakes her arm around and her hand flops back and forth) and she has started saying “Bye-bye”, which actually sounds like “da da”. If you call her name she says ‘hmm?’ and she is very attached to me and the mamas constantly tease me about it. Every time I walk into a room she turbo-crawls across the floor to me, pulls herself up by my pant legs or my knees depending on the situation and then stands with her hands straight up and her head back until I pick her up. She has huge cheeks and when she smiles her smile is so small because her mouth muscles cannot defeat her goofy cheeks. She is not old enough to sit at the little kid tables during meals, so she has her own highchair and if you don’t strap her in she will stand up and try to climb out. She cries when I put her down and when her food bowl is empty and I once caught her trying to steal food from some of the other kids. Some of her favorite activities include: walking around in one of those little baby walkers, sitting in the kitchen in her highchair while the mamas are cooking, drinking from her new sippy cup, watching people vacuum, crawling all the way across the courtyard to the preschool, dancing, watching flies crawl across the picnic table and then attacking them as they fly away, trying to eat grass, trying to eat bugs, trying to eat dirt, bothering the older kids when they are doing their homework, trying to eat their homework, trying to eat their pencils, trying to eat their crayons, following me around, sticking her fingers in her mouth, and trying to stick her fingers in my mouth. She is a very happy baby and always wants to be where the action is. Love Endinakho.
kb
p.s. sorry for still no pictures! we are going to East London and Tally is going to try and upload her pictures there (they are much better than mine) onto her travel blog and facebook, so hopefully you can see some soon!
Endi squawks. That is the best word to use. When she is mad she squawks, which is really just an intense cry/scream. She is 1 and ½ and chubby and beautiful. She is very close to being able to walk, but prefers to just be held constantly. Waving is her new thing (she does the typical baby wave, meaning she just shakes her arm around and her hand flops back and forth) and she has started saying “Bye-bye”, which actually sounds like “da da”. If you call her name she says ‘hmm?’ and she is very attached to me and the mamas constantly tease me about it. Every time I walk into a room she turbo-crawls across the floor to me, pulls herself up by my pant legs or my knees depending on the situation and then stands with her hands straight up and her head back until I pick her up. She has huge cheeks and when she smiles her smile is so small because her mouth muscles cannot defeat her goofy cheeks. She is not old enough to sit at the little kid tables during meals, so she has her own highchair and if you don’t strap her in she will stand up and try to climb out. She cries when I put her down and when her food bowl is empty and I once caught her trying to steal food from some of the other kids. Some of her favorite activities include: walking around in one of those little baby walkers, sitting in the kitchen in her highchair while the mamas are cooking, drinking from her new sippy cup, watching people vacuum, crawling all the way across the courtyard to the preschool, dancing, watching flies crawl across the picnic table and then attacking them as they fly away, trying to eat grass, trying to eat bugs, trying to eat dirt, bothering the older kids when they are doing their homework, trying to eat their homework, trying to eat their pencils, trying to eat their crayons, following me around, sticking her fingers in her mouth, and trying to stick her fingers in my mouth. She is a very happy baby and always wants to be where the action is. Love Endinakho.
kb
p.s. sorry for still no pictures! we are going to East London and Tally is going to try and upload her pictures there (they are much better than mine) onto her travel blog and facebook, so hopefully you can see some soon!
14.10.08
Garbage is the Enemy!
First of all I am moderately proud of the fact that there are people all over the world who talk like me. The more I get to know the older kids the more they start to sound like me and I feel pretty good about that.
The last few days have been super. Lately I am spending much less time being sad about not being at school and much more time loving living here. I still have my moments, don’t get me wrong (and some of you are killing me with how little you are keeping me updated on your lives) but it has been an outright goal for me to not miss all of the awesome, amazing, super exciting things that are going on all around me because my heart is stuck on the other side of the planet. I am happy to announce that after 6ish weeks, I am fairly certain that my heart made the journey with me and will most likely stay here long after I leave.
On Sunday we were supposed to have no electricity all day because they were doing maintenance, but it turns out that the whole town and the whole township lost power but we didn’t : ) Anyway we had a picnic on our porch and invited the pastor from our church and his wife to lunch. It was interesting talking to them. I’m pretty sure we have some theological differences and lots of other differences too, but they are great and it was nice to be able to sit down and talk to them for a little bit. After they left Tally and Rita and I went for a little hike around the back of our property and that was a lot of fun. We did a little bit of exploring and then sat down with an absolutely gorgeous view and had a little chat. I have not spent a lot of time in places where there is no sign of human life for as far as meets the eye and where the nights are so silent that you can hear the leaves of the trees moving in the wind and the creepy bugs doing all of their creepy bug things. It is creepy, but beautiful. After that we went and got the four oldest boys for a ‘secret mission’ we took them to the front yard and walked around the front of our property picking up garbage. We were pretending to be soldiers on an actual secret mission and we were marching and they wanted me to make up a cadence so I did and it was awesome. I don’t remember all of it but I made it up on the spot and the last line was “Garbage is the enemy” and the boys were cracking up and had a lot of fun seeking and destroying the enemy along the road. Apparently one of their teachers was picking up some trash outside of school yesterday and they made a comment about defeating the enemy. I love them.
We are almost out of water. Again. The city is out of water or the pump is broken (we have heard both excuses) so that sucks. Also a truck came to deliver water today and the driver was super mean and made our driver/gardener/maintenance guys super mad. Apparently he knew that he shouldn’t take his truck over our cattle bridge and he did it anyway and he destroyed a bunch of our plants and flowers and put the water in the wrong tank and wouldn’t listen to our guys and was super mean. They came and got me after he left and I have never seen them that angry. So anyway we have water now but might run out again soon.
Rita went to East London today to run errands/go to the doctor (she is healing nicely) so I was in charge of homework/tutoring time and the kids were home from school a couple of hours early because there is no water (the kids actual words: “The pooping in the toilet is stinky so they sent us home because there is no water”) the school never tells us when they are letting the kids out early and that is annoying but luckily our driver spotted some kids ‘downtown’ and figured they were out early so that was good. I am proud to say that we were able to work with everyone today at least a little bit. It is still a struggle to work with 10 kids even with Tally here, but we are trying to get a routine going and it seems to be working out. I also made banana bread with Asekhona and Siyathemba today. The kids love making banana bread and we accidentally got way too many bananas once so we have a stash of rotten, frozen bananas to use up. We served it for snack tonight and it was a great success.
Sorry I haven’t been able to post pictures! I tried posting one the other day because I started writing posts each dedicated to just one of the kids here but it tried uploading for 20 minutes and then failed. And then I tried it again and it did the same thing. Maybe I will be able to post the pictures on the office computer (which is officially fixed! Hurray!) soon and then everyone can be happy and see some of the faces that have touched my heart and surely left a mark on it for good.
LOVE!
Kb
p.s. I am going into the clinic with little Anesipho (the baby baby) tomorrow for the results of her HIV test/maybe a shot?/typical baby doctor visit. She is BEAUTIFUL and starting to smile and figure out her mouth muscles. Love her.
p.p.s I just found a bug on my bed for the first time a minute ago and I am HATE that bug.
The last few days have been super. Lately I am spending much less time being sad about not being at school and much more time loving living here. I still have my moments, don’t get me wrong (and some of you are killing me with how little you are keeping me updated on your lives) but it has been an outright goal for me to not miss all of the awesome, amazing, super exciting things that are going on all around me because my heart is stuck on the other side of the planet. I am happy to announce that after 6ish weeks, I am fairly certain that my heart made the journey with me and will most likely stay here long after I leave.
On Sunday we were supposed to have no electricity all day because they were doing maintenance, but it turns out that the whole town and the whole township lost power but we didn’t : ) Anyway we had a picnic on our porch and invited the pastor from our church and his wife to lunch. It was interesting talking to them. I’m pretty sure we have some theological differences and lots of other differences too, but they are great and it was nice to be able to sit down and talk to them for a little bit. After they left Tally and Rita and I went for a little hike around the back of our property and that was a lot of fun. We did a little bit of exploring and then sat down with an absolutely gorgeous view and had a little chat. I have not spent a lot of time in places where there is no sign of human life for as far as meets the eye and where the nights are so silent that you can hear the leaves of the trees moving in the wind and the creepy bugs doing all of their creepy bug things. It is creepy, but beautiful. After that we went and got the four oldest boys for a ‘secret mission’ we took them to the front yard and walked around the front of our property picking up garbage. We were pretending to be soldiers on an actual secret mission and we were marching and they wanted me to make up a cadence so I did and it was awesome. I don’t remember all of it but I made it up on the spot and the last line was “Garbage is the enemy” and the boys were cracking up and had a lot of fun seeking and destroying the enemy along the road. Apparently one of their teachers was picking up some trash outside of school yesterday and they made a comment about defeating the enemy. I love them.
We are almost out of water. Again. The city is out of water or the pump is broken (we have heard both excuses) so that sucks. Also a truck came to deliver water today and the driver was super mean and made our driver/gardener/maintenance guys super mad. Apparently he knew that he shouldn’t take his truck over our cattle bridge and he did it anyway and he destroyed a bunch of our plants and flowers and put the water in the wrong tank and wouldn’t listen to our guys and was super mean. They came and got me after he left and I have never seen them that angry. So anyway we have water now but might run out again soon.
Rita went to East London today to run errands/go to the doctor (she is healing nicely) so I was in charge of homework/tutoring time and the kids were home from school a couple of hours early because there is no water (the kids actual words: “The pooping in the toilet is stinky so they sent us home because there is no water”) the school never tells us when they are letting the kids out early and that is annoying but luckily our driver spotted some kids ‘downtown’ and figured they were out early so that was good. I am proud to say that we were able to work with everyone today at least a little bit. It is still a struggle to work with 10 kids even with Tally here, but we are trying to get a routine going and it seems to be working out. I also made banana bread with Asekhona and Siyathemba today. The kids love making banana bread and we accidentally got way too many bananas once so we have a stash of rotten, frozen bananas to use up. We served it for snack tonight and it was a great success.
Sorry I haven’t been able to post pictures! I tried posting one the other day because I started writing posts each dedicated to just one of the kids here but it tried uploading for 20 minutes and then failed. And then I tried it again and it did the same thing. Maybe I will be able to post the pictures on the office computer (which is officially fixed! Hurray!) soon and then everyone can be happy and see some of the faces that have touched my heart and surely left a mark on it for good.
LOVE!
Kb
p.s. I am going into the clinic with little Anesipho (the baby baby) tomorrow for the results of her HIV test/maybe a shot?/typical baby doctor visit. She is BEAUTIFUL and starting to smile and figure out her mouth muscles. Love her.
p.p.s I just found a bug on my bed for the first time a minute ago and I am HATE that bug.
11.10.08
Happy Birthday Siphamandla!
Posting two days in a row? What? Who are you? I know, I know. If you haven't read yesterday's post, do it. Then read this one...
He is 4 whole years old! Siphamandla is almost a professional singer and brilliant and adorable. In preschool we have him with the 5 year olds because he is very smart (only a little behind in his coordination and motor skills). He likes to repeat everything you say and he is tiny but likes to pick fights. And he really does sing loud and proud. If you hear a voice over all the others it is his and if someone keeps going when everyone else stops it is usually him. Happy Birthday Siphamandla!
In other news…today:
The little baby monster threw up on Asekhona. She was holding the baby up in front of her so some of it got in her mouth and all over her face and shirt. Luckily it was mostly water, but still disgusting and absolutely hilarious.
The baby then threw up all over my arm a little less disgusting, just as hilarious. Especially because both times Anesipho (the little 3 month old) had no reaction.
All of the little boys got their hair cut so they are all bald and look like little old men and are absolutely adorable. Siyathemba (who is one of the older boys) learned how to cut hair and that was awesome
The weather was absolutely beautiful all day
I learned how to drive! Our driver who taught me was scared of me when we first started so he drove me out to a field across the road where there was a little road and a bunch of cows. I was so good at driving. I only stalled once and that is because I accidently put it in first instead of third because I could not find third. It was fun and I ended up driving us home on the actual road and I didn’t hit any cows.
I, along with 7 of the kids successfully made 2 birthday cakes and 2 things of homemade frosting (that I thought was disgusting and just tasted like butter, but the kids loved it so I just went with it). Ballerrrr. The first cake was almost a disaster and came out of the pan in about 7 pieces when we flipped it over. The icing was brown and the cake was bumpy so we lovingly named the first one after the road to our farm. The mamas were laughing at me in the kitchen all day long. They laughed at my efforts and my results, but admitted that it all ended up tasting very good and even asked for seconds. They are great.
I accidentally stepped on a worm in my room and it was squishy and gross
I walked all the way across the courtyard with Endinakho only holding onto my pant leg! She is SO close to walking!
I wore a white shirt that ended up with purple spots from the stuff that we put on the kids when they have rashes/sores and brown homemade frosting and spit up and stains from happy after dinner hands and grass and more purple stuff all over it.
I decided that I would rather have a dirty shirt than a clean one any day.
love love
kb
ps. please keep sending me happy e-mails and comments (and snail mail, if that's your thing) because I am still ELATED by them and love remembering that I have a life and some love on the other side of the planet.
He is 4 whole years old! Siphamandla is almost a professional singer and brilliant and adorable. In preschool we have him with the 5 year olds because he is very smart (only a little behind in his coordination and motor skills). He likes to repeat everything you say and he is tiny but likes to pick fights. And he really does sing loud and proud. If you hear a voice over all the others it is his and if someone keeps going when everyone else stops it is usually him. Happy Birthday Siphamandla!
In other news…today:
The little baby monster threw up on Asekhona. She was holding the baby up in front of her so some of it got in her mouth and all over her face and shirt. Luckily it was mostly water, but still disgusting and absolutely hilarious.
The baby then threw up all over my arm a little less disgusting, just as hilarious. Especially because both times Anesipho (the little 3 month old) had no reaction.
All of the little boys got their hair cut so they are all bald and look like little old men and are absolutely adorable. Siyathemba (who is one of the older boys) learned how to cut hair and that was awesome
The weather was absolutely beautiful all day
I learned how to drive! Our driver who taught me was scared of me when we first started so he drove me out to a field across the road where there was a little road and a bunch of cows. I was so good at driving. I only stalled once and that is because I accidently put it in first instead of third because I could not find third. It was fun and I ended up driving us home on the actual road and I didn’t hit any cows.
I, along with 7 of the kids successfully made 2 birthday cakes and 2 things of homemade frosting (that I thought was disgusting and just tasted like butter, but the kids loved it so I just went with it). Ballerrrr. The first cake was almost a disaster and came out of the pan in about 7 pieces when we flipped it over. The icing was brown and the cake was bumpy so we lovingly named the first one after the road to our farm. The mamas were laughing at me in the kitchen all day long. They laughed at my efforts and my results, but admitted that it all ended up tasting very good and even asked for seconds. They are great.
I accidentally stepped on a worm in my room and it was squishy and gross
I walked all the way across the courtyard with Endinakho only holding onto my pant leg! She is SO close to walking!
I wore a white shirt that ended up with purple spots from the stuff that we put on the kids when they have rashes/sores and brown homemade frosting and spit up and stains from happy after dinner hands and grass and more purple stuff all over it.
I decided that I would rather have a dirty shirt than a clean one any day.
love love
kb
ps. please keep sending me happy e-mails and comments (and snail mail, if that's your thing) because I am still ELATED by them and love remembering that I have a life and some love on the other side of the planet.
10.10.08
The day I almost got kidnapped and almost got the truck stollen. I love Africa
This is going to be excessive and long, but I feel as though I must accurately attempt to recount the last few days of my life for you.
The week started off normal enough. The kids were back to school and we finally got Municipal water. Praise God for that (no really, we went to sleep one night and they said that there was water in town but that one of the main pumps was broken and that our line had a leak in it and they had no clue when we could get water and then we prayed hard and woke up to the tank almost full of clear, clean water running in from town). The power still shuts off but usually only at night and we just have to go out to the box in the morning and flip the switch back. The phone is working again, plus our fax and our office phone magically started working when the phone line was fixed. The office computer is now broken, but other than that everything is back to normal…sort of…
On Tuesday night there was a huge storm that knocked out the power in town, which means our water was not running, but everything was going to be fine once the power was back on, so crisis averted. Rita and I left Wednesday morning to pick up our new volunteer from the airport. We left early so that we could do all of our once a week East London errands and of course we went to the gas station in town and they were out of gas. Of course. Anyway not a big deal, we just stopped at the first one on the road to East London. Our first stop in the city was the Beacon Bay Shopping Center. We were running a little bit behind so we split up some of the stuff to divide and conquer the work load. Rita headed to one side of the center to slip into the bank and I headed to the Vodashop (think phones/other assorted technology) to try and get more information about the wireless thing that we are using. As I walked across the big parking lot I was thinking about how I should have worn tennis shoes because my flip flops were a little bit slippery in the rain. I carefully walked into the store and luckily ran into just the right guy (he is the only one I have ever talked to on this planet who knows anything about this wireless business) he explained absolutely everything to me and it turns out that it is much easier to use than we all thought, so yay for that! As I was sitting in there talking to him I heard someone call my name from behind over and over again. I turned around to find a short, strong looking man dressed all in black ( I was sure that something had happened at the bank and that for some reason they were taking Rita to prison- I know that that is not a logical thing for me to be thinking, but I was caught off guard) who told me that my friend Rita had slipped on the tile on the other side of the center and she may have broken her wrist. I feel like people always think they break something when they fall and that is what I was thinking walking across the parking lot with black shirt man. Also right when we got to where she was I slipped (luckily didn’t fall) on the exact same wet tile Rita fell on. It turns out that her wrist was legit going in three different ways, actually broken broken. She was sitting on the ground still and there were a few people there asking if we needed help, etc. The ambulance was called and a bunch of super nice people came up from the stores telling us to let them know if we needed anything. Rita was super calm about everything and said she needed to make some calls (we had a conversation where she was like ‘I don’t even know who to call’ and I was like ‘Father Barnes’ because he is the only Open Arms contact I have ever met in East London and she was like ‘uhhh I think I should call our doctor friend in Komga’ and I was like ‘oooh yeah, a doctor’. Essentially she is more level-headed than me in any situation ever.) so she figured out from our doctor friend what hospital she should be taken to and what doctor she should ask for. Eventually one of the managers and one of the security guards from the shopping center came over to us and asked us a bunch of questions. All of a sudden the security guard was being BFF with us and offered to help me finish running errands and to pick up Tally (the new volunteer) from the airport and drive us home and we didn’t really have any options seeing as how I still cannot drive standard oh and also because I don’t know where the airport is. We decided we would take advantage of that offer. The ambulance came (also this is probably inappropriate but one of the paramedics was young and good looking, I rarely see young males so I was ok with that. Also he might not have been that good looking, it’s just so rare that I see anyone close to my age that he seemed so at the time) and I thought they would go straight to the hospital. So security guard man decided that we should go make sure that our vehicle (the new truck) was safe and we did that after about 10 minutes of me trying to figure out which one it was. He insisted that he drive the truck to the airport because his car was too small so I agreed. Then he said he needed to go take care of some things in the office and I decided I would try and run the rest of our errands. That lasted about five seconds because I could not for the life of me remember what else we needed to get. I ended up going into a Pick n Pay (grocery store) and walking around. That is when I realized that this guy could totally kidnap me and steal the truck. Being in a foreign country and letting some dude drive the car that I am responsible for to take me to the airport to pick up some girl and then drive me back is just not something I usually do. Anyway he seemed legit and had a card and the people from the stores seemed to know him. I was processing all of this while walking around the store and I decided that everyone just needed some chocolate. The ambulance was still there when I got outside so I went over and asked young, (probably not very) attractive boy to put some chocolate in Rita’s purse just as a thing to make her happy. It turns out that security guard man was legit and actually a moderately cool guy. I spent an awkwardly large amount of time with him driving around East London and then waiting at the airport for Tally. He bought me lunch there (which is when I realized that the shopping center was probably doing all of this so that we wouldn’t sue them) and we had some good conversations about politics and America and South Africa and history and the future and he was a security guard in Iraq for some engineers so we talked about the mess in the Middle East and it ended up being a fairly enjoyable time. We picked up Tally and essentially I greeted her by saying “Oh hi! I’m Kassi, the other volunteer, Rita fell and broke her wrist and she is in the hospital so we have some stuff to figure out. Also we had no water or power this morning. Welcome to South Africa, here is a sign we made for you, let’s go to the hospital now, how were all of your flights? Oh also this guy is driving us around. I don’t know his name. Let’s go!” No really that’s pretty close to exactly what I said. We went to the hospital to discover that Rita had been sitting there for 2 hours. No x-rays, no doctors, just sitting. She ended up having x-rays done and they needed to transfer her so she could have surgery at a different hospital. Security guard man offered to drive Tally and I back to Komga. Rita and I had an intense session in which she ran me through all of the details of how I needed to be her for the night/morning until she came back. Luckily I have been here long enough that I pretty much know how everything runs. Security guard man took me to the store to buy bread, another store to order fruits/vegetables and then home. He told me that when he talked to Rita she said it would be best if he took the truck back with him to East London so that he could bring her back in the morning. That was false information. I meant to call Rita right when I got home to confirm that that is what she said but things were so crazy with the kids meeting Tally and unloading stuff from the truck that by the time I remembered it he was gone. We have like 15 different security locks on that truck and I was sure that I had just given it to that man. When I talked to Rita later that night we were sure that he had stolen it. It turns out he really was legit and just really insisted on taking her home. He parked the truck at his house and didn’t drive it around until it was time to bring Rita back. Thank the Lord that that guy was legit. So Wednesday night/Thursday I had to play Rita and it was exciting and I kicked this places butt. The meat man came on Wednesday night and I paid him and put all of the meat away. I also set out all the diapers and toilet paper for the kids and set out snack and got Tally settled in. On Thursday our little HIV + boy had to go into the clinic to have blood taken and I took him in and I knew who to talk to and where to go and I even found a little sore on his finger too and got cream for it (yes, I also kicked the clinic’s butt). Then we went and picked up the fruit and veg order and I even remembered that we needed to pick up hot dogs for dinner. I also bought all of the hot dog buns in Komga, South Africa. No really. I got one and a half packages from Flambys (gas station) and four packages from Staright (little Komga grocery store) and we had enough for everyone for the first time since I’ve been here : ) I also picked up a belt and a new backpack for a couple of the boys (it would be safe to say that, yes, I also kicked Komga’s butt). I really had everything under control and if I’m going to be perfectly honest I was pretty proud of myself. Rita was back in the late afternoon. She ended up needing surgery and is in a cast, but still more level-headed than me and mostly back in the swing of things. She needs more help now (it was her right wrist and she’s right-handed) and I appreciate the extra responsibility. Also I haven’t gotten to know Tally too much yet but she seems pretty great.
So there you go. Everyone is home and safe and happy now with electricity (most of the time) and a working phone and running water and a new friend (security guard man) in East London. Also we just watched the new Charlotte’s Web tonight with the kids and that movie is cute and hilarious and great and you should see it even if you are old or hate talking pigs.
Oh! Also I love Africa and I am loving God and loving living
Kb
p.s. I am having my first driving lesson in the KIA (which the older kids have lovingly dubbed the old man with the walking stick- the back window got shattered the other day, but that is a whole other story) tomorrow, plus it is Siphamandla’s birthday and he is turning 4 and I am in charge of cake making and I love Saturday morning errands running with the four oldest kids.
p.p.s. Fun factoid- I have been spending a substantial amount of my free time sitting with my laptop listening to and writing out High School Musical lyrics for the older kids. I anticipate we will be able to do an entire performance of the movie within the next month : )
The week started off normal enough. The kids were back to school and we finally got Municipal water. Praise God for that (no really, we went to sleep one night and they said that there was water in town but that one of the main pumps was broken and that our line had a leak in it and they had no clue when we could get water and then we prayed hard and woke up to the tank almost full of clear, clean water running in from town). The power still shuts off but usually only at night and we just have to go out to the box in the morning and flip the switch back. The phone is working again, plus our fax and our office phone magically started working when the phone line was fixed. The office computer is now broken, but other than that everything is back to normal…sort of…
On Tuesday night there was a huge storm that knocked out the power in town, which means our water was not running, but everything was going to be fine once the power was back on, so crisis averted. Rita and I left Wednesday morning to pick up our new volunteer from the airport. We left early so that we could do all of our once a week East London errands and of course we went to the gas station in town and they were out of gas. Of course. Anyway not a big deal, we just stopped at the first one on the road to East London. Our first stop in the city was the Beacon Bay Shopping Center. We were running a little bit behind so we split up some of the stuff to divide and conquer the work load. Rita headed to one side of the center to slip into the bank and I headed to the Vodashop (think phones/other assorted technology) to try and get more information about the wireless thing that we are using. As I walked across the big parking lot I was thinking about how I should have worn tennis shoes because my flip flops were a little bit slippery in the rain. I carefully walked into the store and luckily ran into just the right guy (he is the only one I have ever talked to on this planet who knows anything about this wireless business) he explained absolutely everything to me and it turns out that it is much easier to use than we all thought, so yay for that! As I was sitting in there talking to him I heard someone call my name from behind over and over again. I turned around to find a short, strong looking man dressed all in black ( I was sure that something had happened at the bank and that for some reason they were taking Rita to prison- I know that that is not a logical thing for me to be thinking, but I was caught off guard) who told me that my friend Rita had slipped on the tile on the other side of the center and she may have broken her wrist. I feel like people always think they break something when they fall and that is what I was thinking walking across the parking lot with black shirt man. Also right when we got to where she was I slipped (luckily didn’t fall) on the exact same wet tile Rita fell on. It turns out that her wrist was legit going in three different ways, actually broken broken. She was sitting on the ground still and there were a few people there asking if we needed help, etc. The ambulance was called and a bunch of super nice people came up from the stores telling us to let them know if we needed anything. Rita was super calm about everything and said she needed to make some calls (we had a conversation where she was like ‘I don’t even know who to call’ and I was like ‘Father Barnes’ because he is the only Open Arms contact I have ever met in East London and she was like ‘uhhh I think I should call our doctor friend in Komga’ and I was like ‘oooh yeah, a doctor’. Essentially she is more level-headed than me in any situation ever.) so she figured out from our doctor friend what hospital she should be taken to and what doctor she should ask for. Eventually one of the managers and one of the security guards from the shopping center came over to us and asked us a bunch of questions. All of a sudden the security guard was being BFF with us and offered to help me finish running errands and to pick up Tally (the new volunteer) from the airport and drive us home and we didn’t really have any options seeing as how I still cannot drive standard oh and also because I don’t know where the airport is. We decided we would take advantage of that offer. The ambulance came (also this is probably inappropriate but one of the paramedics was young and good looking, I rarely see young males so I was ok with that. Also he might not have been that good looking, it’s just so rare that I see anyone close to my age that he seemed so at the time) and I thought they would go straight to the hospital. So security guard man decided that we should go make sure that our vehicle (the new truck) was safe and we did that after about 10 minutes of me trying to figure out which one it was. He insisted that he drive the truck to the airport because his car was too small so I agreed. Then he said he needed to go take care of some things in the office and I decided I would try and run the rest of our errands. That lasted about five seconds because I could not for the life of me remember what else we needed to get. I ended up going into a Pick n Pay (grocery store) and walking around. That is when I realized that this guy could totally kidnap me and steal the truck. Being in a foreign country and letting some dude drive the car that I am responsible for to take me to the airport to pick up some girl and then drive me back is just not something I usually do. Anyway he seemed legit and had a card and the people from the stores seemed to know him. I was processing all of this while walking around the store and I decided that everyone just needed some chocolate. The ambulance was still there when I got outside so I went over and asked young, (probably not very) attractive boy to put some chocolate in Rita’s purse just as a thing to make her happy. It turns out that security guard man was legit and actually a moderately cool guy. I spent an awkwardly large amount of time with him driving around East London and then waiting at the airport for Tally. He bought me lunch there (which is when I realized that the shopping center was probably doing all of this so that we wouldn’t sue them) and we had some good conversations about politics and America and South Africa and history and the future and he was a security guard in Iraq for some engineers so we talked about the mess in the Middle East and it ended up being a fairly enjoyable time. We picked up Tally and essentially I greeted her by saying “Oh hi! I’m Kassi, the other volunteer, Rita fell and broke her wrist and she is in the hospital so we have some stuff to figure out. Also we had no water or power this morning. Welcome to South Africa, here is a sign we made for you, let’s go to the hospital now, how were all of your flights? Oh also this guy is driving us around. I don’t know his name. Let’s go!” No really that’s pretty close to exactly what I said. We went to the hospital to discover that Rita had been sitting there for 2 hours. No x-rays, no doctors, just sitting. She ended up having x-rays done and they needed to transfer her so she could have surgery at a different hospital. Security guard man offered to drive Tally and I back to Komga. Rita and I had an intense session in which she ran me through all of the details of how I needed to be her for the night/morning until she came back. Luckily I have been here long enough that I pretty much know how everything runs. Security guard man took me to the store to buy bread, another store to order fruits/vegetables and then home. He told me that when he talked to Rita she said it would be best if he took the truck back with him to East London so that he could bring her back in the morning. That was false information. I meant to call Rita right when I got home to confirm that that is what she said but things were so crazy with the kids meeting Tally and unloading stuff from the truck that by the time I remembered it he was gone. We have like 15 different security locks on that truck and I was sure that I had just given it to that man. When I talked to Rita later that night we were sure that he had stolen it. It turns out he really was legit and just really insisted on taking her home. He parked the truck at his house and didn’t drive it around until it was time to bring Rita back. Thank the Lord that that guy was legit. So Wednesday night/Thursday I had to play Rita and it was exciting and I kicked this places butt. The meat man came on Wednesday night and I paid him and put all of the meat away. I also set out all the diapers and toilet paper for the kids and set out snack and got Tally settled in. On Thursday our little HIV + boy had to go into the clinic to have blood taken and I took him in and I knew who to talk to and where to go and I even found a little sore on his finger too and got cream for it (yes, I also kicked the clinic’s butt). Then we went and picked up the fruit and veg order and I even remembered that we needed to pick up hot dogs for dinner. I also bought all of the hot dog buns in Komga, South Africa. No really. I got one and a half packages from Flambys (gas station) and four packages from Staright (little Komga grocery store) and we had enough for everyone for the first time since I’ve been here : ) I also picked up a belt and a new backpack for a couple of the boys (it would be safe to say that, yes, I also kicked Komga’s butt). I really had everything under control and if I’m going to be perfectly honest I was pretty proud of myself. Rita was back in the late afternoon. She ended up needing surgery and is in a cast, but still more level-headed than me and mostly back in the swing of things. She needs more help now (it was her right wrist and she’s right-handed) and I appreciate the extra responsibility. Also I haven’t gotten to know Tally too much yet but she seems pretty great.
So there you go. Everyone is home and safe and happy now with electricity (most of the time) and a working phone and running water and a new friend (security guard man) in East London. Also we just watched the new Charlotte’s Web tonight with the kids and that movie is cute and hilarious and great and you should see it even if you are old or hate talking pigs.
Oh! Also I love Africa and I am loving God and loving living
Kb
p.s. I am having my first driving lesson in the KIA (which the older kids have lovingly dubbed the old man with the walking stick- the back window got shattered the other day, but that is a whole other story) tomorrow, plus it is Siphamandla’s birthday and he is turning 4 and I am in charge of cake making and I love Saturday morning errands running with the four oldest kids.
p.p.s. Fun factoid- I have been spending a substantial amount of my free time sitting with my laptop listening to and writing out High School Musical lyrics for the older kids. I anticipate we will be able to do an entire performance of the movie within the next month : )
9.10.08
The Long Version
(written on October 1)
The kids have been home all week and I have survived almost three whole days of it! Gold star for me. Honestly, it has been tons of fun. The preschool is still running so all of the kids go in (including the older ones) in the morning and sing songs and stay for the bible story and prayer, then they are handed over to me. Sheesh. It has been a challenge tutoring 10 kids of varying grades and ability levels. At the same time. By myself. A couple of our first graders cannot recognize numbers beyond 5, so that has been my main focus. They can only handle about one new number a day. I cannot do anything with them in the same room as the other first graders because they will tell them the answers, and I cannot leave the two alone to work with the others because they will cause problems wherever they are (think fire extinguisher going off in the van). I usually end up sending all of the older kids to read and the rest of the first graders to do a worksheet somewhere (which I know they all copy the answers off of one of the girls). When I’m done with the two crazies I try to read or go over other math stuff with the rest of the first graders but they are hard to handle as a group and it is hard to fight with the babies crawling around the house, the mamas cooking and cleaning and the rest of the craziness in the house for their attention. We are making progress, and we will get there. It will be so amazing to have more volunteers here because the kids all really have specific areas they need help in, and need individual attention. Speaking of more volunteers something happened with the new volunteers passport (something=she does not have it). I’m not quite sure what is up, but she was supposed to be here tomorrow and will now not be here for another 5 days. It’s good that she will still be able to make it, but sad because tomorrow was going to be a fun day. Since the kids are home from school we were going to take a couple of them into East London with us to pick her up, go out to lunch and then Rita was going to have to drop us off at the shore so she could go to a court hearing for some old case related to the home. My life here is never boring or predictable, but it can get a little monotonous, and trust me those things can all exist together. Anyway I was super excited for tomorrow. Rita will probably still have to go into East London tomorrow, but I will most likely not go with her.
Sometimes life can get a little bit lonely here, even though I am constantly surrounded by no less than 30 people and way too much love, everyone I talk to does not speak English or is 2 years old. I haven’t really been homesick at all, the only thing I really miss is having normal/brilliant/hilarious conversations with lovely people who generally understand what I am trying to say the first time around. Also I got to talk to some of my LOVELY friends on Sunday(ish) and it was great and I love y’all.
On a similar note, some of the younger kids still do not understand that I do not know Xhosa. There are a few who come up to me and say such passionate things in a language I do not understand. You can tell that they really want me to understand what they are saying, and cannot comprehend that I might not have a clue. One of them is a little boy named Lisa. He is a manly man and loves to kick and hit and run and jump and mostly hates school. His favorite color is probably pink, because that is the crayon he always chooses, and he sings gospel songs in Xhosa and repeats the line ‘we are going to heaven’ over and over again. That was a tangent, but he is beautiful and constantly tries to say things to me that I do not understand.
And lastly…everything is broken here. No really. We did not have power/water for at least 24 hours. I was talking to Rita when she was trying to get everything fixed and she said ‘It’s always something’ to which I responded ‘…or…everything’. We have been trying to get municipal water for about…a year? And they finally have the pumps all fixed up and everything working. We were super excited and when we started to run the pumps we got…no…water. Because, naturally, the city had run out of water and failed to inform us of this before we drained our reservoir to bring in the municipal water. Naturally. So the pumps were working so hard that they tripped the power and brought us no water all at the same time. Disaster. Anyway the city brought in a truck of water to us yesterday. We might have to start doing things like flushing the toilets once a day and washing dishes twice a day and other such conservation efforts. Oh and once the power came back on the phone lines went out and then Rita’s cell ran out of minutes. Also we found out that someone had shimmied up one of the telephone poles, cut the line and pulled some wires out. Most likely to sell the copper. Naturally. Always something…or everything.
Kb
p.s. Happy birthday Furman, Sarah and Furman, Liz. I was hoping I could at least send you Happy Birthday e-mails, but even the wireless internet has been out the last few days.
p.p.s. I’m going to try and get into some sort of routine where I put up like three posts once a week or one post three times a week. I haven’t decided. Big decisions, big decisions. Also I think I might start writing whole blogs about just one child, because that sounds fun and they are GREAT.
The kids have been home all week and I have survived almost three whole days of it! Gold star for me. Honestly, it has been tons of fun. The preschool is still running so all of the kids go in (including the older ones) in the morning and sing songs and stay for the bible story and prayer, then they are handed over to me. Sheesh. It has been a challenge tutoring 10 kids of varying grades and ability levels. At the same time. By myself. A couple of our first graders cannot recognize numbers beyond 5, so that has been my main focus. They can only handle about one new number a day. I cannot do anything with them in the same room as the other first graders because they will tell them the answers, and I cannot leave the two alone to work with the others because they will cause problems wherever they are (think fire extinguisher going off in the van). I usually end up sending all of the older kids to read and the rest of the first graders to do a worksheet somewhere (which I know they all copy the answers off of one of the girls). When I’m done with the two crazies I try to read or go over other math stuff with the rest of the first graders but they are hard to handle as a group and it is hard to fight with the babies crawling around the house, the mamas cooking and cleaning and the rest of the craziness in the house for their attention. We are making progress, and we will get there. It will be so amazing to have more volunteers here because the kids all really have specific areas they need help in, and need individual attention. Speaking of more volunteers something happened with the new volunteers passport (something=she does not have it). I’m not quite sure what is up, but she was supposed to be here tomorrow and will now not be here for another 5 days. It’s good that she will still be able to make it, but sad because tomorrow was going to be a fun day. Since the kids are home from school we were going to take a couple of them into East London with us to pick her up, go out to lunch and then Rita was going to have to drop us off at the shore so she could go to a court hearing for some old case related to the home. My life here is never boring or predictable, but it can get a little monotonous, and trust me those things can all exist together. Anyway I was super excited for tomorrow. Rita will probably still have to go into East London tomorrow, but I will most likely not go with her.
Sometimes life can get a little bit lonely here, even though I am constantly surrounded by no less than 30 people and way too much love, everyone I talk to does not speak English or is 2 years old. I haven’t really been homesick at all, the only thing I really miss is having normal/brilliant/hilarious conversations with lovely people who generally understand what I am trying to say the first time around. Also I got to talk to some of my LOVELY friends on Sunday(ish) and it was great and I love y’all.
On a similar note, some of the younger kids still do not understand that I do not know Xhosa. There are a few who come up to me and say such passionate things in a language I do not understand. You can tell that they really want me to understand what they are saying, and cannot comprehend that I might not have a clue. One of them is a little boy named Lisa. He is a manly man and loves to kick and hit and run and jump and mostly hates school. His favorite color is probably pink, because that is the crayon he always chooses, and he sings gospel songs in Xhosa and repeats the line ‘we are going to heaven’ over and over again. That was a tangent, but he is beautiful and constantly tries to say things to me that I do not understand.
And lastly…everything is broken here. No really. We did not have power/water for at least 24 hours. I was talking to Rita when she was trying to get everything fixed and she said ‘It’s always something’ to which I responded ‘…or…everything’. We have been trying to get municipal water for about…a year? And they finally have the pumps all fixed up and everything working. We were super excited and when we started to run the pumps we got…no…water. Because, naturally, the city had run out of water and failed to inform us of this before we drained our reservoir to bring in the municipal water. Naturally. So the pumps were working so hard that they tripped the power and brought us no water all at the same time. Disaster. Anyway the city brought in a truck of water to us yesterday. We might have to start doing things like flushing the toilets once a day and washing dishes twice a day and other such conservation efforts. Oh and once the power came back on the phone lines went out and then Rita’s cell ran out of minutes. Also we found out that someone had shimmied up one of the telephone poles, cut the line and pulled some wires out. Most likely to sell the copper. Naturally. Always something…or everything.
Kb
p.s. Happy birthday Furman, Sarah and Furman, Liz. I was hoping I could at least send you Happy Birthday e-mails, but even the wireless internet has been out the last few days.
p.p.s. I’m going to try and get into some sort of routine where I put up like three posts once a week or one post three times a week. I haven’t decided. Big decisions, big decisions. Also I think I might start writing whole blogs about just one child, because that sounds fun and they are GREAT.
3.10.08
The Short Version
I have written a few blogs about this week on my laptop already and will hopefully be able to post them once the wireless internet is working again. For now, here's the short version.
1. The other volunteer is not here yet, for some reason she didn't have her passport, hopefully she will be here Monday.
2. We have no water. We ran out of water on Monday, had some on Wednesday and ran out again. We have a couple of containers that we are able to use, but no running water anywhere. It is a VERY complicated issue that involves things being stollen/people not telling us the city was out of water/ordering things from the USA/a hole somewhere in our line/trucks not bringing us water.
3. The power trips every. night. It generally comes back on with the flip of a switch, but scares me everytime it happens. Plus the heaters go out and it is still cold. Rough.
4. Someone cut the phone line on our driveway to steal the copper out of the wires so we haven't had phone/internet since Sunday.
5. Welcome to South Africa.
That's all for tonight.
love love
kb
1. The other volunteer is not here yet, for some reason she didn't have her passport, hopefully she will be here Monday.
2. We have no water. We ran out of water on Monday, had some on Wednesday and ran out again. We have a couple of containers that we are able to use, but no running water anywhere. It is a VERY complicated issue that involves things being stollen/people not telling us the city was out of water/ordering things from the USA/a hole somewhere in our line/trucks not bringing us water.
3. The power trips every. night. It generally comes back on with the flip of a switch, but scares me everytime it happens. Plus the heaters go out and it is still cold. Rough.
4. Someone cut the phone line on our driveway to steal the copper out of the wires so we haven't had phone/internet since Sunday.
5. Welcome to South Africa.
That's all for tonight.
love love
kb
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)