Today is my first day of volunteering. I am volunteering in the Langa Township which is where we toured yesterday. Wonga is our driver and the first thing he said to us this morning is that we couldn’t sit in the front seat, had to wear our seat belts, keep our belongings on the floor under the seat and not to panic if we got hi-jacked (although it has never happened with my program)…followed up with have a nice day! Safety is CCS’s first priority for us and although we have a lot of rules to remember, I am grateful that they are in place and that it is imperative that we follow them all. We are driven and picked up from our placement each day and are not allowed to wander or walk around in the Townships.
When I arrived at my placement today I was welcomed by the security guards and let in to the gated entrance. Someone from CCS introduced me and I was given a brief tour before heading back to meet all of the staff and children. I was told that I had to sign in and out when coming and going each day. As soon as I walked closer to where the children were I could hear them and as I approached the glass doors they came out running, smiling and waving…super curious as to who I was. They are absolutely precious! They went to eat breakfast and I was taken back to the nursery where I got a chance to meet the staff and the babies. There are 20 children currently at Nomzamo and they range in age from a month old to 6 years old. I was immediately thrown into holding and helping feed the infants. There are even twins and a month old baby born premature. It is the smallest baby I have ever seen! These women who work there have their hands full between feeding, changing, giving meds and taking care of all of the children!!! After helping feed the infants and toddlers I went outside to play with the children. They each have such incredible stories as to how they arrived there and you can definitely see some of the effects of the harsh life they have already been dealt at such a young age. On the other hand…they are so loving and starving for your affection, smile, playtime, attention and even a hug. We played outside for a while and they loved singing ring around the rosy. They laugh and laugh and try to mimic the words. None of the children speak English and almost all but two of the children speak Xhosa. At times that posed a little bit of difficulty in communicating but in the words of Grandma Schneider…we all smile in the same language! I literally spent most of my time playing outside or in the play room being a human jungle gym. They loved playing with the hat I was wearing, my hair, my nose, and were fascinated with touching me, jumping on me, and sitting on my lap. They have endless energy!!!
When I returned to the house we all had meetings to talk about first day of placement and our impressions. We had to describe it in one word and although I shared many words in my head that would be fitting descriptors it’s hard to sum up the day in one word. Looking forward to this week and my time with the children…let’s see what tomorrow will bring.
Had my first language class tonight and am taking Xhosa! It was great but I am definitely going to need lots of practice. I will be learning clicking next week but learned some words that will help me with the children tomorrow.
Time for some shut eye- M
Grandma Schneider here: I enjoyed having Lindsay read me all of your journal entries. When do you do anything else but type? What one word did you use to describe your experience? This is my first day with the computer..Lindsay is typing for me, it is very hard to learn but I am learning! Love you lots. Talk later. Please take good care of yourself. Love you very much. -Grandma
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