A Day in the Life of SISTA!

June 13, 2013

I cannot believe that I have already been here for 13 days. The other volunteers told me that time would fly by but I didn’t think it would fly this fast. Many people back at home have been asking me what I am doing each day. At first, I was just bouncing around from the primary school (Don Bosco Center) to the preschool (the Cresh). Those schools are but a mile and half from each other yet they are in two different towns. The Cresh is in Finetown. Finetown is where the biggest squatter neighborhood is. So the name “fine” town is very ironic to me because the town is FAR from fine. But it’s fine to those who live there; I guess that’s all that matters. I have actually grown quite fond of it. Finetown is where the park is where we go and have Oratory every Friday afternoon and Finetown is also home to most of the beautiful preschoolers at the Cresh.

After a week of bouncing around and getting adjusted to the area and the schools, Sister Giovanna asked me to spend a few weeks at the Cresh. I had previously spoken to her about my background in early childhood education and how my heart is with the younger children. Sister Theresa at the Don Bosco Center agreed that I could spend a few weeks at Cresh and then start teaching grade 7 English in July, after the winter break. My time at the Cresh has been eye-opening (as many of my experiences here have been). I started last week with just observing and sitting in the classes and interacting with the children. Interacting can be difficult because I don’t speak their language and we don’t understand each other, verbally. However, there’s a universal language that children have. They communicate with facial expressions, motions, and most importantly physical touch. Or maybe I’ve just spent way too much time with kids in the past 5 years that I’ve mastered some form of child sign language or mind reading, I don’t know. Either way, I can be with them and speak a different language yet still be able to interact and communicate.

After a few days of observing, Sister Giovanna, who runs the Cresh, asked me to have a workshop with the teachers and to share with them some of my observations and ideas on ways to improve or strengthen the children’s development at their center. This past Tuesday I held the workshop with 8 wonderful, patient, loving and dedicated teachers. We discussed the importance of following the daily schedule as closely as possible in order to create a routine for the children. Routine leads to structure. Most of those children come from a chaotic home life. Structure is vital for their development and success. We also discussed how valuable the 30 minute “indoor time” is. Indoor time is their core learning time inside the classroom. We shared ways to be more efficient with that time in order to get the most out of it. We spoke about their language development and interactions with the teachers and about effective ways to handle bathroom procedures. All of the teachers were open to me and welcomed my ideas. I wanted to come across as an equal. I wanted them to know that I valued the way they do things and that my ideas are not better, just simply different. Sister G saw our success during workshop and asked me to hold a monthly workshop from now on in order to continue our growth together. Since Tuesday’s workshop, I go to the Cresh each day and co-teach with the 3 and 4 year old classroom teachers. We work together to manage the classroom and work on implementing some of the things we discussed during the workshop. I plan to bring them a sweet treat at the end of next week to thank them for allowing me in their classrooms and being open to my presence and ideas.

Around 11:30 each day, when the children finish their lunches, I ride with another volunteer to the bread factory 15 minutes away. There we take the left over loaves of bread from the delivery trucks and we stack as many as we can in the back of our truck. Then we take them back to the schools. The Cresh gets 12 loaves that will be a part of their lunch the next day and Don Bosco Center gets the rest. When the kids at Don Bosco leave to go home each day, they get to take a loaf of bread home with them. For many, it’s their family’s dinner. We do whatever we can to make sure the children are getting fed.

After work all of the volunteers and I head home. It’s usually around 3:30 or 4. Since its winter here, the early mornings are very cold. But in the afternoons, around the time we get off work, the sun is shining brightly and the temperature is warm and beautiful. We go home and sit in our driveway and enjoy the sun (but not too much because apparently too much sun in the winter in SA can cause the flu??) and each other’s company. Then we either head to the sister’s house for dinner and Wi-Fi, or we cook a big meal at our house. Once it’s dark though, we are locked in and winding down. Tonight Amanda and I cooked a meal and then we watched a movie and drank wine. I am enjoying my time here. Different journeys have brought us too this place but we are all making the best out of it. We spend our days with the children at the schools and we spend our nights sharing, laughing, eating and enjoying our time together.  It’s a simple yet fulfilling life. I highly recommend it J

Today is the most wonderful day so far because I got news that one of my best friends, Alissa Mansfield, had her baby today. Emmeline Grace was born healthy and beautiful. I can’t wait until I get to meet her in January! – and hopefully on FaceTime or Skype sometime soon.

Congrats Alissa and Brett! I love you both.