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Published: July 26th 2012
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So today was my first real day of work, and my group and I were in charge of takes lions. For the lions you have to start work by 730 and at that time we had to make a bottle for Joseph, the only Lion who still gets porridge. Once in the lion enclosure Sophie went and fed Joseph while pascal took pictures for her and I was on look out. Pascal asked who wanted to pick up poop and I certainly didn't want to so Natalia did that while I raked the leaves. All we were doing was making he enclosure look nice for tourists. Once the raking is all done you have to dig a hole to bury the leaves I have no idea why we dont just pick them up and throw them out but whatevs. While we did that someone else was finished with their job so she helped change the water and that was it! Time to eat breakfast. I had cereal again. My nerves had my stomach in a knot so I just had rice krispies again with whole milk, yesterday they made us pancakes or what we would call a crepe and today they
made us omelet and toast. I tried a little but I felt too nauseous to finish. During breakfast they asked if anyone wanted to go visit the school, which I really did so I went. If I hadn't then I would have been on meat prep with my group which I'm not too sure what that involves yet but I do know that you have to go to this like butcher fridge and cut meat. It smells so bad but it smells better when the meat is fresher which makes sense and in the day I've been here, they've gone to get a cow, which ended up not really having any meat on it and 3 horses that were all race horses that had gotten sick. Teon usually goes out to the farm to shoot the animals and takes the vet studentswho are volunteering but I'm gunna see if I can go at some point I guess to just see what it's like.
There were about ten of us who wanted to go to the school so we all piled in the van and drove off. One of the workers came with us but we were dropping her off and
the owners house so she could clean it. The owners house was set up kind of like an apartment, taller instead of wider but it was definitely big and really nice. The we picked up a tire and some paper and some tools and toys for the cubs. I'm not completely sure what everything they gave us was and what it was used for but they were really nice, the woman came over and talked to us and asked us where we were off to. We didn't talk for long but in their (gated) neighborhood, everyone's cars were nicer then our car at home! It's amazing how much poverty here can be and how nice other neighborhoods can be. These neighborhoods had palm trees in them and so far ive notticed its only the nice plaxes that have palm trees which i think is quite strange! So I gues it was acceptable forMlly to put palm trees on my cake 😊
Once we arrived at the school we were told we had to take everything out of the car because it's an unsafe neighborhood, we would be able to put it in the teachers office. We walked in to this
room and all the kids were so excited! They were so adorable! We stood while thy all stood in front of us. The first group was 4 and 5 year olds and they sang songs for us it was so cute. They called the teachers aunties and then before we moved into the other room the aunties asked if we wanted to take pictures and of course we did. They were told not to push us but they were so excited that they ended up pushing as soon as we squatted down to take the picture, there were probably about 20 kids all piled on you. Then the aunties told them to hug us goodbye so they came and hugged everyone's legs. Next we went to the room with the 2 and 3 year olds who also sang for us. One of the songs was Yankee doodle and then they sang the Barney song holding hands with eachother then they hugged eachother when they were supposed to in the song. Then the aunties told them to find a visitor and we sang it to eachother. The little girl I sang with was so adorable. There was also this kid Marcus
who was zorilla of energy he just kept jumping up and down. They all walked over and hugged us when we left to but we all got smarter and squatted down to say bye.
Next we went to the the room with the room with the 7 to 8 year old which was in a different building. Here the lady who I'm assuming would be like a principal or head teacher told us about life in these neighborhoods. She said that most houses only have 2 rooms and are only about 15 x15 feet for the whole house. One of the rooms is obviously a bedroom and if they are lucky the other is the kitchen. Noone has a bathroom inside the house, it's always outside and they are lucky if they have running water. Most people are unable to find a job even with schooling so the girls drop out of school to have kids because for every kid hey have the government gives them a stipend of 270R a month which amounts to a little more than 35$. Although there is such a high conversion rate, many things here cost what they would in the states. Like a
bottle of water is 8R (rand) which amounts to about one dollar. So 270R doesn't really go far. Most of the time there are no long term boyfriends or husbands, just the goal of getting pregnant to get the money. One of the workers at the school, the cook/cleaning lady has 2 children and 3 grandchildren. One of her grandchildren has fetal alcohol syndrome because her daughter didn't really care, she just wanted the money which is just so sad. Everyone of the students thee has a story, broken home single mom or whatever. HIV is also very popular in the area but that doesn't stop anyone from sleeping around. When she was all finished talking the attention went to the kids. They all started singing for us. One had been the mc at the recent grandparents day and so she told us what she had said. So precious. Then one auntie asked what they wanted to be when they were grown so there was a doctor in the house but one of them said older which was funny. Another said she wanted to be a sister which will be happening soon we found out because her mom is pregnant.
It was so funny though because the teacher said where is your baby brother? And the girl said in mommys tummy and then the teacher said what is she doing in there?! And the little girl said giving her heartburn. Oh my gosh we couldnt stop laughing! then the auntie asked if she thought the baby was going to give her heartburn when he's born and she's like I hope not! I just want to play! So funny! Before we left all these kids were allowed to come calmly say goodbye to us and give us hugs which was just so adorable.
I did a lot more after the school but I'm just so tired I can't update it, so I'll do it tomorrow. Sorry about all the typos I wrote it on my ipod so it's all autocorrect :P
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