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Published: October 26th 2006
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Dancing Practice!
The dancing girls practicing for their performance on Thursday...experimenting with my face to see whether you would be able to see the paint!! The fashion show at Zoleka’s crèche was brilliant! Apparently the children have been practicing for weeks, working on their walk and wiggle, they made so much effort with the costumes too. I ended up being one of the judges as they were let down at the last minute. Really not an easy job. Lulutho was very upset with me that he was not chosen for a prize…bless him, I’d have chosen him if there weren’t three other judges, but I had difficulty explaining this to him.
We have a new addition to the family this week…baby Natasha. Lukhono, my eldest host brother, has a two year old daughter who lives elsewhere with her mother. They both came to visit at the weekend, there was a bit of commotion and the mum left Sunday morning leaving Natasha with us. It’s a busy household…Mama, Papa, Kuhle, Enathi, Lulutho, Yolanda who has been adopted, three of us volunteers, and also Lukhono who has a shack of his own, but washes and sometimes eats with us (…the bathroom is busier than 41 Montrose pre-Dave the builder). Tasha is absolutely adorable. I cannot imagine how sad and frightened she must have been, when I think
how Talia and my cousin Sophie dislike being away form their mummies just for the day. She has terrible trouble going to bed, but she is so tired she almost falls asleep standing up. She has asked me twice yesterday where is mummy. Apparently she is returning today to collect her so its only been for a few days, but I’ll miss her lots. She has been a delightful playmate for Lulutho…and for me! Lukhono wants Natasha to stay permanently in Kayamandi, but without work he cannot support her. He has asked me to help him draft a CV this week and then find a job so that the lil one can stay. I’m nervous about not getting a result for him.
Computer classes are going very well, tho having trouble letting only 10 children in. We’ve started giving out tickets for break, lunch, after-school. Then 50 kids bang on the door with tickets…the lil winkles try and try and forge them!! Still have at least an hour and a half in every school day when feel totally redundant…either there are no English lessons in the timetable or the work is such that we cannot really help. Madiba
has a habit of needing me to help on his computer just as a find some chill-out time in the evenings when the lil ones are in bed. We’ve been drafting letters to send to companies for donations…I’m thinking I’ll be able to carry on with this when I leave here.
I sometimes feel that I'm being pulled in lots of different directions. As a volunteer I am here to help, but after school I am persistently asked by the family or neighbours to help with something or other, fixing a computer (fortunatley they've only been simple probs!), writing a letter, cleaning, working with the other volunteers to translate something from one language to another, paying for things too. I suppose they expect it as thats why we are here, but 'thank yous' are exceedingly rare. As much as you expect this from the little ones, sometimes it would be nice for a slightly different attitude from the adults. When you are not able to help in the way that they want, or you're asked something that is impossible or that you cannot afford, you feel like you have let them down and its not a good feeling when
Kuhle and Tash
Trying and failing to get her to sleep you're trying to do good.
Yesterday afternoon I popped into the crèche for the children’s party. The Stellenbosch Uni students who cleaned the place on Saturday came with balloons and party food for the children. Probably would have been more sensible to have the party before the cleaning, food colouring did not go down too well on the carpet, but the children loved it!
Been busy planning the weekend. The friends I made in Cape Town are coming to stay in Stellenbosch and I’m going to join them at the backpackers hostel for a break and a couple of nights out in town…very looking forward to it!
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Shirty
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A question
Em, What's that on your face? Regards, Shirty