more orientation and first day of placement

Collect moments, not things.

Molweni!

We have had many full days in Cape Town the past couple days! On Monday, we learned more about our placements during orientation. Then Mama Ivy, a woman from a nearby township who works with CCS came to take us on a tour of parts of downtown Cape Town, as well as a few townships. In the downtown, we saw District 6. During apartheid, the government declared District 6 a whites-only area under the Group Areas Act, with removals starting in 1968. More than 60,000 people were removed from the area and relocated to the cape flats about 12 miles away.We also saw City Hall where Nelson Mandela gave his first speech after being freed from his 27 year imprisonment.

Next, we went into the Langa and Gugelethu townships (respectively the oldest and second oldest townships in Cape Town.) This is where you really begin to see the great disparity that exists in this city and country. The towns are filled with crowded in shacks. While I understood that we needed to see the township and understand the history before we began our placements within them, it felt very strange to essentially be a group of tourists in a big white van travelling through these towns. We also visited two of the ‘crèches’ or daycares within the towns, one of which is the one I am placed in.

The next day I began my placement in Luthando Educare in Gugelethu Township. What a day! We arrived at our placement at about 8:30. I was placed with another volunteer in my program named Sophie. We are both teachers, which really will help so much with this placement. When we arrived, we met Zim, one of the women who work in Luthando. The amount of children in Luthando is insane. There are over 100 kids who come each day. There are three rooms- a room for the older kids (3 ½ -4 1/2 ) a room for the little ones (<3 ½ ) and a central room where they have lunch. We helped out Zim with the older children. There are 60 kids in this room with normally only one teacher. I will never complain about my class size at home again. The kids steal your heart immediately, with constant hugs, giant smiles, high fives, and blowing kisses. I even got a few kisses on the cheek. They are so full of love and eager to spend time with us.

 Zim’s classroom is very well run and structured, although that immediately breaks down if she leaves the room for one minute. The students listen to her, but when she leaves, they begin to jump up, run around, hug mine and Sophie’s legs, and turn us into a human playground. Since there is clearly a language barrier, it is very difficult to establish any kind of authority so far, but we will keep trying!

During the time we were there, we helped run centers, snack time, outside play, and lunch time. The outside area is very small (about the square feet of a medium sized bedroom in a house), especially when you consider there are 60 kids out there at one time. The area is completely fenced in, with barbed wire at the top of the fencing, which in certain places hangs dangerously close to where the children play. They do have a slide, swings, a see saw, and some other small playground equipment in the area. There is a great deal of trash in and around the playground as well. The kids were pretty consistently pushing, hitting, knocking into each other (sometimes on purpose, sometimes just inevitable because of the sheer number of students in a small area), and it would be tears for a few seconds, then up and running around again.

Overall, I was amazed at how well behaved the students are when they know they need to be and I sincerely hope I can pick up on the routines and language enough that I can interact with the kids in a more authoritative manner. I am just so excited to go back tomorrow and work more with the kids! Back at the homebase, we had our first lesson in Xhosa, the language people in the townships speak, so I will be much better equipped to interact.

Hamba Kakuhle! (Go well!)