Praise and Worship.

Yesterday was one of the longest but best days of my year here I think. I started at 6 and when I got to the house, everyone was already up and getting dressed-although I missed waking them up, a task I quite enjoy! I went to room 3 to check both boys were doing something productive and not just standing in their PJ's beatboxing, only to find their was only one boy in there! I asked the child where his room-mate was and he happily told me the boy had gone home for the weekend. Now some of the children do go to a foster family or their volunteers on the weekends, but it's the same children every weekend and if it's a special event, we usually know by Thursday on the weekend plan and we pack their bag that night. It turns out it was a very last minute arrangement!

The rest of the day went pretty much as planned except for it was a Monday, so everything was a bit stressful. In the evening, we had 2 homework aunties coming as well as the church auntie AND it was the night of Praise and Worship: this is when all the children have to go to the activity hall and sing religious songs for an hour or so with all the church aunties and uncles. Because we had all these extra activities we had to run everything a little early so although we did allow the kinders outside but only in the small area outside the house. The house used to be the C.H.I.L.L.I unit so it is completely fenced off from the other houses and has it's own-slightly run down-playing area. We kept them in this area so we could call them into shower quickly and easily. There is a frame that used to hold swings and one of the children wanted to climb up it to sit on top. He jumped onto my back so I was giving him a piggy back, then clambered up to sit on my shoulders. Once there, he stood up so he could hoist himself up and sit atop the beam. Of course when the other kinders saw him up there, they all wanted to join in! I ended up being the climbing frame for 5 children, helping them up, then standing beneath them so they could drop down and land on something soft and squishy! After maybe 20 minutes of this, I suggested a new game. I explained we had to stand very still. Then we had to kneel down, then lie down. Then sleep! For some bizzare reason the 4 boys didn't want to play this game, instead they decided jumping on me was much more fun. I spent the next 10 minutes rolling around on the grass playing with them and trying to escape! I had so much fun :)

Today when I went to speak to the kid's social worker, I saw the head social worker and she said she'd been watching us play for most of the time and was amazed I could lift and support so many of them so often...my shoulders ached so much this morning though!