Things what do bite.

Written yesterday at about 8pm


So today I got bitten again by a child. The first time happened before Christmas and was when a child didn't want to go downstairs and when I tried to carry her, she bit me. It was quite hard and my arm swelled up and went a little blue and hard but it was fine after a week or so. This time was tonight-about 30 minutes ago! One of the most difficult children was refusing to go to bed, usually this wouldn't have been such a big deal but she was trying to go into the boys bathroom then took to hiding in the boys bedrooms under their beds (bathrooms and bedrooms are stricktly off limits to the opposite sex). When we finally got her out from under a bed, she ran straight to the girls bathrooms and barricaded herself into one of the cubicles. The other child-care worker had mentioned to me that technically we aren't allowed to physically restrain the children unless we've been through the training for it-which I haven't. But this CCW told me to sit on the floor of the bathroom with the girl and hold her there at least until we had the other children in bed. I held her as lightly as I could, only tightening my grip when she struggled. I was holding her wrists in each hand and I had one leg draped over her legs to stop her trying to kick me. She was spitting on me and occasionally biting me but not with much conviction, just testing the water I think to see if I would let go. All of a sudden she grabbed my hand with her mouth and chomped down hard. Some of these kids get unnaturally strong when they're angry and boy was she biting hard. She pulled my skin with her teeth until my skin broke and I started bleeding.

Now broken skin from a bite means one horrible, horrible thing...I have to go to the doctors tomorrow :'( I'm fairly certain the child doesn't have HIV or Hepatitis (it is remarkably difficult-near impossible to catch HIV from a bite though), I still have to go just to make sure it's OK. I also have to write a report.

The best bit was when the other girls saw it, they kept asking me if I cried and when I said no, one of them asked if I cried in my head! One of them then kissed my watch to make me feel better. It's a pity the girl that bit me had covered the watch with spit and I was on my way to clean it off!

This is what it looks like today/now :)

PICTURES!

As promised, here are the pictures from the open gardens event on Sunday. They were taken on my mum's iphone so they're not brilliant quality but hey!

A Flower on (as my mum calls it) Tequila Terrace-My dad calls it Porridge Patio.

"It took me 3 mornings to get the Euphonium working after winter"

 (Email from my Mum)

My cousin Ben making CHOCOLATE! The kid's a genius!

My family amazes me at what they can produce!

CAKE!

Yesterday my parents opened up our garden for the local rotary club's annual fundraiser or something. We did it last year and raised around £700 total from the cake and tea sales alone. I wasn't expecting to raise as much this year because I wasn't there to help and tell people about what I was doing (not that my parents are completely incompetant). However this year I was able to send pictures and video's of me and the kids to use and it was the second year of the open gardens event. All in all, I was expecting to raise maybe £500. At a push, I was thinking £500 would be a good amount. If I raised £700 again, that would be wonderful.


My wonderful amazing parents clearly pulled out all the charm and cake they owned though. They managed to make me a whopping £1000!!!!! I've just spent at least 5 minutes sat in the kitchen unable to say anything other than the word CAKE! In an abnormally high, squeaky voice!

Hopefully my parents can send me some more pictures later but here's the one I have now of folk enjoying the day, thanks to everyone who went and donated money, you've just made my day!

Tonsillitis.

So the first time I got tonsillitis I wanted to post a picture of the pills I have to take for it because they're so damn massive. The first time, I was barely able to swallow them cause my tonsils were so swollen. But I forgot to take a picture.

The 2nd time I got it I also forgot to take a picture, or rather I remembered just after downing my last dose. But 3rd time's a charm so here you are!

3 Times, 4 Months.

I have tonsillitis again. YAYYYY! For the 3rd time in 4 months. I'd never had it in England before and now I can't seem to get rid of it! My boss was pretty angry at me though because I refuse to take any holiday and when she forces it upon me, I work anyway: last week she gave me the week off-although I was only supposed to be working Wednesday and Thursday, but on Wednesday I spent most of my day at the Beiber concert. Then Thursday I went to Stellenbosch with the kids because there was a golf day fundraiser there and we'd been asked to drum and on Friday was the home's annual fundraiser ball for which I also had to drum. Then the week I'm supposed to work, I get sick. I can see her point, I just can't help when I get sick though!

The timing is spectacularly bad though as me and Evlien had planned to take the kids on a suprise outing on Saturday. We have been planning it for nearly 6 months now and I will be so devastated if I can't go with them and some other volunteer gets to go, but my boss has said if I stay in bed for the next 3 days like I'm supposed to and I'm feeling better I can go with :) I think the conversation went a little something like this:

Her: You understand what I'm saying though, we gave you the whole of last week off to rest and get back to 100% but you did lots of extra things. You're a great volunteer but you have to rest when we give you time off otherwise you're going to keep getting sick.
Me: Sooo...does this mean I'm not allowed to work on Sarturday? *really hopeful, slightly ashamed smile*

I then went to my CCW to apologise for being off work and to let her know I would arrange some cover for myself for tomorrow, only to be caught by my boss when I was on my way back. And now I'm in bed, bored already.

GAHHHHH

Suprise!

Right. This is a bit of a long story. And an unusual one. Also, I'm zonked so this may not read very well.

Anyway...

Last week my manager came and asked me if I wanted to go on an outing with the older girls on Wednesday (yesterday). I said I would, but I was working-kids/work come first so if there's an outing and you're working 9/10 times you can't go. That was all I was told. An outing. On Friday, my manager came and spoke to me, Evlien and Sarah in our room to say that it had been an elimination process and anyone that had ummed and ahhed had been voted out so to speak. However she wanted us to go so unless we had said no straight away we were all going. We were told to be in her office at 2.30 on Wednesday and to be wearing takkies (trainers) jeans, a red, pink or white top and a warm jacket. We weren't allowed to have bags with us and to only take the bare minimum. We still knew nothing.

Because I knew I wasn't going to be working Wedesday afternoon, I let my Child Care Worker-Amanda-know so that she could prepare for not having me there. On Monday it was a childs birthday and I took another one to Clicks (see two posts previous) so I popped into the house to say hello. Amanda told me she'd seen a note in the Cokus (morning meeting for the CCW's) book about us filming/shooting an advert with the girls. I was pretty excited, it sounded like fun!

On Tuesday I went for an AWSOME picnic under a windmill with Anne (you pronounce the 'e' as an 'eh' sound for any non-germans!) because Sarah and Evlien had gone on a road trip to wild spirit. After our awesome picnic we went to the annex to do that amazingly sociable thing teenagers do which is sitting in 1 room with a laptop each and showing each other funny or strange videos. Some other volunteers came in who I knew were taking part in the outing, so we crept outside to discuss what we knew. We weren't allowed to talk to any volunteers that we knew weren't going though. Some bright spark had realised that Justin Beiber was performing (with his circus) at Cape Town Stadium and had got it into their head (and others) that we were going to see him. I thought this a fairly rediculous notion. There are something like +24 kids in House 1 and 2 as well as 7/8 volunteers and however many staff members. There was no way the Home could afford it.

In the end Sarah and Evlien couldn't come because they couldn't get back from their road trip in time.

The rest of us met in the office at 2.30. We were given some leaflets on HIV to read and Gender Based Violence. The assistant mentioned something about Desmond Tutu giving a speech. We were all given up to 3 children that we would be responsible for. We went to the activity hall to meet up with the girls and there was a radio station there. 94.5 Kfm said they were using us to film and record an advert for them. They would have us on a bus as if we were on a school trip and the radio would be on and we would have to pretend to be having a mini party on said bus. There were goody bags on the seats but we weren't allowed to look in them until they said. We all got on the bus and found seats, and were told to shut up so they could quickly do a sound check. The video is what they filmed. Watch the video then read on :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgyFseDCBHw



So we were actually going to a Beiber concert. Now I'll admit, I don't like Justin Beiber I think he's an egotistical fool and if I'd know we were going to a concert of his, I probably would have said no. But it was too late, we were on the bus, I was trapped! But in the end I really enjoyed it. The girls were so excited and happy it was an honour to share that with them. We were very close to the stage, they'd spared no expense on the tickets, we were in the first block, if you tried to go further forward you would have been on stage. He was late coming on-or at least he took his time: it said it started at 7.30, the support acts were over by about 7.30 and he didn't come on until 8.40ish. Some of the younger ones (some of the under 14's had been allowed to come) were falling asleep on the pile of coats we had and the adults were beginnig to discuss how late we would wait until we had to take them home as some of them had school the next day. All of a sudden all the lights on the stage went from off, to bright white and they all flashed up. Kids that had been asleep were awake and upright in miliseconds. I've never seen anbody become so alert so quickly! From 8.30 until it ended at 10.30, I had to girls alternating who was sitting on my back or shoulders so they could see. One girl is 12 and the other 13. Now they're both shorter than average but they did weigh enough! And they were so excited I nearly fell over several times because they were bouncing around so much! Another bonus was watching the social workers and my manager who I'd only seen in a professional setting before, dancing and jumping around like 10 year old girls, almost as excited as their charges! It was very funny!

So all in all, I had a very nice night, even if I would have chosen a different performer!

Much thanks to 94.5Kfm for organising it, and to the Home for letting some volunteers go and be a part of that with the girls. They've never been to something like that before and will (almost certainly) never get to be that close again if they manage to get tickets to something like that. It was a real treat!

Donation Button.

OK, I have added a donation button to the side of my blog to make it easier for people to donate if they can't come to an event in person. There is a 'purpose' box when you type in the amount you would like to donate so if you would like me to use the money for a specific thing just write it in. Projects I'm hoping to do with the kids include things like drumming but it cost up to R400 so at the moment I can only plan for a one off session with them.

All donations will be used towards my trip back, so it maybe that I use it to help pay for my flights or medical aide, or I could use it taking the kids on an outing. But I might also use it for a holiday or to buy nice food :)

Thanks,
Damson.

Googels.

For the last week I've been running a toothbrushing competition in the house. Basically, whoever brushed their teeth the best or made the most improvement over the week, I promised to take to Clicks (SA's version of Boots) and they could pick a new toothbrush. In the mornings they had to pracise brushing their teeth on their own, then in the evening I would take my toothbrush into the house and all the kids would line up in a row in the corridor (Boys and girls have seperate bathrooms and they aren't allowed in each others so the corridor is neutral territory!) and copy me brushing my teeth. The winner was a kid called Googels because his eyes are so adoarbly massive. When he was younger, they used to call him Uil (owl). So today, as promised, I picked him up from the house and took him down to clicks.

He was so excited! When we were leaving he was shouting to all his friends and saying "see you later, I'm going to Clicks!" and he was chatting all the way and waving to people. The kids hardly ever leave the home if they don't have family or a volunteer to take them out so the only time Googels leaves the home other than for school is on the out weekends or in the holidays.

He picked a nice new blue toothbrush and got a tube of toothpaste, then we went to pick and pay (think Tesco or Asda but South African) because it's one of the other boys 11th birthday today and I didn't have time to make him anything, so we got him a dot-to-dot colouring book and some coloured pencils-although it's just occured to me the kid can't count...I'll have to use it as a learn to count book instead!

New Domain!

Ok, a day late, we are now on the new domain of damsonincapetown.blogspot.com :)