I leave here on the 14th of August. I will be home on the 15th. Tomorrow is my last working day and I keep having little emotional moments when I realise that things I can do with ease now I used to be unable to do just a few months ago or when it occurs to me that I'll be waking my kids up for the last time in less than 12 hours and waving them off to school in about 13.
I'm going to be working on a long post-possibly in 2 parts about how things have changed in the last year. I'm thinking the first part I will post just before I leave, and the 2nd part hopefully will be up about a week after I get back and how things have changed at home (or how I've changed and notice it more at home). So keep your eyes peeled for that because it should be epic!
Wednesday, 31 July 2013
Monday, 29 July 2013
Less than 22 hours.
Ok, I've explained the shift system here plenty of times so regular readers should hopefully get it. If you don't, find one of the posts from September last year and there should be something in there.
This week is my last short week, it will be the last time I work Wednesday and Thursday. But I thought I would finish on a long week seeing as I will be here for the whole of next week. It turns out my manager has decided to be 'nice' and give me a week off, so actually, this is my last week of work. EVER. Or ever this year as I'm coming back. I had made a few basic plans with my CCW about what we were going to do for my last weekend-we were thinking of having a small party and some of them have pocket money they don't ever get to spend so I was thinking of taking them to the shops so they could buy themselves something.
ARGH SO LITTLE TIME!
I've decided not to buy them anything because (I don't have any money) I'm coming back, instead I was going to try and bring back some DVDs or videos for them. My Nana send me a Shaun the Sheep DVD near x-mas and I've only just remembered to show it to them. They LOVE it! We used to only watch a Bratz movie and Camp Rock (2 of the worst films ever made-especially if you have to watch them both twice a day every day) whereas now we watch Shaun the Sheep 3 times a day. So I'm going to try and get some more Shaun DVDs and some Wallace and Gromit movies for them. Maybe some Dr Who as well!
This week is my last short week, it will be the last time I work Wednesday and Thursday. But I thought I would finish on a long week seeing as I will be here for the whole of next week. It turns out my manager has decided to be 'nice' and give me a week off, so actually, this is my last week of work. EVER. Or ever this year as I'm coming back. I had made a few basic plans with my CCW about what we were going to do for my last weekend-we were thinking of having a small party and some of them have pocket money they don't ever get to spend so I was thinking of taking them to the shops so they could buy themselves something.
ARGH SO LITTLE TIME!
I've decided not to buy them anything because (I don't have any money) I'm coming back, instead I was going to try and bring back some DVDs or videos for them. My Nana send me a Shaun the Sheep DVD near x-mas and I've only just remembered to show it to them. They LOVE it! We used to only watch a Bratz movie and Camp Rock (2 of the worst films ever made-especially if you have to watch them both twice a day every day) whereas now we watch Shaun the Sheep 3 times a day. So I'm going to try and get some more Shaun DVDs and some Wallace and Gromit movies for them. Maybe some Dr Who as well!
Wednesday, 24 July 2013
So little time...
I have around 3 weeks left here. Suddenly time is flying by, it seems like only last week that my room-mate left and we had 2 months to go. I can't say when I actually fly cause I don't want my parents to know but it's between the 11th and the 18th...so soon!
I'm not sure how I feel about going home. Miserable. I really love it here and I'm trying to think about it as if I were going on an extended holiday home. One of the things I've heard from so many volunteers is how much you don't realise you've changed and nobody else seems to. I've spent a year overseas working and (as cheesy as it sounds) learning, I've learnt so much here and on first thought I don't think I've changed that much but if I think properly I really have changed. But my friends in England have been at university for the year and they will have changed obviously but I think less so and in a less obvious way. The only person I can talk to properly about this year is Sarah (I am so thankful I have her, if I didn't I might go insane!) but she is going on so many holidays when she first gets back then she's off to uni as well!
I've also been thinking a lot about how I'm going to tell my kids. I'm planning on telling them frequently starting from next week so they're all used to the idea but I think it's going to be hard. I'm fairly certain they all know I'm leaving pretty soon because I've made sure not to hide it.
I'm not sure how I feel about going home. Miserable. I really love it here and I'm trying to think about it as if I were going on an extended holiday home. One of the things I've heard from so many volunteers is how much you don't realise you've changed and nobody else seems to. I've spent a year overseas working and (as cheesy as it sounds) learning, I've learnt so much here and on first thought I don't think I've changed that much but if I think properly I really have changed. But my friends in England have been at university for the year and they will have changed obviously but I think less so and in a less obvious way. The only person I can talk to properly about this year is Sarah (I am so thankful I have her, if I didn't I might go insane!) but she is going on so many holidays when she first gets back then she's off to uni as well!
I've also been thinking a lot about how I'm going to tell my kids. I'm planning on telling them frequently starting from next week so they're all used to the idea but I think it's going to be hard. I'm fairly certain they all know I'm leaving pretty soon because I've made sure not to hide it.
Friday, 19 July 2013
Tuesday, 16 July 2013
Kids-gotta love 'em!
I went to the gym earlier and when I came back I had the most amazing greeting I've ever experienced. But first the back story:
When I first arrived there was a boy in the house let's call him B. B is usually really nice, he can be a hassle to work with because he has a very strong personality and loves to be in charge so getting him to do something can sometimes take some imagination! But he reminds me of one of my little brothers a lot, he is very funny, playful and he will do something just to get a reaction out of people (my brother does this ALL the time). He's physically one of the older boys in the house at around 10 years, but he is 10 years old mentally as well which in my eyes makes him the most mature of them all. It takes a while to build up a relationship with him, but once you do he's amazing, so kind and sweet! Technically you shouldn't have a favourite child but it's hard and I definitely have kids I like much more than others-I reckon it's fine as long as you treat them all as equally as you can. But B is definitely my favourite! If I could take him home in my suitcase I definitely would :) Unfortunately for me, he's just been moved out of the house. I think I wrote on my blog about the reorganising of the girls houses where they put all the younger girls in one house and all the older ones in another, well they've now done that with the boys houses so all the under 14s are in houses 11 and 12, and the over 14s are in houses 3 and 4. And my little baby B has been moved out of Stepping Stones and into house 11. I miss his personality in the house but at least I won't have to make him cry when I leave (hopefully) as he's the one child I think that understands the most about how when the volunteers leave, they tend not to come back-not the case for me obviously.
Anyway,
When I got back from the gym today, I walked through the back gate and I saw him playing on the field a fair way away. I wasn't sure if he'd seen me but I was going to go and say hello because I hadn't seen him for a few days and I wanted to see how he was doing. But after I'd walked a few steps, he flung his arms in the air and yelled DAAAMMMMMMMMSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNN and started legging it towards me! He ran right up to me and jumped into my arms and gave me a massive hug, before telling me all about the football game he was playing with one the other boys who is still in my house. He said he was playing as England and he was winning (YEAH!) and the other boy came up to me and told me he was playing as Belgium (the other boy was very close with my room-mate who worked in the house and who was from Belgium and when the 2 play footie, B usually picks England and the other boy picks Belgium!)
On Thursday (18th July) it is Mandela day and South Africans are encouraged to spend 67 minutes helping others, so I have to spend my break talking to 20 people who are coming to play with the babies for 67 minutes. I love the idea of encouraging people to help others-if only for a short time, but I'm not so keen on the idea of a bunch of people coming in to mess about with the kids for so little time, it just feels like we're using the kids but...there's not a lot I can do, especially as a foreigner, lets just hope we can blow them away and they'll want to volunteer here or offer some other kinds of service to the kids or the home on another occasion.
When I first arrived there was a boy in the house let's call him B. B is usually really nice, he can be a hassle to work with because he has a very strong personality and loves to be in charge so getting him to do something can sometimes take some imagination! But he reminds me of one of my little brothers a lot, he is very funny, playful and he will do something just to get a reaction out of people (my brother does this ALL the time). He's physically one of the older boys in the house at around 10 years, but he is 10 years old mentally as well which in my eyes makes him the most mature of them all. It takes a while to build up a relationship with him, but once you do he's amazing, so kind and sweet! Technically you shouldn't have a favourite child but it's hard and I definitely have kids I like much more than others-I reckon it's fine as long as you treat them all as equally as you can. But B is definitely my favourite! If I could take him home in my suitcase I definitely would :) Unfortunately for me, he's just been moved out of the house. I think I wrote on my blog about the reorganising of the girls houses where they put all the younger girls in one house and all the older ones in another, well they've now done that with the boys houses so all the under 14s are in houses 11 and 12, and the over 14s are in houses 3 and 4. And my little baby B has been moved out of Stepping Stones and into house 11. I miss his personality in the house but at least I won't have to make him cry when I leave (hopefully) as he's the one child I think that understands the most about how when the volunteers leave, they tend not to come back-not the case for me obviously.
Anyway,
When I got back from the gym today, I walked through the back gate and I saw him playing on the field a fair way away. I wasn't sure if he'd seen me but I was going to go and say hello because I hadn't seen him for a few days and I wanted to see how he was doing. But after I'd walked a few steps, he flung his arms in the air and yelled DAAAMMMMMMMMSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNN and started legging it towards me! He ran right up to me and jumped into my arms and gave me a massive hug, before telling me all about the football game he was playing with one the other boys who is still in my house. He said he was playing as England and he was winning (YEAH!) and the other boy came up to me and told me he was playing as Belgium (the other boy was very close with my room-mate who worked in the house and who was from Belgium and when the 2 play footie, B usually picks England and the other boy picks Belgium!)
On Thursday (18th July) it is Mandela day and South Africans are encouraged to spend 67 minutes helping others, so I have to spend my break talking to 20 people who are coming to play with the babies for 67 minutes. I love the idea of encouraging people to help others-if only for a short time, but I'm not so keen on the idea of a bunch of people coming in to mess about with the kids for so little time, it just feels like we're using the kids but...there's not a lot I can do, especially as a foreigner, lets just hope we can blow them away and they'll want to volunteer here or offer some other kinds of service to the kids or the home on another occasion.
PICTURE (after) PARTY
So here are the 2 pictures I promised yesterday, enjoy!
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| Me and Anne performing for an event. |
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| Me and Anne breaking down while singing because one of the volunteers had been waving her lighter in the air. |
Sunday, 14 July 2013
PICTURE PARTY!
So I haven't been posting anything interesting recently, mainly because I haven't been doing anything recently! I was trawling through all my pictures earlier trying to find some nice ones for someone's leaving book and I found some that could come up here. So here they are! It's just a random assortment dragged up from the dregs of my hard-drive
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| When we took the kids go-karting (one of only 2 pictures where you can't identify the kids). |
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| The other picture! |
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| Anne and me singing and drumming-being musical gods. |
There were some more, but my computer doesn't like them at the moment so I'll try and upload them another time.
Tomorrow, Anne and I are going to Spier wine farm in Stellenbosch for a picnic! It's about £10 each (R150) but there is so much salad and biltong pate and nice-ness in it that we couldn't resist! mmmmmmm fooooood!
Saturday, 13 July 2013
Working Again!
Yet again I seem to be working the weekend the kids move back to their usual houses at the end of the holidays. It isn't so bad it's just dull, I don't have a CCW today because she's been given the day off-I only have 8 kids though, but it means I have to prepare the house for all the others coming home. I helped the Tannie make the beds in house 10 and in return she kept an eye on my kids so I didn't have to watch them and make the house nice. I have to make up 14 beds (sheets, duvet covers and pillow cases on etc.) and pack away the children's clothes they took to house 5 and pack away any washing that's come back from the laundry during the holidays. We have a new boy and new girl in the house so tomorrow we have to mark all their clothes with their initials and what house they live in (for the laundry) and one of the boys is moving out so all of his clothes have to be taken to his new house.
The rest of the kids won't come home until tomorrow afternoon-possibly evening, but there's always so much to do at the end of the holidays! Then it's back to school on Maandag.
The rest of the kids won't come home until tomorrow afternoon-possibly evening, but there's always so much to do at the end of the holidays! Then it's back to school on Maandag.
Saturday, 6 July 2013
Disturbing occurences.
We're still in the 3 week holiday. And we're still bored! We made ourselves a holiday plan for things we can do and what days we're going to do them.
Yesterday we didn't have anything on the plan so me and Sarah walked to the windmill, then onwards to explore Durbs. There was just a lot of very big, rich houses it was quite depressing but we did get some nice veiws over Durbanville. It was also the opening or rather re-opening night of Mr. Pickwicks. Mr. Pickwicks is a bar/cafe in Cape Town that makes the most AMAZING burgers and milkshakes. It used to be on Long Street, but recently closed down and moved to Green Market Square and it opened last night. It was a bit rubbish actually. The old Pickwicks was really dark inside and felt sort of cramped but in an english pub kind of way whereas the new one is very open and light and spacious and unfamiliar. They also didn't have half the things they offered but we think they were forced to open too early because it was the 3rd time they delayed their opening. We're going to go back in a week or so to see if it's any better. We then went to a club called Jo'Burg. I don't drink so I find going to clubs fairly boring, but there were a few other sober drivers there so it was better. One of the new volunteers had his phone stolen which he was very upset about. Some new smart phone that had a 1 year contract. BUT he took it to Long Street on a Friday night, took it out in a club to take pictures and had pockets that you could have put your head in without him noticing. Let that be a lesson to you all!
Then today we went to Neighbourgoods market in Woodstock-delicious as always. We found some amazing dairy free, sugar free chocolate that was just divine! It was kind of bitter, but it was so smoooooth! Words cannot describe, urgh, I'm dribbling just thinking about it. After the market we went back to Long Street, or rather Green Market where there is a, well, market. We had the intention of buying souvenirs for our family and friends and what-not (we is me, Sarah and Anne). I went with one thing in mind and for the others, I planned on browsing and seeing if anything suited what I could remember of my family and friends. But once I got there there was no inspiration. I can remember my brothers for example, but I've been gone for a whole year. They've changed. I don't really know them anymore. And all the items at the market are just 'stuff', junk that gets forgotten about and thrown away at some point. I'd much rather have my family come out and let me intoduce them to things and give them memories (as cheesy and cliched as it sounds). So in the end I didn't really buy anything! I still have an idea for something I want to buy but it's more a present for my house than my family.
After than I got to do some drumming on the street again. As you do!
Tomorrow we were going to go to arch mountain but we've changed our minds and are now planning to eat at Mama Africa-maybe I can have a corcodile steak!
Yesterday we didn't have anything on the plan so me and Sarah walked to the windmill, then onwards to explore Durbs. There was just a lot of very big, rich houses it was quite depressing but we did get some nice veiws over Durbanville. It was also the opening or rather re-opening night of Mr. Pickwicks. Mr. Pickwicks is a bar/cafe in Cape Town that makes the most AMAZING burgers and milkshakes. It used to be on Long Street, but recently closed down and moved to Green Market Square and it opened last night. It was a bit rubbish actually. The old Pickwicks was really dark inside and felt sort of cramped but in an english pub kind of way whereas the new one is very open and light and spacious and unfamiliar. They also didn't have half the things they offered but we think they were forced to open too early because it was the 3rd time they delayed their opening. We're going to go back in a week or so to see if it's any better. We then went to a club called Jo'Burg. I don't drink so I find going to clubs fairly boring, but there were a few other sober drivers there so it was better. One of the new volunteers had his phone stolen which he was very upset about. Some new smart phone that had a 1 year contract. BUT he took it to Long Street on a Friday night, took it out in a club to take pictures and had pockets that you could have put your head in without him noticing. Let that be a lesson to you all!
Then today we went to Neighbourgoods market in Woodstock-delicious as always. We found some amazing dairy free, sugar free chocolate that was just divine! It was kind of bitter, but it was so smoooooth! Words cannot describe, urgh, I'm dribbling just thinking about it. After the market we went back to Long Street, or rather Green Market where there is a, well, market. We had the intention of buying souvenirs for our family and friends and what-not (we is me, Sarah and Anne). I went with one thing in mind and for the others, I planned on browsing and seeing if anything suited what I could remember of my family and friends. But once I got there there was no inspiration. I can remember my brothers for example, but I've been gone for a whole year. They've changed. I don't really know them anymore. And all the items at the market are just 'stuff', junk that gets forgotten about and thrown away at some point. I'd much rather have my family come out and let me intoduce them to things and give them memories (as cheesy and cliched as it sounds). So in the end I didn't really buy anything! I still have an idea for something I want to buy but it's more a present for my house than my family.
After than I got to do some drumming on the street again. As you do!
Tomorrow we were going to go to arch mountain but we've changed our minds and are now planning to eat at Mama Africa-maybe I can have a corcodile steak!
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