It's March already???

Lately here in Durban the heat and humidity has been a little overwhelming, as I find myself sweating almost every moment of everyday. No, the crèche I work does not have air conditioning. I find myself taking very long visits to the grocery store and kind of walking near the frozen food section for much longer than necessary.

Despite the heat though, life has sort of settled into a really nice routine as the weeks absolutely fly by! My days are filling up with music lessons, activities with the crèche, visits with new friends that I seem to just meet everywhere I go, hanging out with old friends, and of course spending time with my host siblings.

Last Thursday I cooked this fantastic pasta with white cheese sauce, garlic bread, salad and chicken and we had a lovely sit down meal with the whole family. This rarely happens because the parents usually never have time to sit and eat together with the kids, so this in itself was a rare treat. Later, when the parents had left, and I was washing dishes, my host brother comes up to me and says, “Felicia, can we have a show-and-tell?” Of course I said yes (I found out show-and-tell for them really meant a talent show, still sweet though). So we used the curtain to my room as a stage where the performer burst out from, we lit candles to set the mood, and each practiced our talents for a good 10mins until we perfected our craft. Sandrine, the oldest daughter, was the host while Rosine performed a hip-hop dance, Tosi did some energetic stylings to Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean and I rounded out the evening with a song I wrote pretty much right then on guitar. Needless to say the talent wasn’t exactly out of this world, but we made sure the audience really got in to it, you know? Either way there was lots of laughter and the evening ended with me singing lullabies to them while they fell asleep, so all in all in was an eventful and very pleasant Thursday night.

At the crèche the South African teacher and I organized a workshop for the staff on Discipline and Team Building that took place several weekends ago. All of the staff turned out and most were very interested and engaged. It was meant to offer another way of disciplining children without using corporal punishment – the method normally used in the crèche. The weeks following I have seen some small changes, but they often revert back to their old ways. For this I do not blame them whatsoever. We now have 50 children aged three to five years old in a small room and the third floor of an apartment building, and the children definitely get very unruly. Their whole lives, corporal punishment has been the only method these teachers have known; of course one afternoons worth of explanation is not going to have many immediately profound effects. We are having follow up meetings at lunch times several times a month, so we can debrief, voice challenges, ask questions and share how we feel we are coping.

Heres a shot taken on the street I live right outside of our church on Christmas day. The man in the back is Barnabus, my next door neighbor, and the rest of the kids are just a few of the children from the community. Most of them live in my building and so I hang out with them alot. They are just the sweetest and oh-so dear to me!

Here is a picture of all the ladies I work with daily at the creche: From left to right in the back - Germaine from DRC with here 1 year old, Esther on her back, Amanata from Burundi, Petronella from DRC (wearing her gift exchange gift, a beautifully tacky princess crown) Mama Bella from Burundi- our cheif, Auntie Maureen from South Africa- our cleaning lady, Renat another South African, Beatrice from Uganda. Beatrice and Germaine are the two teachers that I mainly work with in the 3-5 year old class. In the front from left to right: Veneranda from Rwanda, with her son Daniels -ps he is a really good friend of mine, and I wouldnt be surprised if he "somehow" gets stolen from his mom and comes back to Canada with me... just sayin... , next is Heather, a volunteer from USA that comes to help out once a week, Janine from Burundi who also lives in my flat and is a good friend, Pinky a South African, and Sandra from South Africa. Sandra is the qualified pre-school teacher at the creche and such a strong woman who is constantly getting donations and who has done so so much for the creche.

This past month or so has been a kind of whirl-wind tour of South Africa based mainly on the fact that my parents were out visiting and having a vehicle opens the world of possibilities for me here. Again, I cannot think of one single highlight of the past few weeks, so I will make a little ‘best-of’ list –in no particular order:

- We flew down to Cape Town where we spent some time on some extremely windy beaches, drove through some absolutely gorgeous countryside in vineyard country, walked to the infamous ‘Cape Point’ which was so beautiful but again, very windy, and the females climbed Table Mountain in record time, battling gale-force winds that prevented even the cable-car from ascent. We also spent some time around the city-centre which was very nice but very touristy. I felt more like I was walking around the streets of Europe because of the abundance of patio cafes, cobblestones and French and German people everywhere you turned.

- The second week of January was a big Menno-retreat near Port Shepstone (about 1 hour South of Durban). I got rejuvenated singing some solid blue Hymnal hymns, having some harmonica jam-sessions, playing soccer and ultimate Frisbee, and splashing around the swimming pool. Meeting and reconnecting with people from throughout South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland was very interesting and was a highlight of the week.

- We spent one day going on a tour of some townships around Durban. My friend, Myrie, - a Maasai warrior who walked from Kenya to Cape Town five years ago – and his friend Umhlongo showed us some very interesting sites. From tasting cow tongue and stomach, to visiting Ghandi’s place of residence for 21 years, to visiting the church of Shembe, to stopping in for some cool drink at a house of complete strangers, the tour was very interesting and eye-opening. Even though apartheid was abolished 15 years ago, the races are still very segregated and live in specific areas (or townships) around the city. The Zulu township of Umlazi is the second biggest in all of South Africa. It has its own fairly large university, many schools, two radio stations, a centre for performing/visual arts and many up-scale houses. There is still, however, an abundance of poverty within the townships. Another one we visited, Inanda, was characterized by houses made of everything from spare pieces of plywood, to sticks, mud, tin and cardboard.

The land of diversity that is South Africa continues to reveal its stark dichotomies.

Hallelujah

It was a typically noisy afternoon in the crèche - the children had all awaken from their slumber and were once again renewed with the energy that only a 4 year old can exhibit unfailingly each and every day. As I was trying to play damage control, a small boy came up to me and asked if I could tie this piece of fabric around his neck, I asked “Like a super-hero?” and he said, “No, like a preacher.”

After fastening his preacher apparel I thought little of it and went back to attempting to maintain relative order elsewhere in the classroom.

Several minutes later I look over to the corner of the classroom and see about 10 little girls seated in two rows of chairs. Standing in front of them is the preacher boy, holding a wooden building block and shouting “HALLELUJAH!” while the church goers in the seats replied “AMEN!” The preacher repeats with extra vigor, “HALL-E-LU-JAH!” and the girls, “AMEN!”

This goes on for several minutes, until the next preacher is handed the ‘microphone’ and begins a new course of “HALLELUJAHs!” By this time the “Amens” from the girls in the church seats are growing increasingly less exuberant. How clever, the children have even managed to capture the differences in audience participation from the beginning to the end of a service 3 hour service.

Hallelujah

It was a typically noisy afternoon in the crèche - the children had all awaken from their slumber and were once again renewed with the energy that only a 4 year old can exhibit unfailingly each and every day. As I was trying to play damage control, a small boy came up to me and asked if I could tie this piece of fabric around his neck, I asked “Like a super-hero?” and he said, “No, like a preacher.”

After fastening his preacher apparel I thought little of it and went back to attempting to maintain relative order elsewhere in the classroom.

Several minutes later I look over to the corner of the classroom and see about 10 little girls seated in two rows of chairs. Standing in front of them is the preacher boy, holding a wooden building block and shouting “HALLELUJAH!” while the church goers in the seats replied “AMEN!” The preacher repeats with extra vigor, “HALL-E-LU-JAH!” and the girls, “AMEN!”

This goes on for several minutes, until the next preacher is handed the ‘microphone’ and begins a new course of “HALLELUJAHs!” By this time the “Amens” from the girls in the church seats are growing increasingly less exuberant. How clever, the children have even managed to capture the differences in audience participation from the beginning to the end of a service 3 hour service.

A 'Sound-of-Music-esque' picture from the hike in the Central Drakensberg

Highlight Reel

Since exactly 3 months have passed since I have arrived here in South Africa, I will share a little highlight reel, if you will, because my entries here are limited and I owe all my adoring fans at least a little something to keep them at bay. Me being a ridiculously indecisive person at times, I will not put them in any particular order, but it will be more of a mélange of random events – more how I roll.

14 - Lesotho: With the sun setting over the wooden goalposts on the dirt soccer field in Lesotho, passersby joining in our game of pass, cows lowing in the distance and the scent of freshly fried ‘Fat Cakes’ I was in my element in the rural country of Lesotho. All us SALTers spent about 1 week in Lesotho attending the biggest cultural festival in the country. We met some incredibly ambitious and bright individuals with some awesome stories of hope. We also got to taste a hint of life in Lesotho – which I absolutely love. Life is relaxed, people are super friendly, there is an abundance of cows, mountains, rondovals and gorgeous views.

587 – Drakensburg: I went on a weekend, 2 night hike, in the Central Drakensburg. It was an incredible experience with views that I cannot even begin to describe in words, so I will not even try. Everything from sliding down natural waterslides in the rock, yelling with/at the Baboons, seeing a herd of Eland, sleeping in a cave for 2 nights, and witnessing a huge monstrous and exciting thunderstorm. A ‘lekker’ weekend with many ‘kiff’ views.

29 – Street Kids Festival: One of my co-workers in the crèche – Sandra the white South African teacher – has pretty much the most contacts in the world and got involved in this Street Children’s Festival that her friend was organizing. Youth homelessness is a huge problem Durban’s city centre – my walk to work every day passes many of these children. The purpose of the festival was to honor the children for the day, help restore their dignity, and show them they are worthy and courageous – many have been living on the streets since they were 10 yrs old. I helped to serve eggs, bread, sausage, fruit, juice and milk to 500 children and some adults. The rest of the day had music, performances, sports and a lunch was served. Shirts were given out to each of the kids, and I see them all around town wearing them proudly. It was a really interesting event to be a part of.

98 – Getting Peed on 2 times, puked on once: At work I have gotten peed on the foot and a full on puddle on my pants. I have also got my foot vomited on by a child. These may seem purely gross, but alas there can always be good found in the most unpleasant situations. After getting peed on I had no change of clothes so a co-worker of mine “borrowed me” her African skirt (that is really just a big piece of fabric). After much time spent with ladies trying it on/attempting to keep it up by myself I had myself a new look. All the ladies thoroughly enjoyed a white person wearing such an outfit, and laughed a lot. I had to go to the store and I got so many stares, being a white person walking through Zulu-land, wearing a traditional Congolese skirt and an Old Navy tank top.

6998 – Day at the beach with the kids: One Friday me and a lady from the crèche decided that the three to five-year-olds should be taken to the beach. This seems like a relatively simple concept, however the task is ridiculously daunting and I do not recommend it. All that can be said about 40 children and about 8 adults walking to the beach and spending the morning there and walking back, is that they all made it back alive: therefore, it was a success. Although it exhausted all the adults, the kids absolutely loved it. They spend 5 or 6 days a week in the third floor of an apartment building (the crèche) with very limited space to run around in, and this group had never ventured on a field trip before.

68 – Music week at work: This week we were learning about music at the crèche. The Zulu cleaning lady got out this drum and started playing/singing some hymns. Lots of the children were dancing around having an awesome time – as was I. She tried to teach us some of the dance moves – we all had a fabulous time. The next morning I walked into work to see two boys banging on overturned boxes and some girls around them doing the dance moves from the previous day.

7905 – Aerobics Routine: I got to the flat one day last week and my oldest host-sister , Sandrine, commented “I feel like working out. I have so much energy.” No more needed to be said. I immediately turned to my “work it out” playlist, cranked the volume and did a kick-bum aerobics routine with my siblings and some of their friends. It ended with a “crump circle” where people went into the middle to exhibit their skills. No one had too many – especially me. I also was told I don’t have enough hip-hop or house music on my computer.