Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Disgustingly inspired.

The Roedean Girls
Wow. It’s been an amazing week. I feel so…inspired (thus the title of this blog). We just finished hosting a group of high school girls from Johannesburg (Grade 11) at my organization. They came to the village to stay for five days to help with projects at our centres but more than that it was about learning and growing. Seeing what life in rural South Africa is like because, although they live in the same country, it’s a different world out here where water is scarce, poverty is rampant and life can be really difficult.


I have to say I was terribly impressed. They were a great group of 15 dynamic girls who really wanted to be here and learn. They jumped right in and were great with the kids…making fast friends and easy connections despite the language barrier. I was deeply inspired and it renewed my energy. And, I got to teach them a little bit of yoga! 

We set up a blog where the girls recorded their thoughts during the week which I will put a link"(see my links to the right) to if you are interested in reading about their journey (plus, I am going to put up all of the pictures there so you can see how much fun we had)!

Oh, and I told them all about you – my wonderful friends and family back home.

I love and miss you all.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

When you can't beat 'em...

Next week we have a group of girls from a private school in Johannesburg visiting the project where I work. For the past couple of years, my organization has hosted 15-20 girls from this school.  The girls spend 5 days doing a community service project in the villages. This is my first year helping/planning/preparing. It’s been quite...interesting. I am dealing with a very “western” thinking school from Johannesburg and the planning has been done using spreadsheets and lists and I am totally into it (because I haven’t had this much structure since leaving my job).

But then I bring these spreadsheets and schedules back to the volunteers and staff at my organization and, honestly, there isn't much interest in using them. At all.  Everything is somehow, magically done without writing anything down. Although there are a couple that seem interested so I must take baby steps. And deep breaths. 

Anyway, today I decided instead to not sweat it and sang songs with the kids. We sang the “right arm, left arm” song and then the “I love you, you love me” one? I felt a lot better after that. Who cares about spreadsheets and schedules anyway, right?


I’m kidding. I’ll get back to planning later.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Coming home.

I have been away from my site for the past couple of weeks (thus the reason for my lack of blog posts - my deepest apologies all you thousands of followers). But this weekend I came home. It feels strange to say that I was making my way "back home" since most of the time I still feel like a visitor here but maybe I am making more headway than I think because I actually got hugs (yes, actual embraces) from people after being gone - they seemed to miss me!? And I was really happy to see everyone. In fact, I didn’t even mind my bucket bath this morning. And, you know, walking to the pit latrine in the morning does allow you to greet your neighbors which is a perk that you don’t get when you have a bathroom in your actual house?

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Doing some math.

I find that the times that I am most content/fulfilled/happy come when I am just hanging out with the kids. I have developed a little following of “students” that like when I give them math problems – you know, basic addition, subtraction, multiplication stuff. At first I started just writing them on a piece of scrap paper but then I got them interested in using the computer where there is a math game that we can play (and they find the robot that says “Good Job!” or “Well done!” quite amusing). So then our math games evolved into me making up short “tests” which consist of me giving them a few questions such as “What color is the sky?” and “Who is the President of South Africa?” After the test, I check their answers. It's quite fun and they seem to enjoy it. Plus, it gives me a chance to practice some language while also helping the kids with their English.
So if anyone has any math flash cards or also word/picture flash cards (with basic English words on one side with a picture of the item on the other to donate), please send them my way.  And, yes, I am wearing one of the terrible skirts that I seem to wear all the time now.