My Placement

I am having a lot of fun at my volunteer placement with Silvertown Educare. I am working in the 3-4 year old room with Teachers Tonya & Alma. The kids are very excited I am there and they are frequently hugging me, jumping on me, pulling me, etc. They all call me Teacher Dena (which I hear at least 100 times a day). I have been working really hard to learn all their names. There are 40 in my room and some have very American names like Justin and Lisa, while others have very South African names like Indiphile or Asiphe. They are being very patient with me and they love to sing!! I have taught them a couple of songs I know from working at Camp Koch. I can communicate pretty good with them in English, but they also speak Xhosa, which is really difficult to understand and learn. They think it is very funny when I try to say things in Xhosa. You can imagine things are a little choatic with 40 kids, but they listen really good to the teachers. I'm still trying to get them to listen to me. It is very sad to see the kinds of toys resources they have to use. The boys play with leggos and OLD wooden blocks, The girls enjoy the babies and kitchen. I am taking my camera with me next week to get some pictures.

Everything else is good, except the constant cold, rain and wind. I am really hoping our weekend plans don't get rained out. Tonight we are going to a restaurant called Mama Africa.