My Volunteer Placement

I have been home for a few days now and I have finally finished the task of sorting through my 600 plus pictures. My trip was simply amazing and I am excited to share all of the details with you. I did so much in 4 weeks that I thought it would be easier to break things down for you a bit. So my first post is about my volunteer placement.
My volunteer placement was at Silvertown Educare which offers day care and preschool services to 170 children ages 1-6years. Silvertown operates under the Cape Town Child Welfare system. Many of the children at Silvertown are from single parent homes. Most parents are employed which is great considering South Africa has an unemployment rate of 40%!
I chose to work with the 3-4 year old classroom assisting Teachers Alma and Tonia. There were 46 kids in the room. Yes it was very crowded! Many days there were not enough seats at the tables so kids had to sit along the wall. I would arrive around 8:00am and most of the kids were already there. They would be playing or singing until it was time for breakfast. Most mornings the kids had porridge or oatmeal. They got very small portions and seconds were given out until everything was gone, but most kids never got seconds. After a bathroom break there was usually some kind of lesson on colors, numbers, shapes, alphabet or safety. Then the teachers would set up some stations for them to work at. Often it would be play dough, coloring, threading, reading, puzzles, or just playing on the carpet. Snack would be around 10:15 which was bread and fruit. If the weather was nice enough they would go outside to play. Before lunch I would read to the kids and of course there was more singing!! I would leave around 12:15p as lunch was ending and nap time was beginning. One of my favorite times of day at my placement was before the meals when the class would pray (I have included a video below).
The kids were great and I had so much fun with them! English was spoken by both teachers and all the kids. On occasions they would speak Xhosa, which I only learned very little of. As you will be able to see in the videos I posted their English is sometimes hard to understand because of their accent. I caught on pretty quickly though. I taught the kids several songs which they had mastered by the end of my three weeks. I also learned all 46 of their names which I am extremely proud of. I think Teacher Alma and Tonia were impressed with me. The teachers definitely have good control over the class. The kids are meant to be obedient and they really listen to Teacher Alma and Tonia, me not so much. I had a hard time taking on the kind of authority they did. Sometimes their approach was very different from what I am used to.
Silvertown was not located in one of the townships or “shantytowns” but it was in a very poor community. The school does not have a lot of supplies or resources for their classrooms. The one thing that really broke my heart was how few books they have. I would read to the class everyday and I was reading the same 4 or 5 stories over and over. One of their favorite stories was The Ant and The Sweet so one day I brought them all a snack – Ants on a Log. I also made them a book for them called Hands Are For . . . I included the pictures I had been taking of them learning, playing, helping, eating, etc. Then the last page said Hands Are Not For Hitting! Teacher Alma posted it on the wall before I left saying she wanted all the parents to see it. I already miss them very much and I hope to write them and of coarse send them more pictures. Here are some videos of them singing and just being adorable.

Hayden singing 5 Little Monkeys


The class praying


The Frog Song I taught them


Goodbye Teacher Dena!