Akhona: the love of my life

                                                       

As you have seen in past blogs, there is a little boy at 1000 Hills whose name is Akhona.  As soon as I saw him the first day, I thought he looked exactly like Shrek's babies from the movie and everyone who has seen him in person has agreed.  Akhona is this adorable little toddler who just turned 2 in April and loves every part of being at 1000 Hills.  He can be sweat and innocent one minute but then very aggressive the next.  Akhona is the sweatest thing you will ever see when he is napping with his butt up in the air but is a trouble maker when he doesn't understand the concept of sharing and hits other kids in order to get his way.  He is one of the smallest kids in the class but also one of the most active.  Akhona is always running around with the twins Kwanele and Anele and trying to steal toys from all the girls which then makes them cry.  He rarely pays attention and participates during song time but always feeds himself both breakfast and lunch while making a huge mess over himself, the table, and everywhere else around him.  He tries to eat the Play Dough but loves everything about the playground.  In February, he was scared to go down the slide or sit on the swings but now he runs around with all of the kids in our class and the older kids flying down the slide and pushing kids off the swing so he can have a turn.  Akhona is always the biggest entertainment of the classroom.  One of my favorite memories of him is when I made name tags for all of the kids so I could know their names.  The first day we put them on all of the kids, Akhona was the only one who tried to take his off as soon as it was put on his shirt.  We even tried to put it on his shoulder which he still found a way to take it off.  Our last resort was to put it on the back of his shirt so he couldn't reach it and this became the ongoing joke between the teachers and I whenever we used the name tags. 

Going down the side

So happy!

Akhona is a great kid in so many ways but his family story is not.  Akhona’s dad usually is the one who brings him to the center and drops him off in the mornings and picks him up in the afternoon.  I always smile when I see Akhona’s dad walking up with him in his arms.  Usually our exchange is just a “Sawubona Unjani? Ngiyaphila” (hello, how are you, I’m fine) before he leaves and Akhona is off playing with the other kids.  My first impression of him was that he was nice and responsible for bringing him every day.  A month or so in, Dawn told me that Akhona does not have a mom and it is only his dad that he is taking care of him.  This is when I became known as Akhona’s “mom” both by the teachers in the Toddler room and Akhona himself.  One day when I came late to work, the kids were out on the porch when I walked up and Akhona comes right up to me with a toy and says “Ma!” and holds it up.  It was so cute to hear and I instantly gave him a kiss on the cheek and a big smile.  I would love to be his "mom" and give him a great life but I know that can't happen so I just need to give him as much love as possible whenever I see him.  All these toddlers want is love and attention and when they don't get it, they can sometimes get aggressive and hostile towards each other and the teachers.  There have been days when Akhona is really aggressive with both me and the other kids.  He has hit and scratched me a couple of times and even bit one of the other kids.  This behavior can be connected with being a toddler but I also think it has a lot to do with his family situation and the fighting he sees at home.  It is sad to see how aggressive he can get towards other people when he doesn't understand what he is doing or the consequences of his actions.  Another sad part about Akhona's life is how dirty he is when he comes to school.  He is usually always in the same clothes that consist of an old pair of green sweatpants and a sweatshirt with some tshirt underneath.  One day in April, Akhona came to school really dirty both with clothes and in his nappie (diaper).  Fikile brought him over to me and showed me how dirty he was.  She then gave him a bath and gave him some of the uniform clothes to wear for the day.  I asked her to talk to his dad when he picked him up in the afternoon.  My question was about the policy the community center had for situations like this.  Who should I tell or what should I do?  That afternoon I told Dawn about him coming to school dirty and she said that the center has extra clothes to give these types of kids but unfortunately, I don't know if Akhona ever got these clothes.

The messiest eater in class

Akhona's runny nose

       
Recently, Akhona has been absent from school without anyone really knowing why.  Two weeks ago, I found out that Akhona's dad doesn't have a job therefore he doesn't have money to pay for school or food.  I was so sad when I found this out and wanted to help in anyway.  I prayed that his dad would find a job and he could come back to school.  My prayers were answered last Tuesday when I was sitting on the floor playing with some of the others kids when I heard one of the teachers say "Janine, Akhona" in their broken English.  I looked up to see him walking towards me which made me smile from ear to ear.  I immediately picked him up and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.  Unfortunately, the story now takes a turn for the worse.  On Thursday of last week, I found out that Akhona's dad lives with Akhona's "step mom" (which could just be a girlfriend but I will probably never know).  A couple of months ago, Akhona's dad hit the "step mom" and was given a court date but he didn't show up for it so the police came to their house on Wednesday night and arrested him.  Since that happened, Akhona wasn't in school on Thursday.  Fikile didn't know where Akhona was currently and I was extremely worried about him.  Dawn called the police and had Fikile talk to them and tell them what she knew.  Fikile said that she knows where the family lives and was going to go over there this weekend to talk to them.  If she found Akhona, she was going to bring him to her house and get in touch with Dawn.  When I went to 1000 Hills on Tuesday, I learned that Akhona is living with his grandmother in Hammersdale which is near Inchanga and is most likely not coming back to the community center, according to Fikile.  I was very sad to hear this for selfish reasons because I love Akhona so much and want him learn and grow but I am glad he is safe.  Today I tried to get a contact number for his grandmother so I can go visit him and give him some Play Dough if he isn't coming back to school.  The numbers were both disconnected but Fikile knows where the grandmother stays so we are going to go to the house on Tuesday to see him.  Hopefully someone there speaks English so I can either find a way for him to come back to school or be able to make monthly visits to see him.

                                     


                                      

The moment I met Akhona I fell in love with him and wanted to have him as my own.  I was inspired by the care I thought he was getting from his father but I am now at a crossroads of what to do knowing the situation.  People and children move around all the time in these communities and most of the time the children stay within the family if the parents aren't around.  I am glad that Akhona has a grandmother to take care of him but I worry about the well being of both him and the Gogo (Zulu for grandmother).  I fear that his Gogo will be overwhelmed with how rambunctious and active he is that she will have to find another living situation for him.  I pray that this is not the case.  I also hope that there is a way for him to come back to class because I feel a strong calling towards this little bundle of joy to help him learn and grow at the community center.  From the times he feel asleep on me to the trying to eat the Play Dough, from him stealing my water bottle from the closet and struggling to carry it all the way out to the main room without getting caught to crawling under the table to get more food, from picking him up over my head and having him giggle to him refusing to sleep at nap time and having to be moved to his own mattress, I will always love and remember the times I have had with him.  Until I see him again either at his house or back at 1000 Hills, I will pray for him and love him with every bit of my heart.  I promise to keep you all updated on my little baby Akhona but please say a prayer for him, his family, and all the other children of South Africa.     


South African/American Fact: This past week and this current week, there are two groups of students here to volunteer. The first is a group of Villanova Nurses and the second is a group of seniors from Malvern  Prep High school.  We are excited to have them here and share the joy of South Africa with them.  

Sihle

People always tell you that you shouldn't pick favorites but sometimes you just have to.  Sihle is one of my favorite boys at St. Theresa's home in East Durban.  He is the only boy in Cottage 3 that always has homework no matter what.  Sometimes it is Afrikaans, maths, history, or Life Orientation which usually involves cutting out pictures of food or words from magazines and pasting them on a piece of paper.  Sihle is  13 years old and is in grade 6 in school.  He is very smart for his age and always likes doing homework, unless he is sick or not feeling well.  Homework time is from 3-4pm at St. Theresa's and most of the boys say they are done by the time I get there at 3:30pm but Sihle always has homework he is still working on.  One Monday in February, the Auntie who works in my cottage said that Sihle told her that he didn't have any homework but then when I came in he said he needed help.  I was flattered that he wanted me to help him with his homework even if it is simple things like cutting out pictures or looking up Afrikaans words in the dictionary to find their English meaning.  

Sihle is always dedicated to his homework and speaks English very well.  Most of the Theresa's boys speak very good English and usually that means they speak English at home.  Sihle's home story is one of the few that I know from the boys in my cottage.  St. Theresa's is a home for boys who are either orphaned or don't have family members that can take care of them.  Some of the boys come right to St. Theresa's but others, like Sihle, have been to other homes before.  On Monday of this week, I talked to Sihle about what he did this weekend and he said he didn't go home because there were too many people at the house.  When I asked him what that meant, he said that someone died in the parish that him and his family go to and his whole family was at a funeral service.  I asked him who his family included and he said his mom, his grandfather, his uncles, and his aunts.  He said that when someone in their church parish dies that everyone knows, they bring everyone somewhere to have a service and celebration of the person's life which could be as long as a couple days.  Sihle didn't seem too sad about not going home because most of the boys don't go home besides holidays.  It's hard to talk to these boys about their family lives because I don't want to step on their toes by asking but I do want them to be able to talk to me.  Since I always help Sihle with homework, it is easier to ease into questions about the weekend or family as opposed to the other kids that I don't regularly help in the afternoons.  

The favorite thing I help Sihle with and is unique to just him is helping with his spelling words on Thursdays.  Every Friday, Sihle has a spelling test so Thursday afternoons I quiz him on the words to make sure he knows them.  There are about 45 words per week and vary in difficultly depending on where they are in the term.  Since Sihle speaks English very well, his spelling is quite good as well.  Each Thursday we start with the first column and I read him each word from his exercise book and he writes down the word on a piece of scrap paper.  After the column is finished, I mark the words and he studies them before I test him again.  We usually repeat this process twice in order for him to get 100% or maybe just 1-2 wrong.  We repeat the same process for the second column and then we do one final test with all of the words.  It is great to see him get so excited when he gets all the words correct and is confident in himself.  When he gets one wrong, he can be pretty hard on himself but I encourage him to write the word out a couple of times and focus on the difficult ones more than the easier ones.  Right before I leave to go home,  I wish him good luck and he tells me that he is going to look them over one more time when he is in bed before he goes to sleep.  Since I have been helping him, he has been doing really well on his spelling tests and only getting 2-3 wrong per test.  I told him my goal for him is to get at least one 100% this term and he is excited about the challenge.  Sihle told me that he has to write in cursive and in pen and his teacher is strick about their writing so he has to make sure it is legable.  One week he forgot his exercise book at home and had to write the test on a single piece of paper.  He told me this wasn't allowed and the teacher gave him a naught (0%) because he didn't write the words in his exercise book! I told him that this was ridiculous and would never happen in the States but I encouraged him to remember his exercise book every Friday so this didn't happen again.  He hasn't forgot it since!

Sihle is a dedicated and extremely motivated learner who I know will be successful in life.  He has talked about becoming a teacher when he grows up and I think he would be great! Sihle is strongest in Maths and English but does well in every other subject.  I look forward to working with him at St. Theresa's and helping him continue to learn and grow through out the year.  I pray that each of the boys at St. Theresa's Home will be successful and happy throughout their whole life and they will be confident in who they are and know what they can achieve in the future.

South African Fact: St. Theresa's was started in 1925 by the Augustinian Sisters and houses about 80 boys ranging in age from 4 to 19 years old.

The Joy of Play Dough

When I was growing up, my mom was a preschool teacher and had a million of creative ideas for teaching and interacting with children.  So when she heard that I was going to be working with toddlers, she was thrilled and ready to send me materials and great ideas.  One of the things she sent me was 8 little containers of Play Dough in all different colors.  The first time I brought them to 1000 Hills was quite the adventure.  The teachers and the kids were both very curious about what the play dough was and what you did with it.  We had to tell the kids numerous times "Do not eat it!" in Zulu.  I started by taking only a couple of kids at a time, sitting them down at the table, and giving them each a small piece of colored Play Dough.  Whatever the color we were using for the day was, I had the children repeat it in English and Zulu so they could recognize the color.  I had a piece for myself so I was able to show them how to roll it in their hands into long pieces or "hot dogs" and roll them into balls using the table.  I also showed them how to squish the balls down to flatten them out.  After the kids explored the play dough with their own hands for some time, I gave them some tools like cutters, rolling pins, and shape cut outs.  I showed them each how to do use the tools which some of them understood but the shape cut outs were a hard concept.  When I was working with the kids, some of the teachers I work with came over and asked what it was.  I told them it was Play Dough from America and I showed them what you could do with it.  They were instantly amazed by it and over the next few weeks, each of them played with it a little bit and made shapes with the cut outs. 

Squishing the Play Dough

Twin brothers Kwanele and Anele using the cutter and roller

Noluthando and Amahle exploring the shape makers

They love the Play Dough!

Tholakele is so excited to show me her creation

Over past month, I have spent an hour each Tuesday and Thursday making sure all 45 of our 2 year olds got a chance to play with the Play Dough and explore the amazing talents the clay has.  Some kids have been more active than others with but all seem to enjoy its wonders.  Akhona tries to eat it, Lindo makes things and then tries to tell me what they are in Zulu.  Some kids look at their hands and are curious why little pieces get stuck behind on their fingers and others refuse to put it back in the container and want to take it wherever they go.  Play Dough is a fabulous invention that is know a favorite of South Africans and Americans.  I hope to use it more throughout the year and make some of my own with the recipe my mom gave me.  It has been great to see what joy Play Dough has brought to both Zulu women and children at the 1000 Hills Community Center in South Africa.  

A big shout out to my mom for sending over the Play Dough!!! Thanks from me and the 1000 Hills Toddlers


South African Fact (1000 Hills): Since there is an excessive need for help and support in Inchanga, the director of 1000 Hills Community Center is opening a new location that has one classroom and a small clinic.  This will help serve more people in the community and help the 1000 Hills Community Center grow and spread its wings.

Our first South African roadtrip

For some reason South Africa seems to have many public holidays that allow us to have a little break from work.  This past week there was one on Friday and then on Tuesday which made for a great long weekend.  The four of us decided to use this time off to go on a little adventure along the coast of South Africa.  Originally we were going to drive to Cape Town which would of been about a 24 hour straight drive with no stops but then we rationally thought about it and figured out that we would be driving more than we would actually be in Cape Town so decided it wasn't worth it.  Instead we chose a couple of spots along the coast that we wanted to go to and planned a mini road trip.  So around 4:30am Friday morning, we all jumped in our red rental car and started our journey.  Originally we thought 24 was the age to rent a car so I was going to do most of the driving but we were wrong and Matt was able to sign on as a second driver for the trip.  It was a short hour and 40 minutes drive to our first stop of the Oribi Gorge.  Here we saw gorgeous views of the gorge and did a little hiking through some rock formations.  There was also a suspension bridge that you can walk across that was pretty high up and a little scary when a gust of wind came but still fun.  Then we were able to pay a cheap R40 to drive our car through a small game reserve where we saw warthogs, zebra, gnu, ostrich, and springbok which was very exciting.  I tricked my roommates because I thought I saw an elephant but it was really just a fat zebra in the distance.  Needless to say they weren't happy with my false animal spotting and are holding that as a point against me when we go on a real safari in September.  After hanging out there for a couple of hours, we continued our drive to Coffee Bay which was about 5.5 hours on very windy and bumpy roads.  The part of the road closest to Coffee Bay had some really bad patches of road with massive potholes that luckily didn't damage our rental car.  Coffee Bay is a cute little town with no main road, some hostels, and a small beach.  Some of our friends told us it was a cool place which it was but we didn't really know what to do or where to stay so I would most likely go back with people who know the area so we can really experience it.  We stayed at Sugarloaf Backpackers and had our own private hut to sleep in which was really nice.  We definitely overpaid for dinner and breakfast because we didn't know that there was going to be a self service kitchen for us to use but you live and you learn right? Saturday morning we got up and took a walk to the beach to check it out and climb on some rocks.  The view was beautiful and very peaceful to sit and mediate for a little bit before heading to our next stop.

Suspension Bridge

One of the views at the gorge

Our hut at Sugerlof

Beach at Coffee Bay

After we checked out from the hostel, we drove approximately 9 hours to Jeffrey's Bay which is a bigger, well known surfer and beach town.  Luckily we only made one wrong turn and the roads weren't full of potholes so the drive wasn't too bad overall.  In Jeffrey's Bay, we stayed at Jeffrey's Bay Backpackers where we had our own room with two sets of bunk beds.  The place was pretty simple and the owner was great and helpful throughout our whole time there. Sunday morning we got up, had breakfast and spent the day on the beach which was gorgeous and great weather.  Kellie, Kevin, and I walked down the beach to trip and find the surf competition the owner of the backpackers told us about.  I ended up walking ahead of them collecting shells and thinking about all the conversations I have had with people walking along the beach.  This was another nice moment for me to think about the beach and how spiritual the beach and ocean are in my life.  After tanning out for a little bit, we found the surf competition which was a junior amateur competition which ended up being pretty boring because there wasn't many waves.  At night we went back to the hostel, got pizza for dinner, and then hung out at the hostel bar for a little bit to talk to the owner who has kids that live in Chicago and California.  It was interesting to talk to him about differences and similarities between South Africa and the United States.  Staying at the backpackers made me appreciate how diverse people are and how big and small the world is.  To be at a backpackers in South Africa whose owner has kids in the States was a pretty cool connection that made me appreciate where I am right now in my life and know that I am happy with my place.

Jeffrey's Bay Beach

Sunrise at Jeffrey's Bay

Monday morning Kevin and I got up and went to the beach to watch the sunrise which was absolutely gorgeous.  It was a great way to start the day and take pictures of the sky.  I have always enjoyed watching and taking pictures of sunrises and sunsets because they are so natural and beautiful yet I can be reflective and embrace the beginning and end of that particular day.  After this great start to the day, we packed up and drove to Storm's River which was about an hour and 40 minutes away to the world's highest bungy (SA way of spelling bungee).  Kevin, Kellie and Matt all jumped off of it but I didn't because I hate the idea of being tied to my feet and jumping off something head first.  We will be going skydiving at some point this year which I will definitely do but bungee jumping is not my cup of tea.  While they jumped, I was up in a lookout with a lady whose husband of 16 days was jumping as part of their honeymoon trip.  She was a nervous wreck but I enjoyed her company and talking pictures of my roommates jumping.  All of them did it and had a blast.  After they jumped, we got on the road and drove all the way home.  


The trip was very fun and relaxing overall and a great weekend with the roommates.  It was definitely a lot of driving but luckily with four iPods and great company, the trip was a success.  


South African Fact: Gnu is similar to the antelope and buffalo.