Embracing a Change

As you have probably noticed from my blog, the toddler room at 1000 HCH has been my pride and joy for this year.  I have obviously loved my other two service sites as well but these toddlers have touched my heart in a special way.  All year we, the teachers and I, have worked hard to pay extra attention to the child development of these precious toddlers by establishing a routine and schedule.  Just as we were starting to master the routine of seated activities and a daily schedule, there was a big change at the center and everything was turned upside down. Ok so that might be a bit of an exaggeration but after working so hard for many months on something and then to have it change in one day, my head felt like it was spinning!  

This all happened the day the assistant director of the AVs, Hannah, was visiting 1000 HCH for the first time.  When we arrived at the center in the morning, Dawn, all of the toddler 1 kids, toddler 1 teachers, and all the toddler 2 kids and teachers were all in the toddler 2 room.  Needless to say, it was complete chaos (yes more than normal) and I had no idea what was going on.  I introduced Dawn to Hannah who then explained that they were moving everything around to make another office in the school.  Basically the baby room is now in toddler 1 room and the two toddler rooms are combined into ours.  With the combination, there were about 80 toddlers in the toddler 2 room which was insane so the oldest toddler,s who were potty trained, were moved to the school.  The teachers have also been all switched around so Fikile is now in the baby room and the toddler 1 teachers are now in our toddler room.  The toddler 1 teachers speak more English than the other ones did which is nice and will be helpful but their kids are really young and don’t even know how to stand in a line or sit nicely at a table and do puzzles.  But who am I kidding?  My toddlers barely knew how to do that before! 

The worst part about the whole change is that my favorite toddlers, the ones that knew the most and understood me the best, were the ones that went to the school.  Lindo, Luleka, Andiswa, Samkelo, and Slindile are all grown up and off to the school.  The kids who I worked so hard teaching how to count, do puzzles, and sing head, shoulders, chest and waist all in English are no longer in my room.  I am happy for them that they are in the school but it’s disappointing because the teachers in the school are just ok but sometimes are really lazy and only have the fire lite under them on Wednesdays when Julie is there to watch them.  Luckily, the school is only across the playground so I still see the kids everyday.  One of my favorite moments over the past few weeks was when I had my back to the school and I was wiping of the bikes for the kids to play on, when I felt a toddler hugging my legs.  I turned around to find Lindo squeezing my legs with the biggest smile on his face!  Every day he comes and gives me a hug which makes me feel great.  When these kids went to the school, I was so afraid they would forget me but they haven't and I am so thankful for that!

As far as the new toddler room goes, the kids are really young and I don't know most of their names but they are adorable and all have unique personalities.  It's going to be harder to teach them songs, colors, and counting but I have tried to keep an open mind and embrace this new challenge! I mean how can you not love those adorable, messy, little bundles of joy? This is new change comes only a few months before I leave 1000 HCH for the year but its what I have been called to do, so here goes nothing!

South African Fact:  Today at the center, Riaan Manser, who was the first man to cycle around Africa,  has teamed up with KFC Add Hope and is cycling 4100km across the country to spread the message of hope came to the center to film the kids and give out food to the community.