10/17/11, 8:54 p.m.
As of today I have been Cape Town for a whole month, with two more to go. That’s good, because I can’t imagine leaving anytime soon. A new group of volunteers arrived on Saturday, bringing the head count in the CCS house from 7 to 19. It’s definitely a different dynamic, especially because some people in this group already knew each other, so factions have started to form. It’s a lot noisier in the house and you now have to wait in line for meals, but meeting new people and hearing their stories about why they found themselves here at this point in their lives is very interesting. Being a veteran volunteer is also novel, since we now have a new schedule (we don’t have to participate again in the activities that the new people are now doing) and also because there were no veterans when my group arrived for the first time in CCS-SA’s existence.
Being the compulsive overachiever I am (still have to work on that), I opted to start afternoon volunteering now that I’m a veteran and the mandatory cultural activities have eased up a bit. Four hours of volunteering each day before lunch doesn’t sound like much but it is tiring, especially when working with small children, so they wait to offer afternoon placement until you’re settled in your fifth week. I figured that since I’m here to volunteer anyway and I don’t take afternoon naps like most of the others, why not? I will be working in Sarah Fox, which is a children’s hospital in the township of Athlone, which is much closer than Khayelitsha. Many of the children there have HIV, tuberculosis, or are burn victims. Plus, because of the stigma around debilitating illness and also sheer lack of knowledge about how to take care of it, there are a lot of orphans there. Others go for months without seeing their parents if they can’t afford transportation or the like. For variety, I hope to work in the infant ward. After a morning of chasing 3- to 6-year-olds I am totally okay with holding babies for a few hours! My volunteering is in the process of getting set up and I am very excited for that to start.
Of course, I’m still in love with my placement at the Home from Home creche. I finally have the long-term project I’ve been looking for, because the older two classes are putting on a Christmas pageant before I leave in December! Since last week, I have been teaching the teachers carols they want to learn so the kids can perform them. I wouldn’t be able to count how many times I’ve sung “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” so far, and it’s only mid-October. They also have an adorable skit, and I’ve learned that a toy dog wrapped in a scarf makes an excellent Baby Jesus. I love my day-to-day activities at the creche but I feel more purposeful and useful now. Starting tomorrow, I won’t be the only CCS volunteer there since one of the new people will be joining me, and as selfish as it sounds I’m not looking forward to sharing my little angels with anyone! As of today I can add face painting to my resume since I brought that in for two of the classes, and will be doing the third tomorrow. Princesses, monsters, pirates, butterflies, rainbows, flowers, cats, stars, and a whole manner of other things scurried around the classrooms and playground. Our one 18-month-old, Olwethu, made for an excruciatingly adorable puppy dog.
The kids mean so much to me, and on Friday I found out that the feeling is apparently mutual. I found out from the head of Home from Home herself (not just the daycare but the entire organization) that the children really like me. Luann, the CCS-SA director, told me during lunch on Thursday that she was going to Home from Home’s AGM that afternoon, “so if you want to go, be ready to leave in 10 minutes.” Gasp! I inhaled my lentils and then rode there with Luann in my first ride in someone’s private car since leaving home. The meeting was held in a classroom in a church and some of it was dry like budget reports and thanking the board, but they also explained the Home from Home idea of “cluster foster care” in depth. Cluster foster care is where children are kept with their siblings in family-like environments in their own community, rather than in large, austere institutions, and Home from Home has received international non-profit awards for their work. They even interviewed one of the foster mothers, who cares for 6 kids who range in age from 2 to 14. When asked about difficulties raising these orphans, she said that they can be very defensive and withdrawn, especially when feeling the threat of punishment. However, when asked about the positive side, she did recount a story where her kids locked her in her bedroom and when they let her out some time later the entire house was completely spotless. Hearing about the organization as a whole really spurred my enthusiasm for my volunteer work there even more, and the fact that I’m on the president’s radar was quite the pleasant surprise. I’m a small cog in the wheel but it’s nice to know that the wheel turns a little smoother now. I can only hope I’ll bring as much to the table at the hospital once I start there.
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