Easter Holidays

Last week was our final week before the holidays started. This meant that there was no inclusion and very little work, so instead of busying ourselves so books, the Senior class kept up with the cricket World Cup. Before last week I didn't realise how long a cricket match could last... The South Africa vs New Zealand match started at 2am and finished at 12pm - sadly we lost.

On Wednesday the school media department held a 'mystery afternoon' and all the children had to dress up as detectives. One boy didn't quite catch on to the theme of the afternoon and refused to wear anything but a clown suit, but he added a bit of oomf to our group to we decided to let it slide. When we arrived at the event we had mugshots taken with the kids and bought some cupcakes decorated with things like question marks and magnifying glasses.

The lighthearted mood of Wednesday was brought down a bit on Thursday when we had the memorial service for the girl we lost over Christmas. The teachers said a few very touching words and then we planted a tree in the garden - whenever a child in the Enrichement Centre dies the staff plant a tree to remember them by, I think it also helps the other children understand what's happened. After we all shovelled some soil onto the tree's roots, one of the classroom assistants started to sing a traditional South African mourning song. It was absolutely beautiful and soon all the assistants were singing together, I think that's when Kathryn, Zoe and myself let the lumps in our throats get the better of us!

Friday was a very unusual day with very little structure, we watched a movie in the morning and then attended the final assembly. During the assembly Zoe and I were sitting with one of the girls from the Senior class, who's known for her sense of humour even though she can't speak. She also has very delayed reactions so when the school had to give a 'hip hip hurray!' for a child receiving a prize, this girl only did the 'hurray' part after the whole thing was done. The hall finished and then from the back all you could hear was "AY.... AY.... AY". Zoe and I could barely contain ourselves.

After the assembly everyone went home, including the hostel kids. It was actually quite sad watching them go because the hostel is so quiet without them! As for plans for this holiday we haven't got round to anything apart from day trips. We're debating Kruger National Park but will have to find a mode of transport in order to get there... As for next Sunday, don't expect a post - I think the next week will be pretty uneventful but if anything exciting happens, I'll let you all know.

Happy holidays!

Mitchell House Anniversary

As usual, the week in Juniors has completely drained me - I managed to make it through the last few days with only a small scratch on my left hand! But of course it was lots of fun being with the little ones again and having an excuse to play 'evil fish' at break time. 'Evil fish' is a game that we invented last week - I found a toy plastic fish in the water tray and started chasing the boys with it while making very realistic sound effects (blubblubblub). It soon developed into this massive war between most of the children in the Junior class and my plastic fish. I gave up after they sussed out that the fish was actually under my control and started coming after me instead of the toy, but I managed to convince them that the evil fish had me under a spell. So - a very exhausting week but lots of fun.

The big event of the last few days was on Friday, when Mitchell House celebrated its 21st anniversary. The school paid for a company to come and set up a water park on the sports fields, that we took all the children to in the morning. There were a variety of inflatable slides and obstacle courses covered in soapy water so we all had a great time and came back to class rather wet. After the water park the whole school met up outside the Admin Block and buried a time capsule which will be dug up again in 20 years! Kathryn, Zoe and I might have to make a special return visit for the occasion... That evening a few speeches were given in the school Theatre by the current headmaster and the first headmaster of Mitchell House, followed by a ceremonial cake cutting. Once the cake was cut everybody collected a helium filled balloon from outside the Theatre and made their way onto the sports field, where we did one lap and then let off all the balloons together. People then brought out picnic rugs and sat down to watch the sunset while having some dinner - such a great day!

In other news: plans for my family's visit have now been made, we'll be travelling through Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe for two weeks in a tour truck, all the while taking part in various exciting activities. I can't wait! Only two and a half months to go...

Having fun at the picnic

Getting ready for the cake cutting

Goodbye balloons!

Busy Body

The last week in Lifeskills was the same as usual - learning the days of the weeks, months of the year and numbers. In between the work we managed to find time to teach the children new skills, like how to cook a very delicious chicken dish that I'm going to steal and use back home... We taught them how to fry and seal the chicken pieces and then put them in the oven, they all really seemed to like the finished result!

We've also started working on the end of year Christmas performance. It might seem extremely early but the more time these kids have to practice, the better. As you can imagine it takes them longer to learn dance moves so by starting now, they'll be perfect! It's a shame that we're not going to be here to see the finished result, but I'm sure next year's gaps will do a great job of rounding it up. 

One of the songs is from a film in which Whoopi Goldberg plays a teacher (I think). The song is from a scene where all the children are singing a gospel song in the playground. I - for some odd reason - was put in charge of the dance moves for this particular track, I spent most of the afternoon standing in front of the class going through each move slowly until they got it. I'm proud to think that in December the children will be showing off my sidesteps.

On Thursday we had an excursion to a small waterpark, that turned out to be empty apart from us! We laid out the picnic rugs and had some lunch, followed by some spinning time on the roundabout - a couple of kids had to lie down after that, I think they spun themselves a bit too fast. When recovery time was over we helped the children get changed and took them into the pool. The water was freezing and it was hilarious watching some of the expressions as they got in, especially the non verbal children - they're faces said more than words could, twisting in confused horror at the temperature of the water. Once they got used to the cold they started to enjoy themselves, some even attempting the small flume! It was a great day and lovely to get the kids out of the school environment to experience something new.

I've started taking an extra homework class for the Grade 7s (S2) after work on Wednesdays which I'm enjoying so far. They all behaved very well last week so I bought some sweets to bring in this Wednesday. It's a catch up class for children in the Mainstream school who haven't handed in homework more than five times in a row, so you get a few trouble makers. But I find that positive reinforcement (e.g sweets) seems to work better than negative, it gives them a goal to work towards... Finished homework doesn't seem to be much of a priority for them, but if they learn that when they do finish their homework they're rewarded, something might click. I hope!

This weekend's been very relaxed, I'm reading a terrifying thriller at the moment called Dead Man Walking and I've had to sleep with the bathroom light on for the past few nights. I did my laundry this morning but apart from that nothing much happens at the weekend, which is nice because the week's so hectic.

Birthday Week!

This week I was working with the Senior class, meaning that I got to celebrate my birthday with my 'day twin' - the little boy with cerebral palsy. We've both been looking forward to celebrating the day together for months so when Tuesday finally arrived it was very exciting... We turned out to have two separate parties, one for my day twin on Tuesday and another one on Friday for me - I don't think I've ever eaten so much cake in the space of one week.

As I've mentioned before, this boy is a little obsessed with mermaids. When I opened the birthday parcel that my family sent me, I found lots of mermaid themed items including some napkins, rice paper and a cake topper. I presented him with these things the next day and he nearly collapsed, he wouldn't stop stroking the hair of the plastic Ariel cake topper and carried it around in his blazer pocket for the rest of the week.

The children were also involved in a Lego Workshop this week. Some students from Joburg who are studying engineering travelled up to Polokwane for the week and taught individual year groups about mechanics. All the students were staying with us in the hostel and it was great to have some more company! I went for a run with one of the ladies, Shaz, on Thursday evening and it was great to have a human running partner again - sorry Plato... After we arrived back I got involved in a very competitive game of table tennis with the boys, it reminded me of our France holidays with all the cousins (also very competitive). Now that they've gone I'm going round the hostel asking of anyone wants a game but no one is quite as serious about it as the engineering students, they couldn't handle the fact that they were getting beaten by a girl (I joke).

Yesterday we travelled out of Polokwane to see the Sunland Baobab tree that has a bar built within the trunk! The tree itself is 6,000 years old and the hollow trunk can fit fifteen people inside it. The tree was so big that when Kathryn and I climbed one of the branches, it was like we were scrambling up a bumpy road. After having some lunch we drove on to a crocodile ranch which is the equivalent to a fish farm in the UK - they breed crocodiles for their meat and skin. Some people might not agree with the idea, but it doesn't reduce the species numbers and it was actually very interesting... We decided to buy some crocodile meat and cook it later. Jenny invited us over to her parents' house that evening to cook the meat and we flavoured it with mango, chutney and rosemary. Thirty minutes later it was ready and we sat down to eat it with some potatoes and rice - it was delicious! A sort of mix between fish and chicken.

Next week I'm in Lifeskills and we'll probably be doing the usual stuff. I have to start looking into things to do during the upcoming Easter holiday, it's only three weeks away. How the time has flown.

Birthday dinner with the girlies 

Sunland Baobab

Baobab Bar

The climbing branch

Picnic area

dinner (don't worry, it wasn't the one I was holding)

Prepping the meat

oven time!

finished result - yumyumyum

Junior Inclusion

I was back in the Juniors this week so it was another busy few days. Since Christmas we've increased the amount of inclusion that the EC children take part in, so for a large part of this week I was accompanying one of the Junior boys to inclusion maths with Grade 3 - which was great because we all know maths is one of the subjects I excel in.

Despite my sarcasm it was actually quite enjoyable. But because this boy is autistic he finds it difficult to concentrate for long periods of time. A two hour maths inclusion is very challenging for him, so we usually ended up leaving when he started to lose concentration because after that point he wouldn't be taking anything else in. The last day we went one of the other boys in the Grade 3 class brought in Stuart, his pet chameleon which was very exciting. The boy from the Junior class was convinced it was a dragon, "like the one from Harry Potter."

On Friday, the Junior and Senior classes both went out into the Enrichment Centre garden and picked up fallen Marulas from the ground to give to the Lifeskills class. Lifeskills are now taking on the challenge of making Marula jam, so I'll probably be helping with that in a couple of weeks! It was difficult trying to get the fruit in the baskets without them getting eaten, but eventually we filled about four containers - they're going to have a lot of peeling to do.

On Saturday Kathryn and I surprised  a little girl from Aftercare by visiting her during her birthday party in Spur (a restaurant). Earlier that week at Aftercare she mentioned that she was having a party there and how cool it would be if we could come, so we decided to pay a surprise visit. We bought her a little necklace and played with the kids a little bit in the soft play area - no, I can't believe I'm almost 19 either... She seemed to love it though and told us that she's going to wear the necklace all of next week.

In other news I wrote up a new half marathon training schedule because I'm planning to run another one in May. Hopefully I'll be able to raise some money for the EC medical funds! Some family back home are running the Tiree half marathon on the same day, so good luck - we'll compare times if I make it to the end alive...

Next week I'm back in Seniors, a breather after being in Juniors for a week. Unfortunately I didn't get round to taking any pictures over the last few days but I saw this and found it amusing.