First day of class…Well, it wasn’t a great day and it wasn’t a bad day. This week’s subject is Identity in Christ. The speaker was having a hard time getting feedback/questions from the students. I think it was for several different reasons. Yes, it’s a somewhat quiet group, but it was Monday, it was overcast, and it was fairly hot in our classroom. After lunch he was able to engage them more. I think everyone got or will get something out of the teaching by the week of the week. It’s a good teaching. (Wednesday was the second day of teaching and the students were more verbal. Much better response)
First day of local outreach…Tuesday at 10am was the start of our local outreach. (Thursday will be the same) We will be working with different orphanages, organizations, churches, etc. for the next three months. Anyplace that has orphanes and vulnerable children. This Tuesday we worked at an orphanage that is just a temporary home for children while they find them foster homes. There were 9 kids under the age of 3 or 4. They are all pretty mellow and enjoyed us even if we just sat and held them. Unfortunately, most of them were sick with a cough and some had fever. One kid threw up twice on one of the students, Jordan. She was a trooper.
I was involved in a little 'accident' too. The little girl that I buddied-up with needed her diaper changed. So, as I have changed many a diaper in my lifetime, I figured that I should take care of it. Well, it was one of the fullest ones I’ve ever had to change to begin with. Then just as I’m finishing up, but before I put on the new one, she decides to pee. Which proceed to run all over the changing table and got her clothes all wet. SO, I took off her clothes, cleaned her and the changing table up, put on a new diaper, and just as I was finishing up…. She spit up on herself and the table. Nice. I just had to laugh. Sadly, we don’t have any pictures. We figured since it was our first time to work with them that maybe we shouldn’t. Maybe next time.
Here are some other pictures though:
This is how we decided to keep the ants from getting to the muffins that Heidi and Kathryn had made. We hung them from the ceiling fan. :-) Ants are everywhere!! You can not leave a crumb out; they will find it.
These are the dogs of the property owners where we live. Oscar and Josey. They're pretty good dogs, but BIG. a little too big for my taste...
This grasshopper was massive! It was the biggest one i have ever seen. I think all big are bigger in South Africa...
The school was huge and we had our tents set up in the ‘playground’ area. That meant that on breaks there was a FLOOD of kids! And I mean a flood. The kids really enjoyed coping whatever you were doing, like Simon Says or Follow the Leader. And since only a few of the older kids spoke a little English, we used a lot of games and songs with hand-motions.
The first day went really well. It was rather hot, but none of the kids tested positive. Unfortunately, on Tuesday, 2 kids tested positive. One of the kids was 14, the other was 10. When they meet with the parents, they instruct them to go take the child to get tested at the clinic where they actually draw blood for the test. The test that they use for the schools only requires a few drops and sometimes (very rarely) has false positives or false negatives. I pray that the kids that tested positive were one of the false positives.
