Presents, new children and a broken down car!

Sanibonani 

Picking up the children

So after being here for nearly 5 months you would think I had experienced most things her at Saint Anthony’s but that is definitely not the case! On Monday, 13^th January, I helped Londi (social worker) pick up the children being hosted/living in Ladysmith. He is always on the road so I thought I’d do him a favour and do the driving!

After a good 2 hour drive, we arrived at our first stop, which was a township called Dreifontein. This is where Zodwa (Khwezi Cottage, 12 years old) was being hosted by a family, who has hosted children from Saint Anthony’s before.   She seemed very happy there! Next stop was a small township on the other side of Ladysmith where Simelokuhle (Witness of God Cottage, 8 years old) was staying. As we approached, Londi pointed out a tiny mud house about 20 meters away. This is where he used to live with his mother however she unfortunately passed away which means the house belongs to him. Out of the kindness of their heart, the neighbours have offered to look after him during school holidays. By this time, it was already 2 pm and we had another 14 children to pick up so Londi and I were keen to get a move on but the car thought otherwise and decided to break down (key stopped turning!). Thankfully Malume was also running some errands in Ladysmith so he came and picked us up and together we continued picking up the remaining children. (The car is now back at Saint Anthony’s after taking a week to be fixed!) Although it was an extremely long day, it was great to see where the children were staying but also to get a little background on the child or the house family. 

By 20^th January, all 69 children were back at Saint Anthony’s. They were all officially welcomed back with an assembly during which the staff, myself and an ex Saint Anthony’s gave a short motivational speech. It is great to have them all back, I have really missed them!

Reach for Star

The response to the Reach for a Star Project I led last year was mind-blowing! Malume’s office was FULL of presents, I am not exaggerating!

The Office

Lindo

Moyo

Siboniso

All of the Saint Anthony’s staff worked together to sort all of them into piles and were later distributed to the children. Each child received on average 14 presents, making nearly 1 500 presents in total! They were all extremely happy!

If this wasn’t enough, Mr Theron (man who hosted the children’s Christmas party – see previous post) visited the home last week with a car full of presents. Each child received a brand new school bag filled with stationary and for those who do not go to school, a goody bag full of sweets, drinks and snacks! These children have really been spoiled recently J

The Children with Mr Theron

Projects

Having been here for nearly 5 months now and completed most of the work given to me by Malume, I have time to work on my own projects. These include:

•   ICT lessons: these will take place twice a week (one lesson for the Zanzibar boys and one for the Masakhane girls) and last 1.5 hours each. I want to cover Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel with them.
• English elocution lessons: these will take places in small groups of 3-4, again girls and boys separate. During these sessions each child will take it in turn to read parts of a text aloud, giving them the opportunity to work on their pronunciation and ask questions on any words they might not understand. These sessions will only last 30-45 mins and I want to make the text as appealing to them as possible so will cover topics such as dance, football and Justin Bieber (of course!).
• Career guest speakers: I would like to invite professionals to come and speak to the children about their career. These will help give the older children some idea of what they can do in life and motivate them to do so. The main things I want the speakers to cover are: what does that job involve; how to get that job; what do they need to study at school/university/college; what course do you need to do; where can that course be done; benefits and negatives of the job; what kind of person would be good at this job. The professionals I want to invite are doctor, nurse, teacher, social worker, ranger, farmer and policeman as these are the most common career paths.
• Talent show: in order to boost the children’s confidence (last year the Home hosted a modelling competition) I wanted to organise a talent show based on the famous programme called “SA’s got talent” but I would call it “Saint Anthony’s Got Talent”. This would be judged by presenters from the local radio station and there would also be a prize for the top three children.

New children  

Last week, Friday 24^th January, three new children joined the Saint Anthony’s family. They are Malipongwe, Nonfikelelo and Nondumiso. Although I am unaware of the full story, what I do know is that Malipongwe’s mother (Nonfikelelo ‘s sister) is only 13 years old! He is still struggling to adjust; he doesn’t eat well, cries when not held and gets very attached very quickly. He also doesn’t sleep through the night, something which the care workers are not used to anymore!

A few months ago I spoke about Nqobani who has been having seizures since hitting his head on some bricks. He is has been diagnosed as epileptic and is now on medication. Since coming back, he has been very well however he became very poorly again Saturday (fitted many times in a short space of time) which means he is now is hospital again. He is going to another hospital tomorrow (Wednesday 29^th January) to see a specialist. Myself along with his care workers and the health and education officer went to visit him on Sunday. Although he was a bit shaky to start with, he went back to his cute cheeky self after a bit of food J I will keep you updated on his status but please keep him in your prayers.  

My baby Nqobani after a bit of food and TLC

As you can see, life here in South Africa is still very exciting and I still love every minute even after 5 months. I now only have 10 weeks left until I have to head back to the UK so I intend to make them count! This means a few more safaris, a visit to Limpopo and spending LOADS of time with these adorable children!

Until next time...

Isabel x