The Days Go Slow, Weeks Go Fast!

What I mean by this is.. I can't believe I have finished my months volunteer work at African Impact - I can't believe my last week went so quickly and I haven't blogged about it! Prepare yourself to be filled in big time! So much has happened!

Overview

This past week has been half term for the students of South Africa, so my pupils from Khayelitsha and Langa were not in school. Which meant my weekly schedule was changed - instead I would be doing 'holiday club' at the foster care centres I volunteer at: Home From Home and a new organisation that I have never personally been to but other volunteers work there regularly, called Filelela (Fiks,) Normally at Fiks they work with babies and toddlers to develop their cognitive motor skills, but my job as a sports volunteer is to facilitate fun active ssssions for the primary school age kids who are home from school for the week. Which is what is within my comfort zone a bit more, and what I excel at. However the dynamic is much different here. The kids all have a stronger relationships with each other and you are with them on a more personally level, it their home, in and around their mamas who look after them.

But even more exciting than holiday club is the mid week GAPA trip!!!! On Wednesday we are taking approximately 128 GAPA kids and grannies on a open top bus trip around Cape Town. That is certainly one of THE highlights of my trip. A fantastic day I can't wait to tell you about!

Monday

Morning: Fiks. My first introduction to the care centre and the 14children, it's very different to any of my previous projects. We started off the morning with circle songs such as 'Good morning train' which is now permanently stuck in my brain.. "The good morning train is coming, how are you? Choo! Choo!" Fortunately the kids knew all the songs already so I could sing quietly and learn them as we sang.

Then we transistioned from circle songs to circle games with a foam ball. As coaches we have become accustomed these games and know them well. However the kids were slightly too young and due to their vulnerable position the kids emotions were a delicate business. If someone was out sometime there would be fighting, crying or tantrums. Which I am not used to dealing withm but we coped and generally let them fizzle out or coax them back into a new game.

We definitely were not prepared enough the first day. Normally a session is keeping lots of kids entertained in a large playground for up to an hour. So we could recycle similar games and drills all morning. At Fiks it's a smaller group of various abilities which we have to control and keep occupied for over 2 hours in a 4mx8m concrete rectangle. Fortunately I have stockpiled a whole host of games and songs that we could cycle through. And some we could make up or even let the kids play amoung themselves. I really enjoyed it!

Afternoon: Home From Home Holiday Club. Normally at this afterschool club get 15-20 kids. Monday we had 5. Which made the plan we had challenging to follow through. So instead we did the circle games that we know they love and got the few other kids there to join in too. We played some frisbee and don't fall in the water also. It was nice to spend more time with a few of them and get to know the characters better.

Tuesday

It was bloody hot on Tuesday! To the point where the kids were too hot to be bothered to run around and play - they would much rather lounge about in the shade and talk. So at Fiks we got out the chalk so they could draw on the floor in the shade, and also introduced them to 3sticks - a hop, skip, jump game that get progressively harder. A local favourite. 

Then at Home From Home it was the same story- but with more attitude because they are slightly older! Fortunately we had planned for this over lunch so we played Dutch party games! (My partner volunteer is Dutch so she taught them typical Dutch games.) After a game of cat and mouse ( a free for all touch rugby game played with bibs) we went into a game called spykepöpe (spike-a-pooper) which is hilariously fun! We tied skipping ropes around their waists with one end hanging down like a tail. You then have to run over to a bottle and squat down and thread the rope into the bottle! It looks so wrong and they thought it was hilarious! And seeing as we made it a competitive 1 vs 1 race they loved it and kept challenging each other for the rest of the sessioo! We even had a knock out competition!