South Africans know how to take a break. In fact they take breaks like it’s there job. No literally they take breaks like it’s there job. Many of us had trouble adapting to this new African work pace in fact. I mean who doesn’t love a nice tea break, but after the breaks become longer than the actual work and the tea begins to take over your bladder, American’s start to get pretty darn tense. So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I heard that all schools in South Africa are taking there vacation break starting today, March 25th and ending April 12th. So yes, the other day was unfortunately my last day working with the Grade R students for over two weeks. I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do with myself, they’ve become probably one of the biggest parts of my life in the past few months. I remember half way through our excursion last week, Pamela and I were nearly in tears recreating our favorite moments of Christel House so far. Boy would we have rather gone to work instead of going on a safari. Never thought I would catch myself making that statement.
Here are a handful of my favorite memories from Christel House so far:
I’ll start with a funny one. One day the kids were divided into groups, some were playing on the mat, some were doing worksheets, some coloring, some finger painting. I was helping with the messy finger painting table when I heard the kids who were playing on the mat laughing hysterically and one of the little girls was looking at me with the longest face I’ve ever seen. I could see the tears welling up in her big eyes as she stood up and crossed the room to me. Then she proceeded to say in one of the most innocent voices ever, “Miss Meredith, I made a toot and I forgot to say pardon.” I would say it was probably one of the cutest statements ever.
About two weeks ago, the children were once again divided into groups at different stations of the classroom. I was helping the children with puzzles when I noticed that one of the children in the class seemed a tad off. This little girl who is normally incredibly blissful and happy looked distressed and upset. I leaned down to her level and asked her if she was okay. One of the main difficulties Americans must conquer working in South Africa is the language barrier. It is definitely a problem you have to solve in different ways depending on the situation you are in. This barrier is especially prevalent in the classroom. Half of the Grade R students are Xhosa speaking when at the same time the other half are Afrikaans speaking. Mix that with me, the American, and obviously I’m going to naturally have some translation issues. I’m sure that everyone who works in classrooms adapt to this barrier in different ways. Me for example, I’ve learned to use lots of hand gestures and few simple words to demonstrate what I’m trying to get across. So as I talked to the student I tried the classic technique, hand gestures and simple words, but see, this is only part one of the translation. Once she understands exactly what I’m asking she has to attempt to respond back to me in the best way she possibly can. This is the part that I always seem to have trouble with. Understanding the kids responses back to me. Instead of saying something though, she just started to cry. So that helped me narrow down what was wrong a little more. Then she proceeded to say the word pain. I talked to the teacher about it and she seemed to think that the little girl had a headache so we got her some water. This helped the girl to stop crying but she still looked off to me. Then it was recess time and as all of the children were running around playing, this little girl instead came over to me and I rocked her on my lap for the whole break. I felt her head and her temperature definitely seemed above average. Once playtime ended I kept an eye on her in the classroom. I turned around for one second to check on another student’s work when I suddenly heard exactly twenty-eight gasps than complete silence. I can’t even begin to explain to you how bizarre complete silence sounds when you are in a small room with twenty-nine six-year-olds. Followed by wide eyes, mouths opened, and fingers pointing I knew it had happened. Sure enough, I turned around and the little girl had thrown up all over the mat. That was all that she needed to do to make herself feel better. She was taken to the nurse, but within an hour she was back in the classroom and completely normal again.
Recess is always a very fun and interesting experience. Once you step outside the classroom during recess it is as if a motion detector goes off that tells the kids that you are outside. I’ll just be sitting on the ledge of a walkway and all of the sudden there are about twelve children around me. Somehow about four sitting on my lap, anywhere from one to six playing with my hair and about three more laying on me. It’s wonderful. Anyway, about a month ago at recess, I asked the kids if they would teach me how to speak Xhosa. I figured that I am teaching them English and they can teach me Xhosa. They were all very excited by this idea and early tried to teach me the first word. The first word that they taught me was ingqiniba which means elbow in English. My Xhosa lesson unfortunately did not get much farther because apparently I couldn’t master even the first word. They would say the word with the correct clicks and I would try my version of clicks in the word and they would all laugh hysterically. We probably tried this about forty times that first day. Then it got a little bit ridiculous when I said elbow in English and they told me I was saying it wrong. I think they just liked laughing at me. Now, weeks later every time certain children see me they scream “Ingqiniba!” really loud and point to my elbow. If I come out of this experience knowing one word in Xhosa let me tell you that it is definitely elbow.
These are just three of the millions of memories that I have about Christel House so far. If you ever want to hear anymore just ask. I could literally talk for hours.
Here are a handful of my favorite memories from Christel House so far:
About two weeks ago, the children were once again divided into groups at different stations of the classroom. I was helping the children with puzzles when I noticed that one of the children in the class seemed a tad off. This little girl who is normally incredibly blissful and happy looked distressed and upset. I leaned down to her level and asked her if she was okay. One of the main difficulties Americans must conquer working in South Africa is the language barrier. It is definitely a problem you have to solve in different ways depending on the situation you are in. This barrier is especially prevalent in the classroom. Half of the Grade R students are Xhosa speaking when at the same time the other half are Afrikaans speaking. Mix that with me, the American, and obviously I’m going to naturally have some translation issues. I’m sure that everyone who works in classrooms adapt to this barrier in different ways. Me for example, I’ve learned to use lots of hand gestures and few simple words to demonstrate what I’m trying to get across. So as I talked to the student I tried the classic technique, hand gestures and simple words, but see, this is only part one of the translation. Once she understands exactly what I’m asking she has to attempt to respond back to me in the best way she possibly can. This is the part that I always seem to have trouble with. Understanding the kids responses back to me. Instead of saying something though, she just started to cry. So that helped me narrow down what was wrong a little more. Then she proceeded to say the word pain. I talked to the teacher about it and she seemed to think that the little girl had a headache so we got her some water. This helped the girl to stop crying but she still looked off to me. Then it was recess time and as all of the children were running around playing, this little girl instead came over to me and I rocked her on my lap for the whole break. I felt her head and her temperature definitely seemed above average. Once playtime ended I kept an eye on her in the classroom. I turned around for one second to check on another student’s work when I suddenly heard exactly twenty-eight gasps than complete silence. I can’t even begin to explain to you how bizarre complete silence sounds when you are in a small room with twenty-nine six-year-olds. Followed by wide eyes, mouths opened, and fingers pointing I knew it had happened. Sure enough, I turned around and the little girl had thrown up all over the mat. That was all that she needed to do to make herself feel better. She was taken to the nurse, but within an hour she was back in the classroom and completely normal again.
Recess is always a very fun and interesting experience. Once you step outside the classroom during recess it is as if a motion detector goes off that tells the kids that you are outside. I’ll just be sitting on the ledge of a walkway and all of the sudden there are about twelve children around me. Somehow about four sitting on my lap, anywhere from one to six playing with my hair and about three more laying on me. It’s wonderful. Anyway, about a month ago at recess, I asked the kids if they would teach me how to speak Xhosa. I figured that I am teaching them English and they can teach me Xhosa. They were all very excited by this idea and early tried to teach me the first word. The first word that they taught me was ingqiniba which means elbow in English. My Xhosa lesson unfortunately did not get much farther because apparently I couldn’t master even the first word. They would say the word with the correct clicks and I would try my version of clicks in the word and they would all laugh hysterically. We probably tried this about forty times that first day. Then it got a little bit ridiculous when I said elbow in English and they told me I was saying it wrong. I think they just liked laughing at me. Now, weeks later every time certain children see me they scream “Ingqiniba!” really loud and point to my elbow. If I come out of this experience knowing one word in Xhosa let me tell you that it is definitely elbow.
These are just three of the millions of memories that I have about Christel House so far. If you ever want to hear anymore just ask. I could literally talk for hours.
Love the stories! Keep them coming and keep up the great work! So glad to have you in SA!
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