A few words on the kindergarten I've been to...

Hey guys,

I'm at the so-called "Starfish Academy" in District 6. I haven't been posting anything online so far due to data privacy reasons and because I first had to get an impression myself. I'm also not allowed to put any pics of the children online or even to take pics myself but that's totally understandable and fine for me. Unfortunately, I missed the last two days at the kindergarten because I had a severe stomache pain - promise: I'll skip the details. ;-) However, I'm pretty sure now that I'm allergic to Avocado as I had the same situation twice before. Luckily, I'm feeling better now and can go on my Safari tour. *woop woop* :-)

I don't know a lot about this area - "District 6" - but I'll find out more in the local museum I'm going to visit next Monday. The only thing I know is that this district was strongly influenced by the Apartheid regime. People of colour have been banned from the early 1960s onwards and later the area was declared as being a "whites-only area". And now read the quote of Mandela I found on that wall across the kindergarten and let its content speak for itself. Its unbelievable that at this point there is a kindergarten again where lovely small Africaan kids find a safe and welcoming space to play, learn and grow. :)

They are caring for children from the age of 1 to 5. I'm in a kind of pre-school with the older ones - aged 2 to 4 years, I think. Each group consists of maximum 16 people. In "my" Octopus class there are 12 little kids at the moment. They are soooo cute :D ...although they don't have many material things to play or to learn with. :( They have crayons, a few coloured pens and pencils and some scissors and glue sticks. Even a mix of a few Lego stones and tops of bottles which they use to build small houses and stuff like that. Even the teachers here are working with very simple tools and material. There's no opportunity to print at all. The material the teacher is using for the week will be given to him/her by the kindergarten's administration or principal itself. One day, Sindi (-> the teacher I'm working with) wanted to repeat the numbers from 1 to 10. She took out some white plain papers and wrote down "Match the number". Then she was writing the numbers repeatedly with my help on every single paper again to make sure that everyone can do the exercise. Imagine how teaching like that would be like? It really hits the bottom of my heart. 

The conditions here are really poor, which reshapes your own perspective and let yourself value the smaller things even more. They don't even have toilet paper. When we go to the toilet together in a line and as a group, tissues may help out and desinfection spray is being used afterwards to clean the kid's hands. *uuufff* Even their lunch is very plain and includes the basic things a child may need to eat: Usually rice with beans, small pieces of carrots and brown sauce. Sometimes they get Spaghetti with one tiny piece of meat in it. In addition to that, their parents make them an individual lunch package every day which usually includes a yoghurt for their so-called "yoghurt time" (-> first break in the morning). 

Let's give you an impression of a daily routine (-> also view the scan of the plan I've uploade):

Every morning Sindi and I are welcoming the students in class. A typical morning should start around 8 a.m. but as the teachers often arrive late (-> remember: African "time" ...We'll see us 'soon soon'!  etc....) a normal day often starts at 8:30 a.m. We get their bags and take out their lunch packages, sort everything out properly and put it to their individual lunch box. Then we usually start the day with a morning circle and a few songs. We repeat the alphabet, numbers from 1-20, forms, some colours and even the names for the seasons, the weather and the month. Sometimes a story is being read to the children. I could even do this procedure twice on my own so far - was a lot of fun. :) Everything at this point is very similar to a routine in a German kindergarten. Songs about nearly everything and every situation and games like "Simon says" are used to activate the kids and to facilitate playful learning and a friendly, childish atmosphere. Then' there's the daily "yoghurt time" (-> around 9:30 a.m.) where everyone eats yoghurt. They value good table manners here a lot and train them. First eat, then speak! ;) These children are so quiet and most of the times really listen properly to their teacher - unbelievable when I myself think about German kids. They call Sindi "teacher" or "teacher Sindi" and even called me "teacher" - haha. :) After that we do some games and exercises like "Colour in the lines" or "Cut across the lines" etc. to train basic skills. It's basically the same procedure every day but the content changes slightly. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays they play music for all of them in the biggest room there to train physical skills and make the children move. It's so lovely when you see all these little whirlwinds dancing and bouncing on the ground. :) One day, I brought a little bouncing baseball, which has the size of a Tennis ball, into class and we played with it. It was my highlight to the sun in their faces. They literally loved it, smiled and enjoyed plaing with me. How little the thing can be to make someone smile and to make a change! :) After playing games or dancing the children get their lunch, pee again and rest for at least 1,5 to 2 hours. At this point, usually around 11:30 a.m., my work is done is and I can go home again. In the afternoon the children have time to play again. Usually they stay until their parents pick them up. That's it.

Next Monday, I have my last day at the Starfish Academy and I really enjoyed my time here. All were very kind to me and the kids are just awesome. Even after these few days I could build a connection to them and they got close to my heart. On Tuesday I'll start at the "Ellerton Primary school" near the V&A waterfront and stay there the next four weeks - let's see how it will be. :) Updates follow!