Friday, 8.3.19

Unfortunately, the weather was still grey and rainy today. So in the morning, I went to the city with Steph and Paul and took care of some office work. I also met another funny person at the market square today. His name is Ionnis, the Greek. He emigrated from Corfu to South Africa about 50 years ago. He treated us to a cup of coffee, but not a good one from Babette's Coffee Shop, but one from the gas station vending machine. He thinks it's better and the coffee at Babette's is too expensive for him (coffee at Babette's: 22 Rand, about 15 cents). At heart, he's still a Greek ;-)

Since Alistair was sick, I went to the children's home in Kwanokuthula again today. When I arrived there at 1.30 pm, there were no children yet. But finally, someone had time to show me around the building and show me everything (but only after I asked). They are currently renovating another building next to the main building. This is where the new bedrooms for the girls will be. They will have a little less space in the new building, but more privacy. At the moment, about 10 girls are sharing a room. In the new building, they will have their own small cabin-like room, somewhat separated. I think this will be especially better for the teenage girls, so they won't have to sleep in the same room as the six-year-olds anymore.
When the children arrived, they had lunch. They always pray together before meals. The food looks good in terms of quality! But today, the portions were way too big for the little ones. They left half of their plate uneaten. After lunch, they had some time to play, and at 3 pm they had to do their homework. The little ones who don't have homework yet have to look at a book or do some drawing during this time. Most of the children diligently did their tasks, but the "care workers" didn't care about the children at all, they were busy doing their hair. One girl looked like she was doing her homework, but she was just writing something in her notebook because she didn't understand the assignment. I tried to help her, but unfortunately, I didn't understand the assignment either because the notebook was in the language "Xhosa". The girl only had a pencil that was about 3 cm long with a very blunt tip, making it almost impossible to write nicely. We looked all over the house for a pencil sharpener, but unfortunately, we couldn't find one...
When she was supposed to erase the incorrectly solved task, she did it with a few crumbs of an eraser. Once again, it made me realize how fortunate we are in Swiss schools! But also how fussy we are and always want the best equipment and simply throw away the old one without a second thought. My workday ended at 4 pm again.