Heyyyy

Keziah and I have been working at the crèche this week, I have a bit of experience of working with this age group but even so it has been quite tough. Creche is for children aged between 2 and 5 (from what I can tell). They arrive between 7 and 8.30 am and are picked up by their mother or siblings between  2 and 3 pm. Compared o a British nursery there is very little structure and discipline. At first we found this quite difficult because it is not what we are used to but now I can really see the benefit this crèche has for the Amaoti community. Breakfast (porridge) and lunch (soup) is provided every day- without this the children would not get enough food to eat. It also provides a save place for these children to play and have fun during the day away from the responsibilities that some of them will already have at home.

At Easter the crèche will be relocated so that they have toilets nearby and I feel this move will realise the potential that this crèche has. The LI team are praying for an understanding of God's vision for the crèche and hopefully we as a team will be able to help improve the building by painting it and putting up posters .  The crèche are in desperate need of more toys but they use what they have to have fun, there is a lot of singing, hand clap and being spun around. The children love hugs and plying with our hair which we weren't quite prepared for!!

Today we arrived at 8 and found the children playing with the toys in the hut, breakfast was served before we went into singing in a circle. This is how the children learn numbers and the alphabet by copying what the teacher sings, they also have songs for the days of the week and months. . We have introduced a new idea of splitting the group into 2 so that the children have longer with the craft resources- this has been working really well. I took 1 group outside to play with and created a game with hoops that they really took to, this was a real blessing because it is hard to communicate with the language barrier.  In the afternoon it was so hot (32 degrees) that the children couldn't play outside but instead went to sleep before they had their soup. Once they woke up though they had a lot of energy and continued playing.

Next week we are looking forward to leading the crèche.

Lot of love

Hannah








The rest of the team have been working in a primary and secondary school, you'll hear all about it next time!

We have had time for some fun too! We have had some trips to the beach, girly sleepovers (we learnt, well tried to learn, African dancing, played dares and ate crisps!)and a tour of Durban!! We are all excited to explore the area in our beautiful car in our time off. Sunday also involved 2 church services, one in a more affluent area (which started at 7.45!!!) and one in Amaoti, they were so different. The songs, buildings and language differ so much! Trying new food has also been great, tea and rusks seems to be a daily ritual which everyone but me partakes in!

That's all for now!!

Catherine




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