Day 18

Day 18 - overcast.

Carrying fire wood back home

Today started in the manner.  Get up reasonably early, breakfast, pack and leave for SJC.  On the way out we stopped by the shops for a few supplies for today; notebooks for our Ndebele lessons and lollies for the kids.

On arriving at SJC, the girls announced that they needed to collect firewood as they were running low.  This needs to be done roughly once a week, and is done by all of the older girls.  We started hiking down the road, heading towards the highway for several hundred meters, before pulling off to the side.  There were about fifteen of us scouring the country side for any bits of decent timber.  After half and hour or so, we headed back with everyone carrying an arm-load of wood for the cooking fire.

Ndebele lessons started immediately after finishing collecting timber.  As usual, Andrew and Jonno went off to the classroom with several of the girls to learn how to insult each other, while I had a private tuition from Amanda.

Learning Ndebele

Lunch today was sudza and cabbage.  For those who are unaware, everyone at the village eats sudza, and they have it for every meal.  Even after only a few days of eating it for lunch, Jonno mentioned that he was sick of it - these kids eat it three times a day.  Unfortunately it is a really boring diet, but it's a healthy diet and it keeps the kids alive and well.

My private lesson

A couple of the ladies that work in the office came out to say fair-well to the kids, because today was their last day working for SJC.  On their departure, they took three of the older girls with them - one leaving for good and the other two going back to families for a short while.  This was good news as it's not the aim of SJC to keep the kids, but rather re-unite them with their families or with new families.

It was Steffi's 'Special Day' (the day that she was adopted) on the 6th, and so we all went out for dinner as per tradition.  Dinner was a lovely meal at a steak house in town.  Lisa ordered half a chicken and chips by mistake.  Her eyes almost popped out of her head when she saw the size of it!

Some of the FCT (Firewood Collection Team)

Looking back over the last couple of days, I can see a significant change around SJC since starting our Ndebele lessons.  These kids live in an environment where they have nothing and are given everything, without the chance to give something back in return.  These Ndebele lessons are an avenue where they can actually give back, and they are absolutely thriving off it.  It is for this reason that I am determined to learn at least a little of their language, even though it makes no sense at this current point in time.  However, I think that it'll be fun - although I still don't like the clicks and pops that they use in their speech.

Tomorrow is Patti's 16th birthday and Andrew will fill you in with the details of what we actually do tomorrow (we haven't yet decided).


Alex