0 World Play Day

Today is World Play Day and at Cotlands that meant a whole day full of many playing children. Additionally to our own Early Learning Group children this morning about 60 more children, lots of other visitors and the press arrived at Cotlands and the whole building was turned into a big play house. In different rooms and at our two playgrounds there were many different playing stations set up for the children: inside they could do puzzles, play with blocks or Lego, dress up in our Fantasy Room and paint pictures with many different materials. Outside they could let off some steam at the playgrounds, jump on the trampoline, do rope skipping, sack races or egg-and-spoon races, play Twister or climb the jungle gym. Then when everyone was exhausted and hungry all the children got a goodbye lunch. All in all it was like a big birthday party and the children really had lots of fun, but see yourself!

0 Back to work

Now it’s already three weeks that I am working again after our Christmas holidays - so certainly high time to tell you about what was going on here since we’re back.

When we had left Cotlands in December everyone was pretty much in pre-Christmas stress - many toys had to be prepared, lots of donations came in, Christmas presents had to be brought to community project children and some new babies found a new home in our Child Care Unit. So we wondered if calm would have returned in New Year and we were very excited if the babies would have changed a lot in these three weeks.

The first thing that we realized when we went to work on Monday morning was that calm indeed had returned – and it was even a lot calmer than expected because almost everyone was still on holiday. For us that meant that there wasn’t really any work to do except working in the Child Care Unit so we directly made our way to the babies. We had been a little bit scared that they might have forgotten us over Christmas but when we opened the door some excited toddlers already came running towards us hugging our legs. And like we had already feared they really had grown a lot. Two of them had learned to walk – we were a little bit sad that we had missed that – so now we have four children that are walking and running around always keeping us busy. Our oldest two-year-old child is even learning to go to the potty now – what can be quite exhausting because it doesn’t really always work yet – and they are all starting to babble away more and more. Two of the rather younger ones also learned to sit and the very small ones grew even though they are still tiny. Two babies had left Cotlands during our holidays and are now living in South African families, but in exchange we got four new babies, so that here are living eight babies that are younger than two months for the moment. As they are all still crying a lot we often feel like not having enough hands to care for all of them and it can be so exhausting because you can always be sure that as soon as you steadied one of them the next will begin to cry. One of them is even a preemie. She was born after seven months and even though she is six weeks old now she is much too tiny and I am always scared to break all of her bones when I am dressing her with the smallest baby clothes we have which are still way too small for her.

My favorite job in the CCU for the moment is playing with the toddlers. Especially those who already walk are getting more curious with every day so that we try to take them out for a walk or for playing at our playgrounds as often as possible.

Since New Year we also had to bring the babies to the hospital several times. They are all regularly going to their routine checkups, to assessments and depending on their needs also to occupational or physical therapy. All these things take place in different hospitals, so that we could already make very different experiences with South African hospitals. One of them that specialises on children living in children’s homes was very nice – we never had to wait too long, the waiting room was quite comfortable and we even got tea and coffee. The others unfortunately weren’t that nice. They were very crowded and we had to wait at uncomfortable wooden benches or sometimes even without any possibility to sit (and that’s a little bit exhausting if you are carrying a baby on your arms) for several hours. One time we even had to leave after eight hours of waiting without even being treated because they were closing and the baby only had an eye infection. After these first experiences with public hospitals in South Africa I definitely hope that I won’t get injured here in any way!

Some days we also had little baby emergencies. Luckily it never was anything really bad, but if the babies have temperature they are directly brought to hospital to be sure that it’s nothing serious. So it happened that we were called to the Child Care Unit some time in the evening and spontaneously had to work night shift until early in the morning like 4am so that the CCU would not be short-staffed during the absence of the social worker and the sick baby. And working night shift is much harder than we expected in the beginning, because you are not allowed to sleep or do anything that distracts you, you can just wait that a baby begins to cry and you can feed it or change a nappy and fight against your eyes trying to shut. When the call that they are ready and we could pick them up from hospital was coming we were always very relieved! On other days we got wake-up calls very early in the morning during the weekend having to drive a child to hospital, so sometimes it could be really exhausting because we didn’t have more than 3 hours of sleep several days in a row.

All in all it was very nice to see the babies again after such long holidays and it’s really sweet to see especially the older ones getting more and more attached to us. And we are also getting used to the work with the babies: By now sometimes we even manage to leave the Baby Unit without being dirty with porridge or pumpkin from head to toe! Also changing nappies or dressing the babies goes a lot faster than in the beginning. Nevertheless in the end of our working day we’re also always a little bit relieved  to leave the CCU because being surrounded by crying children and talking nonsense all the day can really make you crazy!

Next week we will probably get our new roster and then we will also have to do some work in the Toy Library and in the office again. For now I’ll have to catch up with some sleep but you’ll surely hear from me soon!

0 Lion scratches and other premieres

Today I finally got a lot of photos for you, because I think that my weekend can be much better described in pictures than by words. But before that, just a few introducing words:

Even though the spring weather here in Joburg is already very nice – normally at least 25°C and the sun is always shining – I have to spend most of my time during the week inside working. After work, at about 16:30, Stella and I normally go to the gym and after that it’s already dark. That’s why we definitely wanted to do something in the nature and open air this weekend and quickly found our perfect activity: Lion Park.

Lion Park is a small game reserve in the north of Johannesburg. Certainly it’s not comparable to popular reserves like Kruger national park for example – and of course that’s also on my to-do-list – but it’s a good start if you only want to spend one day and not disburse too much money. And even though the name could suggest that, the park is not only home to lions. There are springboks, antelopes, wildebeests, cheetahs, giraffes, wild dogs, ostriches and of course brown and white lions living in separated areas. And what’s probably the highlight: the lion and cheetah cubs.

So we were joining a guided drive through the different areas. Our guide told us a lot about the animals and we had the chance to get really close to them and in the meantime take lots of pictures. But the best is yet to come: the interaction with the lion cubs. The cubs are between three and six months old and live in a separated enclosure. We could stroke them almost like normal cats and they were completely peaceful and so cute. Only one of them was quite playful and that’s how I got my first lion scratches that I would not want to miss anymore. But now see yourself!

Even though I unreasonably didn’t stick to "business before pleasure", I still have to say some words to our project. Because after our one month period of grace we got some new duties: We have to bring the two five- and six-year-old children that are living at Cotlands to school. It’s not far away so that we can walk and even though we have to start work earlier now it’s a pleasant way to stretch our legs and get some fresh air. Furthermore we normally don’t walk around in our area because it’s not that save, especially after four o’clock, so it’s a nice chance to get to know the area a little better.

So far it was always varied to walk them to school, because we always met many other children that are going to our early learning groups or our homework assistance. At first we were a little bit confused when children, that we only met once or twice before, ran across the street, loudly shouting our names and just hugging us. But they are all really sweet and we enjoy having our personal welcoming committee wherever we go.

Last but not least I kept my promise from the last post: I took some pictures of our area and I hope that they can give you a first impression of Turffontein.

0 That's my project

After two weeks that I’ve spent at Cotlands now I finally feel like I am having an approximate image of all the things that the organisation is involved in. So today I will try to give you a rough review of it and try to show you how I spend my whole blessed day.

In general I am working from Monday to Friday from 8 am to 4 or 5 pm. But as I am also living in my project I often work longer because I see that help is needed somewhere or donations have to be collected at a special time.  For the moment there are three different divisions in that I am working: The Units, the Toy Library and the office.

The Units

Twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays, I am working in the Units. The Units include all the projects where I am directly working with children. In the mornings my work begins in the Early Learning Groups that are comparable to preschool. Here I am working together with Stella and two teachers. Every morning at 8 o’clock children from the neighbourhood at the age of three to six are arriving in our Cotlands classroom. Before the class starts they are all getting porridge for breakfast. After that school can begin! We usually start reading out a story to the children, then review it bit by bit and transfer it to their everyday life. That’s how they should learn from a cute animal story for example to be economical with their food. After the reading session we assemble different play and learning stations where the children can do puzzles, paint, play with dough, play cooking and many other things. The focus of these games is often put on colours, basic shapes or names of animals or food for example. Many things like definitions of shapes (“a square has four equal sides and four corners” etc.) are repeated every day but are still difficult to remember for some of the children.  But sometimes that’s also a linguistic problem because English isn’t their first language. One day for example I was sitting at a table and playing with dough with four little boys. I was already thinking that they didn’t like me or that my English was too bad when I realized that the only English words they knew were: “Yes teacher!” So sometimes it can be difficult to communicate with the smaller ones because my Zulu knowledge isn’t good enough for a real conversation. But most of the children are already quite good at speaking English – many are probably much better than me!

If the weather is good we also go out to play. At the Cotlands property there are several small playgrounds where the children love to play. And it’s an important place for them because it’s one of the very few places here where it is save for them to play. At the playgrounds we try to teach them things like rope skipping, to walk on stilts or playing basketball and cricket.

After playing it is always time to sing – not quite my favourite part because after that I can’t get the melodies out of my head for the whole day – and then it’s already lunchtime. After a short prayer the children get their lunch and Stella and I are also taking our lunch break.

After lunch we are helping with the baby massage or the after-school care. To the after-school care school children from the neighbourhood are coming and we assist them with their homework and supervise those that just come for playing. When the students go home at 4 pm, and also if we got some spare time in between, we usually go and help at the Baby Unit. This unit is the only place that is always manned and it gives home to 11 babies and two older children at the moment. The babies are at the age of two to 18 months and need a lot of care. Our job normally is to play with them, but also to feed them – and that can be the very hardest job! – to change their nappies, to dress them, to do baby massages and anything else that accrues. At about five o’clock when the babies go to bed we normally leave and try to get rid of all the children’s songs that are stuck into our heads!

The Toy Library

On Tuesdays and Thursdays we are working in the Toy Library. That’s a library with many many different toys for children categorized into different learning targets or themes. Children can come here and borrow the toys for two weeks and we also use them in the Early Learning Groups or the Baby Unit. Our Toy Library here in Johannesburg isn’t the only one. There are many more spread all over South Africa and Cotlands founded an own Toy Library association that hosts seminars and workshops for future librarians. Next week a new Toy Library in Pretoria will open so that for the moment there are many trainings for the stuff that will be working there. We are also helping to prepare a lot of things for the new library by making lists of the toys, photographing all of the items, numbering and varnishing them and much more. 

On Monday when the new library is opening we also have to help transporting the toys to Pretoria and are already looking forward to see the opening.

The work that we have to do in the library isn’t very difficult or exciting, but sometimes it is a pleasant variation because even if we love playing with the children sometimes it is nice to recover from all the action and the attention that they need.

The Office

On Fridays we are working in the office. Cotlands’ offices are much bigger than we first thought and there are approximately 25 people working in them. So far we spent only one day in the office so that I can’t say that much about it. We had to do the inventory of a room and prepare Christmas cards for sponsors. This also weren’t very challenging duties but nevertheless most of the time we enjoyed it and are curious what other exercises are waiting for us in the next weeks.

I hope that I could already give you a helpful overview of my work. If you want to see a little bit more just watch the Cotlands video below!

PS: I try to illustrate my posts as good as possible and of course they would be much nicer with pictures of the children but understandably I am not allowed to publish any pictures of them and I will have to adhere to that. Yet I will try to take some pictures of my area in the next days but so far this was not that easy because I’m not quite sure if it is intelligent to walk around with a camera. But I will figure that out!