0 Volunteer at Camp Footprints

Today it’s time for a topic that I already wanted to treat some time ago but somehow totally forgot to report about it: my stay at Camp Footprints some weeks ago. Camp Footprints is a project that organises camps for children with special needs. Lindy, the founder of the organisation that also worked for Cotlands in the past, invited me to come and work at one of the camps as a volunteer and so I spent a long weekend working at Camp Footprints. The camp took place at Phiri Camp in Dinokeng Game Reserve which is about 90 minutes’ drive from Joburg. The campsite was very nice, as there was a lot of space, a huge fireplace and nice bungalows for the night. Even though the children didn’t sleep in tents – it would have been quite cold anyway – sleeping bags provided the real camping atmosphere!

The whole program was set up and realised by Lindy, our group of 12 volunteers and the camp staff. Some of us, including me, already arrived Thursday afternoon, when we already set up some things and made a detailed time schedule for the program. Then on Friday morning the children arrived. They were a group of about 50 children from The Gateway School – a school for learners with special educational needs - at the age of 15 to 17. The needs of the children were very diverse. There were many children with ADHD, some autistic kids or with Down’s syndrome, some were physically disabled and lots of other disabilities but I also didn’t really get to know details about all of the children. Anyway I really liked the work with the children even though it was quite a challenge as I didn’t really have any experiences.

During the three days of camp we did lots of different activities with the children. Most of the time we divided them into groups and worked with several stations of activities from sack racing, egg and spoon race and other sporting activities to little dance sessions or soccer exercises. On the first evening we also had a big Potjiekos competition. A Potjiekos is a traditional South African stew that’s slowly cooked in a round iron pot over the fire. Four groups had to cook their own Potjiekos, set up a small restaurant and serve their dish to a jury that would rate the food, the atmosphere and the group’s teamwork. I was in the lucky situation to be a member of the jury so that I could try all the four stews and most of them tasted quite nice!

The rest of the evening was spent around the big fireplace with some singing and hot chocolate.

The next morning all the children had the chance to go on a game drive which was the first time for many of them. They were all really excited when we finally spotted elephants, giraffes and a lot of smaller game and tried to imitate the animals for the rest of the day.

In the evening everyone had to help planning and practising for our concert for the evening. With the help of us volunteers in three groups the children practised for a dancing, a singing and a drum part. After a lot of excitement the show was a big success: everyone had fun and all the children were quite proud of their performance. And to our luck after that they all wearily fell into their beds!

On Sunday morning the camp slowly came to an end. After breakfast, a lastquick game and packing up everyone proudly received a certificate and a group picture. Then it really was time to say goodbye what took quite some time because everyone wanted to hug everyone else. After that procedure the whole group got on their buses and left us behind, that we still had to pack up all the stuff.

Even though we only spent three days with the kids we all came quite close to them and it was fascinating what kind of secrets they committed to us after such a short period of time. They all were really amiable and it was a very nice experience to work with them!

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 Finally new work!

After many worries about our work we finally found something to do! In the mornings we still go on working at Cotlands and the amount of work is still changeful but in the afternoons we are working for St Mary’s now.  St Mary’s is a children’s home near Cotlands that gives home to 60 children aged between seven and 21. Some of them are orphans, some were abused or neglected and some have been infected or affected by HIV. They live in six different cottages together with a house mother. In their cottages they have their bedrooms - single rooms for the oldest kids and 2-, 3- and 4-bed rooms for the others - a cosy living area, a dining area and a kitchen. The hole premises is quite big and they also have a lot of space to play outside.

Since last week we are going to St Mary’s every day at two o’clock. The children are going to many different schools so their homecoming times are also differing. When we’re arriving only some children are already back home. We look after them while they are eating their lunch and wait until the others gradually arrive. When everyone finished eating it’s time for homework at half past three. Stella and me both have our own cottage where we always help with the homework. In my cottage the children are aged between seven and sixteen and they are all very cute and nice. Somewhere between half past four and five when everyone finished the homework it’s time to go home for us. When there is some spare time in between lunch and homework there are many things to do with the children as St Mary’s has a very nice premises with a small soccer field, a basketball area and a little pool.

So far we really enjoyed our work in the children’s home because the children as well as all of the housemothers were very nice and welcoming. Furthermore after working with babies for half a year it is also very nice to work with some older children again because there is so much more that you can do with them. So far they were especially interested in German music so that we always had to bring our cell phones for playing Cro or Helene Fischer for them – only the best of course! They also tried to learn some German so that they are now always seeing us off with a cheerful “Tschüs”.

I’m really happy to finally have some satisfying work again and I already fond of all of the children!

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!