Week 2

Monday is a bit of a disaster; it is just like the first day all over again.  We struggle through the morning.  Lots of yelling and crying and general mayhem.

On the ride back to home base we discover we all have had a bad day.  At the hospital Randy tells us a psychiatric patient escaped… with very little fan fare.  Randy’s degree is in Public Health and they call him Daktari and we tease him endlessly, asking him to diagnose our various bites and ailments.  He has a great sense of humor and keeps us entertained with the crazy stuff that goes on at the hospital.

There is tension between two volunteers at the Women’s Center and a bit of drama unfolds on the van ride home.  Some volunteers are here for weeks, even months, before our group arrived and needless to say it does create a disruption to suddenly have 9 new people in your house and several new folks joining you at your placement. 

As the week progresses we all seem to find our place and rhythms.  At Jendeleze we dedicate a part of each morning to Good Manners and Bad Manners.  It is working… even if is just a little bit.  When they get their pencils they all say “Thank you” now.  So we reinforce it everyday.  We decide to split the group and take turns outside.  I take my group outside and we do Yoga, Brain Gym and play games.  I am so grateful to have the yoga toolbox to rely on.  They seem to enjoy it and when we do go back inside they do much better at doing their work.  We come back together to go “la, la”, which is still a very touching time in the classroom.  Tenderness is in short supply here.

I have started recycling water bottles to have cut into pots and the plan is to plant beans.  Our Director Moses is pleased and said it is a very good biology lesson.  I am hoping maybe it will result in some healthy food for them and maybe a gardener or two will be inspired.  We are now collecting toilet paper rolls to make castles out of for art; we basically have no supplies so it is challenging to come up with ideas to make interesting things.   We are making some difference.