The day started with a check-in; each student says his or her name, how we are feeling, what we expect out of the day, and then check in, followed by the group's response, "yo." We then were divided into groups to go to classrooms, which will remain our classrooms for the remainder of the semester. I am in group 5 and there are six of us, 4 girls and 2 guys. We met our class and they welcomed us with a song. We introduced ourselves (Molo! Ndingu igama lahko? Ndingu igama lam Corie), and that was where my experience with isiXhosa stopped. We spent the next few minutes awkwardly trying to communicate with the children but it did get easier. We watched them draw for a few minutes then it was time for math. We sang a counting song in isiXhosa and then played with a matching numbers puzzle. I learned that they typically count in English; some of the kids even went up to 12 and they are only in preschool so I was impressed! I also learned that they start counting on their pinkies. I kept saying "one" while holding up my index finger and they just looked at me like I was mad. The children were very cute, I think they had us all captured within the first few minutes. During math time, one little girl noticed my watch and kept playing with it. I'll admit this made me feel awkward because I couldn't tell if she just liked it or didn't know what it was or wanted to play with it, so I didn't know how to react or, even worse, how to react in isiXhosa, and I couldn't get her to pay attention to class. Luckily I found a way to communicate with her; I pointed to the numbers on my watch and she counted to 12 with me, smiled, and started over.
After about an hour in the classroom the children had lunch and we met with the large group to go over announcements. The entire experience was so fun and we are all really excited to go back and see the children. We won't go back next week because it is a public holiday, but the week afterwards we will have an activity on the theme of fruit. My group has already brainstormed a few ideas so we're all excited to present them to the students.
After we got home, Emmi, Molly, Nick, Joe, and I took short hike up Stellenbosch mountain. It was such a beautiful day! Hot, but tolerable. We found a pond of water at the bottom that we were so excited to jump into after the hike, but once we came back and looked at the sign we realized it might not be the best idea to swim in toxic water.
At 6 we went to 5 Ryneveld for Emmi's birthday dinner and then stopped by the Olympus international braai before finally heading home. We are all exhausted! Everyone but Joe and I are going shark cage diving tomorrow so we're heading to bed pretty early. I bought a ticket to Grape Day Out, which is a wine, food, and fashion day somewhere outside Stellenbosch. I'll be going with a few other girls in the AIFS program and I'm pretty excited!Goodnight from South Africa! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment