Back to "Normal"

Things are getting back to "normal" for me in the village.

Life at home with my host family is awesome, as usual. I've never lived with young kids before (I'm the youngest child my immediate family), so I've never been able to experience the physical and mental growth of young children and babies. Im so intrigued and, more often, annoyed by their actions.

I'll start with the youngest, Thebang, who is 8 months now. She's absolutely amazed by my locks and always gives me the best wide-eyed (no blinking) stare whenever I wear my hair down. When I hold her, she automatically goes for the locks. She likes to try to eat them! She's been doing a lot more baby talk, and we all can't wait for her to actually start talking. I've been joking (but internally being serious) with the family about how I hope Thebang's first word is something in English!

sidenote: I've been speaking ALOT more Sotho on a regular basis. I sometimes find myself unintentionally mixing Sotho and English in my sentences.

Then there are Sizwe (boy) and Mpumi (girl). They are both 7 years old. In "South African terms", they are brother and sisters because their mothers are sisters. They're as close as twins as can get w/o actually being twins. A few months ago, Mpumi could stomp Sizwe in anything physical. Well, now the tables have turned. Also, we hear Mpumi crying alot more now, as opposed to Sizwe over something the other did to each other.

My host sister, Nkele, has still remained my closest confidant. Especially since Diakano died. We talk about him alot, and its comforting. Its culturally rude/disrespectful to talk about the dead openly after they pass. You rarely even hear the person's name said out loud. But me and Nkele talk about Diakano all the time. We're able to laugh about stuff he used to do. We can talk about how much we miss him. Its nice.

Its also cool to see her developing more and more into a mom. I've never seen the development of the bond between a mother and her child before. Thebang recognizes Nkele as her mother, even though she lives with 8 other people and is held by them all on a regular basis. And one day my host mother, Mma Theko, took Thebang to a relatives house and didn't return until the next night. Nkele was going crazy b/c she hadn't been able to hold Thebang for a day. I joked with her about that, but it was a beautiful thing. Mother and child.

Anyway.....things at school are also going a whole lot smoother!!! I'm finally getting a handle on how to do this literacy thing. The kids have adjusted to me and my routines, and I've found ways to manage my classroom w/o things getting crazy. Also, the teachers can see that I NEVER raise a hand to my learners, and I've still managed to keep them calmer than they [the teachers] do all day.....

sidenote: I reached to pat a learner who was talking on the back the other week, and he flinched b/c he thought I was going to hit him. I immediately stopped the class and for 5 minutes explained how I would NEVER EVER EVER hit them b/c thats not right and thats not the type of teacher I am. Their teacher was present for half the speech, but I didn't care. I'm so tired of seeing these teachers hit the kids. Its out of their frustrations and anger, not with the intention to discipline the child. Its terrible!!

....I'm also doing a better job of differentiating my lessons. I'm trying to do more artsy lessons with the older learners, and introduce phonics with the younger grades. Yesterday, with my grade 4 class, we spent the entire hour making small booklets ("My Word Families Book") from scratch paper I could find, string, and color pencils. Every week I will introduce a new Word Family to my Grade 4 and 5 classes. They know the English alphabet and how each letter sounds. But the majority of them can not read English. So every week we'll learn a series of new words associated with a particular Word Family. For example, they will learn the sound "ack" and how it will sound with a "b" before it (back), or maybe a "bl" (black).

In less than a month I'll be heading home for a three week vacation. I can't %@&*ing wait!!!

till next time (hopefully sooner than last time)......