The First Week of School!

Classes started on Monday here and so far they've been pretty good! I'm taking Xhosa which is an African language (yes it uses clicks!) commonly spoken in and around Cape Town. It is the language spoken by the Xhosa people, the tribe in which Nelson Mandela is from. So far I've only learned very basic greetings and such but we go over how to say the different clicks next week so I'm excited for that! I also have to take a social research methods class which isn't too exciting but should hopefully help me in other areas. We have a class called Poverty and Development which is kind of like a sociology class focused on the causes of poverty and how to lower its prevalence and how development affects those living in poverty, using Cape Town as a case study of course! We also have a service-learning course where we discuss the uses and benefits of combining hands on service experience with traditional classroom learning. All in all I think that the classes will be manageable and fun, especially in combination with the service we will be doing!

Speaking of service, we've spent the week touring the sites where we will be devoting our time! On Monday I went to Mannenburg Primary School which is in the township of Mannenburg. It is a very impoverished area and the children were just absolutely adorable! They were cheering for us and had the biggest smiles - a few even blew us kisses! The teachers were so welcoming to us and were so excited at the prospect of having our help, they surely need a lot of it.

On Friday I went to a children's home in a different township where over thirty kids from newborn to six years old live. We weren't told the specifics about any of the children but they were brought to the home by social workers or the government. Right when we walked in the kids "chose" one of us to hang onto and they wouldn't let go! They were calling us mommy and mama, it was really cute but really sad at the same time. I would like to go and spend some time just loving the children there but I don't think its the place for me to do all of my work - I am pretty sure that I want to spend most of my time at the primary school so I cannot wait to get to know the students and teachers I will be working with and get started as soon as possible!!