Sawubona from Greytown,

it is Sunday again.. gosh time runs by soo fast...
My week was pretty good!
On Wednesday we went to a bakery with the children and they seemed to be really interestest. But our baby Bendile fall asleep on my arm though, but it was okay since he is only three years old and didn't get his nap this day.

All Volunteers and Toddlers with the employers of the bakery

The children try the sweet cream for the cake :D

Our housemother also had birthday this week so Michaela and I backed a cake for her and she said that it made her day. It was a beautiful moment when we all started to sing “ Happy Birthday Nono” for her.

Nono, Simpiwue(her son) and me

NB house

On Saturday we girls decided to have a girls evening and went to supermarket to buy some stuff. We played “Canada” while we couldn’t stop to laugh. As all the time we baked some cake, which was eaten in a couple of minutes. :D It was a nice evening.

Tranquili Tea

Today we also decided ,after a morning jogging round and delicious breakfast , to walk to Tranquili Tea( the café we have already been to) again. Since it was a sunny day we had a wonderful view and a great time.

Pauline, Signe and Leonie with me infront of the beautiful landscape at Tranquili Tea

This evening we had macc’n cheese, which is probably the best food here, but of course not as good as it is in America :D

Good night :*

My first weekends :)

The last two weekends we had the possibility to get to know some Africaans, who are really really nice and offered to show us the nearest beautiful places.

After Maria, Hannah and I went to a bar on Friday two weeks ago we could visit some hot springs, called Shushu. The weather was good and it was a really nice place to be. Afterwards we drove by the President’s house. It was weird to see this big place and the Townships( little small houses the poor people live in) right next to it.

The last stop was a view point, where we could see the whole area we have just been to this was so beautiful. This area is totally different than the area around Greytown.

The following weekend we were invited to a small Dutch oven party, were we ate a typical zulu cooked rice and vegetable meal with oxtail, defiantly not what I like. My stomach didn’t like it either and so it started to hurt for a couple days.  This evening we had a terrible thunder storm.

On Sunday the weather was good( this was really nice because we were used to rain and bad weather), so we decides to walk to a little café about 20 minutes to walk from the children’s home and this was definitely worth it!

So I got an impression on how beautiful the nature of South Africa is and how different it can be in a couple of kilometers  :)

Meine erste Zeit in Südafrika :)

So meine Lieben,

 after almost three weeks of difficulties and some struggles to adapt to the new situation and a totally new life in a really differnt country than Germany, I started to feel better and kinda like I finally arrived.

I  now life in the Kinderhuis Greytown. The Kinderhuis is in the middle of Greytown, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. This  is about 1 1/2 hours away from Durban.

I life together with 150 children in a age from 3 years to 18 years as well as with (in this moment) 8 other german volunteer girls in this Kinderhuis.
 Since we are this many volunteers we have seperate rooms in the differnt houses. In the first two weeks I had my own room in the high school girls house, named Milly Scott, but last monday my new roomate Leonie arrived and I can happily say: I am glad to share my room :) We now have a bunk bed in there. The room is small and we are often ineach others way.

So my daily life task is to help the toddlers, these are the children who to Kammaland, the kindergarden in Greytown, in their daily life.
I have to be in my house, Nueve Begin, by six am to assist my two girls, Nesi and Anele, with cothing, having breakfast and brushing teeth. At 10 to 7 all other volunteers meet with their children from their house to bring them to Kammaland. Afterwards there is a meeting with the housemothers ( each house has a "mom" who takes care of "her" children.) and all other stuff. We talk about what will happen on this day.

Until quarter to 12 we have our off time. Most times we go and sleep again and have some breakfast afterwards, but there is only the choice between toast or porridge.

We separate into two groups, one brings the children and one fetches them from kindergarden.

We have lunch with the children, toast with jam, peanut butter or butter (yummyyy :$ ). We decide to go to the supermarket and get some fresh fruits and vegetables. SO now we can eat healthier and I actually prefer this meal !

The children are supposed to sleep for an hour and we have from 2 to 4 office time, so we play with them.

Three of the Toddlers and myself

 Last week we also started to read with them and to teach them numbers and letters, what is actually great fun but it is also a tough task to do.

From 4 to 5 we have study time, which means we help the older children with their homework. My children are grade 6 . In the past week Michaela, who also works in NB and me could recognize how bad the school system over here is. For example the children were supposed to dived 72 by 3 and drew 72 lines on a paper and made little 3er groups, afterwards they counted the groups and had their result.

After study time we prepare dinner. Well we set the table and put the food on the plates. Most of the time we get rice or a zulu alternative to eat. The meals differ every two weeks. I am so glad that I am vegetarian, so I get some other sauce, which is okay to eat. At least better than the meat :D

After dinner our work day is over. Most of the time all volunteers sit in our kitchen to chat or play cards.