A couple weeks ago I shared what the beginning of my week looks like. Here is what the rest of my week looks like.
On Thursdays the staff and interns have
a Bible study/prayer time in the morning.
Afterwards the house mamas, preschoolers, and Kaci and I go to Moms and
Tots at Welkom Baptist Church. I’m not
completely certain that I understand the purpose for Moms and Tots
correctly. My understanding is that the
pastor’s wife, Esther, wants to help the mamas learn how to spend time and be
involved with their little ones. In the
African culture the young children that are not in school often entertain themselves while the mamas cook or talk or clean. Esther would like to help the mamas learn to interact and spend more time with their children. Not
that the children should always have their attention, but to encourage them to read stories, sing songs, or maybe just be silly with the kids. So at Moms and Tots the children
will play while the mamas do a craft or puzzles, then we have story time. The stories are often read in three different
languages, English, Afrikaans, and Sesotho.
South Africa has eleven official languages and the younger children
usually speak whatever their parents speak.
English is a second language, most everyone can speak it, but their
first language is probably the dialect from whatever region they were raised
in. A favorite book around here for
young children is Brown Bear, Brown Bear,
What Do You See? After stories we all sing songs together, then there is
usually a small snack and everyone goes home. In the afternoon we help with homework. We interns also like to make a big meal and eat together on Thursday evenings.
On Fridays usually only some of the
older students have homework. Throughout
the week if the children have come to the bus on time and behaved they receive
a tick (a check mark). If they get a
certain number of ticks by Friday they receive an award, like a juice box, a
candy bar, nail polish, etc. When they
get off the bus Fridays they all come to the office and we hand out their
ticks. They also have to earn a movie. Whoever has behaved throughout the week gets
to watch a movie on Friday evenings.
This Saturday Grandma Becky, Kaci,
and I cleaned the room where all the extra clothes are kept then organized some
totes of clothes that had been donated.
In about a month, when the children have a school holiday, they will have
a change from summer clothes to winter clothes.
There are several totes organized by size, season, pants, shirts, boys
and girls. It sounds like the system has
improved a lot over the years, but it’s still quite an ordeal to get everyone’s
clothes tried on, handed out, and the old ones put away. The older girls also have a movie on Saturday
since most of them are gone on Friday evenings at youth group.
Sundays we have church service in
the morning. At nine there is a Sunday
school service for all the kids. After
singing and the lesson, they break off into small groups and discuss the lesson
and recite their memory verse. From ten
to about noon is the church service. In
the evenings the staff and interns meet usually at Brian and Lois’ house for
fellowship, snacks, and games for a couple hours.
That pretty much sums up my week, although, of course, every week is different because something always pops up and plans change! But since I'm more of a spontaneous person instead of an organized person that's fine for me!
